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comes useless, or positively mischievous. When their natural union is preserved, the love of God and the love of man invigorate each other. Glory to God on high, and peace and good will to men, were united together in the song of the angels, and ought ever to be in the hearts of men.

SERMON XV.

CONNECTION OF MORALITY AND RELIGION.

HEBREWS, x. 38.

"Now the just shall live by faith.”

IN a former discourse, my brethren, I endeavoured to show the superior importance of the moral and social virtues, over those religious exercises, or devout meditations, which are unconnected with the immediate intercourse of man with man. I first showed, that as the leading characteristic of the divine nature is beneficence, no employment can possibly be so pleasing to the Deity as an endeavour to promote the good of his creatures; and that the noblest proof of a heart attached to his service, is the humble imitation of his greatest attribute. But farther, if there were any doubt upon this subject, when considered as a general question, there can be none when it is applied to the particular condition of man. What exercises of religion, or what devotion can man show, which are not rather a detraction from the majesty of God, than a tribute of praise worthy of his acceptance? and what greater evidence of the divine condescension, than that he permits himself to be addressed or contemplated by a creature so

weak and erroneous? Yet, in the condition of man, how many opportunities are there for the highest display of every social virtue? What noble exertions of patriotism, of love, of friendship, of generosity, and of justice, may be exhibited amid the passing scenes of mortal life? and what theatre can we imagine so admirably adapted as this world, for supplying these virtues with every opportunity of action?

When these truths, my brethren, impress a mind instructed in religious principles, they will guide its exertions in the best course; they will lead its devotion into the channel of beneficence; they will prevent it from giving way to any thing dark and superstitious in religion, and will supply it with a constant source of activity, of cheerfulness, and of honour. There is, however, an erroneous view of this subject, which, finding a ready assent from the vanity of the human heart, frequently leads men into much vice and misery, while it flatters them with the delusive prospect of virtue and happi

ness.

This is the supposition that virtue may exist inde. pendently of religion; that the thoughts of God and of futurity rather interrupt than promote the active exer. tions of man; and that no principle can have so strong an influence on a generous mind, as the love of virtue for its own sake. The bosoms of the young are peculiarly alive to this splendid representation of human nature. The stories of ancient heroism seem to attest its truth; and when we look back with admiration and reverence to those illustrious characters which shed a glory over the darkness of heathen times, we are sometimes disposed to undervalue that light of immortality

which the gospel ushered into the world. We turn our eyes from the pages which record the history of saints and martyrs, to those more dazzling narratives which relate the actions of patriots and sages; and, captivated with the splendour of human virtue in its natural and unassisted form, we are sometimes apt to treat the pretensions to divine illumination as fanaticism and folly.

It thus not unfrequently happens, that the young are betrayed, by the love of virtue itself, into a contempt for those principles from which virtue receives its best support; and the melancholy consequence too often is, that when, in the progress of life, the enthusiasm of morality subsides, the mind, having no steady foundation on which to build, is delivered over to the sway of every accidental passion. It is, therefore, my brethren, of importance to consider that great religious truth, that the true foundation of virtue is faith; that it is " by faith the just shall live;" and we shall thus perceive the error of those opinions which represent morality as something detached from religion.

"Faith (according to the definition of the apostle to the Hebrews) is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Consider, then, first, morality in its lowest form; as merely a collection of rules for the prudent conduct of life; as requiring no high exertions of virtue, but recommending only a general habit of inoffensiveness and humanity, proper attention to our worldly concerns, and a temperate use of the enjoyments of life: perhaps it may not appear obvious, that even this lower degree of morality, when it is perseveringly adhered to as a principle of action, has its foundation in a species of religious faith. It has

its foundation in a calm and attentive survey of the plan of Providence; in recognizing this plan to be good; and in believing, notwithstanding many contradictory appearances, that virtue is the infallible road to happiness. The rewards, indeed, at which it aims, are merely temporal; yet they are of a higher order than are commonly sought after by the world. They are not the glitter of affluence, nor the vanity of power; but they are the solid comforts of a mind at peace with mankind and with itself. To perceive the superior excellence of such rewards to the common objects of human estimation, the eye of faith is in fact required; that eye which looks beyond appearances; which, amid the glare of vulgar delusion, can trace the finer form of real good, and can descry, with an intuitive assurance, future compensation to be the consequence of present forbearance. This lowest species of virtue, when it is a steady and regular principle of conduct, rests, therefore, upon a kind of observation and belief, which, if not exactly religion, might yet, without much difficulty, be improved into that principle.

But, secondly, when we reflect on some of the higher characteristics of virtue, characteristics which, to the honour of human nature, are to be traced in all the various aspects of society, and in every age of the world, on what principle do we suppose are they founded? What do we imagine was the secret spring of those heroic exertions which we contemplate with so much admiration in the history of antiquity? What was the

firm foundation on which they rested?

Were they de

rived from the declamations of the schools concerning the chief good, from glowing pictures of the beauty of

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