derating influence. Its concern respecting moral actions is limited to such as are useful in fashionable intercourse: and is particularly bestowed on those which have somewhat of splendor, commonly of false splendor, in their exterior appearance.

Custom is the general guide of those persons who give little thought to the investigation of principles, and take their moral opinions upon trust from others.

On the claim of each or of all of these standards of right and wrong to determine the judgement and direct the conduct, it is sufficient to say, that no one of them is the scriptural standard. They all depart from the law and the testimony. They speak not according to this word: therefore there is no light in them.

Let us now advert to their effects.

I. One effect will be this: the morality produced will be uncertain and variable.

What consistency, what stability, can be expected in the morals, which are deduced from expediency? Wise men, be it admitted, sitting tranquil in their closets, and coolly viewing life and its temptations at a distance, may logically derive from the principle of expediency many moral rules analogous to injunctions

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injunctions of Holy Writ. But when these wise men are brought forward into the tumult of business; when they are not to speculate, but to feel; when they are to decide, not for others, but for themselves: will they always retain their views of expediency unaltered? Will they always prefer their former conclusions to their present impressions? And what will be the case with the multitude which is less wise? Every man is distinctly informed that, with espect to every moral precept, and on every occasion of applying it, he is to judge for himself whether expediency will be most promoted by obeying or by disregarding it. Losing sight, and he must widely differ from the great mass of the followers of expediency if he will not practically lose sight, of ultimate tendencies to general happiness in present tendencies to his own private interest or personal indulgence; judging under the immediate influence of wishes or of fears; deciding in the very moment of temptation: is this the man whose morality shall be consistent? His accommodating principle of morals will continually bend or be bent to circumstances. What he desires will recommend itself as expedient. What he dislikes will wear the aspect of tendencies ultimately unfavour

His

unfavourable to general happiness. moral proceedings will resemble the wanderings of a ship without ballast, driven by the wind and tossed.

What steadiness is to be expected in morals which depend on human estimation? How changeable is popular opinion, not merely on light occurrences of the day, but on political subjects and other grave topics, to which much reflection had been devoted! A kindred fluctuation will be manifest, and from history and experience it is manifest, in moral sentiments. Among persons who look to human estimation, to the tone of opinion prevalent in the higher circles, as a moral guide, there will be fashions in morals. At one time one moral virtue will advance a step in repute. Then it will lose ground; and another, favoured by the tide of circumstances, will take the lead. To these causes of unsteadiness in the morality built upon honour the following consideration is to be subjoined. This morality lives upon cha

racter.

In proportion as it is withdrawn from public observation, it languishes. In proportion as men, who act on the principle of honour, foresee a probability that their conduct in a particular instance will not. become known in those ranks of society, for

whose

whose countenance they are solicitous, the hold which their principle has upon them is weakened. According to the vicissitudes of such probabilities their morality will vary.

What solidity can we anticipate in morality resting upon custom? As little as in custom itself. In men whose moral opinions borrow their hue from the complexion of those which prevail in the neighbourhood ; consistency in moral reasoning, when upon special occasions they are roused to a little reasoning on topics of this description, is not to be found. The subject is new to them. It possesses no attraction in their eyes. A more intelligent and more welcome guide is at hand. "I do not wish to perplex

myself with metaphysics. I shall indulge no absurd scruples. I do not profess to be "better than others. I am not ashamed of keeping to the road in which the re

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spectable people around me are walking.” Such, when interpreted into words, are the thoughts of the followers of custom. How can their morality, sustained by no knowledge, invigorated by no habits of investigation, wandering with the wanderings of the crowd, be other than inconstant and uncertain ?

From

From a survey of the variable morality produced by these false principles of morals, these blind guides leading the blind in perpetual aberrations, turn to the morality of the Scriptures. Behold it firm, consistent, immutable: not committing its precepts to the jurisdiction of man, and investing him with a dispensing power to suspend or to abrogate them at his discretion; but commanding him universally to be faithful in obeying them, and to leave consequences with God: not subjecting its mandates and prohibitions to the sanction of human estimation, nor to the controul of human practice; but requiring the implicit observance of them all, as being all stamped with the same seal of authority which the Decalogue bears on its front-God spake all these words!

II. Another effect of the erroneous principles under examination is, that the morality produced is low in degree.

How can elevated morality result from expediency? The most powerful allurement which that principle possesses, is its accommodating nature. The favourite service on which it is employed is to loosen the bands of rigid precepts; to obtain room for inclination to pursue its purpose without moles