enjoy them. Our Saviour tells us, that when we have done bur utmost, we must say that we are unprofitable servants.' Where then is our claim to so much merit and righteousness, as may render it proper for us to do less than our utmost, and may intitle us to the reward of the servants of God, whilst we wilfully continue the servants of sin? Such a pretence once allowed would render repentance unnecessary, would vacate the terms of the gospel, and by setting up one new remedy for sin, would render ineffectual all that ever nature or revelation prescribed.

Thirdly, as to our past sins: it is not in our power to recall them. Here therefore the goodness of God has provided a remedy, that we may not perish everlastingly. This then is the only case in which we have any encouragement to seek for a cover for our sins. If we are indeed sincere in desiring to serve God and save ourselves, we may forsake our present iniquities, and avoid them for the future; and therefore to propose after-remedies would be to encourage sin: but, for our past offences, we cannot recall them; here therefore a remedy is necessary, and here the goodness of God has provided one. Repentance and amendment of life is the remedy provided; and since charity is the perfection of the law, to forsake sin, and to live by the rules of charity, is the surest, the most effectual way to obtain pardon. Under these restraints let not the sinner be discouraged in his hopes, that charity shall cover the multitude of sins;' for his hope shall be confirmed to him by him who is true and faithful, and cannot deceive.

But even in this case there is need to guard against mistakes: for though returning to our duty and the works of charity is the best amends we can make for the guilt of past offences; yet charity will not be accepted of God in lieu of justice. If we have injured and defrauded our neighbour, our debt to him will not be paid by charity to another. An hundred pounds given to the poor will not atone for a thousand, nor even for an hundred, gained by extortion or oppression. We must do justice before we pretend to be charitable, even in this sense, and refund our wicked and ungodly gains, before any part of our wealth can be made an acceptable sacrifice to God. It is too common for men to compound such debts as these, and to

imagine they sanctify their extortion by laying out part of it for the glory of God, as they love to speak: but it is the highest insolence and affront to God to think to bribe his justice, and to obtain his pardon, by such a piece of corruption as any human court would condemn. Go to any court of justice, tell them that you have by fraud and extortion got a thousand pounds from one man, but you are willing to give an hundred to another who is in great want: what would they say to you? Would they not tell you that your charity was hypocrisy, a pretence to cover iniquity? And shall not God judge righteously, who knows your fraud, whether you will own it or not?

In a word: charity will not atone for want of justice. 'Owe no many any thing,' says the Apostle, but to love one another.' First pay the debts of justice, and then think of charity; at least, till the debts of justice are discharged, do not imagine that your charity will cover the multitude of

sins.'

SUMMARY OF DISCOURSE XXXIX.

GALATIANS, CHAP. VI.-VERSE 9.

THIS and other like passages in Scripture are founded in the known truth, that God does not ordinarily dispense the rewards and punishments due to virtue and vice in this life, but refers the right settlement of all accounts to a future state. It may be thought that it would have been better if this retribution had taken place here below; but a little attention will show us the wisdom of Providence. Were men to receive the rewards due to their good actions in this world, there would be no reason why they should grow weary in well doing, which would so abundantly repay all their pains and trouble.

It is natural for men, when they see flagrant instances of wickedness, to make secret demands in their own hearts for justice against them; and if these are not answered, they are apt to conclude that they themselves have cleansed their hearts in vain. Whenever hopes and expectations are raised beyond all probability of being answered by the event, they can produce nothing but anger against the ordinary course of thnigs: yet who is to blame? Not he who appointed this course, but he who so little understood it, as to expect what it never was intended to produce. Who would pity the husbandman who lamented that he could not reap in spring, when the harvest comes only in the summer? and the case is the same in all other instances. It is of great consequence therefore to balance rightly our expectations, and adjust them to the natural course of things ordained by Providence. If we grow faint in our

work, because our untimely wishes are disappointed, we shall forfeit the reward of patient endurance: and this seems to be the foundation of the Apostle's exhortation in the text.

It is no uncommon thing to press men to a virtuous behavior by a prospect of the rewards which such a behavior is intitled to in this world; which is justified both by experience and Scripture; inasmuch as peace and tranquillity of mind are the great ingredients of human happiness. But this argument is so little concerned with the external good and evil of the world, that it is applicable to men of all fortunes and conditions. But if men, when they hear of a happiness due to virtue in this life, will conceive hopes of obtaining honors and riches from God in recompense for their obedience, they expect what was never yet generally answered, and probably never will be; and thus, while they pursue the shadow, they are in danger of losing the substance.

To clear up this point, it is necessary to inquire what reason or authority we have to assert the interposition of Providence in the private affairs of men, with respect to the rewards of virtue and vice.

If we view and consider well the frame of the world and its laws, we can no more doubt the fact of its being sustained than of its being created by the Almighty. But the question now is, since God has made man a reasonable creature, and endowed him with a liberty of acting, how far it has been thought fit to leave him to his liberty and the consequences of his own acts. To come at any knowlege in this case, there are but three ways; to consider what reason requires, what experience teaches, what Scripture confirms.

First, with respect to what reason requires. It has pleased God to endow us with a power of judging, and a liberty of acting. Why were these powers given? Was it that we might use them, and thus give proof of virtue or vice? or was it that God might overrule them, and render them in every

particular case useless and insignificant? In this case he had better have made us mere machines, than free agents at first, and then machines by an arbitrary interposition of power. To secure the happiness of a good man, and the punishment of a bad one in this world, the actions of all men must be determined; they must be compelled to contribute to the happiness of the one and the misery of the other: and there would be an end of freedom.

This consideration leads to another of still greater weight: for if the freedom of human actions cannot be maintained on this supposition, neither can the distinction of virtue and vice: for there is no morality nor immorality where there is no ehoice or freedom, and consequently no responsibility.

But taking the case in another point of view, if virtue were to be constantly attended with success in worldly affairs, and vice certainly pursued with misery, there would be no trial of faith and obedience, which is necessary to prepare us for the blessings of another life: virtue would not be what it now is; but rather a kind of sensual thing, arising often from ambition, avarice, and a love of worldly enjoyments: this point enlarged on. But we may go still farther, and say that the condition of good men would be rendered worse than it really is, in losing one great support of their hopes and expectations in another world; in being presented with a vain scene of worldly pleasure, instead of that weight of glory which they on sure grounds expect.

These reasons may induce us, to think that it is consonant to the wisdom and goodness of God to allow men to use the liberty which he has given them. But they ought not to be carried so far as to exclude his providence from the care and government of the moral part of the world. It is one thing to turn a state of trial and probation into a state of rewards and punishments, by dispensing good and evil to every man according to his work; and another to exercise acts of government suitable