vast for their perceptions. What is removed beyond the utmost stretch of the understanding, they prize beyond measure, because it is hid in darkness. Thus they think doctrines important in proportion as they are obscure. What is easy and simple they depreciate, what is difficult they extol; what is obvious they neglect, and where the wayfaring man would not err they are lost in an endless maze. Too little is it considered that points of uncertain speculation cannot be of so great importance, or they would not have been so ambiguously expressed; that God would not have

left

any doctrine essential to salvation liable to such strange diversity of opinion, that the most conscientious christians have entertained sentiments the most opposite on conviction of their importance and their truth. But forgetting this, and making imagination, rather than the word of God their guide, or substituting human creeds, for the simplicity that there is in Christ; they labour to explore the labyrinth, or to traverse the clouds of mystery, whilst they lose sight of truths, which are pure as they are plain, and which come home to the interests and to the bosoms of all mankind. Observe how different was the conduct of Jesus Christ.

H

In the sermon which he delivered on the mount, no one dark or doubtful doctrine is started.

The whole

is one lovely system of practical religion. The doc trines are simple as they are sublime, and the precepts as plain as they are holy.

PART V.

WORKS NOT MERITORIOUS.

1. THE obligations of mankind to the practice of virtue, are immutable and eternal. They necessarily arise from the nature of things; and are without consideration of reward. The recompense of obedience therefore should be regarded, not as the foundation of our obligations, but as the motives and encouragements to fulfil them. The faithful discharge of our duty entitles to approbation and favour; but if any thing further than this is promised or conferred on the good man, it must be considered as a reward of grace, and not of debt; as the free gift of divine beneficence, but not as the ground of just desert.

2. This doctrine is supposed in Luke xvii. 10. and though originally applicable to the attendance, which

was due from the apostles of Christ to their Lord and master, it equally refers to that obedience which every man, as a rational being, owes to his Maker. We are all unprofitable servants. We have done only that which was our duty to do, is the proper language of humility and of truth, is the proper language of every creature to his great Creator. After the most perfect services we can perform, we have done nothing that can merit the rewards of immortality, nothing but what was our duty, if no such rewards had been promised.

3. The servant, though he performs whatever his master commands him, and discharges his whole duty with fidelity and despatch, is still entitled to no extraordinary reward, nor has claim to peculiar privileges: for whatever he does by order of his master, is no more than his duty, the assiduous and cheerful performance of which, may be allowed to merit his master's approbation, may give him an undoubted right to the wages for which he has contracted, and the benefits that belong to his service. But beyond this the master is not bound in strict justice to confer reward. Thus it is with us as christians. Being the

servants of God, we are bound by that relation to perform the service he requires of us; and having done this, we ought not to overrate our services, or to imagine them entitled to any uncommon recompense. We ought humbly to acknowledge, that we have done no more, than our condition as his servants demands from us.

4. This our Saviour instructs us to consider as our own case, even upon the supposition of a constant and complete obedience. How much more then since our obedience is so defective, and since our best services are allayed with so many imperfections.

5. Strictly speaking there can be nothing meritorious in the best services we perform, because our goodness extendeth not unto God, and can in no sense be beneficial to him. Merit implies benefits conferred by the agent on others, from whom he is supposed to merit. The servants of men, by their diligence and honesty have power to promote their masters' interest, and in this view may hold some claim on their kindness and affection. But the servants of God can only by their obedience do good to themselves, and promote their own happiness. Though like the Sav