Page:The Works of Samuel Johnson ... A journey to the Hebrides. The vision of Theodore, the hermit of Teneriffe. The fountains. Prayers and meditations. Sermons.v. 10-11. Parliamentary debates.pdf/341

 *cated; works, indeed, highly pleasing to God, when performed in concurrence with the other duties of religion, but which will never atone for the violation of justice. To plunder one man for the sake of relieving another, is not charity; to build temples with the gains of wickedness, is to endeavour to bribe the Divinity. This ought ye to have done, and not left the other undone. Ye ought, doubtless to be charitable, but ye ought first to be just.

There are others who consider God as a Judge still more easily reconciled to crimes, and, therefore, perform their acts of atonement after death, and destine their estates to charity, when they can serve the end of luxury or vanity no longer. But whoever he be that has loaded his soul with the spoils of the unhappy, and riots in affluence by cruelty and injustice, let him not be deceived! God is not mocked. Restitution must be made to those who have been wronged, and whatever he withholds from them, he withholds at the hazard of eternal happiness.

An amendment of life is the chief and essential part of repentance. He that has performed that great work needs not disturb his conscience with subtile scruples, or nice distinctions. He needs not recollect, whether he was awakened from the lethargy of sin by the love of God, or the fear of punishment. The Scripture applies to all our passions: and eternal punishments had been threatened to no purpose, if these menaces were not intended to promote virtue.

But as this reformation is not to be accomplished by our own natural power, unassisted by God, we must, when we form our first resolutions of a new life, apply ourselves, with fervour and constancy, to those means which God has prescribed for obtaining his assistance. We must implore a blessing by frequent prayer, and confirm our faith by the holy sacrament. We must use all those institutions that contribute to the increase of piety, and omit nothing that may either promote our progress in virtue, or prevent a lapse into vice. It may be in