SERMON V.

LIMITS OF CONFORMITY.

1 Cor. Ix. 22.

/ am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

It is a fact, of which it is impossible to doubt (though no sincere Christian can contemplate it without pain) that there are persons, who never take up the Bible for any other purpose, than to search for grounds of objection or cavil;—to discover some fact or doctrine, capable of misrepresentation or perversion; something, in short, against which the venom of audacious sarcasm, or profane ridicule, may be directed with effect. It is easy, then, to conceive, with what malicious exultation such persons must contemplate this assertion of St. Paul—" I am made all things to all men." "Surely," say they, " this is, at least, a plain admission of dishonesty: this is professing, without disguise or apology, the versatile discre

tion of mere worldlings and time-servers:—prudent and plausible impostors, indeed; but not the less impostors on that account; nay, rather, the more base and abominable impostors:—hypocrites, who make no scruple to wear the livery of the times, and adopt all varieties of taste and humour, that by all means they may gain some ;— that is,—may contrive to insinuate themselves into every man's confidence, and obtain their own ends at the general expense." "And this," remarks the infidel, " is the confession of an apostle: these, if we may credit his own account, were the means, by which his opinions were to be propagated, and his party strengthened; and this is the pattern, which he holds out for imitation."

A most serious imputation, indeed, would this be, were there a particle of truth in it. But St. Paul, my brethren, you may safely believe and insist, had no ends to be so gained. He neither professed nor recommended such detestable duplicity: nor would he have sanctioned the use of such means, were the ends in view ever so laudable. The charge, in fact, like every similar charge against the first preachers of the Gospel, bears intrinsic marks of improbability. They, who lie in wait to catch men for evil purposes, do not usually make a public display of the traps which they employ. What the Apostle here means by "saving some" is evidently—saving their souls from everlasting perdition, by turning them from sin to righteousness: and the methods, be assured, of which he proposed to avail himself for this truly benevolent and glorious end, could not involve the sacrifice of honour and truth. To his purpose it was essential, that he should maintain the moral dignity of his own character: and he could not but be aware, that, had he set about the conversion of sinners, by flattering their follies, and conforming to their vices, he would only have convinced them, that he was no better than themselves.

Such conduct is natural enough in those, who have no better object than to establish a party; that is—in effect—who have only themselves and their own consequence in view. But the conduct of this Apostle (himself by birth a Jew, and by education a Pharisee, though afterwards chosen and set apart of God for the conversion of the

Gentiles) was that of a man losing sight of himself, in the extent and magnitude of his concern for others—that God might be "found of them that sought him not," " and that "the Gentiles might rejoice with his people."* "Unto the Jews," says he, "I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are without law, as without law; (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."' And, accordingly, it appears from the narrative of St. Paul's proceedings in the Acts of the Apostles, that, while he continued personally to conform himself to various Mosaic rites and regulations, to avoid offence to the proselytes of his own nation, he strenuously resisted all attempts to subject the Gentile converts to that burthen.

Whether amidst his own nation, therefore, or amongst the heathen; to declare the glad tidings of salvation through Christ crucified; and not only

"Rom. x. 20. * Rom. xv. 10. c 1 Cor. ix. 20—23.