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eradicated, as well as overborne,-could a of Christ, is, through his means, to obtain living man bid the sinful propensity, with an erasure of the sentence of their conall its workings and all its inclinations, demnation. Now, though this, undoubtconclusively away from him,-could the edly, be one great design of the gospel, it authority of the new creature obtain such is not the design in which it terminates. unrivalled sway over the whole machinery It may, in fact, be only considered as a of the affections and the doings, that re- preparation for an ulterior accomplishsistance was no longer felt, and the battle was ment altogether. Christ came to redeem brought to its termination,-if it were pos- us from all iniquity, and to purify us unto sible, we say, for a disciple, on this side of himself a peculiar people, zealous of good the grave, to attain the eminency of a con- works. It were selfishness under the guise dition so glorious, then we know not of of sacredness, to sit down, in placid conwhat use to him would be either a death tentment, with the single privilege of jusor a resurrection, or why he might not tification. It is only the introduction to bear his earthly tabernacle to heaven, and higher privileges. set him down by direct translation amongst But not till we submit to the righteousthe company of the celestial. But no! ness of Christ, as the alone meritorious There hangs about the person of the most plea of our acceptance, shall we become pure and perfect Christian upon earth, personally righteous ourselves,-not till we some mysterious necessity of dying. That see the blended love and holiness of the body, styled with such emphasis a vile Godhead, in our propitiation, shall we body, by the Apostle, inust be pulverized know how to combine a confidence in his and made over again. And not till that mercy, with a reverence for his character, which is sown in corruption shall be raised-not till we look to that great transacin incorruption,-not till that which is tion, by which the purity of the divine nasown in weakness shall be raised in power, ture is vindicated, and yet the sinner is -not till that which is sown a natural delivered from the coming vengeance, shall body shall be raised a spiritual body,-not we be freed from the dominion of sin, or till the soul of man occupy another tene-be led to admire and to imitate the great ment, and the body which now holds him Pattern of excellence. The renewing Spirit, be made to undergo some unknown but indeed, is withheld from all those who glorious transformation, will he know what withhold their consent from the doctrine it is to walk at perfect liberty, and, with of Christ, and of him crucified. Paul was the full play of his then emancipated determined to know nothing else; and it is powers, to expatiate without frailty, and in this knowledge, and in this alone, that without a flaw, in the service of his God. we are renewed after the image of him who created us.

We know that the impression which many have of the disciples of the gospel is, Now the God of peace, that brought that their great and perpetual aim is, that again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that they may be justified, that the change of great Shepherd of the sheep, through the state which they are ever aspiring after, is blood of the everlasting covenant, make a change in their forensic state, and not in you perfect in every good work to do his their personal, that if they can only at-will, working in you that which is welltain delivery from wrath, they will be sa- pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, tisfied, and that the only use they make to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

DISCOURSES

ON THE

APPLICATION OF CHRISTIANITY

TO THE

COMMERCIAL AND ORDINARY AFFAIRS OF LIFE.

PREFACE.

THE following Discourses can be regarded in no other light, than as the fragment of a subject far too extensive to be overtaken within a compass so narrow. There has only a partial survey been taken of the morality of the actions that are current among people engaged in merchandise: and with regard to the morality of the affections which stir in their hearts, and give a feverish and diseased activity to the pursuits of worldly ambition, this has scarcely been touched upon, save in a very general way in the concluding discourse.

And yet, in the estimation of every cultivated Christian, this second branch of the subject should be by far the most interesting,-as it relates to that spiritual discipline by which the love of the world is overcome; and by which all that oppressive anxiety is kept in check, which the reverses and uncertainties of business are so apt to inject into the bosom; and by which the appetite that urges him who hasteth to be rich is effectually restrained-so as to make it possible for a man to give his hand to the duties of his secular occupation, and, at the same time, to maintain that sacredness of heart which becomes every fleeting traveller through a scene, all whose pleasures and whose prospects are so soon to pass away. Should this part of the subject be resumed at some future opportunity, there are two questions of casuistry connected with it, which will demand no small degree of consideration. The first relates to the degree in which an affection for present things, and present interests ought to be indulged. And the second is, whether, on the supposition that a desire after the good things of the present life were reduced down to the standard of the gospel, there would remain a sufficient impulse in the world for upholding its commerce, at the rate which would secure the greatest amount of comfort and subsistence to its families.

Without offering any demonstration, at present, upon this matter, we simply state it as our opinion, that, though the whole business of the world were in the hands of men thoroughly Christianised, and who, rating wealth according to its real dimensions on the high scale of eternity, were chastened out of all their idolatrous regards to it-yet would trade, in these circumstances, be carried to the extreme limit of its being really productive or desirable. An affection for riches, beyond what Christianity prescribes, is not essential to any extension of commerce that is at all valuable or legitimate; and in opposition to the maxim, that the spirit of enterprise is the soul of commercial prosperity, do we hold, that it is the excess of this spirit beyond the moderation of the New Testament, which, pressing on the natural boundaries of trade, is sure, at length, to visit every country where it operates, with the recoil of all those calamities, which in the shape of beggared capitalists, and unemployed operatives, and dreary intervals of bankruptcy and alarm, are observed to follow a season of overdone speculation.

DISCOURSE I.

On the mercantile Virtues which may exist without the Influence of Christianity.

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things."-Philippians iv. 8.

THE Apostle, in these verses, makes use of certain terms, without ever once proposing to advance any definition of their meaning. He presumes on a common understanding of this, between himself and the people whom he is addressing. He presumes that they know what is signified by Truth, and Justice, and Loveliness, and the other moral qualities which are included in the enumeration of our text. They, in fact, had words to express them, for many ages antecedent to the coming of Christianity into the world. Now, the very existence of the words proves, that, before the gospel was taught, the realities which they express must have existed also. These good and respectable attributes of character must have been occasionally exemplified by men, prior to the religion of the New Tes While we assert with zeal every doctrine tament. The virtuous and the praisewor- of Christianity, let us not forget that there thy must, ere the commencement of the new is a zeal without discrimination; and that, dispensation, have been met with in society to bring such a spirit to the defence of our -for the Apostle does not take them up in faith, or of any one of its peculiarities, is this passage, as if they were unknown and not to vindicate the cause, but to discredit unheard of novelties-but such objects of it. Now, there is a way of maintaining the general recognition, as could be under-utter depravity of our nature, and of doing stood on the bare mention of them, with-it in such a style of sweeping and of veout warning and without explanation. hement asseveration, as to render it not

men to estimate the lovely and the honourable of character. He appeals to a tribunal in their own breasts, and evidently supposes, that, antecedently to the light of the Christian revelation, there lay scattered among the species certain principles of feeling and of action, in virtue of which, they both occasionally exhibited what was just and true, and of good report, and also could render to such an exhibition, the homage of their regard and of their reverence. At present we shall postpone the direct enforcement of these virtues upon the observation of Christians, and shall confine our thoughts of them to the object of estimating their precise importance and character, when they are realised by those who are not Christians.

But more than this. These virtues must merely obnoxious to the taste, but obnoxious not only have been exemplified by men, to the understanding. On this subject there previous to the entrance of the gospel is often a roundness and a temerity of anamongst them-seeing that the terms, ex-nouncement, which any intelligent man, pressive of the virtues, were perfectly un- looking at the phenomena of human cha derstood-but men must have known how racter with his own eyes, cannot go along to love and to admire them. How is it that with; and thus it is, that there are injudiwe apply the epithet lovely to any moral cious defenders of orthodoxy, who have qualification, but only in as far as that mustered against it not merely a positive qualification does in fact draw towards it a dislike, but a positive strength of observasentiment of love? How is it that another tion and argument. Let the nature of man qualification is said to be of good report, be a ruin, as it certainly is, it is obvious to but in as far as it has received from men the most common discernment, that it does an applauding or an honourable testimony? not offer one unvaried and unalleviated The Apostle does not bid his readers have mass of deformity. There are certain respect to such things as are lovely, and phases, and certain exhibitions of this nathen, for the purpose of saving them from ture, which are more lovely than otherserror, enumerate what the things are which certain traits of character, not due to the he conceives to possess this qualification. operation of Christianity at all, and yet He commits the matter, with perfect con- calling forth our admiration and our tenfidence, to their own sense and their own derness-certain varieties of moral comapprehension. He bids them bear a re- plexion, far more fair and more engaging spect to whatsoever things are lovely- than certain other varieties; and to prove nor does he seem at all suspicious that, by that the gospel may have had no share in so doing, he leaves them in any darkness the formation of them, they in fact stood or uncertainty about the precise import of out to the notice and respect of the world the advice which he is delivering. He before the gospel was ever heard of. The therefore recognizes the competency of classic page of antiquity sparkles with re

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peated exemplifications of what is bright | his God, as if the principles of his consti-
and beautiful in the character of man; nor tution had been mixed up in such a differ-
do all its descriptions of external nature ent proportion, as to make him an odious
waken up such an enthusiasm of pleasure, and a revolting spectacle? In a word,
as when it bears testimony to some grace- might not Sensibility shed forth its tears,
ful or elevated doing out of the history of and Friendship perform its services, and
the species. And whether it be the kindli- Liberality impart of its treasure, and Pa-
ness of maternal affection, or the unwearied-triotism earn the gratitude of its country,
ness of filial piety, or the constancy of tried and Honour maintain itself entire and un-
and unalterable friendship, or the earnest- tainted, and all the softenings of what is
ness of devoted patriotism, or the rigour of amiable, and all the glories of what is
unbending fidelity, or any other of the re- chivalrous and manly gather into one
corded virtues which shed a glory over the bright effulgency of moral accomplishment
remembrance of Greece and of Rome-we on the person of him who never, for a sin-
fully concede it to the admiring scholar, gle day of his life, subordinates one habit,
that they one and all of them were some or one affection, to the will of the Al-
times exemplified in those days of Heathen- mighty; who is just as careless and as un-
ism; and that, out of the materials of a pe- concerned about God, as if the native ten-
riod, crowded as it was with moral abomi-dencies of his constitution had compounded
nations, there may also be gathered things him into a monster of deformity; and who
which are pure, and lovely, and true, and just as effectually realizes this attribute of
just, and honest, and of good report. rebellion against his Maker, as the most
What do we mean, then, it may be ask-loathsome and profligate of the species,
ed, by the universal depravity of man?
How shall we reconcile the admission now
made, with the unqualified and authorita-
tive language of the Bible, when it tells us
of the totality and the magnitude of human
corruption? Wherein lies that desperate
wickedness, which is every where ascribed
to all the men of all the families that be on
the face of the earth? And how can such
a tribute of acknowledgment be awarded
to the sages and the patriots of antiquity,
who yet, as the partakers of our fallen na-
ture, must be outcasts from the favour of
God, and have the character of evil stamp-
ed upon the imaginations of the thoughts
of their hearts continually?

that he walks in the counsel of his own heart, and after the sight of his own eyes?

The same constitutional variety may be seen on the lower fields of creation. You there witness the gentleness of one animal, the affectionate fidelity of another, the cruel and unrelenting ferocity of a third; and you never question the propriety of the language, when some of these instinctive tendencies are better reported of than others; or when it is said of the former of them, that they are the more fine, and amiable, and endearing. But it does not once occur to you, that, even in the very best of these exhibitions, there is any sense of God, or that the great master-principle of his authority is at all concerned in it. Transfer this contemplation back again to our species; and under the same complexional difference of the more and the less lovely, or the more and the less hateful, you will perceive the same utter insensibility to the consideration of a God, or the same utter inefficiency on the part of his law to subdue human habits and human inclinations. It is true, that there is one distinction between the two cases; but it all goes to aggravate the guilt and the ingratitude of man. He has an understanding which the inferior animals have not-and yet, with this understanding, does he refuse practically to acknowledge God. He has a conscience, which they have not-and yet, though it whisper in the ear of his inner man the claims of an unseen legislator, does he lull away his time in the slumbers of indifference, and live without him in the

In reply to these questions, let us speak
to your own experimental recollections on a
subject in which you are aided, both by
the consciousness of what passes within
you, and by your observation of the cha-
racters of others. Might not a sense of
honour elevate that heart which is totally
unfurnished with a sense of God? Might
not an impulse of compassionate feeling be
sent into that bosom which is never once
visited by a movement of duteous loyalty
towards the Lawgiver in heaven? Might
not occasions of intercourse with the be-
ings around us, develope whatever there is
in our nature of generosity, and friendship,
and integrity, and patriotism; and yet the
unseen Being, who placed us in this thea-
tre, be neither loved, nor obeyed, nor listen-
ed to? Amid the manifold varieties of
human character, and the number of con-
stitutional principles which enter into its
composition, might there not be an indi-world.
vidual in whom the constitutional virtues
so blaze forth and have the ascendency, as
to give a general effect of gracefulness to
the whole of this moral exhibition; and yet,
may not that individual be as unmindful of

Or go to the people of another planet, over whom the hold of allegiance to their maker is unbroken-in whose hearts the Supreme sits enthroned, and throughout the whole of whose history there runs the

derness upon him-it is to read to him, out of his own character, how the exquisite mechanism of feeling may be in full operation, while he who framed it is forgotten; while he who poured into his constitution the

perpetual and the unfailing habit of subor- | man, is to fasten on the radical element of dination to his law. It is conceivable, that depravity, and to show how deeply it lies with them too, there may be varieties of incorporated with his moral constitution. temper and of natural inclination, and yet It is not by an utterance of rash and sweepall of them be under the effective control ing totality to refuse him the possession of of one great and imperious principle; that what is kind in sympathy, or of what is in subjection to the will of God, every kind dignified in principle-for this were in the and every honourable disposition is che- face of all observation. It is to charge him rished to the uttermost; and that in sub- direct with his utter disloyalty to God. It jection to the same will, every tendency to is to convict him of treason against the maanger, and malignity, and revenge, is re-jesty of heaven. It is to press home upon pressed at the first moment of its threatened him the impiety of not caring about God. operation; and that in this way, there will It is to tell him, that the hourly and habitbe the fostering of a constant encourage- ual language of his heart is, I will not have ment given to the one set of instincts, and the Being who made me to rule over me. the struggling of a constant opposition It is to go to the man of honour, and, while made against the other. Now, only con- we frankly award it to him that his pulse ceive this great bond of allegiance to be beats high in the pride of integrity—it is to dissolved; the mighty and subordinating tell him, that he who keeps it in living play, principle, which wont to wield an ascend- and who sustains the loftiness of its moveency over every movement and every af- ments, and who, in one moment of time, fection, to be loosened and done away; and could arrest it for ever, is not in all his then would this loyal, obedient world, be- thoughts. It is to go to the man of soft and come what ours is, independent of Chris-gentle emotions, and while we gaze in tentianity. Every constitutional desire would run out, in the unchecked spontaneity of its own movements. The law of heaven would furnish no counteraction to the impulses and tendencies of nature. And tell us, in these circumstances, when the re-milk of human kindness, may never be adstraint of religion was thus lifted off, and all verted to with one single sentiment of venethe passions let out to take their own tu- ration, or on one single purpose of obemultuous and independent career-tell us, dience; while he who gave him his gentler if, though amid the uproar of the licentious nature, who clothed him in all its adornand vindictive propensities, there did gleam ments, and in virtue of whose appointment forth at times some of the finer and the it is, that, instead of an odious and a revoltlovelier sympathies of nature-tell us, if ing monster, he is the much loved child of this would at all affect the state of that sensibility, may be utterly disowned by world as a state of enmity against God; him. In a word, it is to go around among where his will was reduced to an element all that Humanity has to offer in the shape of utter insignificancy; where the voice of of fair and amiable, and engaging, and to their rightful master fell powerless on the prove how deeply Humanity has revolted consciences of a listless and alienated fa- against that Being who has done so much mily; where humour, and interest, and to beautify and to exalt her. It is to prove propensity at one time selfish, and at an- that the carnal mind, under all its varied other social--took their alternate sway over complexions of harshness, or of delicacy, is those hearts from which there was excluded enmity against God. It is to prove that all effectual sense of an overruling God. If he let nature be as rich as she may in moral be unheeded and disowned by the creatures accomplishments, and let the most favoured whom he has formed, can it be said to alle-of her sons realize upon his own person the viate the deformity of their rebellion, that they, at times, experience the impulse of some amiable feeling which he hath implanted, or at times hold out some beauteousness of aspect which he hath shed over them? Shall the value of the multitude of the gifts release them from their loyalty to the giver; and when nature puts herself into the attitude of indifference or hostility against him, now is it that the graces and the accomplishments of nature can be plead in mitigation of her antipathy to him, who invested nature with all her graces, and upholds her in the display of all her accomplishments?

The way, then, to assert the depravity of

finest and the fullest assemblage of them-should he, at the moment of leaving this theatre of display, and bursting loose from the framework of mortality, stand in the presence of his judge, and have the question put to him, What hast thou done unto me? This man of constitutional virtue, with all the salutations he got upon earth, and all the reverence that he has left behind him, may, naked and defenceless, before him who sitteth on the throne, be left without a plea and without an argument.

God's controversy with our species, is not, that the glow of honour or of humanity is never felt among them. It is, that none of them understandeth, and none of

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