temptations as are peculiar to Christians, whether in their collective capacity as a Church, or in their personal experience as saints.
Now Christians, as collected into a society, have many things in their temper and deportment against which it becomes them to guard with all vigilance. Pride, envy, prejudice, uncharitable- ness, are very apt to disturb the harmony of those who ought to be united in the bonds of brotherly love : and they should be checked, by all, in their very first risings in the soul: and not only in ourselves should we watch against them, but in others also, so as to arrest their progress before they have had an opportunity of spreading to any great extent their malignant influence ; ever bearing in mind, that " a little leaven, if suffered to spread, will soon leaven the whole lump."
Against secret evils, too, must every one be on his guard ; yea, and against the means and occasions of evil. There are many things that, when kept under proper restrictions, are innocent; which yet, through unwatchfulness or excess, are productive of great evil. The exercises of Christian affection may degenerate into feelings of a very unhallowed character ; and lawful indulgences may gain an undue ascendant over the mind. It is not easy to draw the precise line between good and evil, especially when the quality of an action depends on its accidental circumstances : we should therefore scrupulously, and as before God, examine our whole deportment, and try it with severity by the test of his holy law. And against every deviation from right, and every declension from what is good, we should guard with the utmost vigilance ; well knowing, that Satan will take advantage of our unwatchfulness, to ensnare and defile our souls.]
As materially assistant to you in the discharge of that first duty, I would say,
II. Hold fast your principles —
[It is by the adoption of Christian principles that any one is brought to the performance of Christian duties : and any dereliction of the one will infallibly introduce a relaxation of the other. God himself asks, " Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God^?" The high standard of Christian morals and of Christian piety is observed by no other person under heaven. Nothing but love to the Saviour ever did, or ever can, lead to an entire surrender of the soul to God. But let a person be drawn aside by vain philosophy or Jewish superstition, and he will soon lose the ardour of his soul in divine exercises, and the
a 1 John v. 5. VOL. XVI. c c