294 ,The NEW and COMPLETE LIFE of our BLESSED LORD the heart of a pious man; he is fatisfied from himfelf, and is filled with peace and joy in believing ; in the concluding fcene, the awful moment of diffolution, all is peaceful and ferene. The immortal part quits it's tenement of clay with the well - grounded hopes of afcending to happinefs and glory, without mixture, and without end. The gofpel enjoins no duty but what is fit and reafonable: it calls upon all it's profeffors to praflife reverence, fubmillion, and gratitude to God; juflice, truth, and univerfal benevolence tomen ; and tomain- tain the government of our own minds : and what has any one to obje& againf this ? From the leaf' to the greaten com- mandment of our dear Redeemer, there is not one which impartial reafon can find fault with ; his law is perfeé' ; his precepts are true, and righteous altogether. Not even thofe excepted, which require us to love our enemies, to deny ourfelvea, and to take up our crofs. To forgive an in- jury is more generous and manly than to revenge it; to control a licentious appe- tite than to indulge it ; to fuffer poverty, reproach, and even death itfelf, in the facred caufe of truthand integrity, is much wifer and better, than, by bafe com- pliances, to make fhipwreck of faith and a good confcience. Thus in a form at fea, or a conflagration on the land, a man with pleafure abandons his lumber to fecure his jewels : piety and virtue are the wifeil and moil reafonable things in the world; vice and wickednels the moil irra- tional, abfurd, and pernicious. The infinitelywife Author of our being hath fo framed our natures, and placed us in fuch _ relations, that there is nothing vicious but . what is injurious ; nothing virtuous but what is advantageous to our prefent intereft, both with refpef to body and mind. . Meeknefs and humility, pa- tience and univerfal charity, are _graces which give a joy unknown to tranfgreffors. The divine virtues of truth and equity are, the only bands of friendfhip, the only fupports of fociety. Temperance and fo- briety are the befl. prefervatives of health and ilrength; but fin and debauchery im- pair the body, confurne the fubfance, reduce to poverty, and form the 'direa path to an immature and untimely death. Now this is the chief excellencyofalt laws; and what will always render their burden pleafant and delightful is, that they enjoin nothing unbecoming or injurious ; but on the cpntrary; what is profitable, and of a falutary nature. Befirles, to render our duty ear)", we have the example, as well as the commands of the blefled Jesus. The mailers of mo- rality amongfl the Heathens gave excellent rules for the regulations ofmen's manners; but they wanted either the honeffy or the courage to try their own arguments upon themfelves. It was a ftrong pre- fumption that the yoke of the Scribes and Pharifees was grievous, when they laid heavy burdens upon men's fhoulders, which they themfelves refufed to touch with one of their fingers. Not thus our great law-giver, Jesus Cxttts-r the righ- teous ; his behaviour was, in all refpeils, conformable to his dofrine -his devotion towards God, how fublime and ardent! benevolence towards men how great and diffufive ! He was in his life ate exsa pattern of innocence ; for he did no fin, neither was guile found in his mouth. in the Son of God incarnate is exhibited the_ brighten, the faireil refemblance of the Father, that earth or heaven ever beheld; an example peculiarly perfuafive, calcu- lated to infpire refolution, and to animate us to ufe our utmof endeavours to imitate the divine pattern, the example of the author and finifher of our faith, of him who -loved us, and gave himfelf for us. Our profeflion and character as Chriflians oblige us to make this example the model of our lives. Every motive of decency, gratitude, and intereft, confrain us to tread the paths he trod before us, more efpe -- cially when we reflebl that it was marked out to us by Unerring Wifdom. Let
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=