MEDITATION XVIII.

XVIII.

MATT. xix. 17.

If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

MED. IF thou wilt enter into life!—Who, blessed Lord! but must ardently desire to enter into life? Who can have continually before his eyes a prospect of that spiritual, heavenly life, which is "hid with Christ in God," without at the same time having a "desire and a longing to enter into the courts of "the Lord, and whose heart and "flesh do not cry out for the living

* Col. iii. 3.

"God *?"-The means of grace being MED. plentifully supplied in the subjects of XVIII. the preceding meditations, I am now looking in myself, and in those who have accompanied me; for the fruits of our holy contemplation, the fruits of the Spirit. This is the true order of spiritual renovation; and we might as well attempt to reverse the seasons of the year, to look for the blushing fruit of autumn in the early bud, as to expect the perfection of Christian principles in the first elements of Christian instruction, Yet both are necessary to fulfil the will of Divine Providence, in the natural, as in the spiritual, world. The value of the tree is known by its fruit; if therefore it be wholly destituie of produce, or if it bear bad fruit, in either case, the command of the master is justified, "Cut it down, why cum"bereth it the ground †?"

MED.

We are not now ignorant of what the XVIII. Lord our God requires of us, as the best, and only testimony of a true faith. "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the "commandments." Obedience is now demanded:-not a partial obedience which may allow the indulgence of a private sin, not a sudden flash of repentance, or a warm submission in that point in which we imagine ourselves to have offended; but a general, implicit, undissembled obedience to the whole will of God. Keep the commandments. What! all the commandments!

Yes; do you find any exceptions in the promulgation of the law? There is no distinction in the value of sins. For though there may be a difference in the damage occasioned by sin, with respect to its effects, there can be none with respect to the motive. "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders”—It is upon this principle that punishments are decreed both under moral and civil dispensations. The offence is punished

because it is wilful: because it is in- MED. tended; the mind is consenting, and XVIII. the powers of the body are called forth to support the intention. Under our blessed Lord's interpretation of the law of the Gospel, the intention constitutes the offence; and so far as this is made known by some overt act, it is punishable by human justice. This is strictly equitable and reasonable under every consideration. This reflection therefore will explain the observation of St. James, which some less rigid moralists have thought required a modification. "He who offends in one point is guilty " of all." The Apostlé indeed himself gives the reason, which the offender is always ready to overlook-" for he that "said, Do not commit adultery, said "also do not kill. Now, if thou com"mit no adultery, yet if thou kill, "thou art become a transgressor of the "law*." To none is this argument so

* James ii. 10, 11.

MED. cogent, as to those who are suffering XVIII. punishment for one offence:—lay thy

hand upon thy heart, prisoner! and say, whether thou art not virtually guilty of more." Thine own mouth "condemneth thee, and not I: yea, "thine own lips testify against thee *."

To the law and to the testimony I now appeal, and earnestly direct thy continued meditation. On a table of stone were the Ten Commandments originally inscribed by the finger of God himself. They were delivered with an awful solemnity by the hand of a prophet; and were sanctioned by the express declaration of Him, who came to fulfil, in his own person, both all that was delivered in the law, and all that was spoken by the prophets.

"God spake all these words."-What an awful sanction have we here! implying the importance of the declaration;

* Job xv. 6.