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enness and debauchery should weaken the thread of life, and cut it short, that the tranfgreffor fhall not live out half his days ;-that pride fhould be followed by mortifications,extravagance by po verty and diftrefs that the revengeful and ma licious fhould be the greatest tormentor of himself; -the perpetual disturbance of his own mind, being fo immediate a chastisement, as to verify what the wife man fays upon it,-That, as the merciful man does good to his own foul, fo he that is cruel, troubleth his own flesh.

clofe

he goes;

it

In all which cafes there is a punishment independent of these, and that is, the punishment which a man's own mind takes upon itself, from the remorfe of doing what is wrong Prima oft bet altio.this is the first revenge, which (whatever other punishments he may escape) is fure to follow upon his heels, and haunts him wherefoever -for whenever a man commits a wilful bad action, he drinks down poison, which, though may work flowly, will work furely, and give him perpetual pains and heart aches, and if no means be used to expel it, will deftroy him at last. So that, notwithstanding that final fentence of GOD is not executed speedily, in exact weight and measure, there is nevertheless, a fentence executed, which a man's own conscience pronounces against him :and every wicked man, I believe, feels as regulara process within his own breaft, commenced againft himself,and finds himself as much accufed, and as evidently and impartially condemned for what he has done amifs, as if he had received fentence

before the most awful tribunal;which judgment of confcience, as it can be looked upon in no other light but as an anticipation of that righteous and unalterable fentence which will be pronounced hereafter, by that Being, to whom he is finally to give an account of his actions I cannot conceive the state of his mind under any character than of that anxious doubtfulness defcribed by the prophet,-That the wicked are like the troubled fea when it cannot rest, whose waters caft up mire and filth.

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A fecond caution against this uniform ground of falfe hope, in fentence not being executed speedily, will arife from this confideration,That in our vain calculation of this diftant point of retribution, we generally refpite it to the day of judgment ;-and as that may be a thousand, or ten thousand years off, it proportionably leffens the terror. To rectify this mistake, we should first confider, that the dista thing no way alters the nature of it.adly, That we are deceived in this diftant profpect, not confidering, that, however far off we may fix it in this belief; that, in fact, it is no farther off from every man, than the day of his own death.-And, how certain that day is, we need not, furely, be reminded; it is the certainty of the matter, and of an event which will as furely come to pass, as that the fun fhall rife to-morrow morning,-that fhould enter as much into our calculations, as if it was hanging over our heads. For, though, in our fond imaginations, we dream of living many years upon the earth-how unexpectedly are we fummoned from it?How oft, in the ftrength of our age,

in the midft of our projects, when we are promifing ourselves the ease of many years? -How oft, at that very time, and in the height of this imagination, is the decree fealed, and the commandment gone forth to call us into another world?

This may fuffice for the examination of this one great cause of the corruption of the world;from whence I fhould proceed as I purposed, to an inquiry after fome other unhappy causes, which have a fhare in this evil.-But I have taken up fo much more of your time in this, than I first intended, that I fhall defer what I have to fay to the next occafion, and put an end to this discourse, by an answer to a queftion often asked, relatively to this argument, in prejudice of Christianity, which cannot be more feafonably anfwered, than in a difcourse at this time; —and that is, Whether the Chriftian religion has done the world any fervice in reforming the lives and morals of mankind, which fome, who pretend to have confidered the present state of vice, seem to doubt of? This objection I, in fome measure, have anticipated in the beginning of this discourse; -and what I have to add to that argument, is this,

That as it is impoffible to decide the point, by evidence of facts, which, at fo great a diftance, cannot be brought together and compared, it must be decided by reason, and the probability of things; -upon which issue, one might appeal to the most profeffed deift, and trust him to determine whether the lives of those who are fet loose from all obligations but those of conveniency, can be compared with those who have been bleffed with the extraordi

nary light of a religion;-and whether so just and holy a religion as the Chriftian, which fets reftraints even upon our thoughts;—a religion, which gives us the most engaging ideas of the perfections of GOD, at the fame time tho' it impreffes the most awful ones of his majesty and power;a Being -rich in mercies; but, if they are abused, terrible in his judgments;-one conftantly about our fecret paths, about our beds; who fpieth out all our ways, noticeth all our actions ;-and is fo pure in his nature, that he will punish even the wicked imaginations of the heart, and has appointed a day wherein he will enter into this inquiry, and execute judgment according as we have deserved.

If either the hopes or fears, the paffions or reafon of men, are not to be wrought upon at all, fuch principles must have an effect, though, I own very far fhort of what a thinking man should expect from fuch motives.

No doubt, there is great room for amendment in the Chriftian world, and the profeffors of our holy religion may, in general, be faid to be a very corrupt and bad generation of men, confidering what reafons and obligations they have to be better.Yet ftill I affirm, if those restraints were leffened,the world would be infinitely worfe;and therefore, we cannot fufficiently blefs and adore the goodness of GOD, for these advantages brought by the coming of Chrift.Which God grant that we may live to be more deferving of; that, in the laft day, when he fhall come again to judge the world, we may rife to life immortal. Amen.

SERMON XXXIV.

Truft in God.

PSALM XXXVII.-3.

Put thou thy truft in the LORD.

WHOEVER feriously reflects upon the state and con dition of man, and looks upon that dark fide of it, which reprefents his life as open to fo many caufes of trouble; when he fees how often he eats the bread of affliction, and that he is born to it as naturally as the sparks fly upwards; that no rank or degrees of men are exempted from this law of our beings; but that all, from the high cedar of Libanus to the humble fhrub upon the wall, are shook in their turns by numberless calamities and distresses:

-when one fits down and looks upon this gloomy fide of things, with all the forrowful changes and chances which furround us;at first fight, would not one wonder, how the spirit of a man could bear the infirmities of his nature, and what it is that fupports him, as it does, under the many evil accidents which he meets with in his paffage through the valley of tears? Without fome certain aid within us to

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