SERMON I.,

ON BEING RIGHTEOUS OVER MUCH.

ECCLES. vii. 16.

Be not righteous over much.

THE term "righteousness" is usually employed in Scripture to denote a high degree of mental and moral excellence. It indicates a quality, or rather, perhaps, an assemblage of qualities, which, in perfection, can be found in God alone. "Righteous art thou, O Lord, in all thy ways:" "Thy righteousness, O God, is very high:"" Thy right hand is full of righteousness."In the same sense, however, though in an infinitely inferior degree, the term is applied to the true and faithful servants of God on earth; as when it is said, "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness," or as when the real Christian is said to be "renewed in the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness."

In this sense of the word "righteousness," it is evidently impossible to need the caution conveyed by the text. It is inconceivable that a fallen creature should attain to a too perfect resemblance of the Divine perfections; that he should display, in his daily conduct and temper, too complete a transcript of the purity, justice, and love by which the dealings of God with his creatures are characterized. Whatever, therefore, may be the precise sense in which the term is emVOL. II.

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ployed in the text, it is obviously not that to which I have referred.-The object, however, of the present discourse, is not so much to consider the specific bearing and application of the term in the passage before us, as to endeavour to supply an answer to the two following questions:

I. TO WHAT CLASSES OF PERSONS counsel of the same general character with that in THE TEXT MAY with propriety BE APPLIED; and, II. TO WHAT CHARACTERS SUCH COUNSEL IS

NOT PROPERLY APPLICABLE.

I. In the first place, then, let us inquire, To WHAT CHARACTERS, or classes of persons, such counsel as that in THE TEXT MAY with propriety BE APPLIED.

1. And, first, it is strictly applicable to those troubled with what may be termed a scrupulous conscience.Men may be found, who, instead of falling into the more common offence of indifference to the laws of God, are disposed to push the cautions or prohibitions delivered in Scripture even beyond the prescribed limits. Such, probably, were some of those really devout individuals, among the sect of the Pharisees, who appear to have superadded to the requisitions of the holy law a multitude of burdensome precepts which had not the warrant of Divine authority. Such, also, were many of the class among the Jews called the Essenes, who conceived that religion demanded the most severe personal inflictions, and a retreat to the wilderness from all the active duties and comforts of life. Such self-tormenting disciples of the Cross also abounded in the early ages of Christianity. Nor are religionists of this class the produce of only one period or country. In almost every age of the Church, persons have arisen, who, misled by false opinions, or by constitutional gloom, or by corrupt teachers, or by a disposition to "establish their own righteousness," have, instead of availing themselves of the "righteous

ness which is by faith" in a Redeemer, magnified things indifferent into matters of serious moment, fretted their minds with needless anxieties, prescribed to themselves impossible duties or observances, and have, in many instances, ended with sinking under the burden of those infirmities which cleave even to the best in the present circumstances of human nature.— Now to individuals of this spirit such counsel as that of the text may, with the strictest propriety, be applied: "Be not righteous over much;" oppress not the con'science with laws which Scripture has not prescribed: 'while you do homage to the holiness of God, do justice also to his compassion: "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free:" keep in memory the fact, which the Master you serve 'never forgets, that we are but "dust;" nor expect 'from fallen man an abstraction of mind and sublimation ⚫ of nature, which are possible only to those emancipated ' and delighted spirits who surround the Throne of 'Glory.'

2. In the second place, such counsel as that of the text may with propriety be applied to those individuals who, by their intense devotion to the immediate observances of religion, are betrayed into a forgetfulness of the ordinary duties of life.-Without doubt, the study of Scripture, communion with God in prayer, in the sacraments, in meditation on his laws and promises, are the noblest, as well as the most cheering and delightful, employments of the soul; and he may confidently be proclaimed to be ignorant of real happiness, who does not often escape from the low sphere of earthly engagements and occupations, into that loftier and purer region, in which the intercourse between heaven and earth is carried on. But, still, it is to be remembered, that the same Glorious Being who has invited us to this solemn and elevating communion, has equally ordained the discharge of duties of a different class. He who has said, "Remember the Sabbath

day to keep it holy," has, in the very same commandment, recognized the obligation of an habitual attention to secular employments: "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work." He who has called us to "pray without ceasing," or to live always in the spirit of prayer, has also enjoined us to "get our own bread," to "work with our own hands," and, in short, to fulfil with earnestness every duty of our station in life. And obedience to one class of commands is no less essential than to another. Those, therefore, who expect, by an exclusive surrender of themselves to the pursuits of devotion, to attain to closer union with God, must call to mind, that, by disobedience to his will, they are depriving themselves of the very blessing and influence on which this union mainly depends. It is the pleasure of the Most High to be served according to the dictates of his own law and his law is, that we should combine a measured attention to the ordinary business of life with the proper exercises of religion; social duties with the high occupations of piety; the employments of the field, the shop, the study, or the forum, with those of the chamber and the sanctuary. On persons, therefore, who are offending against these appointments of God, let the counsel of the text be urged again and again: "Be not righteous over much:" give not to devotion the time or the thoughts due to less sublime and delightful occupations: combine the duties of ' earth with the duties of heaven: render to man the 'things that are man's, whilst you render to God the things that are God's.'

3. In the third place, the counsel of the text may with much propriety be urged on that class of persons who may be termed, in general language, the superstitious.-Under this denomination it might not, perhaps, have been improper to range that class of individuals already referred to in this discourse, namely, the scrupulous. But I here use the term superstitious in its widest sense, as referring to all those in whose religion

a sense of fear, a painful apprehension of the Divine Power, predominates over those other feelings and principles by which this terrifying consciousness ought to be checked and regulated. Such, for example, were possibly many of the worshippers of Baal, who are described as cutting themselves with knives; or the worshippers of Moloch, who laboured to propitiate their idol by casting themselves and their children into the fire. Such, possibly, until he had gained a clearer conception of the tenderness and compassion of the Divine character, was the individual who exclaimed, "Thy terrors have I suffered from my youth up with a troubled mind." Such, also, generally speaking, are those who substitute personal austerities for the grateful and filial services of religion; for trust in the promises of the Gospel, and faith in the atonement of the Divine Redeemer. It is, indeed, impossible not to feel the deepest compassion for men whose extravagancies are, perhaps, the effect of their very humility; but the error, whatever its source, must be met with due reprehension: and, to say nothing either of the unbelief in the promises and goodness of God which it discovers, or the misery which it occasions to the mind affected by it, how great is the injury which it inflicts upon the interests of religion! Who, if such are the consequences of coming into closer contact with the service of God-if the Christian is necessarily to become a man of a gloomy countenance and of a desolate spirit -who can be expected to embrace the Gospel? Who will be induced to seek for happiness in God, if he is to be regarded rather as a tyrant than a Father; rather as a Being prompt to revenge, than "mighty to save:" rather as delighting to kindle the fires of vengeance, than willing to extinguish those flames with the precious Blood of Atonement? On such characters, also, we may therefore justly urge the lesson of the text: ""Be not righteous over much." Religion is a senti'ment, not of servile dread or abject despondency, but