motives, he must, almost of necessity, fall into many inconsistencies of outward conduct. He will just now perform an action which is agreeable to the divine law, and inmediately after he will perpetrate an action which is opposed to the divine law, and he will do both with equal freedom and deliberation. Nay, as in the instance under review, he will aim at the achievement of what is in itself most laudable, by means which involve criminality and guilt; and thus at the same time, and in the same overt act, he will be chargeable with obeying, and with disobeying the will of heaven. And he is betrayed into such palpable contradictions just because he is still under the dominion of ungodliness, and is consequently the sport of every passion, and the prey of every temptation, whether the doings to which these prompt him are in their own nature right or wrong. Whereas, had there been a renovation of the inner man, and had he resolved to do good under the impulse and direction of the new spirit which had acquired the ascendency in his mind, that same spirit would have prevented him from prosecuting his views in any manner which implied the commission of sin, and, indeed, would have rendered his whole character one undivided tribute of homage and obedience to the authority of God. So true is it, in the quaint language of MATHER, that "the first born of all devices to do good, is in being born again."

In the conduct of Christ we find nothing to countenance the maxim, that "the end sanctifies the means." The testimony given to him is, that "he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." And this applies to every the minutest

portion of his character, and is intended to banish even the least suspicion from our minds of his hav ing, on any occasion, or in any degree, deviated from the path of perfect purity and rectitude. Of him it is said emphatically, that he "went about doing good." This was the single object of his ambition-the sole business of his life-the "one thing," which he pursued with ceaseless diligence, and unconquerable zeal. And had it been competent for him as an ensample to his people, to promote his benevolent work by any violation of the moral law, so numerous were the opportunities, and so powerful were the temptations which he had to do this, that instances of it must have occurred in the course of

his labours. Yet it does not appear that he ever sacrificed one personal obligation, in order to confer the highest boon, or to accomplish the most generous purpose. In all things, and at all times, he was "holy, and harmless, and undefiled,"―incessantly employed in the operations of kindness, but maintaining in every one of them a strict and incorruptible integrity. Even in those few cases which look like a departure from this rule, there is nothing incompatible with "a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men." He was accused of breaking the fourth commandment, because he allowed his disciples to "pluck the ears of corn," and did himself heal" a man which had his hand withered," on the Sabbath day. But allowing to this charge all the weight which his enemies gave it, he vindicated himself by a most satisfactory and triumphant explanation of the nature and purposes of that institution, and by proving the subordination of its peculiar

sanctity to the claims of necessity and mercy. And when, in disposing of the unclean spirits, from whose domineering and outrageous influence he had compassionately delivered a poor unhappy man, he suffered them to enter into the herd of swine, so that when these animals perished in the sea, the property of their owners was destroyed,—this does not seem to have been done so much for the purpose of effectuating the cure of the demoniac, as to inflict a punishment, or to send a warning, where unbelief, and impenitence, and spiritual insensibility prevailed; and at any rate the double miracle which was thus performed, showed that Christ being "the great power of God," was entitled to deprive the Gadarenes of their possessions, if his administration required it, and able, if divine wisdom should see meet, to make ample compensation for what had been taken away. The whole strain of the Scriptures corresponds on this point with the example of Christ. Their great and uniform design is to make us holy. They therefore hold out sin, as in every form and in every degrec, at all times and in all circumstances, that which we must cordially hate and scrupulously avoid. And it would be to stultify their own declarations, and to defeat their own purpose, were they on any ground whatever to sanction the commission of it. Their righteous Author commands us expressly to do good; and it is evidently both required and expected of us, that in obeying that commandment, we should be ready to labour much, and to risk much, and to suffer much. Such sacrifices are necessary to give full proof of our charitable feelings, and full effect to our charitable exertions.

But we

never read of any thing in the way of encouragement or permission to make a sacrifice of the slightest moral obligation, even though it were essential for conferring the highest possible benefit on mankind. Indeed it is most absurd and inadmissible to suppose that He who is of "purer eyes than to behold iniquity," and whose mercy and whose justice are alike employed to prevent us from indulging in it, should yet, when he commands us to do good, leave us at liberty, or make it indispensable for us, to render sub-, mission to him in that particular, by the help of an act of rebellion against his own government. And if in any one thing more than in another, he is to be understood as demanding of us a rigid abstinence from transgression, it must be when he is enjoining us to lend our aid to our brethren, with the view of making them holy and happy as his subjects upon earth, and preparing them for the immaculate joys of his presence in heaven. Very important is the work of benevolence; and if we engage in it heartily and actively, it cannot be without its fruits in the well-being of those in whose behalf it is carried on, and without its recompense to us who are faithful to perform it. But surely this recompense cannot belong to what implies in it an act of known and wilful disobedience to Him by whom it is to be bestowed; and these fruits can never depend for their production upon resistance to that will which "ruleth over all," and which forbids us " to do evil," as expressly as it commands us to "do good." The Supreme Being, according to those delineations of his character, and those enactments of his authority, which are set before us in the Bible, is too holy to sanction any

to man.

delinquency, for any purpose, or in any case; and he is too wise to stand in need of such a mode of cherishing the sympathy, and securing the assistance of man The first thing which he exacts from us is, that we be personally pure and virtuous, and thus resemble himself with whom "there is no unrighteousness" at all. This is our primary and paramount concern as responsible agents. And it must never be lost sight of, whether we be tempted by the hope of aggrandizing ourselves, or allured by the prospect of helping our brethren. It is recorded of Job, that he reproved his friends because they "spoke wickedly and deceitfully for God;"* and if it was wrong to act thus for the divine glory, it must be at least equally wrong to do it for the sake of human advantage. The Psalmist describes a good man as keeping his oath, even though he had sworn to his own hurt;† and surely if you are bound to keep your oath, at the expense of your own interests, I am not entitled to break mine, that I may advance the interests of my neighbour or my friend. when certain persons had represented the Apostle Paul and his fellow Christians as saying, "Let us do evil that good may come," he not only spurned away the allegation from him as a foul slander, but entered his solemn protest against the principle imputed to him, applied though it might be to the display of God's perfections in the justification of sinners, declared all who held and acted upon it to be condemned, and pronounced their "condemnation to be just."

And

*Job xiii. 7.

+ Psalm xv. 4.

Rom. iii. 8.