to deny and oppose him, my crime is undoubtedly aggravated, by all these circumstances, to an extraordinary degree. But if this offended benefactor is Lord of lords and King of kings; the Creator of man; the Monarch of angels; the Ancient of days; before whom the majesty of all the monarchs upon earth disappears as the lustre of a thousand stars is eclipsed by the presence of the sun if this glorious Being has given his beloved Son to suffer infamy and death, in order to procure for me eternal life and celestial glory; my crime must then be aggravated in proportion to my own meanness, the greatness of the benefits received, and the dignity of my exalted Benefactor. But our imagination is bewildered when we attempt to scan the enormity which these accumulated circumstances add to those acts of rebellion denominated

sins.

They who are not working out their "salvation with fear and trembling," must necessarily live in the practice of some constitutional sin; and this self indulgence, however secret it may be, will not suffer them to perceive the demerit of their daily transgressions. An old debauchee whose chief delight has been in seducing women, or an infamous murderer who has shed human blood like water, may as easily conceive the horror that adultery and murder excite in virtuous souls.

Before we can form a rational judgment of sin and the punishment it deserves, it becomes us to entertain just ideas of moral order; to mark the obligation laid upon the supreme legislator to maintain that order by wholesome laws, and to discover, in some degree, the sanctity, the excellence, and the extent of those absolute commands. It is necessary to understand the dependence of the creature upon the Creator; since the image formed by the presence of an object before a mirror is not more dependent upon that object than all orders of created beings depend upon the Creator: if he withdraws his protecting hand, they are no more; if he stretches out the arm of his vengeance, they are plunged at once into an abyss of misery. We must reflect upon all the various obligations under which we lie to the Almighty, as Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, and Comforter. We must consider those examples of his vengeful justice, which he has placed before our eyes on purpose to awaken our fears: together

with the unmerited favours by which he has constantly sought to engage our grateful affection. It becomes us likewise to observe the vanity of all those appearances by which we are allured into sin: and lastly, it is necessary to remember that "God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing." While we pay not a proper attention to every one of these circumstances, we must necessarily form an imperfect judgment concerning the nature of sin, the severity with which God has determined to punish it, and the greatness of that expiatory sacrifice, by virtue of which his justice and his mercy unite in pardoning the penitent.

When the law of God is wilfully transgressed, it is ridiculous in any man to attempt the justification of himself by pleading that he has committed no enormous crimes; or that, if ever he has been guilty of any such offences, his good actions have always been sufficient to counterbalance their demerit. Frivolous excuses! Is not one treasonable act sufficient to mark the traitor? Is not that soldier punished as a deserter, who flies his colours but a single time? And does not a woman forfeit her honour by one moment of weakness?

Though we grant there are some sins of a peculiarly atrocious kind; yet as murder will always appear before an earthly tribunal according to its horrible nature, so sin will ever be considered as such before an infinitely holy God. If a man accused of having wilfully poisoned a fellow creature, would address his judge in terms like these: The charge brought against me is just: but let it be considered that the person I have destroyed was only an infant; that he was the child of a common beggar; and that this is the only murder I have committed through the whole of my life. On the other hand, I have been a constant benefactor to the poor; and surely a thousand acts of charity will abundantly outweigh one little dose of arsenic. No; the judge would answer; when you prolonged the life of the indigent by your alms you merely performed a duty which is universally required of every worthy citizen; and the law allows you nothing on this account. But if you have given the smallest dose of poison to any human creature, with an intent to destroy his life, the law pronounces you a murderer, and will punish you as such.

After our first parents had offended by eating the forbidden fruit, they had but vainly excused themselves in saying, "We have gathered only that which appeared to be of little worth: we have tasted it but once: moreover, our labour in the garden is of much greater value than the fruit we have taken. Lord! condemn us not to death for so inconsiderable an offence." Such, however, are the frivolous excuses with which every blinded moralist contents his seared conscience, and with which he hopes to satisfy his omniscient Judge. When St. Paul was one of this class he practised upon himself the same delusions. Capable only of natural sentiments, the hidden truths of a spiritual law were not only incomprehensible, but vain and foolish things in his estimation. This we learn from the following passage in his Epistle to the Romans: "I was alive without the law once," paying little attention to the spirituality of its precepts, or the severity of its threatenings, and indulging no suspicion either of my corruption or my condemnation. "But when the commandment came," in its spiritual energy, " in its spiritual energy, "sin revived," assuming an appearance suited to its infernal nature, "and," receiving a sentence of death in myself, "I died. I had not" then "known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust," which is the source of every evil, and first cause of our condemnation, "except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet."

Every sincere Christian, in imitation of this apostle, may with propriety say; there are various sins which ĺ had never seen as such but by the light of the gospel: for example, I had lived in security with respect to abusing the faculty of speech, and had never known the Almighty's intention of judging me upon that article, if Christ himself had not openly declared; “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment: for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." If those who trust in their own righteousness would seriously examine themselves by the two-fold law of Moses and of Christ, they would form a new judgment of their spiritual circumstances, and pass, with St. Paul, from the state of the Pharisee into that of the publican.

Further Sins of omission as well as those of commission are sufficient to draw upon us the maledictions of

the law, which equally commands us to do good and to abstain from evil. Offences of this nature are seldom regarded as sins by the generality of mankind and hence they are wholly unalarmed at the recollection of them. To lack diligence in our duties, moderation in our joys, attention in our prayers, and zeal in our devotions; to live without gratitude toward our divine Benefactor, without resignation under losses, patience in affliction, confidence in God during times of danger, and content in the state to which he has called us; to want humility toward our superiors, courtesy toward our equals, affability toward our inferiors, meekness toward those who displease us, faithfulness to our word, strict truth in our conversation, or charity in the judgment we form of others: all these are things that never disturb the repose of a worldly man; nor does he esteem them as real offences in the sight of God. He considers not that an inattentive nurse may as effectually destroy a child, by withholding from it proper nourishment, as though she had obliged it to sip a poisonous draught; that a soldier would be condemned to death if the enemy should surprise a town while he was sleeping on his post, equally as though he had been busy in opening the gates for their admission ; and that Christ represents the want of a holy fervour, as the grand reason why lukewarm Christians excite in him the utmost detestation and abhorrence. An entire chapter in the gospel is employed to teach us that sins of omission will constitute the principal cause of a sinner's condemnation at the last day. The slothful servant is cast into outer darkness, not for having robbed another of his talent, but for the non-improvement of his own: the foolish virgins are excluded from the marriage feast, not for having betrayed the bridegroom, but because they were unprepared to receive him and every Christian is acquainted with that terrible sentence which shall one day be pronounced upon the wicked: "Depart from me, ye cursed; for I was a hungered, and ye gave me no meat," &c. To have that "religion, which is pure and undefiled before God," it is not only necessary that we "keep ourselves unspotted from the world," but we must "also visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction ;" relieving the unfortunate to the utmost of our ability, and

exerting our whole power in spreading truth and happi ness among all around us.

Thus hunted at length from many a dangerous shelter, unhumbled sinners will presume to adopt the following plea: we pray, we fast, we give alms, we receive the holy sacrament: and what more do you require? Such was the foundation of the ancient Pharisees' hope: but Christ and his apostles overthrew their vain confidence by the same arguments which evangelical ministers are still obliged to turn against multitudes of religious professors, who indulge an exalted opinion of their own contemptible merits.

The gospel requires, say these faithful pastors, that to the external marks of religion you should be careful to add humility and charity and if these two capital graces are wanting, your religion is but a body without a soul. You have received the holy sacraments of our church: but what salutary effects have they produced in your life and conversation? The circumcision which saved the Jews was not the circumcision of the flesh, but "that of the heart:" and the baptism which saves Christians is not that by which the body is sprinkled with water, but that which purifies the soul. So the passover which was acceptable to God on the part of the Jews consisted not simply in eating the paschal lamb: but in penetrating their souls with gratitude on recollecting the many wonderful deliverances which the Almighty had wrought for his people. And the communion which is acceptable on the part of Christians, consists not merely in receiving the consecrated elements as various classes of sinners are accustomed to do; but in uniting themselves to the Lord by a living faith, and to all his members by an ardent charity. You pray,—and did not the Pharisees so? yea, they were remarkable for their long and zealous prayers: but, alas! while they acknowledged God "with their lips their hearts were far from him." You give alms-but, if you mean with these to purchase heaven, you do but deceive your own souls, while your pretended charity degenerates into insolence: or, if you merely seek to procure the reputation of being charitably disposed; you have your reward. You fast, but if you do this chiefly through custom, or through respect to the orders of your prince, your fast can no more be counted religious than