This instance, then, among a thousand others, may serve to convince us, how dangerous it would be to allow the smallest latitude in the terms and measures of obedience; and how necessary it is for those, who are the appointed guardians of EVANGELICAL TRUTH, to watch over it with unremitted vigilance; and on no account to lower the sublime tone of Gospel-morality, in order to make it speak a softer language, and accommodate it to the fanciful conceits and corrupt casuistry of worldly wisdom. Men may undoubtedly act by whatever rule they please; but the rule by which they will be judged is that of the Gospel; and all that we can do is to lay it plainly and fairly before them, and warn them loudly of the danger of following any other guide. They may fancy, if they will, that improved and elevated minds are above vulgar restraints; that what is vice in a low station, by ascending into a superior region, leaves its dregs behind, and is sublimated into virtue; that dissimulation, though a base coin, is a necessary one*; and that the grossest * A heathen moralist was, however, it seems, of a different opinion. Ex omni vita simulatio & dissimulatio toilenda est. Cic. de Off. 1. iii. c. 15. irregularities, when they help to embellish our manners, are not vices of the heart, but little infirmities of youth, which are sure to meet with indulgence here, and impunity hereafter. If men of ingenuity choose to amuse themselves with such imaginations as these; and if others think it prudent to take them for their guide rather than God, they must do it at their own peril. But they who pretend to any principle, or any religion, will do well to remember, that He who has the sole right of regulating our conduct, and who alone can inform us on what terms he will receive or reject us for ever, He has prescribed to us a very different course of behaviour. He requires from us, not merely the appearance, but the reality; not the "form only, but the power of godliness." He holds out the same rule of life to high and low, to rich and poor: "He regardeth not the persons of men men;" and, if he has given any one human being "a license to sin," let that license be produced. He commands us not to conform to a corrupt world, not to flatter and dissemble, in order to please and deceive 66 all mankind, but "IN SIMPLICITY AND have our con What some call pardonable infirmities, He calls vices of the heart; and plainly tells us that they defile the man. † And, to cut off all hopes of indulgence to any favourite sin, even though surrounded with a constellation of virtues, he declares, that "whosoever shall keep the "whole law, and yet offend in one point, "he is guilty of all." *2 Cor. i. 12. + Matt. xv. 18. SERMON XVII. LUKE IV. 17, 18, 19, 20. AND THERE WAS DELIVERED UNTO HIM THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ESAIAS. AND WHEN HE HAD OPENED THE BOOK, HE FOUND THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS WRITTEN, THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE НЕ HATH ANOINTED ME ΤΟ PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR; HE HATH SENT ME TO HEAL THE BROKENHEARTED, TO PREACH DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERING OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET AT LIBERTY THEM THAT ARE BRUISED, TO PREACH THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD. AND HE CLOSED THE BOOK, AND HE GAVE IT AGAIN TO THE MINISTER, AND SAT DOWN. AND THE EYES OF ALL THEM THAT WERE IN THE SYNAGOGUE WERE FASTENED ON HIM. IN this manner did our gracious Redeemer open his divine commission; with a dignity and a tenderness, both of language and |