shine before men, that they may see our good

works?

Certainly but go on with the text. For what reason are they to see our good works? Is it not that they may glorify our Father, which is in heaven? Now if you do your good works in such a way, as to glorify yourself, rather than your Father, which is in heaven; you certainly do not let your light shine before men, in the way which the scriptures enjoin.

The precise meaning of the text seems to be this. If your good works happen to be seen, let your heart refer them to God, who enables you to do them; that he may be glorified through you his unworthy instrument. If you set yourself up as the doer of good works, you endeavour to get the praise from God, who professes himself to be the author of all good, and whom you ought always to glorify.

It is the heart then chiefly which you must regard. If you be a benevolent man, your good works must often, of course, be done before men: and you may often have occasion to consult a friend on the propriety of a charitable action : only be assured, that it is performed on a true religious principle; and with as little ostentation as possible; and all is right.

Having thus examined what our Saviour means by sounding a trumpet; I shall now explain the subsequent sentence, they have their reward.

The reward, which is promised to them who do not sound a trumpet before men, but perform their religious duties merely to please that God, who seeth in secret, is found in various parts of scripture.

On the other hand, they who do sound their trumpet before men, are not to go unrewarded. They too, the scripture assures us, shall have their reward. But as they laid out their goods, if I may so express it, in a worldly market, they are to expect only a worldly return. They trafficked for the praise of man. This was all they sought-and all they get.

THUS then, you see we have the option of two paymasters for our religious duties. The one offers us praise, and reputation among men, which may last for ten, or twenty, or thirty years, as it may happen.The other affords us the solid comfort of everlasting happiness.-We may take our option, which of these rewards we think it most worth our while to aspire after: and may God of his infinite mercy direct our choice, through Jesus Christ our Lord!

XXIII.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to him, must believe that he is; and that he is a rewarder of them, that diligently seek him.-Hebrews, xi. 6.

THE christian religion holds out rewards to

encourage our obedience; and threatens our disobedience with punishment.

Now the question is, how far should these rewards, and punishments, be motives of action?

The man of reason immediately informs us, that goodness derived from such motives, is not goodness at all-that it is merely the desire of happiness, and the fear of misery-and that a brute, furnished only with its natural instincts, can exert as much virtue as this. He will add perhaps, as the devil said formerly with regard to Job, that the christian does not serve God for nought: but that proper rewards are judiciously set before him, to keep his disinterested virtue from swerving.

What truth there is in all this; and how far the christian may act virtuously under the sanc

tion of rewards, let us examine. I think it will appear, that they are a proper ground for religious conduct, from our considering, first the nature of these rewards, and secondly the manner, in which they work upon us.

Had the rewards, which the christian religion places before its worshippers, been such as the Arabian impostor promised-sensual pleasure in all its full-bloom delights-the objection might have weight. The expectation of such rewards is calculated certainly to debase, not to improve the mind. But if the reward be of a holy and virtuous kind, the expectation of it, or if you please, the making it a motive of action, must be holy and virtuous likewise. Christianity, which counts the enjoyments of this world as nothing; and raises our thoughts from earth to heaven; may well be supposed to spiritualize all our ideas of future happiness. Though it does not enter into the explanation of this happiness, and tell us the specific nature of it, which it could not do without a change in our understanding; yet we know it is such happiness only as holy spirits can delight in.

Now it is the excellence of the object, that elevates the pursuit. We put youth on the acquirement of learning; and have no conception

that the attainment of knowledge, which is the reward annexed, can debase his mind. It has certainly a contrary effect. In the same manner, with regard to the rewards of another world, the very pursuit of them is health to the soul; as the attainment of them is its perfection. They are pursued through the exercise of these great principles of faith and trust in God. These virtues, which have nothing earthly about them, tend to purify the mind in a high degree. They abstract it from earthly things, and fix it on heavenly. Not having received the promises; but having seen them afar off, through trust in God, we are persuaded of them, and embrace them. The nature of these rewards we know not; but this ignorance gives a greater value, if I may so speak, to our pursuit.

We may safely conclude therefore, that as it is impossible without faith to please God, so is it impossible likewise to please him, unless we believe that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

N. B. It might also be shewn, that the fear of future punishment, is a just motive of action. To the wicked indeed it is the natural dread of those consequences, which attend guilt; and serves merely to rouse them to a sense of their wicked

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