for truth, the most generous charities, the most fervent prayers, knowledge the most profound, and sacrifices the least suspicious, become vices in a man not animated with this motive.

II. Let us ponder our steps in regard to the circumstances, which accompany them. An action good, or innocent in itself, may become criminal in certain circumstances. This maxim is a clue to to many cases of consciences, in which we choose to blind ourselves. We obstinately consider our actions in a certain abstracted light, never realized, and we do not attend to circumstances which change the nature of the action. We think, we strike a casuist dumb, when we ask him what is there criminal in the action you reprove? Hear the morality of the inspired writers.

It is allowable to attach ourselves to a pious prince, and to push for port. Yet when Barzillai had arrived at a certain age, he thought it his duty to flee from court, and to quit his prince, and he said to David, who invited him to court, I am this day fourscore years old, and can I discern between good and evil? Can thy servant taste what I eat, or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? Let thy servant, I pray thee turn back again, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and of my mother, 2 Sam. xix. 35. 37.

It is allowable to erect houses proportionable to our fortunes and rank. Yet the buildings of the Israelites drew upon them the most mortifying censures, and the most rigorous chastisements, after their return from captivity. This was because, while their minds were all employed about their own edifices, they took no thought about rebuilding the temple. Is it time for you, said the pro

phet Haggai, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? chap. i. 4.

It is allowable sometimes to join in good company, and to taste the pleasures of the table and society. Yet Isaiah reproached the Jews of his time in the most cutting manner for giving themselves up to these pleasures at a time, when recent crimes, and approaching calamities should have engaged them to acts of repentance; In that day did the Lord God of hosts, call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine; and it was revealed in mine years by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord God of hosts, Isa. xxii. 12, &c.

It is allowable to eat any thing without regard to the Levitical law. Yet St. Paul declares, If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, 1 Cor. viii. 13.

How many circumstances of this kind might I add? Let us retain what we have heard, and let us make these the bases of a few maxims.

The case of scandal is a circumstance which makes a lawful action criminal. I infer this from the example of St. Paul just now mentioned. What is scandal? Of many definitions I confine myself

to one.

A scandalous, or offensive action is that, which must naturally make a spectator of it commit a fault. By this touchstone examine some actions, which you think allowable, because you consider them in themselves, and you will soon perceive that you ought to abstain from them. By this rule it is not a question only, when it is agitat

ed as a case of conscience. Is gaming, criminal or innocent? The question is not only, what gaming is to you, who can afford to play without injuring your family or fortune, the question is, whether you ought to engage another to play with you, who will ruin his. When a case of conscience is made of this question, Can I, without wounding my innocence, allow myself certain freedoms in conversation? The question is not only, whether you can permit yourself to do so without defiling your innocence, but whether you can do so without wounding the innocence of your neighbor, who will infer from the liberties you take, that you have no regard to modesty, and who perhaps may avail himself of the licence you give him.

Another circumstance, which makes a lawful action criminal, is taken from the passage of Isaiah just now mentioned. I fear suppressing a sense of present sins, and of approaching calamities. I wish, when we have had the weakness to commit: such sins as suspend the communion of a soul with its God, I wish we had the wisdom to lay aside for some time not only criminal, but even lawful pleasures. I wish, instead of going into company even the most regular, we had the wisdom to retire. I wish, instead of relishing then the most lawful recreations, we had the wisdom to mourn for our offending a God, whose law ought to be extremely respected by us. To take the opposite course then, to allow one's self pleasure, innocent indeed in happier times, is to discover very little sense of that God, whose commands we have just now violated; it is to discover that we have very little regard for our salvation, at a time when we have so many just causes of doubting whether our hope to be saved be well grounded.

The afflicted state of the church is another cir

cumstance, which may make an innocent action criminal: So I conclude from the passage just now quoted from Haggai. Dissipations, amusements, festivals ill become men, who ought to be grieved for the affliction of Joseph; or, to speak more clearly, less still become miserable people whom the wrath of God pursues, and who, being themselves as fire brands hardly plucked out of the burning, are yet exposed to the flames of tribulation, one in the person of his father, another in those of his children, and all in a million of their brethren.

Age, again, is another circumstance converting an innocent to a criminal action. This I conclude from the example of Barzillai. Let a young man just entering into trade be all attention and diligence to make his fortune; he should be so but that an old man, that a man on the brink of the grave, and who hath already attained the age, which God hath marked for the life of man, that such a man should be all fire and flame for the success of his trade, just as he was the first day he entered on it, that he should, so to speak, direct his last sigh toward money and the increase of his trade, is the shame of human nature: it is a mark of reprobation, which ought to alarm all that bear it.

Let a young man in the heat of his blood, a youth yet a novice in the world, and who may promise himself, with some appearance of truth, to live a few years in the world, sometimes lay aside that gravity, which however so well becomes men, whose eyes are fixed on the great objects of religion; let him, I say forgive him: but that an old man, whom long experience should have rendered wise, that he should be fond of pleasure, that he should make a serious affair of distinguishing himself by the elegance of his table, that he should go

every day to carry his skeleton wan and tottering into company employed in the amusements of youth, this is the shame of human nature; this is a mark of reprobation, which ought to terrify all that bear it.

III. Would we have all our ways established? Let us examine the manners that accompany them. An action good in itself, yea more, the most essential duties of religion become criminal, when they are not performed with proper dispositions. One of the most essential duties of religion is to assist the poor: yet this duty will become a crime, if it be performed with haughtiness, hardness and constraint. It is not enough to assist the poor, the duty must be done with such circumspection, humanity and joy, as the apostle speaks of, when he says, God loveth a chearful giver, 2 Cor. ix. 7. Another most essential duty of religion is to interest one's self in the happiness of our neighbor, and if he turn aside from the path of salvation, to bring him back again. Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him: thus God spoke by his servant Moses, Lev. xix. 17. Exhort one another daily: this is a precept of St. Paul, Heb. iii. 13. To this may be added the declaration of St. James: If any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins, chap. v. 19, 20. But this duty would become a crime, were we to rebuke a neighbor with bitterness, were the reproof more satire than exhortation, were we to assume airs of haughtiness, and discover that we intended less to censure the vices of others than to display our own imaginary excellencies. It is not enough