rightly exercised, they would endeavour, with all their power, to divert them.

So necessary it is, that charity should be out of a pure heart! It is polluted in its very birth, unless it proceed from an honest mind: it is spurious and illegitimate, if it be not so descended.

II. The next step in this line of moral ancestry, is a GOOD CONSCIENCE: which phrase is not to be taken here in the negative sense, and as equivalent only to a pure heart; but as expressing a further, a positive degree of goodness. For so we find it explained elsewhere'; having, says St. Peter, a GOOD CONSCIENCE, that whereas they speak evil of you, as EVIL DOERS, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your GOOD CONVERSATION in Christ Jesus: for it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for WELL DOING, than for evil doing *. Whence, by a good conscience, we are autho rized to understand a mind, conscious to itself of beneficent actions. And thus the Apostle's intention will be, to insinuate to us, that, to be free from depraved affections, we must be actively virtuous; and that we must be zealous

* I Peter iii. 16.

in good works, if we would attain to that purity of heart, which is proper to beget the genuine virtue of Christian charity.

For, we may conceive of the matter, thus. A good conscience, or a mind enured to right action, is most likely, and best enabled, to shake off all corrupt partialities; and, as being intent on the strenuous exercise of its duty, in particular instances, to acquire, in the end, that tone of virtue, which strengthens, at once, and refines the affections, till they expand themselves into an universal good-will. Thus we see that, without this moral discipline, we should scarce possess, or not long retain, a pure heart; and that the heart, if pure, would yet be inert and sluggish, and unapt to entertain that prompt and ready benevolence, which true charity implies.

So that an active practical virtue, as serving both to purify and invigorate the kind affections, has deservedly a place given to it in this lineal descent of Christian love. But,

III. The Apostle rises higher yet in this genealogical scale of charity, and acquaints us that a good conscience, or a course of active positive virtue, is not properly and lawfully de

scended, unless it proceed from a FAITH UNFEIGNED, that is, a sincere undissembled belief of the Christian religion.

And the reason is plain. For there is no dependance on virtuous practice; we cannot expect that it should either be steady, or lasting, unless the principle, from which it flows, be something nobler and more efficacious, than considerations taken from the beauty, propriety, and usefulness of virtue itself. Our active powers have need to be sustained and strengthened by energies of a higher kind, than those which mere philosophy supplies. We shall neither be able to bear up against the difficulties of a good life, nor to stand out against the temptations, which an evil world is always ready to throw in our way, but by placing a firm trust on the promises of God, and by keeping our minds fixed on the glorious hopes and assurances of the Gospel. And experience may satisfy us, that practical virtue has no stability or consistency, without these supports.

Besides, considering a good conscience, or a moral practical conduct, with an eye to its influence on a pure heart, till it issue in complete charity, we cannot but see how the Christian

faith is calculated to direct its progress, and secure the great end proposed. For the whole system of our divine religion, which hath its foundation in grace; its precepts, which breathe nothing but love and amity; its doctrines, which only present to us, under different views, the transcendant goodness of God in the great work of redemption; its history, which records the most engaging instances of active benevolence; all this cannot but exceedingly inspirit our affections, and carry them out in a vigorous and uniform prosecution of the subordinate means, which are to produce that last perfection of our nature, a pure and permanent love of mankind. For at every step we cannot but see the end of the commandment, so perpetually held out to us, and derive a fresh inducement from faith, to accomplish and obtain it.

Indeed, to produce this effect, our faith, as the Apostle adds, must be UNFEIGNED: that is, it must be nourished and intimately rooted in the heart; we must not only yield a general assent to the sacred truths of our religion, we must embrace them with earnestness and zeal, we must rely upon them with an unshaken confidence and resolution. But all this will be no difficulty to those who derive their faith

from its proper source, that is, who make a diligent study of the holy scriptures: where only we learn what the true faith (which will ever be most friendly to virtue) is; and whence we shall best derive those motives and considerations, which are proper to excite and fortify this principle in us.

And thus, that Charity, which a pure mind gives the liberty of exerting, and which a good conscience manifests and at the same time im

proves, will, further, be so sublimed and perfected by the influence of divine faith, as will render it the sovereign guide of life, and the pride and ornament of humanity.

Or, to place the descent of Charity, in its true and natural order, it must spring, first, from an unfeigned faith in the Gospel of Jesus: that faith must then produce, and shew itself in, a good conscience: and that conscience must be thoroughly purged from all selfish and disorderly affections; whence, lastly, the celestial offspring of Charity has its birth, and comes forth in all the purity and integrity of its nature.

FROM THIS lineage of Christian Charity, thus deduced, many instructive lessons may be