of thee fubmiffion and obedience, or candour and forbearance, or oppofition and refiftance. Bring them all to trial, and try them with the utmost freedom and impartiality, without regard to the refpect in which they stand, or to the multitude and quality of those who adopt and approve them. And the more univerfal and unconfined the prevalence of certain principles and rules of conduct, or certain cuftoms are among the great mafs of thoughtlefs or fuperficial perfons, fo much the lefs do thou follow them without confcicufnefs and without confideration, if thou wouldst maintain the character of a wife man, of a christian, and preferve uninjured thy integrity.

Wouldst thou laftly be fober and vigilant, look frequently around thee, whether fome temptation be not advancing towards thee, left thou shouldst be attacked by it, ere thou haft armed thyself against it. Do this, whenever thou art going to thy work, to the affairs of thy calling; do it, whenever thou art going into company. In both cafes previoufly beftow fome thoughts on the objects, on the perfons, thou wilt there have to do with, on what thou art and shouldst be to them, and what they are and fhould be to thee; think on the defirable or adverfe occurrences, which may befall thee there, on the praise or the cenfure, the good or the evil, which thou wilt probably fee and hear; on the nourishment which vanity, or ambition, or covetoufness, or fleshly lufts may find; on the opportunities and

inducements to iniquity, or to diffimulation and falfehood, or to envy and to discontent, or to displeasure and anger, or to other fins and failings, which will there encounter thee; and thus weaken their baleful influence, by previously preparing thyfelf for them, by firmly expecting them, and therefore by behaving towards them without furprise or confufion, confiftently with thy corrected temper. But again look frequently around thee, whether fome opportunity for improvement or for doing good may not offer itself to thee, that it may not flip away ere thou haft feized and profited by it. Numberless opportunities of this nature escape thee, even though thou be fober and watchful. Thou canft ftill often trace their march, still hear their retreating tread, but the moment when they were in thy power is gone by, they are vanished never more to return. And how many more, equally precious and irremeable op-. portunities for becoming wife and good and happy, and acquiring various merits in regard to others, in addition to the former account, muft elapfe entirely unperceived and unemployed by him who is not fober and not watchful! And if hereafter all these neglected opportunities fhould again vifionarily prefent themselves to his too late awakened imagination, what a cruel but unavailing remorse will be the penalty of his stupidity and want of attention!

Therefore, o man, o chriftian, who wouldft at prefent affert thy dignity, and prepare for thyself a pleafant, a happy futurity, be fober and vigilant! Deeply

Deeply imprint this precept of wifdom on thy heart. Be jealous of thy grand prerogative, the conscioufness of thyself, and the command thou haft of thy attention. Confider always, that it is this which principally elevates thee above the beafts of the field, and to an affinity with the angels, diftinguifhing thee as the creature that is created in the likenefs of God! Only by fobriety and vigilance wilt thou escape the mazes of folly, the fnares of fin, moft of the temptations and dangers of the world, the generality of the most afflicting evils, happily difcomfit the dangers and temptations which thou canst not avoid, and learn courageously to bear the evils which thou art not able to ward off. Only by fobriety and vigilance wilt thou truly triumph in thy life, be thoroughly established in virtue, and be qualified for receiving the whole of its glorious rewards. What are indeed all the pleafures, the delights in which we lofe the confcioufnefs of ourselves, or in which we muft purpofely blunt it; the pleasures, the delights which we do not foberly enjoy, on which we cannot calmly reflect either during the enjoyment, or when it is over? Can these be worthy of the man, the rational man? What are even all the good deeds, which we perform without consciousness, without confideration, more by mechanical rules and blind impulfe, than from just perceptions and inward fentiment of what is right and fitting! How much by that defect muft they not lofe of their worth! No, that joy alone is truly

worthy

4

worthy the man, which he enjoys in the full confcioufness of himself! That generous act alone completely remunerates its author, which he performs in the perfect consciousness of himfelf and of what he is doing! These alone are joys and actions, which will accompany us out of the prefent into the future world, and there continue to reward and to exhilarate us for ever! Oh let us endeavour to accumulate this treafure for futurity, and likewife in this respect and for this reafon, be always fober and always vigilant!

t

SERMON XXXVIII.

What renders the Obfervance of the divine Command

ments easy.

GOD,

we know thee, we worship thee as the creator and fovereign of us, and of the whole universe, as our fupreme lawgiver and judge, as the being who regulates and conducts all the events of our lives, as our most gracious benefactor and father. We proftrate ourselves in the duft before thee as thy creatures, as thy fubjects, as thy children, and defire with continually more vivacity and strength to feel, what veneration, what love, what unbounded, willing obedience we owe thee! Yes, to thee all is in fubjection; at thy nod worlds arife and pass away; thee both heaven and earth obey, the whole innumerable host of funs and stars, and the fand on the fhores of the ocean, the most exalted spirit that worships before thy throne, and the worm that crawls in the duft; and to obey thee is truth, is order, is life, is felicity. Yes, all thy laws are perfect wisdom and benignity, pure fources and methods of content and fatisfaction. And this are they even

to