tion involves an universality of obedience; and his actual obedience, with due allowances, is consistent with it.-How delightful is such an exemplification of Christian piety! What inflexible integrity,-What sterling worth, does it display! It is not, what some barren professors would lead us to suppose, a mere abstract speculation or dormant faith, but the root, from which our moral duties, in all their branches, derive their life and vigour.-What a sublime privilege thus to walk in the counsels of heaven!-to be guided by a celestial light, which gilds the clouds that overshadow the valley of death, and opens to our view a boundless prospect of bliss in the realms of eternal day! *

It appears, that the gospel of Christ is a dispensation of mercy which calls to holiness, and that it is no farther known to us with respect to its power, than as it makes us fruitful in the knowledge of it. Vain and delusive is that faith, that hope,-that love, or those ardent aspirations after glory, which leave men unmerciful, unjust, untrue. Such unproductive religion wants the impress of heaven, and its ostentatious professors are not, what they affect to be, pure, celestial lights shining in the Christian

See Note I. Appendix.

firmament, but wandering stars,-meteors arising from the vapours of night, and of transient duration. The Bible is throughout a practical book. All the evangelical doctrines it records, imply correspondent duties; and while Christianity, in one sense, rises above morality, and virtually comprehends it,-being the perfection of all moral virtues,—we are not, however, fully authorized in asserting, that holiness is superior to morality, since morality is not different from, but a vital branch of it. And we may lay it down as an indubitable and safe maxim, that any view of the gospel, which does not naturally produce in the mind that impression which is described in the precepts, is not well founded: our obedience to the law is the only true measure of our faith in the gospel. The gospel reflects the purity of the law,-it glorifies the moral government of God; and a faithful transcript of it in all its parts, cannot but exhibit the majesty of the law in all its awful requirements. They both proceed from the Father of lights, and contribute, in mutual harmony, to make the man of God perfect.-To preach, then, Christ, is not to confine ourselves to his name, as if it had a magical influence,—or to be continually chiming upon his doctrines in order to elicit from them such sounds, as may vibrate in exact unison with our morbid feelings: It

consists in illustrating the great design of his mediation, and in expounding his laws,-the conjunctive tendency of which is, to render us obedient to the eternal rules of righteousIn short, the gospel can never produce its full and appropriate effects,-unless we promulgate the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; so intimate and indissoluble is the connection between truth and holiness.*

ness.

Having made these preliminary remarks from a desire to restore injured virtue to her ancient rights, and to maintain the authority of the moral law, without infringing upon the prerogatives of a Christian faith,—I shall now enter into a more particular discussion of the grounds and obligations of morality. While the truth is one and simple, and always consistent with itself, its ramifications are wide and extensive; it branches out into a complex variety of precepts; and to divide and apply them rightly, i. e. according to the analogy of faith and the diversified circumstances of society, requires a sound and comprehensive knowledge of theology, and of the manners of mankind. Under the spiritual dispensation of the Christian religion we enjoy a greater latitude and freedom than the Jews did under their figurative and

* See Note K. Appendix.

temporary economy. We are exonerated from those numerous and burdensome rites and circumstantial directions which were designed to distinguish and separate them from surrounding idolatrous nations, to prove their fidelity and allegiance, and to adumbrate, in many instances, the future glory of the gospel. The partition wall is now removed; and we must have recourse to the scriptures, and learn, in the sound exercise of our reason, to combine, to compare them, and to deduce proper inferences from incidental instruction and detached precepts, as they are embodied in examples, illustrated by figures, or exhibited in parables. Such luminous arrangements and expositions fall within the more immediate province of Christian ministers, whose sacred duty and privilege it is to collect and to adjust the various and scattered materials of the spiritual building, and to raise it, under the divine blessing, to a state of ultimate perfection. They must exercise an enlarged and accurate judgment in the application of general rules to particular cases, by discriminating the various shades of colour reflected upon actions from surrounding circumstances. It is not sufficient to know that God requires us to renounce sin and to cultivate holiness; our knowledge should extend to all the distinct parts of duty; we should ascertain

what each virtue precisely demands under the vicissitudes of life. While the Scriptures supply sufficient rules for the general conduct of mankind in every age and country,—and while the principle of virtue is incapable of change or remission, the practical display of it is subject to numerous modifications, dependent upon the stations of individuals. There are many decencies and proprieties, many minor duties which can only be known and appreciated by a careful survey of the times and circumstances, in which we are placed. For want of duly considering the state of society, in its different classes, and their various relations among themselves, and towards one another, good men may culpably fail in many of those decorous and laudable usages in the world, which they are too prone to resolve into mere parade and ceremony, and to overlook as unworthy of their regard. Hence some truly pious characters expose themselves to just censure through their want of good manners, which constitute a lesser species of morality; and on these lesser things depend, in no small measure, the order and comfort of society,the general stream of human happiness. When we consider duties grossly, we may repose with complacency in our own short attainments;— but this complacency, the result of superficial