of

their guilt cannot extend beyond the reach of the divine forgiveness; that, "though their sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool:" forgetting that before this can happen, it is commanded, "wash ye and make you clean, and put away your evil doings from before mine eyes.” They are backward to conceive how the anger God can be kindled against such comparatively insignificant beings as themselves, who, with all their faults, are, in their own judgments, not sufficiently guilty to deserve the punishment denounced against those, who, in the magnificent imagery of the prophet, "shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them."

With such mistaken impressions of the divine character, they are apt to think themselves hardly dealt with, if they suffer more than they may happen to imagine justly apportioned to-what they would term-their venial offences. They deny themselves no enjoyments; for all enjoyments are in their view innocent, or, at least pardonable, but still go quietly on in their sins, under the unwarrantable presumption that their Creator is too merciful to punish eternally, when he has declared himself so ready to forgive. They ought not, however, to forget, in estimating his boundless perfections, that immutable justice, as well as mercy, is one of his essential attributes: that God cannot

be inconsistent with himself; and that the sinner must sorrow as well as the righteous rejoice. Would he not violate the laws of his Providencenay, would he not sully his divine perfections, if he were to make no distinction between those who hear and obey his voice, and the "workers of iniquity"? Shall He pronounce a decree and suffer it to be broken with impunity? Or can we imagine, that he has ever declared a determination which he will not execute? With him there can be no change. What He has said must be, or there is no truth in Heaven. Shall we then, after he has expressly laid down the conditions of his favour, and condescended to come among us as a suffering man, and make atonement for us by the sacrifice of himself; shall we, after this, complain, if we undergo some afflictions here, when our disobedience is so frequent, our ingratitude so manifest, and our sinfulness so flagrant? Had we not much better suffer in time than in eternity? And how know we, but that the very sorrows at which we repine in this life, may draw us aside from the broad way, that leads to those dreary abodes where the guilty shall sorrow for ever! The Almighty is merciful, even in his chastisements, for "whom he loveth he chasteneth;" and, but for this timely correction, they might still continue in their sins, and become finally aliens from the kingdom of heaven. "Wherefore, then, doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?"

If we could, for one moment, take a glance into the divine councils, and should discover that our punishment here was applied for our benefit hereafter, what should we then say to the presumption of our complaints? How should we be confounded and put to shame, at perceiving we had murmured against Him who was leading us through the rough paths of temporal woe, to the glorious goal of our salvation; when the smoother way, which would have been our own ungoverned choice, could have only conducted to the regions of eternal death. The thistle, it is true, will be frequently found in the most wholesome pastures, but we had better occasionally pluck it to our momentary inconvenience, receiving from it a caution of warning and reproof, than gather from the hothouse of Luxury those forced blossoms, whose brilliancy and perfume, while they captivate the eye and intoxicate the sense, only allure us onward to our ruin.

Let us, then, trust in the Lord amidst all the vicissitudes of that brief but probationary period allotted to this life. Let not our hearts be sad, for "there is joy to them that mourn." Let us" cease to do evil," for "her way goeth down to the chambers of death." "Come and let us return unto the Lord, for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, wherefore turn yourselves and live."

SERMON V.

ON EVIL SPEAKING.

EPISTLE GENERAL OF ST. JAMES, IV. 11.

"Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law; but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge."

WE find, that among the religious precepts which are conveyed to us in the Scriptures of the New Testament, many of the social virtues are included as of paramount importance in the great work of salvation; and in the epistle, more especially, to which you have been just referred, several of these virtues are strongly pressed upon us by a caution to refrain from their opposite vices. We should always bear in mind, that in every important work, we must first learn to perform the less, before we can hope to accomplish the greater; and upon this maxim we shall find that we never can successfully practise the more imperative duties of Christianity, whilst we altogether pass over those which, although, singly