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a friend, or which has no other object than the promotion of his worldly interest and present gratification.

Finally, let us learn who has been our truest Friend, to whom we have been most indebted. Think often of Him who has laboured the most for your welfare; who has most watched over your soul, and prayed the most effectually for you. Think of Him who now liveth to make intercession for you. That Friend is Christ. Accustom yourself to consider him in this character. Confide, then, in his love; commit yourself to his care; and humbly follow him withersoever he leadeth you. He will conduct you at length to the seat of true and perfect love, of never failing friendship.

SERMON XVIII.

ON THE MOTIVES TO CHRISTIAN

OBEDIENCE.

Romans xii. 1.

I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God

THERE are several motives which may influence the mind to obey and serve God; and these are distinguished from each other by their purity and excellence, and by the force with which they operate.

I. The first of these is, fear of the Divine punish

ments.

When we reflect on the tremendous effects of the anger of God, on the nature of eternal punishment, on the worm that never dieth, and the fire that is never quenched; when we consider how strongly, how frequently, and with what solemnity, eternal woe is denounced against impenitent transgressors, we are astonished that men are not absolutely overwhelmed with terror lest they should be condemned at the tribunal of God; yet, in fact, it is rarely that we percieve

this fear operating in a very extensive degree. Loose and unfounded views of the mercy of God often prevent his terrors from affecting the mind. Every tan flatters himself that his own case is not so peculiarly atrocious as to warrant a punishment so dreadful. At present he feels no particular suffering in consequence of the justice of God; and the vengeance which is threatened hereafter is remote and perhaps uncertain. Hence the fear of punishment is seldom a powerful restraint from sin. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”

There are cases, indeed, in which the terrors of the Lord operate with their due force. When conscience is roused from its insensibility; when the Spirit of God sets before the soul the denunciations of Divine wrath; when the imagination pictures to itself the horrors of eternal condemnation; when the understanding admits the probability, and is convinced of the justice, of the threatened punishment-at such times terror produces the most powerful effects: it enforces the severest penances; it bends the knee in constant supplication: it sometimes depresses the mind to the abyss of despair, or even drives it to distraction. "Thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind." "When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for sin, thou makest his beauty to consume away, like as it were a moth fretting a garment." "My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long: (for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me:) my moisture was turned into the drought of summer.

There are particular constitutions on which terror is especially calculated to operate. There are peculiar states of mind in which the heart is more than commonly alive to these emotions. There are sins so gross and aggravated that the most hardened heart cannot reflect on them without anguish and dismay. Yet fear is an imperfect principle. It does not purify the mind-it may consist with the greatest love of sin. It may pre

vent the commission of crimes from no higher principle than that of self-love. The heart resumes its original bias when alarm and danger have passed away. However useful therefore, in its proper place, and to a limited extent, the fear of Divine punishment may be, it is not that motive which has the greatest efficacy in subduing sin.

II. Regard to our own interest is another motive to Christian obedience. Though less violent and powerful in its effects, it is more general and prevalent than the motive of terror; and though the importance and utility of it is not to be disputed, it must, in common with fear, be admitted to be an imperfect principle of action. There are few who have not even a deep sense of the misery and evils of sin, and of the temporal and eternal advantages of righteousness. Most men have learned these lessons from their own experience; and all have seen the gall and bitterness of sin in the lives of others. A very slight acquaintance with the world is enough to prove the confusion which sin produces in society; the ruin to which it exposes families: the loss of reputation which follows it; the anguish of mind and remorse by which it is succeeded, and which are only the just forebodings of miseries more dreadful, and of an irretrievable destruction hereafter. On the other hand, the most inattentive observer cannot fail to perceive the respect which even bad men pay to the character of the righteous; the peace of mind which he enjoys; the useful and important station which he acquires in his own social circle; his resources in the deepest gloom and wretchedness; the hopes of eternal happiness which cheer his heart; and the tranquillity with which he anticipates the dissolution of his body. "Let me," said Balaam, "die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." And doubtless this observation of the blessings which attend a life of righteousness has influenced many to renounce their sinful courses, and to live a sober, righteous, and godly life. I am so fully persuaded that this is among those

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habitual motives which the Spirit of God suggests for our growth in holiness, and I feel so strongly our need of every help in running the arduous race set before us, that I would not without great tenderness and jealousy, venture, in the slightest degree, to derogate from the importance of this principle. I fear lest I, or any of the ministers of Christ, should thus deprive our hearers of a motive of great efficacy, and unexceptionable in itself, without substituting one still more powerful in its place. Yet with this caution I must be allowed to observe, that this principle is not so pure in its origin as that which is to produce holiness ought to be: it is closely allied to mere selfishness; it does not sufficiently refer to the glory of God, and to the real intrinsic excellence of holiness. In its influence, also, it is comparatively weak: it will scarcely withstand a powerful temptation, or enable us to decline immediate indulgence, and submit to painful self-denial. It does not lead to high Christian attainments: it is content to keep just within the pale of safety. It does not induce us to be fearless of unjust reproach: it leaves us disposed to compromise with the world, to dread the charge of enthusiasm, and to reduce religion to that moderate and easy profession which requires no exertion, incurs no risk, and demands no sacrifice or selfdenial. Without any higher motive, we should be satisfied to prevent distress of conscience, without aspiring to higher degrees of virtue. This alone cannot elevate the soul to any lofty undertakings, nor inspire it with benevolent zeal, nor prompt it to honourable

exertions.

III. The third motive to Christian obedience which I shall notice, is the sense of duty: in which we recognize a higher and purer principle of action. Happy is that man who acts habitually from a conscientious determination to obey the will of God-who will not be influenced by any sensual or worldly object to deviate from the path which conscience enjoins him to pursue. Without this high and stediast sense of duty there can

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