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EPISTLE to the Romans, Chap. xii. Verse

1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye prefent your bodies a living faerifice, boly, acceptable unto God, which is your rea

fonable fervice.

2. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

3. For I fay, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himSelf more highly than he ought to think; but to think foberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

4. For as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the fame office:

5. So we being many, are one body in Chrift, and every one members one of another.

M

The MORAL REFLECTION.

AN is compounded of a body and a foul: that cafts him on the fame level with the vileft infect; this places him but one degree below the angels. We stand indebted to God's goodness for both that he framed out of pre-existent matter; this he created of nothing. We are therefore God's, in the most strict sense of property: he is our Maker, our Lord, our Alpha and Omega, our Beginning and End. Thefe prerogatives intitle God to every action of man; and if we dispose of them in favour of any creature, we are guilty of theft and facrilege. St. Paul therefore, with reafon, exhorts the Romans to discharge this debt; to devote to God's service every motion of the body, every act of the

foul,

foul. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye prefent your bodies a living facrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable fervice. And at the fame time he points at the manner how this facrifice must be made, that it may become pleafing to God, and advantageous to ourselves.

First, it must be a living facrifice. We must not maffacre our bodies, as the Jews did their sheep and oxen, on the altar, much lefs muft we imitate the folly of thofe deceived Chriftians mentioned by St. Austin, who, taking the words of our Saviour in too literal a fenfe, laid violent hands upon themfelves, and fo outraged the laws of nature, under pretence of keeping up to thofe of the gofpel, and died felones de fe, out of a fond defire of expiring martyrs. We muft indeed throw up our lives, when we cannot prolong them without a crime: but no circumftance can justify felf-murder. The meaning of the apoftle therefore is, that we must mortify our bodies, but not burthen them; we must leave them ftrength to discharge the functions of nature, but (if poffible) not enough to run away with reafon: we muft diet them into obedience, and keep under our vile paffions, by the severity of fobriety and difcipline: we must not only refufe them the fatisfaction of thofe pleasures that are un lawful, but fometimes of thofe that are permitted: for, tho' it be no fin to grant nature what is lawful, it is a virtue to deny it; and it is more eafy to keep it within compafs, when we tie it up fhort, than when we let loose the whole line of duty.

Secondly, The facrifice muft not only be living, but also holy. When we practise virtue, our confcience muft ftand clear of mortal fin. This is a requifite fo effential, that without it the most darling virtues are adulterate, and of no value in the fight of God; they are, in the apostle's phrafe, mere founding brass, and a tinkling cymbal, bright

without

without, and rufty within. In fine, they are all fhew, all furface, without value, without folidity. Tho' a finner makes over all his eftate to the poor, and throws his body into the flames, if he has not charity, it is all nothing. If his foul be stained with fin, and stripp'd of grace, he may indeed be admired and praised by men, (who judge of things as they appear, not as they are) but will never purchase one grain of glory in heaven.

I would have thofe Chriftians paufe a moment upon this great truth, who fleep whole years in fin, with fuch an unconcernednefs, that one would fancy they had forfeited not only reason, but even fenfe, with their innocence for befides a thousand dangers of perishing eternally, that hover about them every moment, they fpend their time without profit, and labour without hope of a reward; they acquit themselves of the publick duties of religion; they frequent the church, affift the poor, and protect the orphan: yet thefe offerings are fo far from flying up to God, in the odour of fweetnefs, that they turn his ftomach, to come near the fcripture phrase. If therefore we have the misfortune to fall into God's disfavour, let us by an unfeigned repentance close the breach immediately fuffer not a moment to pass between the fall and the rifing again. Whilft we are at variance with God, we cannot be true to our own intereft: for, in fine, tho' we undergo the mortifications of the most fevere reclufe, we fhall be at all the expence of virtue without purchafing it; we fhall bear the fatigue and reap no benefit: for God rewards only the labours of his friends, not the actions of his enemies.

Thirdly, Our obedience must be reasonable; conformable to the ftrict dictates of well guided reason: for whatever thought or action fwerves from this rule, is defective; and confequently cannot be virtuous. Hence, in the practice of moral virtues, you

muft

must keep a mean; extremes are vicious: measure your charities not by fancy, but prudence. You muft confider your own abilities in the diftribution of alms, as well as your neighbour's neceffity, and not impoverish your own family, to fupply the wants of another; you must neither overcharge nature with excess, nor let it pine away with indifcreet abstinence. Not to allow it enough, is no less criminal, than to overlay it with abundance. Screw not up religion to fuperftition, nor let it run into libertinifm. You may fin againft faith, by believing too much, as well as by believing too little; and misconstrue Christian morality by a too rigid feverity, no less than by a too remifs indulgence.

"Be not conform'd to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is not a counfel, but a precept, laid on all mankind by Chrift himself, whilft he conversed with us. Love not the world. And the knowledge and practice of it is of fuch importance, that St. Paul inculcates it in almost every chapter of his epiftles. We muft model our actions by the maxims of Chrift, if we intend to be faved, and fquare our conduct by the pattern he has fet before us: now, white is not at greater variance with black, nor heat with cold, nor hell with heaven, than the principles of Chrift with thofe of the world.

to

Our Saviour commands us, not only to pardon our enemies, but to love them, to return favours for affronts, and good for evil; to be humble in the highest station, and content in the loweft; rate afflictions above profperity, and pain above pleasure in fine, to fave our foul we must hate it, and war upon ourselves, to be in amity with God.

Now, the world fteers by another compafs: it encourages revenge, and brands meeknefs with infamy and reproach; rage and refentment are dei

fied;

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fied; blood, murder, and barbarity are canonized, and heroes and outlaws undistinguished. Pride goes for greatness in its dialect, humility for meanness and who dares not charge through thick and thin, through all the laws of justice, good nature and humanity, to preferments, is voted low-fpirited, a man without honour, without generosity; in fine, it claps good names on ill things, and ill on good, to bring Chriftian virtues into contempt, and Pagan vices into esteem. We must therefore be transformed in the renewing of our mind, that is, we must renounce all the corrupt principles of the world, and take up those of Jefus Chrift, and fhew by our practice we are difabused. If we follow the world, we fhall certainly meet with difappointment here, and with flames hereafter.

But if we intend to go on in a constant and steady courfe of virtue, we muft lay a deep foundation of faith this is the primum mobile of our actions; it awakes our fear, and raises our hopes. Whofoever believes firmly a good life will be rewarded, and a bad one punished, will hardly fling up his pretenfions to future glory, for a fleeting criminal pleasure in hand, much lefs for hell in reverfion : but, if he wavers, he will scarce baulk appetite, and forego prefent fatisfaction for a faint expectation of the future.

Learn therefore why you believe, as well as what, and owe not all your religion to your nurse or parents. But obferve, St. Paul lays down this caution; For I fay, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himfelf more highly than he ought to think, but to think foberly, according as God has dealt to every man the meafure of faith. We must be wife, but not overconceited of our wifdom; for a pretenfion to knowledge, that is above us, is downright folly.

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