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their immediate consequences, but in their remote and ultimate tendencies, which ought all to be included in the account, the mischief which is done by the example, as well as by the act, is seldom honestly computed by the sinner himself; but I do not dwell further upon this comparison, because I insist, that no man has a right to make it; no man has a right, whilst he is doing occasional good, and yet indulging his vices and his passions, to strike a balance, as it were, between the good and the harm. This is not christianity; this is not pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father, let the balance lie on which side it will; for our text declares, (and our text declares no more than what the scriptures testify from one end to the other,) that religion demands both. It demands active virtue, and it demands innocency of life. I mean it demands sincere and vigorous endeavours in the pursuit of active virtue, and endeavours equally sincere and firm in the preservation of personal innocence. It makes no calculation which is better, but it requires both.

Shall

Shall it be extraordinary, that there should be men forward in active charity and in positive beneficence, who yet put little or no constraint upon their personal vices? I have said that the character is common, and I will tell you why it is common. The reason is, (and there is no other reason,) that it is usually an easier thing to perform acts of beneficence, even of expensive and troublesome beneficence, than it is to command and controul our passions; to give up and discard our vices; to burst the bonds of the habits, which enslave us. This is the very truth of the case: so that the matter comes precisely to this point. Men of active benevolence, but of loose morals, are men, who are for performing the duties, which are easy to them, and omitting those which are hard. They only place their own character to themselves in what view they please: but this is the truth of the case, and let any one say, whether this be religion; whether this be sufficient. The truly religious man, when he has once decided a thing to be a duty, has no further question to ask; whether it be easy to be. done, or whether it be hard to be done,, it is

equally

equally a duty; it then becomes a question of fortitude, of resolution, of firmness, of self-command, and self government; but not of duty or obligation; these are already decided upon.

But least of all, (and this is the inference from the text, which I wish most to press upon your attention,) least of all does he conceive the hope of reaching heaven by that sort of compromise, which would make easy, nay perhaps, pleasant duties, an excuse for duties, which are irksome and severe. To recur, for the last time, to the instance mentioned in our text, I can very well believe, that a man of humane temper shall have pleasure in visiting, when by visiting he can succour the fatherless and the widow in their affliction but if he believes St. James, he will find that this must be joined to and accompanied with another thing, which is neither easy nor pleasant; nay, must always almost be effected with pain and struggle, and mortification and difficulty, the "keeping himself unspotted from the world."

SERMON XXII.

THE AGENCY OF JESUS CHRIST SINCE HIS

ASCENSION.

HEBREWS xiii. 8.

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."

THE assertion of the text might be sup

ported by the consideration, that the mission and preaching of Christ have lost nothing of their truth and importance by the lapse of ages, which has taken place since his appearance in the world. If they seem of less magnitude, reality, and concern to us at this present day, than they did to those who lived in the days in which they were carried on, it is only in

the

the same manner as a mountain or a tower appears to be less, when seen at a distance. It is a delusion in both cases. In natural objects we have commonly strength enough of judgment to prevent our being imposed upon by these false appearances; and it is not so much a want or defect of, as it is a neglecting to exert and use, our judgment, if we suffer ourselves to be deceived by them in religion.Distance of space in one case, and distance of time in the other, make no difference in the real nature of the object; and it is a great weakness to allow them to make any difference in our estimate and apprehension. The death of Jesus Christ is, in truth, as interesting to us, as it was to those, who stood by his cross his resurrection from the grave is a pledge and assurance of our future resurrection, no less than it was of theirs, who conversed, who eat and drank with him, after his return to life.

But there is another sense, in which it is still more materially true, that "Jesus Christ is the U u

same

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