What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? What agreement hath God with idols? Repent therefore of this thy wickednefs; and pray to God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee (h). The commiffion of idolatry entered not into the imagination of Naaman or Elisha. The office which Naaman held in his own country required that at certain feasons he should attend his master to the temple of the Syrian deity Rimmon. On thofe occafions the king leaned upon Naaman. This apparently trifling circumftance, is recorded, we prefume, as an explanation of the whole tranfaction. How could the king bow down before his God, unless Naaman, on whom he leaned, fhould bend himself forward alfo? But when Naaman had discontinued his former facrifice to Rimmon and to every other idol; when he publickly profeffed another faith, the exclufive belief of another God; when he publickly offered up his facrifices to Jehovah on the altar constructed with the foil, which he had openly brought for that especial purpofe from the land of Ifrael: was it poffible that the act of his bending forward merely in avowed accommodation to his mafter, who

(h) A&s, viii. 21, 22. 2 Cor. vi. 14-16.

leaned

leaned upon him, could be deemed an act of homage to Rimmon, a participation in the crime of idolatry? Naaman, however was not without apprehenfions that it might not be lawful on any account, and under any circumftances, to adopt in the temple of an idol a posture fimilar to that, which others employed as a sign of reverence. And while he expreffed his hopes that the proceeding which he had described would not be offenfive to God; he expreffed them with enquiring folicitude, and with evident tokens of deference to the prophet's expected deter

mination.

Whatfoever, faith the apostle, is not of faith, whatsoever is performed without a full perfuafion of its lawfulness, is fin (i). . If you are duly folicitous to preserve a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man; you will turn an inquifitive eye on your general conduct, and especially on those parts of your proceedings which may bear the appearance of evil. The felf-righteous feel no fcruples: the careless examine none. The former have no diffidence; the latter no

fpirit of investigation. But the man of the truly Chriftian temper is the man who feareth always: the man who, because he

(i) Rom. xiv. 23.

feareth

feareth always, in the word of God is pronounced happy (j): the man who, because he feareth always the corruption of his own heart and the deceitfulness of fin, fcrutinifes his motives, his tempers, his actions, his objects; is fufpicious of being biaffed in his judgement of right and wrong by prepoffeftions, by inclination, by cuftom, by interest, by a defire to please men, by erroneous expectations of forwarding the glory of God and being forwarned by the remembrance of past incautiousness, of past mistakes, of paft tranfgreffions, proceeds not with careless precipitation, decides not according to first appearances, but ftrictly examines his purposes on every fide, weighs them in the balance of the fanctuary, measures them by the ftandard of righteousness, notes every defect, every aberration; and changes his plans and defifts from his undertakings, when he can no longer lay his hand on his bofom, and affirm according to the complete import of the apoftolical injunction ; "In my mind, O Lord, I am fully perfuaded "of their rectitude (k)." Such, in proportion to the degree of knowledge, attained by a convert juft emerging from idolatry, was the spirit of Naaman. Thou, who haft

) Prov. xxviii. 14.

(k) Rom. xiv. 5.

been

been nursed

But the children

up from thy cradle in the arms of Christianity! Is not fuch thy fpirit? Then fhall this Syrian rife up in the day of judgement, and fhall condemn thee. They shall come from the Eaft and from the Weft, and from the North and from the South, and fall fit down in the kingdom of God. of the kingdom shall be caft into outer darknefs (1). There are those, faith the Scripture, whose consciences are evil (m). There are thofe, whose consciences are defiled (n). There are those, whose consciences are feared with a bot iron (o). What is the first step towards a confcience that is evil, a confcience that is defiled, a confcience that is feared? A carelefs confcience. If through faith in Chrift thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments (p). If thou wilt keep the commandments, exercife thyfelf to have always a confcience void of offence (q). Exercise thy conscience in a scrupulous investigation of duty; train it to a quick perception and a lively abhorrence of guilt; if thou wouldeft walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless (r).

() Matt. viii. 11. (n) Tit. i. 15. (9) Acts, xxiv. 16.

1

SERMON XII.

On habitual Remembrance of God.

PSALM xvi. 8.

I have fet the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right Hand, I shall not be moved.

SUCCESS is not the reward of inconstant

aims and defultory efforts. When the mind is divided, we lofe fight of our object. When exertion is interrupted, we recede from it. It is the part of wisdom to felect from the various objects presented to her choice that which is the moft worthy of regard; to hold it stedfastly in view; to cherish the impreffion of its excellence; to facrifice to it all inferior gratifications; to pursue it with firmness, with ardour, with unabating perfever

ance.

In