Page images
PDF
EPUB

so by little sins, as well as by trivial acts of virtue, we may form a judgment of the heart. Hence the widow's two mites appeared a considerable oblation in the eyes of Christ, who judged by them, how rich an offering the same woman would have made, had she been possessed of the means. For the same reason, those frequent exclamations, in which the name of God is taken in vain, those poignant railleries, and those frivolous lies, which are produced in comsinon conversation, discover the true disposition of those persons, who, without insult or temptation, ean violate the sacred laws of piety and love. The isainel seeds produce fruit more or less perfect, acrootding to the sterility or luxuriance of the soil in which they are sown. Thus the very same principle of malice which leads a child to torment an insect, acts more forcibly upon the heart of a slanderous woman, whose highest joy consists in mangling the reputation of a neighbour; nor is the cruel tyrant actuated by a different principle, who finds a barbarous pleasure in persecuting the righteous, and shedding the blood of the innocent.

If prejudice will not allow these observations to be just, reason declares the contrary. The very same action that, in certain cases, would be esteemed a failing, becomes, in some circumstances, an offence; and in others, an enormous crime. For instance....If I despise an inferior, I commit a fault ; if the offended party is my equal, my fault rises in magnitude; if lie is my superior, it is greater still: if he is a respectable magistrate...a beneficent prince.....if that prince is my sovereign Lord, whose lenity I have experienced after repeated acts of rebellion: who has heaped upon me many kindnesses; who means to bestow upon me still greater favours: and if after all, I have been led to deny and oppose him, my crime is undoubtedly aggravated, by all these circumstances, to an extraordinary degree. But, if this offended benefactor is Lord of Lords and

[ocr errors]

King of Kings....the Creator of man....the Monarch of Angels....the Ancient of days, before whom the majesty of all the monarchs upon earth disappears, as the lustre of a thousand stars is eclipsed by the presence of the sun....if this glorious Being has given his beloved Son to suffer infamy and death, in or der to procure for me eternal life and celestial glory....my crime must then be aggravated in proportion to my own meanness, the greatness of benefits received, and the dignity of my exalted Benefactor. But our imagination is bewildered, when we attempt to scan the enormity, which these accumu lated circumstances add to those acts of rebellion, denominated sins.

[ocr errors]

They, who are not working out their “salvation with fear and trembling," must necessarily live in the practice of some constitutional sin; and this selfindulgence, however secret it may be, will not suf fer them to perceive the demerit of their daily transgressions. An old debauchee, whose chief delight has been in seducing women, or an infamous murderer, who has shed human blood like water, may as easily conceive the horror that adultery and murder excite in virtuous souls.

Before we can form a rational judgment of sin and the punishment it deserves, it becomes us to entertain just ideas of moral order; to mark the obligation laid upon the supreme legislator to maintain that order by wholesome laws, and to discover, in some degree, the sanctity, the excellence and the extent of those absolute commands. It is necessary to understand the dependance of the creature upon the Creator; since the image formed by the presence of an object before a mirror, is not more dependant upon that object, than all orders of created beings depend upon the Creator: if he withdraws his protecting hand, they are no more; if he stretches out the arm of his vengeance, they are plunged, at once, into an abyss of misery. We must reflect

all the various obligations, under which we lie to the Almighty, as Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, and Comforter. We must consider those examples of his vengeful justice, which he has placed before our eyes, on purpose to awaken our fears: together with the unmerited favours, by which he has constantly sought to engage our greatful affection. It becoines us likewise, to observe the vanity of all those appearances, by which we are allured into sin: and lastly, it is necessary to remember, that God wili Bring ng every work into judgment, with every secret g. While we pay not a proper attention to every one of these circumstances, we must necessafily form an imperfect judgment concerning the na-. ture of sin, the severity with which God has determined to punish it, and the greatness of that expiatory sacrifice, by virtue of which his justice and his mercy unite in pardoning the penitent.

thing.

When the law of God is wilfully transgressed, it is ridiculous in any man to attempt the justification of himself, by pleading that he has committed no enormous crimes; or that, if ever he has been guilty of any such offences, his good actions have always been sufficient to counterbalance their demerit. Frivolous excuses! Is not one treasonable act sufficient to mark the traitor? Is not that soldier punished as a deserter, who flies his colours but a single time? And does not a woman forfeit her honour by one moment of weakness?

Though we grant there are some sins of a peculiarly attrocious kind; yet as murder will always appear, before an earthly tribunal, according to its horrible nature, so sin will ever be considered as such before an infinitely holy God. If a man accused of having wilfully poisoned a fellow-creature, would address his judge in terms like these ;....The charge brought against me is just but let it be considered, that the person I have destroyed was only an infant.... that he was the child of a common beggar...and that

this is the only murder I have committed through the whole of my life. On the other hand, I have been a constant benefactor to the poor; and surely a thousand acts of charity will abundantly outweigh one little dose of arsenic. No'; the Judge would answer; when you prolonged the life of the indigent by your alms, you merely performed a duty, which is universally required of every worthy citizen, and the law allows you nothing on this account. But if you have given the smallest dose of poison to any human creature, with an intent to destroy his life, the law pronounces you a murderer, and will punish you as such.

,

[ocr errors]

After our first parents had offended by eating the forbidden fruit, they had but vainly excused them selves, in saying: We have gathered only that, which appeared to be of little worth....we have tasted it but once....moreover, our labour in the garden is of much greater value than the fruit we have taken. Lord! condemn us not to death for so inconsiderable' an offence."' Such, however, are the frivolous excuses with which every blinded moralist contents his seared conscience, and with which he hopes to Satisfy his omiscient Judge. When St. Paul was one of this class, he practised upon himself the same delusions. Capable only of natural sentiments, the hidden truths of a spiritual law were not only in comprehensible, but vain and foolish things in his estination. This we learn from the following past sage in his epistle to he Romans: "I was alive with out the law once," paying little attention to the spil ituality of its precepts, or the severity of its threats enings, and indulging no suspicion either of my corruption, or my condemnation. But when the com mandment came," in its spiritual energy, "sin reVived," assuming an appearance suited to its infert al nature, “and," received a sentence of death in myself, "I died. I had not" then "known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust," which is the

source of every evil, and first cause of our condemnation, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet."bos

Every sincere christian, in imitation of this Aposthe, maywith propriety say; there are various sins, which I had never seen as such, but by the light of the Gospel; for example, I had lived in security with respect to abusing the faculty of speech, and hatl never known the Almighty's intention of judging me upon that article, if Christ himself had not openly declared; • Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment: for by thy words thou shalt be justifed and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." If those, who trust in their own righteousness, would seriously examine themselves by the twofold law of Moses and of Christ, they would form a new judg ment of their spiritual circumstances, and pass, with St. Paul, from the state of the pharisee, into that of abe publican..

Further....sins of omission, as well as those of commission, are sufficient to draw upon us the maledictions of the law, which equally commands us to do good and to abstain from evil. Offences of this nature are seldom regarded as sins, by the generality of mankind and hence, they are wholly unalarmed at the recollection of them. To lack diligence in our duties, moderation in our joys, attention in our prayers, and zeal in our devotions; to live without gratitude toward our divine bene. factor, without resignation under losses, patience in affliction, confidence in God during times of danger, and content in the state to which he has called us; to want humility toward our superiors, courtesy toward our equals, affability toward our inferiors, meekness toward those who displease us, faithfulness to our word, strict truth in our conversation, or charity in the judgment we form of others *All these are things that never disturb the re

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »