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be moved from his paths.

Let us commit our fouls in well-doing unto Him, who having Himfelf fuffered, being tempted, is able to fuccour them that are tempted: and has promised that, whatever temptation may come upon us, it fhall not in any cafe be irrefiftible; but that grace, if we pray for it from the heart, fhall ever be fupplied in a measure adequate to enable us to sustain the trial.

Finally what if prejudice had fo firmly fastened itself upon the minds of the Grecians, that the Apoftles had not found it practical to clear themselves from suspicion? They would have committed themselves in well-doing unto the Lord. Has a cafe arisen in which you, though suspected without cause, are unable to remove the imputation? Feel not the trial too acutely. Confider whether by fome other proceeding you may not have partly expofed yourself to the prefent charge. Confider whether you have not been allowed to escape fufpicion, when you have actually deferved it. Confider that, when we accurately know our own intentions, we yet are not always attentive to minute circumstances in our proceedings; and that it is on minute circumftances that fufpicions frequently are grounded, At any

rate,

rate, learn patience. Let patience work ex

perience, and experience hope. clearing shall affuredly come.

The time of

Caft thy burthen upon the Lord, and He fhall fuftain thee. He shall never fuffer the righteous to be moved. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgement as the noonday. Reft in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him (q). How eafily can His providence, working by means apparently the most incidental, bring forward and establish your vindication, beyond yourexpectations, beyond your hope, in oppofition to every appearance of probability! If in his wisdom He shall leave you without an earthly vindication, He will clear you at the appointed time before affembled men and angels. Look forward to the blaze of joy which will break in upon you, when the cloud fhall at once be diffipated, diffipated for ever; and be cheered under your prefent darkness. The fruits which are now advancing to maturity under the fhade fhall glow throughout eternity in, the Paradife of God.

(4) Psalm xxxvii. 6. lv. 22.

SER.

SERMON XIX.

ON DOING EVIL to PRODUCE Goon.

RÓм. iii. 8.

Some affirm that we say, "Let us do Evil that Good may come :" whofe Damnation is just.

PERHAPS there is scarcely any precept of

Scripture which has to encounter more of fecret oppofition, than the prohibition to do evil that good may come. The oppofition to it is not always fecret. To the system of general expediency, a system of which the most prominent and the most alluring charactereftics are the permiffion of the breach of every moral rule in cases of fufficient magnitude, and the authority vested in every man to judge of the fufficiency for himself; this prohibition ftands in direct hoftility. From that system therefore it cannot look for obedience or for acquiefcence. The

force

force of the prohibition must be explained away; or the fyftem must fall to the ground. We are accordingly informed, on behalf of that fyftem, that "the maxim which is in every man's mouth, not to do evil that good

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may come," is "in moft men's without "meaning:" that its import is, "let us not "violate a general rule for the sake of any particular good confequence we may expect." The prohibition, thus modified, (for in found reasoning it equally extends to fuppofed general confequences,) is stated to be" for the most part a falutary caution, the advantage feldom compenfating for the vio

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lation of the rule (a)." This is the fcanty deference experienced by a fcriptural precept; a precept of fuch importance, that the apostle pronounces the imputation of teaching at contrary doctrine to be a flander against the ministers of the gospel, and the authors of the calumny to be obnoxious to just and aweful condemnation !

This is the love of God, not that we fufpend or abrogate, but that we heep His commandments (b). This is our wisdom, not to speculate whether it might not be in certain cafes advantageous to set aside His plain injunc

(a) Paley's Moral Philosophy, 4to. 1785. p. 71.

(b) I John, v. 3.

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tions and prohibitions, but to obferve His statutes to keep and to do them. So fhall we be a wife and understanding people (c). When a fcriptural direction is restrained to special circumstances, or is otherwife limited by the words or the tenor of another paffage in the facred volume; the restriction and the limitation are from God, and we are authorised and required to act in conformity with them.. They are in fact explanatory parts of the direction itself. But to prefume by our own theoretical reafonings, unfupported by the Scriptures, to fupercede the obligation of a divine precept, is to fet up ourselves against God. It is to affume His fceptre. It is to introduce and to vindicate univerfal disobedience. It is to fubvert the foundations of Christian Morality.

The language, by which men delude themfelves and others into quietude of conscience under the open practice of doing evil on the plea of thus producing good, is not unfrequently of the following defcription. "If man"kind were in general difpofed to act with "that strictness of principle, the universal "adoption of which would on every ac"count be highly defirable; no relaxa"tion in ourselves individually would be

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