DISCOURSE X.

ON THE DUTY OF EXAMPLE IN MATTERS OF INDIFFERENCE.

1 THESSALONIANS, CHAP. V.-VERSE 22.

Abstain from all appearance of evil.

As men are disposed to find fault with any thing rather than themselves, the clearest doctrines of divine revelation, and the purest precepts of an amiable religion, do not always escape without censure. The advice contained in the text may be thought unnecessary by some, and oppressive by others. If we obey the injunctions of the gospel, say they, if we duly discharge the substantial duties of religion and morality, worship God, love our neighbor, and reverence ourselves, what need is there of any farther care? Appearances cannot change the nature of our actions, nor deceive that wise and good Being, whose unerring judgment can distinguish the most doubtful motives, and has pronounced those acts of goodness to be most pleasing, which are most carefully concealed.

Others, who in some cases acknowlege the usefulness of the precept, may perhaps think it a cruel aggravation of a burden, which was before heavier than they were well able to bear. If we obey God and satisfy our own conscience, why must we be judged of man's judgment? If we follow the dictates of sound reason and real revelation, is it not enough, unless we pursue the numberless mazes and windings, with which human folly has perplexed the paths of religion? When we are commanded to abstain from evil, natural reason, aided by the word of God, fixes the precise meaning and extent of the injunction;

but when we are charged to abstain from the appearance of evil, we are lost in uncertainty, without any rule to distinguish what is forbidden, and what permitted. If all appearance of evil be evil, then must we regulate the standard of virtue by the mistakes of ignorance or the misconstructions of perverseness; or, because others are superstitious in religion, and unnecessarily austere in morals, we must be condemned for the want of both.

These objections, however, will disappear, if we duly consider the true nature and end of the duty recommended to our observance. It does not require us to contradict our own conscience in compliance with the sentiments of other men. Virtue is too sacred an obligation to be sacrificed to appearances; nor will the guilt of the smallest vice be atoned for by any advantages, which it may have been really designed to produce. If this could have been doubtful to the professors of any religion, it certainly cannot to those of Christianity: whatever may be the case with other men, if they do evil that good may come,' their condemnation is just. Those actions then, which evidently partake of the nature of virtue or vice, cannot be at all affected by the command of the text: whatever be the appearances or consequences, the one must be punctually performed, and the other religiously avoided. But there are actions of a more questionable shape, which some men esteem perfectly indifferent, while others, of more serious or more timid tempers, carefully separate and distinguish them, exalting these into the rank of duties, and sinking those into the catalogue of sins. Such are the performances, to which the apostle particularly directs our attention, charging us to reverence the cautious scruples of stricter Christians, and to respect even the fanciful distinctions of our weaker brethren. Nay, with whatever neglect or contempt the pride of superior abilities may sometimes prompt us to treat them; it was the latter description of men, who were the more immediate objects of the apostle's concern; as they were more likely to be shocked by a departure from received principles, or dazzled and misled by the example of an admired character.

This is the principal, and surely a sufficient cause, why those, who are not subject to such nice fears and scruples, are ad

bered, that an equal number of striking circumstances can very rarely, and may possibly never again concur to establish either the same or the opposite conclusion. The improvement in human manners, which then took place, was coincident with the rise, grew with the growth, and declined with the corruption of Christianity. It was an event, which cannot be ascribed to the intervention, or even the co-operation of any other known cause it was likewise so great, continued for so long a time, and spread so widely in so many different and distant nations, as to afford the strongest proof, that the influence of the new religion on the lives of its professors was not accidental or apparent only, but the effect of a real and very powerful tendency in favor of virtue. It can hardly be necessary to remark, that nothing equal to this, or in any degree resembling it, either has or can be adduced to fix on Christianity the contrary character.

To every fair inquirer these observations may be perfectly satisfactory. Yet, after all, the argument against religion from the vices of its professors, how solidly soever refuted, will still preserve its influence, and will always produce much greater effects than its real and intrinsic value will fairly account for. When men wish not to believe, the slightest suspicion is real and substantial evidence, the weakest objection is decisive, and the smallest difficulty is insurmountable.

The arguments of infidelity often owe their success to the influence of prepossessions, which it is much more easy to confirm than to remove. But though few men can hope by the cogency of their reasoning to add stability to their religion, yet every one may be careful at least, that its enemies derive no fresh advantages, whether of strength or opportunity, from his own voluntary misconduct and this will still be our duty, how inconclusive soever the inference may be, which it is intended to obviate; for it is prescribed with this very view, to silence, not the voice of right reason, but the ignorance of foolish men.'

The weakness, and even the wickedness of other men may change the nature of our obligations, or increase their force. Thus the scruples of weak minds require from us in the most indifferent matters a degree of circumspection and restraint,

which were otherwise unnecessary: and if the cavils also of unfair minds are made an additional inducement to dissuade us from such conduct, as will at once prove hurtful to ourselves, and appear disgraceful to our religion; we have certainly no reason of complaint, as we are enjoined the performance of nothing, to which we were not before obliged. We should rather surely consider it as a gracious condescension of divine goodness, which, in aid of the private motives of duty and interest, applies to our more generous feelings, derives our obedience to the laws of Heaven from our regard to each other, and, without adding to the number of our obligations, entrusts us with the exalted charge of promoting the glory of God and the prosperity of religion.

II. Unbelievers are not the only persons, whom our misconduct may fatally mislead. Even in professed Christians there is a cold or contemptuous neglect of public worship, and of revealed doctrines, which is often defended on the same pretence that it does not appear, that they have either of them any actual influence on the conduct of those who regard them most scrupulously. This representation is surely very remote from truth; but it is impossible to convince men by reason, who argue only from what they see, and who will see only what. they please.

Belief in the doctrines of religion, and attendance on its solemnities, have plainly a natural tendency to awaken our sense of those duties, which the Being, whom we adore, has commanded; and to quicken our pursuit of those virtues, which it is the chief and avowed end of revelation to recommend and promote. And though it must be acknowleged, that these means, however wisely adopted, partake in the imperfection of every thing relating to man, and often fail of the ends they were designed to accomplish, yet is it far from being certain, or even probable, that they do fail, either so frequently, or so considerably, as the objection supposes. Appearances of religion undoubtedly may be consistent with many vices. Enthusiasm and superstition have often ventured to palliate and cover the greatest crimes, and sometimes have even dared to enjoin them but the religion, which is approved by reason, must be the friend of virtue: it is not employed to sadden the counte

nance, and heat the imagination, but to correct and purify the heart. Such at least is the design of Christian devotion; and such have been its effects, wherever it has been suffered to possess its due influence. To assert the contrary were to contradict the general sense of mankind; as even the very existence of hypocrisy itself is a clear and convincing proof. The exertions of the hypocrite are directed to acquire the reputation and advantages of virtue without its restraints: for this purpose he assumes the appearance of religion, and is unremittingly constant in the public exercises of devotion. Now the character of the hypocrite is certainly not weakness or absurdity; but yet, if the duties of religion be not, in opinion at least, intimately connected with virtue, either his conduct is without a motive, and his artifices without an object, or the means, he employs, have no tendency to produce the ends, to which they are directed.

Religious observances, it is true, cannot divest us of our natural frailty; but they certainly give us awful ideas of the moral Governor of the world, and have a peculiar tendency to form and encourage that serious and temperate disposition of mind, which will best secure us from great or frequent excesses. It may be doubted whether the history of man can furnish a single example, in which real and enlightened devotion has ever been united with habitual and acknowleged vice. At least, on every seeming occurrence of this unnatural union, we shall be allowed to observe, that the outward form of religion may subsist with nothing or with little of its inward spirit; but that no degree of unaffected piety towards God can easily, or perhaps possibly, be reconciled with wilful and continued disobedience to his authority. In such instances therefore, however strong the appearance of religion may be, we have good reason to suspect that the reality is often wanting, but none to infer that it can be ever useless.

But though the inefficacy of religious observances cannot be justly concluded from any particular failures; yet it must be remembered, that these circumstances enable men to deceive themselves and persuade others; that the cause of religion has suffered more severely from the loose and unsupported charge of hypocrisy in its friends, than from all the arts and all the