SERMON XIX.

RESIST THE BEGINNINGS OF EVIL TEMPT

ATION.

PROVERBS iv. 14, 15.

Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away.

THIS is one of those short, comprehensive, moral directions, with which the holy Scriptures abound, for our safe conduct in life; directions, that are seldom attended to with the earnestness, which their importance demands. Studied such words should be, with devout meditation and the spirit of prayer; imprinted on the memory, fixed in the heart. We Hh

are apt to trust too much to generalities in religion; we do not sufficiently concern ourselves with its individual precepts and practical admonitions. And I wish now to enlarge upon this point, before we enter into a consideration of the text; hoping that it may induce you, by God's help, "to take heed how ye hear" such lessons of instruction.

For the attainment of a religious character, and the means of walking holily and uprightly in our course through life, doubtless the main thing is, to establish sound principles in the heart; and without such principles all the rules and helps in the world will prove of little avail; never to be depended upon in the hour of temptation and trial. Accord

ingly we find, in the word of God, these mainsprings of action continually insisted on, as of the highest necessity to be settled in the soul. A true, a right faith is inculcated, as the great foundation of all spiritual obedience; a vital faith in God, as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier;

a faith in His revealed word, in all the great doctrines of life and salvation there propounded to fallen man; a faith in the necessity of obeying all the commandments therein delivered for the formation of our character and the regulation of our lives; a faith in the world to come, after the death of the body; a world depending, for happiness or misery, upon our choice and conduct here. The love of God and the fear of God are also laid down as most powerful principles of thought and action; as spreading an influence over the whole of our behaviour.

Still however, the establishment of these first principles is not of itself sufficient for the complete direction and government of our lives. So manifold and various are the temptations to which we are exposed; so numerous the trials we are called to bear, that particular instructions and commands are also needful for us, in order that we may be prepared to meet the different circumstances which are perpetually arising, in order that we may be

taught how to reduce our principles to practice; and to apply the declaration of God's will to our ordinary intercourse and experience with the world.

For this purpose, we find the old scriptures every where abounding with rules, for the performance of every duty, and the avoidance of every sin: for the immediate service and worship of God, for the discharge of every honest and honourable obligation we owe to our neighbour; for the correction of all those evil affections and passions, to which the corrupt heart of man is so lamentably prone. Nor in the new testament, where the foundation of faith is more clearly and broadly laid down, are such rules less frequent, or less urgently enforced. We might indeed expect, what actually is the case, that as a clearer and fuller revelation, that as a higher principle and view, would require a more holy and perfect observance, a greater purity and integrity and blamelessness of character, therefore the several duties demanded of us, in our

walk with God, would be laid down and marked with the greater accuracy. Accordingly we do find, for this purpose, "line upon line and precept upon precept" repeated and urged with the greater fulness and particularity; that we may not, by any unholiness or deficiency in our conduct, disgrace that more glorious revelation, with which we have been favoured as believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at His own blessed discourses, especially His sermon on the mount; look at the epistles, which His servants, inspired by the Holy Ghost, have left for our guidance and government; and see what full instructions they contain, for our duty to God and our duty to man. It is wonderful, for how many cases they provide; for how many instances in our daily experience; how they teach us, on the one hand, the practice of every virtue, shew all the bearings of it and the steps that lead to it; how they caution us, on the other, against every besetting sin; how they point out the