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MORA L

REFLECTIONS

ON

SELECT PASSAGES

OF THE

NEW TESTAMENT.

EPISTLE to the Romans, Chap. xiii. Verfe

11. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of fleep; for now is our falvation nearer than when we believ'd.

12. The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore caft off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

13. Let us walk boneftly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, nor in chambering and wantonnefs, not in ftrife and envying.

14. But put ye on the Lord Jefus Christ, and make not provifion for the flesh, to fulfill the lufts thereof.

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The MORAL REFLECTION.

HE apostle, in this chapter to the new converted Romans, runs through the fundamental points of chriftian morality; obedience to princes, charity to our neighbour; and then he lays down a catalogue of thofe things they must avoid, and of those they must practise, if they intend to fquare their lives by the faving precepts of their profeflion; and he affures them, the holiness of their manners must answer the fanctity of their belief; that they muft abjure the falfe maxims of paganifm together with the religion; and practise what Chrift commanded, as well as believe what he revealed.

Now it is high time (O Romans) to awake out of fleep (that is) to fhake off that fatal lethargy, that has laid you in a trance, fince the foundation of your empire. You must reverse those lewd principles, ignorance framed, and paganifm brought into reputation and credit: For now is our falvation nearer, than when we believed. For fince the Son of God has fanctified the world by his life, and ranfomed it by his death; our falvation is nearer, than when we believed he would come, and reinftate us in those pretenfions to heaven, which our first parents difobedience forfeited.

Caft off therefore the works of darkness: Thofe corrupt maxims and worfe practices of your pagan ancestors; and fhew you are chriftians by living up to your profeffion. First, deteft those brutalities nature condemns and idolatry canonizes; for though they are worshipp'd in your temples, they will be punish'd in hell. And when you are clear of vice, employ all your care to acquire thofe virtues Chrift

taught

taught by his practice, and commands in his gospel : Put on our Lord Jefus Chrift.

This advice of the apoftle's is no less proper for the eighteenth than the firft age of christianity. We are no lefs carelefs in the bufinefs of our falvation than they: We live, as if we hoped no future reward for a good life, nor feared any after-reckoning for a bad one. We copy their vices, and even outdo the originals: but then no foot-steps of their virtues are vifible in our conduct. So that our crimes are without any allay, as well as without precedent.. The profpect of any temporal advantage keeps us awake; it rouzes our care, and puts all our fpirits in a ferment. We lofe the enjoyment of what we poffefs, to enter upon the poffeffion of what we defire. We weary our felves in the purfuit, and importune others: the new flufh'd game runs away with our thoughts and our fatisfaction: it puts us on the rack, and conjures up the paffions of hope and fear, to torment us. In fine, one would think mens fouls were no lefs mortal than those of beasts; their thoughts fix fo naturally on matter: as if their whole concern lay in this world, and that they had no intereft in the other.

Talk to them of the other world, they understand not the language: they are as great ftrangers to the dialect, as Jofeph was to that of the Egyptians. One would take them for men dropp'd from the fphere of the moon, or lately come from the wilds of America; without inftruction, and almost without reafon. Intent upon the present, they spend not one serious thought upon the concerns of the future. As if they difbelieved such a state, or that an eternal happinets or mifery were either infallible, or impoffible.

This being too literally true, dear christian, give me leave to tell you, with St. Paul; it is high time to rife from this fleep of infenfibility, and to

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lay to heart a matter that fo nearly concerns you. What! To believe a hell, and to live as if there were no fuch place of torments! To confefs there is a heaven, and to act as if it were only fable and romance! Is it not ftupendous in theory, though too vifibly true in practice? Bid adieu to this fatal indolence, and take up a refolution worthy of your profeffion. You are not in the fad circumftances of fo many infidels, who, having but a very imperfect view of the other world, confine their fear and hope to this.

Nor do we believe, with the Jews, that God will fend us a Meffias to unlock heaven gates, and to plain the way by his law and example. Our falvation is nearer than when we believed. Those ages of expectation are paft. God has fulfilled his promife, and Chrift the office of Redeemer: his religion ftretches as wide as the inhabited world. He has drawn out a lively fcheme of the other world he gives us a fair profpect of heaven, and a frightful landscape of hell. He has difcovered the vanity of temporal things, and the real value of those that are eternal. In fine, he has chalk'd out the way to blifs in his gofpel, and plained it by his example. So that as the knowledge of our duty and of our reward is more distinct, than that of the ancients, and the means more proper, our negligence is lefs pardonable, and confequently more criminal.

Seeing the night of ignorance is paft, and the day of knowledge, fo long promifed, and fo paffionately longed for, is come, let us take leave of all thofe fhameful actions that fly the fun, and feek a cover in darkness and obfcurity; that ftrike us with horror, though not with averfion, and force us to blufh, though not to repent.

Put on the armour of light; practise virtue. It is the child of light, that is, of grace and faith. It

fears

fears not day, and scorns darkness. It dreads not witnefs. Good men dare own it; and even bad men efteem it. It ftands the teft of criticism, and pleads for a reward at God's tribunal. Let us walk honeftly as in the day. Our actions must be fuch, as neither fear company, nor cenfure: fuch as we not only dare confide to the privacy of a friend, but expofe to the view of an enemy; fuch as a criminal may ftand to at the bar, and act in the face of the court. For God will be judge, as he is witness, of your behaviour. He reads your thoughts, and furveys your actions. And as he will certainly reward your virtues, he will as infallibly punish your vices.

And therefore, as children of light, fcorn to give up your reafon to appetite, and to place your happiness in the felicity of beasts: eat and drink, to fuftain nature, not to pamper it; to preferve life, not to destroy it. Neceffity requires little nothing fatiates gluttony and intemperance. Seeing we cannot be difpenfed from thefe actions of beafts, let us at least do them like men with moderation. To fling away eftates upon cooks and vintners, is to fell heaven for wine and ragoos, as Efau did his birth-right for a mefs of pottage.

As the apoftle commands fobriety, fo he does chastity, and forbids feverely all thofe acts that crofs upon this angelical virtue. Although God by the mouth of his prophets has thundred out a thousand curfes against this deteftable fin; although he has drowned once the world, together with its impure inhabitants, and confumed five cities with fire and brimftone, and threatens the luxurious with everlafting flames; yet, in fpite of preaching and punifhment, it dares appear, though not without shame, yet without remorfe, and even almoft without reproof, in Chriftendom. From the city, it has made a progress into the country, and infects the B 3

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