count thereof in the day of judgment." Hence, also, the apostle,-"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good, to the use of edifying, that it may minis. ter grace unto the hearers. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient."b One principal part of the two succeeding branches of Christian duty, namely, what is required in regard to our neighbour and to God, consists in the proper regulation of speech. To the former of these I proceed. II. The apostle, whose division of human duty, as inculcated by the gospel, I am now illustrating, says, that it teaches us also to live righteous. ly; that is, when the injunction, as is clearly the case here, is distinguished from sobriety and godliness, to practise all the duties of the social state. For the term righteousness is, in scripture, frequently used in a more comprehensive sense, as including the whole of moral obligation. The duties of the social state, or those which we owe to mankind, are divisible into the two grand branches of justice and benevolence. They might, indeed, be all comprehended under the virtue of justice; for the same moral principles which dictate the former, also dictate the latter, But, for the sake of perspicuity of arrangement, Matt. xii. 36. b Eph. iv. 29; v. 4. it is preferable to consider them as distinct; and, in reality, they are in certain respects. For, strict justice, however insufficient to constitute a virtuous character in regard to mankind, is indispensably necessary to the maintenance of social intercourse. Its claims may therefore be enforced by law. But every attempt to enforce the dictates of benevolence, and all the more amiable virtues that spring from this generous principle, would destroy their essence and extinguish their glory. On this difference, however, is founded the distinction which moralists have made between perfect and imperfect rights. By the former, they understand those rights which may be enforced by the magistrate in a state of civil society, or, in a state of nature, by the power of each individual. By the latter, they express those which must be left to every man's conscience and honour. But the terms perfect and imperfect appear to me not to convey an adequate notion of the distinction in question. For, the rights founded on the dictates of benevolence are, when all the circumstances that establish them really exist, as perfect in the sight of God as the rights constituted by strict justice, But these circumstances are not always easily ascertained, nor the extent of every right belonging to each individual susceptible of precise and accurate determination. The fulfilment, therefore, of the duties of this class must unavoidably be left to the judgment and conscience of the persons who are concerned, and the final decision in regard to the discharge, the neglect, or violation of them, to the almighty and unerring Judge. Justinian has, in the beginning of his Institutes, delivered an admirable definition of justice. "Justice is a constant and perpetual inclination to allow to every one his own right, or that which belongs to him." The imperial legislator most properly places justice in the disposition of the mind, and not in external action, For it is only in the mind that virtue can reside, and thence external conduct must derive its character and complexion. Now, every right strictly belonging to any of our species, with reference to others, must relate to his person, his conjugal condition, his property, his character, to that veracious use of speech, which is due from man to man, and to religious concerns. All these are secured by the moral law delivered on Mount Sinai, and incorporated into Christianity, as one of its most essential branches; with which its whole scheme is connected, and which it has extended and improved. The sixth commandment guards from assault the person of every innocent human being; and although, in the precept, life only is a Justitia est constans et perpetua voluntas jus suum cuique tribuendi. Tit. i. b Exod. xx. 13. declared to be inviolable, yet, the same principles which forbid murder, also prohibit every personal attack of inferior malignity, and injoin to abstain from every species of injury by which the enjoyment of life is impaired or circumscribed. Our Saviour himself has explained the full import of this commandment, as restraining the very springs and sources of murder, namely, intemperate and groundless anger, and all that stimulates to reproachful and injurious charges. As life is the gift of God, our own life is as little at our disposal as that of another. Even the wiser heathens considered suicide as unlawful." The seventh commandment, by forbidding adul tery, fences the sanctity of the conjugal contract, and must also be concluded to prohibit all those sensual and lascivious propensities which lead to this flagrant crime. The great founder of our religion hath so interpreted this precept, as to show that it strikes at the root of all unlawful, carnal indulgences, namely, the irregular motions of the heart. "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But, I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." I have observed, under the preceding a Matt. v. 21, 22. b This was the opinion of Socrates. Vid. Plato's Phædo. c Matt. v. 27, 28. head of Christian morality, that no vice is more frequently represented in the New Testament as unworthy of the Christian profession, or more severely condemned, than extra-connubial intercourse of the sexes. The right of property is guarded by the eighth commandment ;* and every species of fraudulent and deceitful conduct, by which property is alienated or impaired without the consent of the proprietor, or without a fair compensation, is, by every rule of sound interpretation, prohibited and condemned. "Let no man," says the apostle, " go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter, because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we have also forewarned you, and testified." By the ninth commandment, the invaluable right to a fair character is established to every individual whose misconduct, publicly ascertained, has not forfeited it. Although the expressions of this precept, strictly understood, seem to limit the prohibition to delivering evidence in a court of justice, they are not only susceptible of a much greater compass, but absolutely require this more extensive interpretation. For, our neighbour may be as grievously injured by slander, detraction, and calumny, as by false judicial testimony; nay, frequently more We bear false witness when we lay to his so. a Exod. xx. 15. b 1 Thess. iv. 6. c Exod. xx. 16. 、 、 |