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himself; he hoped in God's mercy, yet feared his juftice; and therefore he walked with caution and referve; he mingled fear with hope, and counfelled the faithful to follow his example: Work out your falvation with fear and trembling. Phil. ii. 12.

Security flings men off their guard, and lays them open to all the inroads of temptation. Dear reader, tho' your confcience appears clear, fancy not your felf already above the ftars; you have indeed good reafon to hope, and yet as great to fear. The firft will with-hold you from defpair, the fecond from prefumption, and both will awaken your care, and enliven your diligence.

Therefore judge nothing before the time. Being therefore unfit even to frame a true judgment of our felves, with what face can we ufurp the bench, and pass sentence upon others? Outward appearances are oftentimes a deceitful evidence; and yet paffion, partiality, and prejudice mifreprefent even thefe: they impofe upon our reason, and often upon our very fenfes. Befides, invincible ignorance and inadvertence may excufe feveral actions; and fo, tho' they appear in themselves blameable before men, perchance they are not finful in the fight of God. How do you know but these circumftances may abfolve thofe you peremptorily condemn? Till therefore you obtain the privilege of reading mens thoughts, and of diving to the bottom of their consciences, you must not mount the tribunal, and, if you attempt it, you tranfgrefs the laws of juftice and charity. Yet alas! tho' God forbids us to intermeddle with his prerogative, we ufurp the bench, and without fcruple pafs unjuft fentence upon our neighbour, to draw a more just condemnation upon our own temerity.

Because a lady is airy, without farther ceremony or information, we conclude fhe is light, and that fhe is void of honour, because unfurnished of devo

tion 3

tion ; but is there no mean between mirth and madnefs? between a gay deportment and prostitution? between freedom and a great crime?

Again, fomething is miffing in the family: without further examination it is voted stoln, and the theft fathered upon an innocent domeftick: but why? you must expect no reafon; the trial and condemnation ftand on a bare suspicion, on a mere caprice. However, an innocent is judged guilty, and must forfeit his reputation for a thing misplaced by madam herself. In fine, the mistake is acknowledged, and the rash sentence reverfed, but not the fin. I fay the fin; for to fix a theft upon a man without fufficient proof, is beyond all peradventure a fin, nay and mortal too, if the thing were of value; fo that, tho' the fervant be an imaginary thief, the mistress is a real one; for fhe has condemned at her tribunal, without juft evidence, a neighbour, withdrawn the good opinion fhe owed him, not as a benevolence, but a right, and strip'd him of his reputation. But you concealed your thoughts, that is, you are guilty before God of a rafh judgment, but not of detraction: but I suppose one fin deferves damnation, and tho' you might have been more wicked, you cannot plead, Not guilty. This fin is (God knows) common in practice; but custom is no warrant for a bad action; there is no prescription against God's laws; neither numbers nor quality can repeal them. Let us therefore judge no body; we are unqualified for the poft. God alone can commiffion us, and he has reserved the prerogative to himself: He that judgeth me is the Lord.

Condemn therefore no man; leave all to God's tribunal, who certainly will reward and punish. We are all criminals, and step beyond the bounds of our condition, whenever we pretend to fit as judges, unless it be upon ourselves; this is our

province,

province, this our duty. No action must pass without a cenfure; we muft fift our thoughts, fufpect our virtue; and deplore our vices; a fevere sentence upon ourselves draws down a favourable one from heaven; God declares us innocent, when we cry guilty; and abfolves us at his tribunal, when we condemn ourselves at our own.

GOSPEL of St. Luke, Chap. iii. Verse

1. Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæfar, Pontius Pilate being governour of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea, and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lyfanias the tetrarch of Abylene,

2. Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the Son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

3. And be came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptifm of repentance for the remiffion of fins;

4. As it is written in the book of the words of Efaias the prophet, faying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make bis paths ftraight.

5. Every valley fhall be filled, and every mountain and bill shall be brought low, and the crooked fhall be made ftraight, and the rough ways fhall be made Smooth;

6. And all flefb fball fee the falvation of God,

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The MORAL REFLECTION;

AINT Luke reprefents St. John leaving the folitude of the wilderness, to begin the office of fore-runner: he adds the circumftances of time, to shew he was commiffioned to promulge the Meffias's coming, just when the feventieth week, fo long be

fore

fore foretold by the prophet Daniel, began. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæfar, &c. the word of the Lord came unto John the fon of Zacharias, in the wilderness. He had paffed all his days in filence and retirement, and led the life rather of an angel, than of a man, and by a long practice had acquired all thofe virtues that make a great faint, and the qualities that fet off an able preacher. He left the wilderness as Mofes did mount Sinai, with a flaming heart and a feraphick tongue: Repent was the common theam of his difcourfe, the ufual text of his exhortations: he repeated it over all the country beyond Jordan. His province was to prepare the way of our Lord. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. And how could he better difpofe the people to receive the new law of the Meffias, and to relifh his divine precepts, than by drawing them from a lewd and fcandalous life to virtue and fobriety? for it is certain, thofe, who court this world, have no inclination to fling away their thoughts upon another. They are fo enamour'd of their prefent enjoyments, that future expectations make fmall impreffions, and a continual commerce with earth has fo nailed the foul to this world, that without violence they cannot raise it a foot above the horizon. Befides, whofoever tranfgreffes the laws of God, in his heart, wishes there were none, and certainly fuch people are not inclined to receive fevere principles of a ftrict morality; for they have no regard for virtue; they have taken another biafs, and are gone over to another intereft. Religion is not their concern, but pleasure, and an uncontrouled liberty to believe and act as paffion, intereft, and caprice moves them: for libertinifm in belief and manners are reciprocal; the one is a confequence of the other: and indeed it is almost impoffible for men, who run through a whole courfe of debauchery, to be fteady to any religion. They must

firft turn good men, before they will refolve to be faithful Chriftians.

St. John therefore could not better prepare men to receive Christ, and his divine Gofpel, than by perfuading them to forfake their fins: by this he removed the three greatest obstacles; pride, luxury, and avarice. For what probability is there, that the proud should stoop to an humble God, the luxurious to a chafte one, and the avaritious to an indigent one? Seeing therefore a fincere repentance is neceffary to receive the Meffias, and to deferve his favours; it will be an important point to confider in what it confifts.

There is a falfe repentance as well as a true one, and often the one is fo like the other, that God alone can discover the impofture. Saul feemed to pronounce, I have finned, with no lefs grief for his difobedience, than David for his adultery and homicide. Yet though the expreffion was the fame, the effect was different; for David received abfolution, and Saul the fentence of condemnation.

Some find fuch charms in one Lord have mercy on me, that they fancy this fhort ejaculation carries all before it: it difarms God's juftice, (they fuppofe) appeases his anger, and melts his heart into mercy. But if this will do, we must conclude, that all the finners in the world are either mad, or infidels, or penitent. For must not those people have thrown afide their wit, as well as grace, who will not part with one Lord have mercy on me, for the favour of God's friendship, and all thofe glorious appurtenances that accompany it? Or if you fuppofe them in their fenfes, can they believe there is a heaven to receive the penitent, and a hell to torture the obftinate, and at the fame time refufe to make fo eafy an addrefs for pardon? It is fcandalous to religion to fancy God will make peace with a traitor upon fo eafy

terms;

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