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النشر الإلكتروني

SERMON XI.

IN PURITY OF HEART.

MATT. VI. 8.

Sessel are the gare in heart, for they shall see God.

Oral de leges of beatification which our Jessed Serve as to several virtues and stor pratssers is celebrated sermon on the mour, there are one that merit our considerada ere the promise of my text; and this to whether we regard the nature of the blessing insel or the peculiar character on which it is broked

The specife kind of happiness, which is to be the ultimate and perpetual reward of Christian piety, has been nowhere exactly defined in any of the sacred writings; but we may rationally infer from the conversations of Christ on this subject, that it will consist in possession of felicitating thoughts, in an immediate communion with the Almighty, and in an ample participation

of all the benefits arising from the fulness of Divine love. We may be certain that the privilege of seeing God, who is the author of virtue and of joy, will be accorded only to the good and happy; that the purity of Heaven will not be contaminated by the intrusion of sinfulness and impiety; and that shame or sorrow, or despair, or wretchedness, will never be permitted to alloy the felicity of the spirits of the Just. The nature of that blessedness promised to the pure in heart, is no less than the eternal inheritance of the kingdom of heaven; but the promise involves also considerable secular benefit; implies, even in this life, a nearer approximation to the Deity, than is allowed to the generality of the world; and affords a prospect of immortality so cheerful and animating, as amply to compensate for all the contingent evils of humanity. The Chris

tian, purified in heart by his own endeavours, and by the aid of the Holy Ghost, "draws nigh unto God" in spirit; sees him, as it were, in continual prospective; beholds his countenance in the mirror of his own mind; feels him in the sanctified operations of his own bosom, and looks forward to a more intimate knowledge as the completion of his joy. Such, My Brethren, is the state of the real disciple of our Lord, and I entreat all and every one among you who are emulous of its happiness, to enter with me into the serious consideration of the principles which

compose, and the measures which secure that purity of heart which shall see God."

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I. Endowed as we are by nature, with mad and unruly desires; excited by the lusts of the flesh; agitated by the passions of the mind; alternately the slaves of sensuality, avarice, ambition, and innumerable vices which war at once against the body and the soul; Christian purity must be the result of no mean endeavours to subdue the deadly enemies. The power we may acquire over our own inclinations is indeed mighty, if we pursue the right steps for its acquisition. To effect this, we must pay the greatest attention to the institution of our minds; we must embue them with the paramount love of God; we must grave them with his commandments; we must fortify them with Christian principles to bear against every possible assault; we must sanctify them by devotion; and enrich them with those treasures which we may continually put forth in the service of Christ.

We shall find that the formation of our understandings will require the utmost care, and their preservation in truth and rectitude, our continual vigilance. Resolute to abide by the principles we have adopted; determined to fulfil the vows which Christianity has laid upon us; we must yet be doubtful of our own strength, and not thrust ourselves recklessly into temptation. The most stoical philosopher must confess, that it is

often easier to fly than to resist; and the very terms of our holiest prayer only confirms what daily experience teaches. Reason then will dictate the propriety of avoiding all those companions, who are infidels in theory and sensualists in practice; and of discarding every volume which inculcates a spirit of impiety or vice, though conveyed in the most alluring language.

The dangers arising from evil communication are tenfold greater in this age than in that of the primitive Christians. The line of demarcation between God and Baal was in their times more distinctly marked; vice was arrayed in the disgusting garments that belong to her, and was seldom seen at the foot of the altar in the robes of virtue and religion. But now, to the eternal shame of this enlightened age, one would almost think that human invention is racked to render vice agreeable. She approaches you in the vest of friendship; she solicits you in the words of philosophy; she woos you with the smiles of genius. But thou, who tremblest on the verge of her fatal influence, suffer not thy ear to be soothed by her solicitation, nor thy understanding to be dazzled by her promises, "Let not thine heart decline to her ways, nor thy feet go astray in her paths," for "her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death."

Let us take what pains we may, to avoid temptation, there are some evil desires, which, from

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the infirmity of our fallen nature, and from our relative situations in the world, will put our faith and resolution to severe trials. The oftener these are resisted the more easy will resistance become; and as it is ordained that man, degraded from his original rank, shall only be purified through suffering," we may rejoice that this state of care and warfare is substituted for severer chastisement. The utmost tranquillity that you can enjoy in this world is not repose: were you permitted to slumber through life, without any pains to support, any evils to rebut, and any duties to pursue; by what merit could you urge the slightest claim to the remunerations of eternity? It is quite in vain to argue that God, all merciful as he is represented, might have made man at once perfect in virtue and in happiness; it is quite in vain to speculate on a creation commensurate with our ideas of interminable power and boundless pity. We know that God has declared himself omnipotent, and yet has made man imperfect; we know that he has dictated his own style " the Lord God, merciful and gracious;" and yet has permitted man to be unhappy. We are therefore entirely ignorant of those principles of eternal legislation which he has laid down for his own governance, and from which he will assuredly never depart: but it is by the doctrines he has revealed for our conduct that we must be guided; God hath

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