IV.

OUR DEAREST INTERESTS TO BE PARTED WITH RATHER THAN ENDANGER OUR DUTY.

MATTHEW V. 29.

If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

I SHALL first set about to explain these words, which may seem a little difficult to understand; then consider the advice they contain; and lastly, the reason that is given for it.

Now the word 'offend,' in this expression, If thy right eye offend thee,' signifies corrupt, seduce, tempt to sin. If thy right eye tempt thee to sin, pluck it out; otherwise what has the eye to do with being cast into hell, or how should the plucking it out save the whole body from being cast into hell? I suppose likewise, that the right eye in this verse, and the right hand in the verse following, is said of any thing we set our hearts upon, or take delight in. The right eye and the right hand are mentioned as being most dear to us, most precious for their use and strength, and so properly represent to us some of our pleasures, habits, or gains, which become almost as dear to us, and as difficult to part with. The body being cast into hell, signifies our being condemned at the day of judgment to the punishment of hell; so that our Saviour's admonition is this; that whatever in any manner draws us into vice, however unwilling we be to part with it, must nevertheless be given up and quitted, rather than suffer it to endanger our salvation; a rule perfectly reasonable in itself, as any man can see and own upon the bare mention of it; a rule it is of great consequence to be observed, and yet in fact and in practice very little, if at all, regarded; for where shall you find a man sacrificing an advantage or pleasure, any profit or amusement he is engaged in, to his virtue? Men have a different way of satisfying themselves. Provided a pleasure, situation, or profession, be not in itself, strictly speaking, criminal, whatever crimes it may lead to, or tempt them to, they venture upon it; they see no reason for avoiding it, and when they are engaged in it, they find the comfort in vice so strong, that there is no power in them to with

stand it; they soon begin to hope that God, who knoweth whereof we are made, will make allowance for their frailties and infirmities, and will not require more purity and exactness than such a man in such a situation is capable of.

Now our Lord's rule would have taught them another doctrine, and a different train of arguing. It does not suppose that what we are required to give up is of itself sinful; but provided it draw or lead us into temptation or into sin, the text tells us that is reason enough for avoiding or resigning it; nay, insists in effect upon our parting with it; for without so doing, we shall not find the strength or violence of the temptation it brings, an excuse for the vice it tempts us into. The right eye and the right hand are of their own nature to be retained; are what God has given us, and must be supposed to mean what is in its own nature allowable and innocent; yet when this right hand and eye offend, that is, seduce, corrupt, tempt us to sin, they are nevertheless to be cut off and plucked out, otherwise the whole body will be cast into hell. It will not serve us to plead that we were led away by that which was most dear and natural to us, and, in other respects, most beneficial and advantageous. We were bound, our Saviour tells us, to part with it, whatever it cost us. So that on all occasions, before we urge or expect to avail ourselves of this plea, of this strength of temptation, it behoves us to weigh well, whether there be no way of avoiding it, if we cannot resist it. If there be any such way, we are thus to avoid it, cost it what it will, be it ever so inconvenient or mortifying so to do. This is what our Saviour in the text commands us.

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This much may serve to explain our Saviour's direction. to the application of it, every one must apply it for himself, to his own particular case; and there are few that have not, one way or other, a case to apply it to. By way of making what has been said more plain, let one or two examples be taken to show the force and use of the precept before us.

Suppose now in our calling, or business, or profession, there be some underhand, unlawful gains or practices, about which we cannot satisfy ourselves, but which we have ever been accustomed to, and which, moreover, are so common in our way of life and occupation, that we cannot carry it on to any tolerable advantage without them. What is to be done? If we will believe our Saviour, and go by his rule, the advantage we gain by these practices, be it ever so considerable, and the calling too, if it be not worth the following without these advantages, must be given up. up. Here is a right eye to be plucked out, and

a right hand to be cut off, and it matters not what we lose, or how loath we are to lose it. The way of life may not be unlawful in itself, nor reckoned so; yet if it have certain temptations to dishonesty, and if we, from habit, education, or any other reason, cannot withstand them, nothing remains but to get free from them, and betake ourselves to a course of life, if not so beneficial, more innocent and safe.

Or, secondly, it may happen that the situation we are placed in exposes us too much to the vices of drunkenness or debauchery; that is, affords temptations and opportunities, more than, with our propensities to those vices, we can withstand, or actually do withstand. The same rule obtains in this case as in the last; that is, we must not attempt to set up these temptations, or the violence of them, as an excuse for our compliance, so long as we had it in our power to get out of the way of such temptations. It is to be feared that many, instead of avoiding or abandoning a situation for the reasons mentioned, on the contrary seek and court such on this very account, in order to find the gratification which their vices and follies present to them; so opposite is the practice of mankind and their duty.

Another thing, which it is oftentimes necessary to give up on this ground, and what is given up with more pain and unwillingness than almost any thing, is company, and sometimes friendships. We do not choose our companions or friends always for their virtues; nor, to say the truth, are men always agreeable in proportion to their virtues; so that it shall happen, that a very licentious unprincipled person may have found such means to delight and entertain us, to insinuate himself into our affections, that we may perceive very great pleasure in his society. Now admitting it possible, that a man may preserve his own virtue uncorrupted by a course of intimacy with a profligate companion, it is but barely possible. This is what we remember St Paul says, Evil communications corrupt good manners. Be not deceived.' Let friends, or gay associates, cry aloud, 'Eat and drink while we have life, for tomorrow we die; make use then of the time; for after we are dead, there is no more room for enjoyment, we become as we had never been born.' Yet, says the apostle, 'Be not deceived.' So here, whatever resolutions we may make, there are many unguarded seasons in a course of intimacy, when your friend will of course endeavour to bring you into some way of thinking and acting with himself; and you will find your horror and fear of vice decline and wear off by de

grees, when it is made familiar to you in the example and conversation of your friend. Now if this be the case, and we shall find it so in fact, however we may reason about it, there seems to be nothing left for a man who pays a proper attention to his virtue, and to our rule in the text, but to renounce and break off all such acquaintance absolutely. This is hard and difficult, we say; but be it recollected, that Christ knew it to be so; for he takes his examples from things the most painful and severe. This instance, it is true, requires more than ordinary resolution, for we may have the censure of the world, as well as our own inclination to struggle with. But I can only say

that they both are to be set at nought, when our duty and the salvation of our souls are at stake.

But we proceed to consider the reason our Saviour gives for this command. 'It is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.'

Every sound plan of religion, and consequently the plan of the gospel, is only putting men in the best way of promoting their own happiness, and providing for their own interest. It is on our own account, for our own sakes, after all, that we are bound to perform the laws of our religion, because ourselves only will be the sufferers by the violation of them. For the present, possibly, we may have to undergo some mortification, or pain, or self denial; and yet it is our real pleasure and happiness, upon the whole, that is aimed at by the prohibition. As we are obliged and willing to take a very bitter medicine, or suffer a very painful operation, not for the sake of tormenting ourselves for the present, but in order to amend our health for the future; so is the case with every thing we suffer, or every thing we give up on the score of religion; that is, it is with a view of being bettered and benefitted by it at the conclusion. If we give up father, mother, and brother, and sister; or, as this expression further denotes, riches, and honor, and pleasures, and diversions, or any thing else we take delight in, it is to receive tenfold reward, and in the world to come life everlasting. The severest trials we are put upon, we are to cut off our right hand or pluck out our right eye, such is the instance before us, it is that our whole body may not be cast into hell; it is to escape those punishments which will be, beyond all comparison, more grievous to be borne, than any thing we ever experienced. Certainly we are not, and possibly we could not have been made acquainted with the particular kind or state of happiness we are to enjoy, or the punish

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ment we are to undergo, in the next world; but we may be sure it is in God's power to make them both such as will far exceed any thing we can get or lose in this world, any pleasure that sin can give us, any pain that virtue costs us. This much is intimated, or rather plainly declared, by the words of the text, that what we shall suffer hereafter for our sins is as much beyond any thing we can suffer here by giving them up, as the destruction of the whole body is beyond the loss of a single limb. And then, surely, our Saviour had a right to charge us to suffer the one rather than suffer the other.

It is to be lamented that men cannot be brought to understand, that they are to act in the business of their religion only upon the same principles and grounds that they act upon in their own common concerns and transactions. A situation or pursuit, however pleasant or delightful at present, if we foresaw that it would lead to nothing but ruin and disgrace, we should quit most certainly in common prudence. In like manner, if we had made any advantages for the present, though apparently considerable; and if we observed that they were very uncertain advantages which the next day or even hour might take away, I suppose that we should prefer a smaller, but more regular return, which might be trusted to always. Now it is but this, and no more than this, that we are required to do by Christ's command. Sin, be it ever so pleasurable or ever so profitable, must not be long; its pleasures and its profits must end with our lives, generally much sooner; but who shall count, who shall say what or when will be the end of the misery it brings us to? If we gain the whole world and lose our own souls, you may remember who it is that hath said it profiteth nothing. Few, or rather, be it said, none, ever went through more for their religion than St Paul; yet he could say, and he had every reason to know, that his sufferings were not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed;' all the struggles, all the self denial, all the pains we go through to preserve our virtue, will meet with, we may be assured, a proportionable reward, a far more exceeding weight of glory.

Upon the whole, then, to sum up the doctrine of the discourse, if there be nothing in our business, condition, or manner of life, which tempts us to practise deceit, injustice, or any thing which we cannot reconcile to our consciences; if it does not breed in us pride, covetousness, desire of worldly wealth, and the contempt of every thing beside; if there be nothing in our way of life, company, or pleasures, which leads to drunkenness, revelling, or excess of any kind, we may think our