No. XLVI.

SAINTS THE TEMPLE OF GOD.

"What agreement hath the Temple of God with idols? for ye are the Temple of the living God." 2 Cor. vi. 16. We are accustomed to look abroad with deep anxiety on the condition of an immense number of our fellow men, given up to all the deceptions and abominations of heathenism. We read and hear much of their desperate practice, of their strange austerities and penances, of their miserable apprehensions, of their dissolute lives, and we are grieved at the recitalour spirits are stirred within us when we see the nations wholly given to idolatry. There is something singularly appalling in the moral aspect of a mighty multitude under the unchecked control of delusion; and when we think of the millions scattered over the face of this beautiful world, who are abandoned to gross and brutalizing superstitions, our hearts sink within us, and we are ready to give our prompt and effective aid to every effort for their deliverance. It is well that we thus feel, but there are scenes nearer home which may claim, on the same grounds, our grief for the errors of our fellow-men. There are multitudes around us, in the broad day of Christian light, with all the terrors of God's anger to affright them from the track of danger, and with all the attractions of his love inviting them to the path of holiness and life, who remain without God in the world, become vain in their imaginations, and, though warned of their guilt and misery, persist in their cherished idolatries. And, to touch a still more vital interest, we may

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look within, and ask of our own consciences, whether we have no reigning corruptions, no idols of depraved affection, no chambers of imagery within us, where the god of this world holds his unhallowed seat? We shall do well to try our own selves by the severest tests-to carry forward the closest examination of our motives and habits, seeing that there is no plague more subtle and destructive, no evil more prevalent, than the idolatry of the heart. Nothing can relieve us from this deeply seated self-delusion, nothing can eradicate this root of bitterness, but the power of God. To rely on human means for deliverance, is but to perpetuate the deception. Since human frailty has set up in the heart a shrine for idolatrous sacrifice, there must be a higher wisdom and a superior power to effect its purification. The altar of lust and pride must be destroyed and the idols thrown down-the sanctifying work of grace be carried on and perfected, and a new temple be consecrated to the God of the everlasting covenant. Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. What agreement, then-might the apostle well ask-hath the temple of God with idols?

We shall endeavour to improve the words of our text,

I. By illustrating the character of believers as the temples of the living God.

II. By enforcing the duty resulting from that glorious distinction.

I. Let us attend to this important characteristic of believers

Ye are the temples of the living God. When the apostle made use of this striking similitude, he must have had in his mind certain points of resemblance between the essential character of a temple, and that of a Christian in his relation to the living and true God-The imaginary sanctity of the first was to be paralleled by the holy devotion and enlightened spirituality of the latter the hymns, the incense, the offering of the consecrated edifice, were faint emblems of the praise, the pious aspirations, the self-sacrifice of the worshipper of - Jehovah. And he must have designed no less strongly to indicate certain points of contrast between "the purple fanes of superstition," and the living temple of the believer's heart. Pride, tyranny, and avarice, were the actuating principles of the priests who presided over the sacrifices, and dictated the lying oracles of the heathen. Rapacity, lust, or slavish fear were the motives which impelled the suppliants to the shrine of vanity and delusion. The spirit of Christian worship is in direct opposition to all this. It is in strict alliance with the wisdom which descendeth from above; it is pure from selfish or sensual ends; it refuses to mingle with the spirit of the world; it disenthrals from the entanglements of appetite, and the captivity of sin; it communes with no unknown God, but with our heavenly Father; and it burns up on the altar of divine love, every unsanctified affection, every wandering desire. But, in more distinct illustration of the charac ter of believers, as the temples of the living God, we shall briefly advert to a few considerations connected with this expressive similitude. And, first, a temple is a place consecrated and set apart for divine worship; where prayer and intercession, and sacrifice are wont to be made. Here the resemblance is strong. The heart

of the believer is a place of prayer, where the sacrifice of the affections is offered up, and whence the fervent pleading of the contrite spirit is continually ascending to a throne of grace. The Christian is emphatically a worshipper, and his whole body, soul, and spirit are presented a living sacrifice to God. But, secondly, a temple is supposed to be distinguished by the peculiar presence and power of the deity in whose honour it was erected. The structures of Pagan superstition were, in the imagination of their frequenters, privileged with the inhabitation of their respective divinities, who spake in mysterious murmurs from the dark recesses of their shrines, or delivered by the lips of the priest, the oracles of Olympus. The temple of Jehovah amid his chosen people was, in reality, honoured with the presence of the Divine glory; the Shechinah rested on the mercy seat, and filled with its symbolic brightness, the most holy place. And, in like manner, the Christian is blessed with the glorious and sanctifying indwelling of the Holy Spirit; he is the consecrated abode of the divine being, and nothing that is unholy and impure can find a residence in his heart, while the "Great Inhabitant" is there. Thirdly, the temples of Paganism were guarded from violation by dreadful penalties. The vengeance of the deity was believed to await the wretch who infringed the privileges or insulted the sanctity of the sacred precinct ; and lest this imaginary guardianship should fail of intimidation, the secular arm was ready to interpose its more effectual protection. That divine jealousy which the priests of heathenism feigned to surround their shrines as with an awful spell, fenced the temple of Jerusalem and its hallowed ritual with real terrors: to touch the ark was death-to offer strange incense was visited by an equal

penalty—and the invasion, even by a monarch, of the priestly office, was resented by a severe and lasting infliction. Nor can the living temple be with impunity profaned: the admission of unholy passions-the admixture of impure motives-the outbreakings of lust and pride and vanityimpair the sanctity of the place, and dim the brightness of those manifestations which are the evidences of Jehovah's presence and favour. Nor can external insult be safely offered. The enemies of God's people, rush upon the thick bosses of His buckler which is interposed to shield his own from essential injury. He will not hold guiltless, the persecutor nor the calumniator of his children.

From these peculiar features of the Christian character, we may, II. Infer certain duties resulting from them, and corresponding with them.

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First-it is the duty of the believer, in this high character of the temple of the Lord, to keep constantly in mind its privileges and purposes. He is set apart for the honour and worship of God: he is sanctified and consecrated as the residence of the Divine Spirit. Hence it is his high and happy distinction to possess the favour of Jehovah-to realize communion with him in all his characters of mercy and revelation — and the hope of a more entire enjoyment of these privileges hereafter. And these blessings are for specific ends and purposes. The believer is thus the temple of God, that he may be to His glory-that he may serve him day and night-that the sweet incense of gratitude and love may continually ascend-and that men, taking knowledge of the holiness, wisdom, and consistency of his obedience and service, may be attracted, by his example, to the same great object of adoration. Who that has had these things once in view, can

ever permit himself to lose sight of them, and to prefer a vain and glittering share of this world's good, to the solid and enduring felicities of the eternal stateAlas! such is the weakness of our nature, and so closely are we linked to earthly things, that we too often have to complain of languor and heaviness when engaged in our reasonable service, while in the cultivation of meaner interests we are awake and active. Let it be a subject of continued watchfulness and prayer, that we may be wise and diligent in the cultivation of our graces, and that we may be enabled to present our bodies a living sacrifice to God. Secondly, it is the duty of the believer, as the Temple of God, to live and act under an habitual feeling of the Divine Presence. This is the peculiar character of a temple, and, as we have already intimated, gave to the sacred structures of Paganism, all their sanctity in the public mind. But, as in the building which was raised without the sound of hammer or axe, it is only in the heart of the believer that the saving presence of God resides. It is in the consciousness of that peculiar manifestation that he will have his very being, and guide his steps, and order his conversation. will refer to this, as the High Priest of old to the Urim and Thummim, for his perpetual guidance; he will act under the abiding sense of this awful and sanctifying residence, and this mysterious in-dwelling of Jehovah will establish him in strong faith, ardent love, and spiritual life. And this leads us, thirdly, to enforce the duty of the Christian to preserve inviolate the sanctity of the living Temple. Where He who is fearful in holiness, deigns to inhabit, sin cannot find an abiding place, and the right feeling of this truth will lead the believer to cleanse himself from all

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filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. Let gainsayers and false brethren say what they will, sanctification is the great Gospel-work, and abhorrence of sin, as that which God hateth, the Christian's special privilege. Let us guard it then as we would our life;-let us exercise a holy jealousy over our own hearts, and, distrusting our own efforts, conscious of our own helplessness, let us look to that grace which is all and alone sufficient for the power both to will and to do.

What agreement then hath the Temple of God with idols? Brethren, let us make separation between our interests and those of a perishing world between our prospects and those of a secular spirit-between our hopes, and those of the men of time. All around us are infatuated with the world's idolatries. "Man wor

ships man"-he worships the idols of his imagination, his senses, his carnalized affections-he refuses worship to God alone! Let us not accustom ourselves to think lightly of these things-Let us flee from the contagion around us, and make a throne of grace our refuge. Nor let us forget the misery of our fellow-men, but by all the means and instruments assigned to us, seek to awaken them from their sleep of death; to direct them to the fountain of life; to urge them into the way of peace. May a spirit of prayer be poured out upon the church for the necessities of mankind; and may our Heavenly Father be pleased to hasten on the blessed day when every knee shall bow and every heart shall turn, and every voice shall rise, to Him, as to the "King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only, the wise God"— the author and giver of salvation.

ON RECTITUDE OF CONDUCT. EVERY one who is at all acquainted with modern literature, must have perceived the anxiety with which many writers have laboured to detach morality from the principles of religion. The light essayist, and the grave philosopher, aim at the same object, though their genius prompts them to employ different means to attain it. Bayle, that subtle and sophistical sceptic, has hazarded the bold assertion, "that a nation of athiests might live very virtuously and happily." A position so extravagant and mischievous can be maintained only by setting at defiance all reasoning and all experience.

Where shall we find the infidel's code of morals? What are its grounds, rules, and sanctions? "A man," says Helvetius, "born in a desert isle, and abandoned to

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himself, would remain without vice and without virtue. then must we understand by the words virtuous and vicious, but actions either useful or injurious to the public." "Since," observes Raynal, another writer of the same school," society should be useful to all its members, they ought every one in return to be useful to society: so to be virtuous is to be useful, and to be vicious is to be useless or hurtful: behold the sum of morality." With these French sages, it is well known David Hume, and others of our own countrymen, agree.

Many of the ancient pagans had far more definite and correct ideas on this interesting subject. Cicero affirms, that by superseding the obligation of religions, the greatest disorder and confusion would ensue in human life: and "to

gether with piety, mutual fidelity, and the social ties, which bind mankind one to another, and that most excellent virtue, justice, would be banished out of the world."*

It requires but little penetration to detect the shallowness and inadequacy of those ethical systems which have no hold of the conscience; and without the belief of a superintending Providence and a future judgment, conscience is necessarily paralysed and deprived of all its active power. He who neither honours nor fears God, can with no reason be expected to serve and regard man. The moral theory of an athiest is a baseless fabric; that of the pagan rests on loose and precarious grounds; but the foundations of christian morality are obvious, definite, solid, and immutable. "Could we," observes Mr. Locke, "gather moral sayings from all the sages of the world, sufficient to make an entire body of the law of nature, (which in fact cannot be done,) this would not amount to a steady rule. Did the saying of Aristippus or Confucius give it authority? Was Zeno a lawgiver to mankind? All their dictates must go for law, certain and true, or none of them." But they contradicted themselves, and one another; and what then is to be done? The bulk of the human race, involved in business and care, have neither leisure nor ability to examine the reasonings and researches, or to sift the maxims and rules of philosophers. "It is at least," adds Mr. Locke, "a surer and shorter way to the apprehensions of the mass of mankind, that one manifestly sent from God, and coming with a visible authority from him, should, as a king and law-maker, tell them their duties, and require their obedience." t

Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. cap. 2. Locke on the Reasonableness of Christianity.

CONG. MAG. JAN. 1824.

If a man maintain that “adultery when known is a small crime, and when unknown no crime at all;" that "the violent extinction of human life is nothing more than diverting the course of a little red fluid called blood, and merely lessening the number by one of many millions of fugitive contemptible creatures;" he may indeed never actually become a debauchee, or a murderer; but what is to hinder him? What barriers stand between him and these enormities? Considerations of expedience or utility, it will perhaps be said, of which he himself is constituted the sole judge. But I would ask, is it equally safe to trust such a man, as to confide in one, whose fixed principles recognize the guilt and odiousness of nefarious deeds, independently of their being known to the world, or their palpably pernicious influence on society?-one who, when the baits and allurements of sensuality, of avarice, or of ambition, are presented, starts back from the contact of impurity, or the commission of crime, with mingled aversion and horror, exclaiming, "How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" The case here put is too plain to require any acuteness or uncommon power of discrimination; a small portion of good sense, and good feeling, will suffice instantly to decide it.

If we advert to critical conjunctures, to times of persecution, which bring principle and character to the severest test, the justice of these observations will demonstrably appear. Let the reader of history compare the behaviour of John Huss with that of his friend Jerome of Prague, or the vacillation and temporizing policy of Archbishop Cranmer with the decision and unbending principle of his companion Latimer. The previous studies and habits of the men, account for the strikC