a man, I should have little inclination to do God knows I have more need of his mercies than my fellow-creatures as a preacher of the Gospel I should have still less: but let me intreat you to consider, that though the Almighty were merciful beyond all punishment or retribution, would not the very argument on which you build your hopes of impunity make you appear shocking to all sense of natural or moral excellence? Should not that man be looked upon as a monster, who would offend against mercy because he knew it would forgive, and trample on clemency from an assurance that it would not rèsent?

If then the folly and danger of a false confidence in religion be so frequent and so obvious, it must be worth our while to enquire upon what grounds we may entertain a reasonable hope of our salvation.

II. Let us remember that man does not now stand in the same relation to God as at his creation! that he is to look upon his Creator as an offended Being, whose laws he has broken, and to whom he can only be reconciled through the mediation of Jesus Christ that the Mediator has introduced a system of duties, by complying with which alone we shall be entitled to the advantage of that redemption which he purchased by

his death: for, though he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, yet that very repentance is a qualifying act of duty, and the first-fruits of those good works, without which his merits with THE FATHER will not avail us.

In short, if we obey his laws; if we imitate his life; if we believe his doctrines; if we embrace his precepts; and, lastly, if we look up to him as our greatest good, as the object of our affections and the perfect pattern of our conduct, we may then hope that he will receive us to his mercy, and interpose his services for our frailties and our sins.

SERMON IX.

AFFECTION, COMPASSION, AND CIVILITY
RECOMMENDED.

1 PET. iii. 8.

Love as brethren; be pitiful, be courteous. THAT charitable disposition which Christianity recommends as its first principle, comprehends all the peculiar graces and virtues that distinguish the disciples of Jesus

Hence the apostle gives it the preference to all other faculties and powers. The mind might be enlightened with the visions of prophecy; the tongue might be informed with every human language; the laws of nature might be inverted at the command of a cre ated Being, and health and life conferred by man that is born to die: but these powers, as they were superior to his capacity, could add nothing to his moral excellence; and, therefore one portion of charity was greater than these.

It does not appear that the apostles looked

upon this as any particular species of virtue, that could be described by some peculiar or uniform mode of operation: they must have considered it as a general temper, or disposition of the soul, that gave its colour and principle to every moral action.

This temper was formed by the genius and spirit of Christianity, improved by that divine grace, which was the privilege of the new religion. But why am I attempting a description of charity, which is so admirably described by its effects in the Epistle to the Corinthians? To that I shall refer you, and confine myself to the consideration of those virtues that flow from it, mentioned in the text; Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.

I. It must always be allowed by the advocates of natural religion, that the precepts of Christianity make the best system of morality in the world. Numberless graces were suggested by the divine Spirit, which would never have been thought of in a mere natural state: none of these is more frequently inculcated than brotherly love; nay, so indispensable was this duty, that it was made the test of every convert's pretensions, and the last argument of the love of God. By this we know that ye are of God, if ye have love one to another.