be vigilant," and " grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; whereby are given unto you exceeding great and precious promises, that you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

N

SERMON XVII.

ON THE DANGER OF MINOR OFFENCES.

EPHESIANS V. 6, 7.

Let no man deceive you with rain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God, on the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers of

Ir is one of the divine characteristics of the
Gospel, that while it accurately discriminates
the different shades of crime, and nicely distin-
guishes between sins of wilfulness and sins of
infirmity, it nevertheless wears a most threat-
ening aspect towards evil principle, however
cunningly it may be concealed or however splen-
didly it may be decorated.

In order to learn what "these things" are,
against which the apostle so emphatically warns
his Ephesian converts, it is necessary to look
back to the preceding part of the chapter, where
you will find enumerated a variety of vices,
which are held as almost venial by the great ma-
jority of mankind, but which are, notwithstand-

ing, there expressly stated as sufficient, collectively or singly, to exclude their possessors from "the kingdom of Christ and of God." From this declaration of an inspired, and therefore, an infallible teacher, we are induced to believe that there is a considerable difference between the standard of morality by which the world will estimate our actions now, and that by which our final Judge will pronounce on them hereafter. We do not mean to affirm that the judgment of this world is totally wrong, or that it regards with a careless indifference every grade and hue of guiltiness. Truth and falsehood, justice and iniquity, honour and dishonesty, are terms in common use among men, to which we are therefore accustomed to annex something like clear and definite ideas. They are terms, moreover, which did not originate in Christianity, because they were known and acted upon, when no lights from Christianity were revealed. We have besides, laws of society, and laws of the state, in virtue of which we not only attach a certain value to good qualities and a certain reprobation to their opposites, but are also empowered to inflict punishment on evil principles whereon they are embodied and displayed in the perpetration of crime.

But, My Friends, after all this concession to the natural and instituted good which we meet with in the world, yet there remains a sufficiency

happily prone. It is not only that they debase and enervate the body, deprive it of that health and vigour which are among the first of blessings, and which are in a great degree necessary to the powerful operations of the mind; but they contaminate and enfeeble the spirit, destroy the moral taste, the moral energy, which belong to it, and totally incapacitate it from following such pursuits as are the most kindred to its heavenly nature, and the most honourable and happy that life can offer. There are more diseases of body and of mind that can be traced from intemperance and lust, than from all other causes combined, that operate against humanity. When I attribute so large a portion of human suffering to these vices, I must be understood to allude to them in the widest sense. I allude not merely to that gluttony, drunkenness, and lust, which are grossly obvious to the eyes of all, but to that more secret but hardly less fatal indulgence of appetite and passion, which by daily, though slightly perhaps, transgressing the bounds of moderation, enfeebles the body, contaminates the mind, and wars against the soul; an indulgence, which, as it is less perceptible than open and scandalous violations of public decency, passes unnoticed by civil and social laws, and therefore stands more in need of the restraints which are imposed on every Christian by the laws and ordinances of Chris

10

tianity. If there were any physician in this assembly, he, I am sure, would corroborate my assertion, that more injury is wrought upon bodily health, by a common habit of eating and drinking a little more than nature requires for the purposes of existence, than is even occasioned by casual surfeit and excess. So is it with the mind, whose vigour and sanity is more sadly affected by the slight but habitual reservation of some favourite passion, than it would be by an occasional outrage of them all. But remember, My Friends, moreover, that when you once pass the confines of virtuous moderation, it is impossible to say, to what extent you may expatiate on the territory of vice. You cannot place an effectual bit on the mouth of intemperance, when once indulged into a habit of transgression; you cannot say to human passion when once stimulated to riot," thus far shalt thou go and no farther!" You may extirpate the vice which you cannot restrain; you may pluck out the evil eye which you cannot cure of its obliquity; you may cast off the offending limb, on which you cannot walk without stumbling.

Consider, then, My Brethren, these excitements as they are, perilous to your temporal, and fatal to your immortal welfare. Look upon them according to the scriptural representation of them, as the suggestions of human wickedness, and as the wiles of Satan; look upon them as the