works of his hands. This is giving God the glory due to his name, and habitually offering up to him the sacrifice of a meek and quiet spirit which in his sight is of great price. Such a person behaves like a creature in his situation, imperfect and fallible, under the government of a God who cannot mistake concerning him. He does not start out of his proper sphere, nor question God foolishly.

Lastly, we do not want the express testimony. of scripture, that this temper of mind is peculiarly pleasing to God. How does the Divine Being boast, as it were, of the character of Job, who bore his severe trials so remarkably well when he tells his friends that he had spoken of him the things that were right, whereas they had not; referring to that most remarkable speech of his, when he was seemingly stripped of all the enjoyments of life, The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away, and blessed be the name of the Lord; and also, after receiving positive bodily sufferings, in addition to these losses, shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and not receive evil also.

Do we then believe that it is not in our power to alter the general course of things established by providence, that the affairs of the world are already

in the best hands, so that we have no reason to wish for any other disposition of things, and that we ourselves should be losers by indulging a fretful and discontented temper, as we should thereby deprive ourselves of the particular benefit intended us by our afflictions; and do we moreover believe that a temper of habitual resignation is peculiarly pleasing in the sight of God, and are we not desirous to cultivate it, and ready, under the prevailing influence of it, to say upon all occasions, Not our will, but thy will, O our God, and heavenly father, be done. Let us, from a full and unshaken conviction of the wisdom and goodness of the soverign disposer of all things, say, whatever calamity befal us, with Eli in my text, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. Let us bless the Lord at all times, in sickness as well as in health, in adversity as well as prosperity, and let his praise be continually in our mouths. Let us rejoice in tribulation, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the holy Ghost which is given to us.

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184

ON

BEING PERFECT

A.S.

GOD IS PERFECT.

Be ye therefore perfect even as your father who is

in Heaven is perfect.

MATT. V. 48.

IN this excellent discourse, delivered at the very entrance of our Lord on his public ministry, he professedly corrects the innovations which the Scribes and Pharisees had been long making in the law of God. Indeed, the antient religion of the Hebrew nation had suffered greatly by this means.. The genuine moral precepts of it had been relaxed, and its obligation had been weakened and evaded, on the most frivolous pretences: such as equally reflected on their understanding and their virtue. The zeal of religionists was spent on the externals of religion, while they had very little concern for the vital, and only valuable parts of it.

It was, therefore, our Lord's first business to restore religion to its antient and proper standard, by exposing the absurd comments by which the Scribes and Pharisees had so shockingly perverted the law of God, and to explain in their full extent itš moral precepts, from which the attention of the people had been long diverted.

Consequently, we are not to expect in this discourse any precepts, or maxims of morality, properly new, such as mankind had never known before, but to see the moral precepts of the law restored to their primitive purity, and original extent. He expressly declared, that he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. He made no innovations in the law itself. His sublime precept concerning loving our enemies, has no reference to any thing defective in the laws of Moses on that head. For that which he says was said by them of old time, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy, is no where to be found in the law. On the contrary, the writings of Moses inculcate the most extensive benevolence, admonishing us. not only of the relation in which we stand to all the human race, but even to brute creatures; compassion and tenderness to which he strongly recommends.

That most sublime precept contained in my text, Be ye perfect even as your father who is in: Heaven is perfect, was not new, nor is it peculiar to the gospel; for, Be ye holy as I am holy, is expressly quoted by the apostle Peter, I Pet. I. 6. from the Old Testament, in which it is one of the precepts which God gave to the Israelites by Mo ses. Lev. XX. 7. But though all the persons to whom Jesus was addressing himself might have found, and many of them had no doubt frequently read it in their scriptures, there was good reason for his repeating it, and laying the stress that he does upon it, when it had been generally overlooked, or explained away, together with other precepts equally excellent, by the established expounders. of the law."

The importance of this precept will be evident if we duly consider the nature of it, and the reason why we may suppose it was recommended to our attention. This, therefore, I propose to do in this discourse, and then make a short application?

First. I propose to explain the nature and extent of this precept, in which we are directed to be perfect as our father who is in Heaven is perfect. That this precept was not intended to be understood by us in the strictest sense of the words, viz.

that