ed; if what you have felt hath not led you 3dly. What benefit did you propose to | you have felt no grief for sin, no love to reap from your attendance upon this so- the Redeemer, or only such a grief and lemn ordinance? Did you only wish to love as a moving tale might have occasionpacify your natural conscience, by doing what you apprehended to be an acceptable duty? Or did you mean to offer an outward compliment to the Almighty, in order to induce him to pardon what is past, that you might sin, as it were, on a new score? Or, on the other hand, did you come here in the hope of meeting him whom your soul loves, to take upon you "his yoke which is easy, and his burden which is light?"—to implore, over the pledges of your Saviour's love, his mercy to pardon, his Spirit to sanctify, and his grace to strengthen you? Did you come that this holy service might have some influence to assist you in crucifying " the old man with his deeds," and to confirm the image of God on your souls? Once more, if 4thly. How were you employed while you sat at this holy table? Did you seek the Lord with your whole hearts? Did your "souls follow hard after him?" And any vain intruding thought arose within you, did you instantly check it with abhorrence, and renew your repentance for that mixture of infirmity in your holy service? When you heard these affecting words, "This is my body broken for you, this is my blood shed for the remission of your sins," were your hearts wrung with grief for the sins which were the cause of your Redeemer's sufferings? Did you give yourselves entirely up to him who gave himself for you an offering and a sacrifice to God? Did you accept of him as your only peace-maker with the Father, and resolve to build all your hopes of happiness upon the merits of his sufferings and obedience? Did you renounce all his enemies, and devote yourselves entirely to his service, to be governed by his laws, as your only Lord and King? These are all the questions which I shall put to you at this time; and in whatever way you may find reason to answer them, the inquiry must turn out to your advantage. If, upon search, you discover the unsoundness of your hearts, even in that very sad discovery you have the greatest advantage for salvation that you have ever had in the course of your lives. For now, your vain confidence being overthrown, you lie open to a deep and effectual conviction, which is the mercy introductive of all other mercies to your souls. Your chief danger lies in judging too favorably, or in judging falsely, of yourselves. But if you do so, how severely will you suffer for the short-lived deceit, when God shall himself prove your works, or when he shall say to you as he said to the carousing king, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting! How confounded will you be if this sentence shall be pronounced? and how passionately will you then wish for such an opportunity of" proving your own works" as you now enjoy? But if, on the other hand, you can, upon good grounds, conclude, that notwithstanding many imperfections in your holy service, you have been sincere and upright on the whole, how great may your comfort be? For God will not cast off Finally. Was all this done from a de- the upright man. That which is the terliberate and a confirmed choice, and not ror of the wicked will be your joy. As from a mere transient flash of devotion? the son of a king rejoiceth in his father's Then, indeed, you have been well employ-power and magnificence, so may you reed; and we desire to give glory to God joice in those displays of the divine Maon your account. jesty, which scare a guilty world. How But if, on the contrary, your hearts comfortable will the thoughts of a Saviour have been cold and insensible, and your be, when you can say, My beloved thoughts have been wandering without is mine;" when by faith you can, like control upon the mountains of vanity; if Thomas, "put your hand into his side, and your finger into the print of the nails, | what is called a harmless inoffensive life, and say unto him, My Lord, and my as if it were virtue enough not to be abanGod?" With what joy will you read the Holy Scriptures, as the charter of your future inheritance, and ponder that "exceeding and eternal weight of glory," which you shall one day possess? With what holy boldness may you approach the throne of Grace, when you can address God as your reconciled Father in Jesus Christ? How cheerfully may you endure affliction? How calmly may you leave this world? doned to vice. They seem to aim at noth- If then any of these comforts are dear to you; if you would enjoy them in a sound state, or would have a clear and lively impression of them, let me beseech you study temperance and sobriety in all you to comply with the apostle's exhorta-things? You are not slanderers ;-but tion, and to "prove your own works." So are you as tender of your neighbor's good shall ye have your rejoicing in yourselves, name as of your own? If ye are strangers and never be ashamed. Amen. SERMON XL. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE. JAMES IV. 17.-"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." to these positive virtues, then all the advantage ye can pretend to is this; ye are sinners of a lower order, than if ye had added positive transgressions to your neglect of doing good: but still you are sinners; for, according to the apostle, not to do good is sin. This text evidently contains the two following propositions: 1st. That men sin not only when they positively transgress the law of God; but also, when they do not fulfil the duties which the law requires to the utmost of their power. And, THE unfruitful lives of professing Christians is a very general and a just complaint. But few of those who retail this 2dly. That our guilt is more highly complaint are heartily inclined to re- aggravated, when we neglect the duties move the cause of it. We are melancholy which are known to us; or when we deexamples of that which we pretend to la-cline opportunities of doing good, though ment; and we cease not to strengthen we know that it is our duty to embrace the interests of a party which we con- them. demn. David, when he was treating with These propositions I will endeavor to Araunah the Jebusite, for the purchase illustrate and confirm; and will then conof his threshing floor, in order to rear an clude with a practical improvement of the altar to God, refused to accept of it with-subject. out a price, because he would not "offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord his God, of that which cost him nothing." But, alas! our general contest seems rather to be, who shall be most penurious in his offerings to God, and who shall purchase Were we to look upon God as an heaven with the easiest service. Many austere and selfish Being, who employed have unhappily deceived themselves into his laws only as a fence about his own an opinion, that nothing but positive acts private interests; then indeed, not to of rebellion will subject them to punish- violate them might be considered as sufment. They place much confidence in [ficient to comply with their design. The First. I begin with showing you that men sin, not only when they positively trangress the law of God, but also, when they do not fulfil the duties which the law requires to the utmost of their power. Thus far I might argue upon general principles, that we ought not only to abstain from what the law of God prohibits, but also to fulfil, to the utmost of our power, what the spirit or intention of the law requires. But as I speak to Christians I will now resort to an authority which they must acknowledge to be valid, and sufficient to decide the question. kings of this earth are forced to inclose must be sparing of consolation. I must their little allotment of honor, and to use remind him, that it is the heart which their authority as a flaming sword, to God requires; that God hath respect to ward off insults from their prerogatives. the offering of a liberal giver; but that he But it is not so with God. The Creator hath no regard to the churl, or to his offerof heaven and of earth can have no depen- ing. dence on the workmanship of his own hands. His prerogative cannot suffer, nor can his glory be impaired, by the feeble and impotent attempts of his creatures. His laws therefore could never be intended for his own security, but for our benefit. They are expressions of his goodnessr ather than of his sovereignty; and his great view in enacting them, seems to have been, to bind us by his authority to consult our present interest, and to render ourselves capable of everlasting felicity. Judge then whether a law which hath in view this kind and generous object, doth not challenge our most cordial acceptance and entire subjection; and whether gratitude, as well as duty, should not prompt us to fulfil every part of it to the utmost of our power. Indeed, if we consider God as a severe task-master, as I am afraid too many of us do; in that case, whatever he enjoins, will appear to be an hardship or a burden. But if we view him in his true character, as a wise and good parent, who in every thing consults the real advantage of his children, then his yoke will appear to be easy indeed, and his burden to be light. The cords of love will draw us on to obedience; and gratitude, which is ever ingenious in finding out ways to express itself, will constantly prompt us to the most dutiful observance of his will. Show me the man whose ingenuous mind, not only expects a future reward, but feels a present joy in the service of his God; and to that man I will address the words of unfeigned salutation. I will say to him, "Hail thou favored of the Lord," thine is the true "spirit of adoption," which deviseth liberal things; thine is that soul which is born from on high, and which doth not commit sin; thine is that love which fulfilleth the law, and which perfecteth the saints. The proposition which I have laid down then, is not deduced by remote inference, neither does it depend upon a single testimony; but is both supported and illustrated by a multitude of clear and express declarations of Scripture. We are commanded not only to "depart from evil," but "to do good; " not only to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, but also "to perfect holiness in the fear of God." Christ is proposed to us as our example; and what was his character? "He went about doing good, and persisted, till he had finished the work which was given him to do." Nay, he saith himself (John ix. 4.) “I must work the works of him that sent me. And if he, who voluntarily came under the law, was bound to this active and extensive service, shall we who are its necessary subjects, plead an exemption from it? Paul, in his epistle to Titus (chap. ii. 11.) informs us, that "the grace of God, which hath appeared to all men, bringing salvation, teacheth us not only to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, but to live soberly, and righteously, and godly in the world; and that Christ gave himself for us, for this end, "that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." These passages of Scripture need no commentary, all of them point out the necessity of a positive and active obedience. But this is not all: Our blessed Lord, who well knew what was in man, seems to But show me the man whose servile have directly calculated some of his dissoul is moved only by the fear of punish-courses to prevent the possibility of a ment, to yield a grudging and penurious mistake on the subject. The parables of service to his Maker; and to that man I the rich man and Lazarus, of the talents, and of the barren fig-tree, plainly appear | show: who hath slept, and trifled, and to have been delivered with this view. squandered away all his time? "O that We are not told that the rich man was men were wise, that they understood this, in any respect injurious or oppressive to that they would consider their latter Lazarus: his guilt lay in his not extending end!""How long, O ye simple ones, will his kindness to supply his wants. The ye love simplicity?" How long, O sinunprofitable servant was cast into outer ner, shall that precious time on which eterdarkness, not for losing or squandering nity depends, be wasted in the pursuit of away his talent, but for hiding it in a nap-lying vanities? O think, how swiftly it kin, and neglecting to improve it. And passeth away, and how passionately thou the fig-tree was cut down, and cast into the wilt one day wish to recall it. Who can fire, not for producing bad fruit, but be- assure thee that the decree is not already cause it produced no fruit at all. But gone forth against thee, "Cut him off, why lest the allegorical dress of these instruc- cumbereth he the ground."-" Thou fool, tions should leave men at too great liberty this night thy soul shall be required of to explain away the force of them, this wise thee.' and provident Teacher, in a serious and awful discourse on the process of the last judgment, resumes the same argument, (Matth. xxv. 31.) There he tells us expressly, that men shall not only be punished for doing evil, but also for neglecting to perform active service; and in particular, for neglecting to perform the offices of humanity to their brethren. For the charge runs in these words: "I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not."-" For inasmuch as ye did it not to the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me.” And then follows the doom to be pronounced on those against whom this charge is brought; "These shall go away into everlasting punishment.” From these passages of Scripture, we learn with assurance, that unless life is filled up with good works, death, which introduceth us to judgment, must approach to us with a dark and gloomy aspect. When conscience, awakened with the dawning of an everlasting day, shall prompt us to inquire, What we have done? How we have improved our time, our talents, and the means of grace with which we have been favored? If in this review of ourselves, we shall be able to discover nothing but the traces of vanity and impertinence, how must we shrink back, and tremble on the awful state before us? If God will judge every man according to his works, alas! what must become of the unhappy sluggard, who hath no works to Pardon me, then, if I speak to you as short-lived, or as dying creatures; some of whom I may never see again till we meet before the judgment-seat of God. Under this impression, let me deal freely with you, and call on you to review your past conduct, as if the Lord himself were demanding an account of it. Say, then, hath it been suitable to the rank you hold in life? Hath it even been rational? such as became those high intellectual powers by which you are raised above the beasts that perish? Would you consent to have it published before this congregation? Or rather, are there not some parts of it which you would wish to hide from your most intimate friends? lest, partial as they are to you, the knowledge of them should quench their affection, and render you contemptible in their eyes? Are you then ready to appear in judg ment, and to have all your thoughts, and words, and actions laid open and canvassed before an assembled world? I shall not suppose you guilty of gross acts of wickedness. Perhaps the influence of education, the power of natural conscience, and the restraints of Providence, have hitherto kept you back from these. I at present charge you with nothing worse than the omission of duty, and the neglect of opportunities for cultivating and improving the talents which God hath given you. You have been thoughtless and inconsiderate, unmindful of the God who made you, and of the Redeemer who bought you with his blood. You have forgotten the end for which you were sent into the world. You have suffered the cares and pleasures of the present life, the business or amusements of this fleeting scene of vanity, to divide your hearts, and engross your time, as if the soul had been destined to serve the body; or as if this earth had been designed for your only residence and portion. Can you then review such a life without blushing and shame? When you think of it, doth it not appear mean and despicable even in your own eyes? And can it then be pleasing; or rather, must it not be highly offensive, to that Almighty Being, who gave you a nature fitted for the performance of nobler services, and for the relish of higher enjoyments, than any with which your have been hitherto acquainted? For the Lord's sake open your eyes, and take a serious and impartial view of your condition. Blessed be God it is not yet too late. The door of mercy is still open; and though, like the prodigal son, you have hitherto been feeding upon husks; yet when, like him, ye shall return to your Father's house, and to the faithful and affectionate duty of children, your past wandering and unprofitable life shall be forgiven; and ye may yet enjoy the honors and privileges of your Father's sons. Having thus confirmed and illustrated the first propositions contained in the text, namely, that men sin, not only when they positively transgress the law of God; but also when they do not fulfil the duties which the law requires to the utmost of their power; I now proceed to show you, as was proposed, fully neglects it, must contract greater guilt, and be liable to a severer punishment. If that man be culpable, who is careless of doing all the good which by an exertion of his talents he is able to do; is not that man much more culpable, who presumptuously omits to do the good to which he has opportunities to solicit him? But why should I spend time in establishing so plain a truth, especially when it is confirmed by the highest authority? Our blessed Lord himself expressly tells us, (Luke xii. 47.) that "the servant who knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes." The only question that remains then is, Whether this be a supposition that can be made? Is it to be thought, that any man is capable of deliberately resisting his own conviction, and of declining obedience to a law which he both knows and believes to be binding on him? I confess, indeed, that a superior Being, if we could imagine him to be altogether unacquainted with human affairs, might reject this supposition as improbable. But surely we have no cause to object against the representation as forced, or beyond the life. Our own observation, unless we have been extremely inattentive, cannot fail to furnish us with numberless proofs of this determined neglect of duty. We need not go from home to bring our examples from persons in high and public trust, who have been known to sacrifice the acknowledged interest and honor of a whole nation to their own private resentment or personal advantage. They are farther seen, for no other reason but because they are placed higher. The importance of their station renders their faults the more conspicuous, while a groaning community points out, as with the finger, the authors of its distress. But let He who doth not seek for opportunities each of us look into his own breast; and of doing good, is a sinner; that is, he if conscience is not asleep, it will say to counteracts the obvious intention of his us as Nathan said to David, "Thou art Maker in sending him into the world: the man." Thou thyself hast neglected and therefore shall be dealt with as an un- the fairest opportunities of doing good, faithful servant, who hath not applied his when thou hadst the strongest conviction talents to the purposes for which they that it was thy reasonable duty. were given him. And if this be the case, I mean not to pry into the secrets of then surely the person who hath a known your hearts, any more than to divulge the opportunity of doing good, and yet wil-secrets of my own. But I speak from a Secondly. That our guilt is more highly aggravated, when we neglect the duties which are known to us; or when we decline opportunities of doing good, though we are convinced that it is our duty to embrace them. |