uniformly agree in the application of them. Individuals, equally subject in their affections to the authority of God, may differ in opinion as to the innocence or lawfulness of certain gratifications which the world is constituted to afford them. When these are not specifically prohibited in any of those injunctions into which the two great commandments are resolved or subdivided-in order to be adapted to every understanding, as well as made applicable to the varying circumstances of particular individuals—the permission and warrant from the Almighty to partake of such gratifications, must evidently depend upon the influence which they exert on the general character, the tone of the habitual feelings, or the governing principles of conduct. Accordingly, there is scope for the exercise of private judgment, and ground to anticipate and acquiesce in a diversity of opinion. There are some, we are aware, who pronounce such gratifications to be either indirectly forbidden, or properly allowable to the whole community of Christians; but we have not so observed human nature. We conceive that particular modes of education, as well as a variety of other causes, originate a difference of predisposition in the minds of individuals, qualifying

their susceptibility of good and evil; and that, consequently, persons are differently affected in their sense of religion under similar circumstances, receiving different impressions from identical objects. For this reason, we conclude that a Christian should not assume his own mind to be an infallible criterion of the minds of others, or a certain test of the quality of their actions; and should be exceedingly cautious in affirming the universally irreligious, unchristian character of any such conduct, as is not expressly, or by the clearest implication, prohibited in the word of God. Let him rather respect the wise and liberal precept of the Apostle-a precept which he enforces in order to promote, together with a more charitable construction of the actions of others, a more faithful examination of our own-" Let us not therefore judge one another."-" Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.""Let every man be persuaded in his own mind."- 66 Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth."* This injunction of St. Paul must of necessity, as we have intimated, be capable of a considerable degree of application; for, in justice to

* Rom. xiv.

our religion as a rule of duty, it should be added, that its commands and prohibitions are never founded on distinctions which are purely external, local, and circumstantial. Inasmuch, indeed, as our practices may mislead the judgment, and be detrimental to the character of others, it undeniably demands our attention to extraneous circumstances, or the appearance of our conduct; but, obviously, it makes that demand on a principle of benevolence. So, in all instances, its distinctions are strictly internal and spiritual, essentially and exclusively moral. It condemns certain principles of action, dispositions of the heart, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life;" but there its condemnation terminates. It holds "the mind” to be indeed" its own place," declaring that "unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”*

Without entering into a particular examination of the phrases, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," we may assume them to signify an excess of those appetites which we share in common

*Titus i. 15.

a

with inferior creatures; às also an excess of the desire of wealth or gain, of the desire of power, and of fame or admiration. Many such excesses are, at all times, open to observation; and, under the names of intemperance, sensuality, avarice, ambition, and vanity, are universally condemned, as degrading to the reasonable mind, and injurious to the common good. But if we aspire to a Christian moderation in the pursuits and enjoyments of the world, we shall aim, by a comprehensive view, and a practical application of the two great commandments to which we have adverted, to detect and avoid those excesses in their less gross and palpable forms: remembering, especially, that, whereas these vices are encountered by our fellowcreatures principally in the outward act, our religion, as we have already remarked, attacks them as affections of the mind, and would accordingly destroy their power over the thoughts and imagination.

Indeed, we should very inadequately perceive the extent of injury which might be inflicted upon us by "the things of the world," were we to regard them merely as direct incentives to acknowledged vices, or as rendering us, in vulgar estimation, intem

perate, or licentious, or covetous, or haughty, or malicious. It must be evident to professing Christians, that we have to guard against the influence of the world in withdrawing our attention from the studious cultivation of religion, as the true basis of character, as well as of inward peace and enduring satisfaction. We have to beware lest, absorbed in its passing interests, we become contented with those loose and superficial notions of rectitude towards God, as well as towards man, which are so naturally suggested, or which we so readily entertain, when intent upon the indulgence of our present inclinations; lest we forget the revealed will and purposes of our heavenly Father, the duties and privileges of our redeemed and Christian state;-lest we relax our hold on the divine promises, and slumber in the prosecution of our eternal life.

We are warned in the Scriptures against a state of repose-a feeling of independence and security-a self-complacent satisfaction, which the world may very easily generate, though it cannot sustain :-for example, in the parable relating to "a certain rich man," who said to himself, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat,