all their ways? Who can behold the flave of fenfuality, of voluptuoufness, of wrath, of vanity in the inftant when his paffion has got the upperhand of him, without despifing him? Who will fhew honour to him who is obdurate and cruel, who wantcnly injures others, or who not only does no good, nothing generally useful, but is rapacious and felfifh? Will not both good and bad men, will not particularly the wifeft and beft of mankind testify in vrious ways their difpleafure at fuch a difpofition and fuch a conduct, and how then can the man who leads a finful, vicious courfe of life be fafe from difgraceful reproaches, from public infamy and contempt ?

But, my dear friends, should even no infamy attach to him in this world; fhould his quality, his station, his office, his address, his money protect him from the outward demonstration of that scorn, which we have in our hearts for him; fhould he even find the means of bribing, of fuborning, of overawing mercenary panegyrifts, vile fycophants, or base-born fouls to fhew him marks of refpect and honour: what will screen him afterwards at the day of judgment what in the future world, from the infamy, the most oppreffive, moft intolerable infamy? When his vile or wicked fentiments, his foolish and corrupt courfe of life, in direct oppofition to the true end. of his creation, pernicious to himself and to others, his fecret artifices, his difguifed paffions, his fins and iniquities tranfacted in private are revealed; when all the wretched, the innocent, whom he has dif

treffed,

treffed, prejudiced, injured, corrupted, rise up against him; when he stands exposed in all his nakedness and deformity depraved, debafed, difgraced, undone as he is by fins and vice; when, whether he has been a king or prince, or magistrate, or teacher, whether he have formerly acted ever fo fhining a part, divested of that false luftre, he is declared and known to be what he really is and was — who can conceive the confufion, the fhame with which he will then be overwhelmed, and which, were it poffible, would utterly annihilate him? And in the unhallowed society of perfons, who are to fhare his fate in the future world, how will the reproaches of his confcience and the partners in his guilt - how the consciousness of his folly and the fentiment of his merited degradation prey upon his vitals!

So certain is it, my dear friends, that an unchrif. tian, finful, vicious course of life is an infamous, a difgraceful courfe of life, that the fervice of unrighteousness, as it is worded in our text, yields no other fruit, than fuch as we must be ashamed of, which is attended with extreme difgrace both in the prefent and especially in the future world. Men, christians, would we avoid experiencing fooner or latter this folemn truth to our confufion and difmay, and lamenting in vain, that we would not take warning of it in time; men, chriftians, have we ftill any fentiment of human dignity, of chriftian dignity, any fense of real, lasting honour remaining; men, christians, are we still any way concerned, how we shall face the tribunal of Chrift on that great day of judgment

and

and of retribution, whether we fhall then have the reputation of good or the infamy of wicked perfons, the reward of fincere or the wages of false, hypocritical christians: oh then let us deteft and abhor not only grofs trespasses and fins, not only the flagrant vices, but all, all fins, all base, unchristian sentiments, affections, actions, as what will completely degrade, difhonour, difgrace us? Far, let each of us heartily exclaim, far be it from me any longer to act contrary to my nature, to my ftation, to the proper end of my being, to be and to do the reverse of what according to the will of my creator I fhould be and fhould do! Far, far be it from me to weaken and enervate myself by folly and fin, thereby to render myself incapable of whatever is great, generous, honourable, to plunge myself in bondage, or to continue in thraldom, to be always at variance and in contradiction with myself, and fo to live as to be afraid of God and of mankind and of my own reflections, and to be obliged to love darkness rather than light, that my deeds may not be manifest! No, my nature shall be facred to me, my present state important and honourable, my future deftination ever before my eyes! Vigour of mind, liberty, truth, order, a good, unfullied confcience towards God and towards man, to walk in the light, fhall henceforth be the object of all my endeavours! Thus will I by truly chriftian fentiments, by patient continuance in well-doing feek for glory and honour and immortality, and afterwards I fhall affuredly reap from it everlasting life.

SERMON XLII.

The Mifery of a finful Courfe of Life.

GOD, father of light, primeval source and difpenser of happiness, we thy human offspring long and endeavour after happiness; and this longing, this endeavour thou haft indissolubly connected with our nature. Thou wouldft that we should be happy, and none of us haft thou left deficient in means for obtaining his defire, none need vainly to strive after that object. And yet are we not all, perhaps but few of us are happy! For but too often we look for happiness in objects that cannot yield it, feek it on the road of fin and vice, which always carries us farther from it, and find trouble and wretchedness, where we were in queft of pleasure and fatisfaction. Lord thou art righteous art fupremely gracious, a father who fuffers not his children to rush unadmonished on devious paths, and to mifs of their aim. But we must with fhame and confufion accufe ourselves of fo feldom fubmitting to be cautioned by thee, of hearkening more to our lufts and paffions, than to thy benign and holy will, and are then unjust and perverfe enough to murmur against thee, and arraign the conduct of thy provi

VOL. II.

dence,

dence, when we have rendered ourselves miferable. Ah, Everlasting Father, thy compaffion like thyself, is infinite, thy clemency reaches from heaven to earth; weary and heavy laden, bring us back from our deviations, conduct us to the way that leads to thee and to substantial happiness; illuminate us by thy light, that we may learn to distinguish reality from specious appearances, and let us be no longer deluded by fin. Convince us by the doctrines, which are now to be delivered, that a finful life is a wretched, a miserable life; and let this conviction be vital in us, and incite us without delay to an alteration and amendment of our heart and life. Ah gracious God, do thou difpel the prejudices, the errors, the infatuation of felflove and paffion that might prevent us from seriously reflecting on fuch weighty concerns, and judging of of them as they deserve. This we request and im plore for the fake of thy fon Jefus, and furely trusting in his promises, fum up our petitions in that form of words which he vouchfafed to teach us. Our father, &c.

DRE

ROMANS VI. 21.

The end of thofe things is death.

READ of mifery and avidity for happiness are inconteftably the strongest impellents to human determinations and actions: in some sense are the only ones. For whoever is afraid of fcorn, of infamy, of bondage, of toilfome pains and labour, and deter