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than to that God who takes the title of King gathered themselves unto him, he said unto of kings. What I say of confidence in a them, put every man his sword by his side, king, I affirm of confidence in all other crea- and go in and out from gate to gate, throughOn out the camp, and slay every man his brother, tures, whoever or whatever they be. this principle the psalmist grounded this and every man his companion, and every man exhortation, put not your trust in princes, his neighbour,' ver. 26, 27. See Phinehas. nor in the son of man, in whom there is no He perceives Moses and Aaron 'weeping at help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth the door of the tabernacle,' because the peoto his earth, in that very day his thoughts per-ple had forsaken the worship of God, and ish.' On this principle is this other de- gone over to that of Baal-peor; touched with claration of a prophet founded, 'cursed be the their grief he rises up,' quits the congregaman that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh tion, takes a javelin in his hand' and stabs an his arm.' And it is on this principle that sa-Israelite (with the immodest Midianite), who cred history imputes so great a crime to Asa, had enticed the people, into this abominable because when he fell sick, and saw himself idolatry. Behold Elijah. I am very jealous,' reduced to extremity, he sought to the says he, for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken his covenant, physicians, and not to the Lord.' What is a man who gives up his heart to thrown down his altars, and slain his prophets What is a with the sword,' 1 Kings xix. 10. Remark idolize any particular object? man who follows certain sympathies, a cer- St. Paul. His spirit was stirred in him, to tain secret influence, certain charms omnipo- see a nation, in other respects the most learntent to him, because he chooses to yield toed and polite, rendering to an unknown God' their omnipotence? He is a profane wretch, who declares war against God, and who attacks his attributes of communication; he is a man, who attests by his conduct that there is more pleasure in his union to his idol than there can be in communion with God; he is a man, who maintains by his actions that this creature to whom he gives himself up without reserve, merits more love, and knows how to return love with more delicacy and constancy than that God, who is the only model of perfect love; he is a man who resists this invitation of eternal wisdom, my son give me thine heart,' and who disputes a truth, that ought to be considered as a first principle in a system of love, in thy presence is fulness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore,' Ps. xvi. 11.

Let us abridge this part of our discourse, and let us return to the chief end proposed. A sinner, who sins openly, freely, of set purpose, attacks the attributes of God, either his attributes of greatness, or his attributes of communication, or his attributes of holiness, some times all the three together. A good man, who sincerely loves God, can he look with indifference on such insults offered to the object of his love? And in which of the saints whom the inspired writers have proposed as examples to you, have you discovered this guilty indifference?

such homage as was due to none but the Most High, whose 'glory the heavens declare, and whose handy work the firmament showeth.' Behold the royal prophet, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies,' Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22. My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.' Rivers of tears,' tears of which my zeal for thy glory is the first cause.

II. Although the sinner be hateful as a sinner, yet as an unhappy person he is an object of pity, and it is possible he may preclude future ills by repentance. As to love God with all the heart is the first and great commandment, so the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' Sin is a source of misery to a sinner, and it is impossible for a good man to see, without shedding tears of love and pity, the depths of wo into which people united to him by bonds of affection plunge themselves by their obstinacy in sin.

Every thing favours this subject. In regard to the present life, a man living according to laws of virtue is incomparably more happy than he who gives himself up to vice. So the Holy Spirit has declared, godliness Behold Moses! He comes down from the hath promise of the life that now is,' 1 Tim. iv. holy mountain, he hears the acclamations of 8. Though this general rule has some exthose madmen who were celebrating a foolish ceptions, yet they cannot regard the serenity feast in honour of their idol, and he replies to of mind, the peace of conscience, the calm of Joshua, who thought it was a war shout, the passions, the confidence of good men, their Ah! no, it is not the voice of them that steadiness in the calamities of life, and their inshout for mastery, neither is it the voice of trepidity at the approach of death. All these them that cry for being overcome, but the advantages and many others, without which noise of them that sing do I hear,' Exod. the most brilliant condition, and the most dexxxii. 18. Convinced by his own eyes, helicious life, are only a splendid slavery, and a trembles at the sight, breaks the tables of the law, on which God had engraven with his own adorable hand the clauses of the covenant which this people were now violating, he runs to the gate of the camp,' and cries, 'who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me!' And when all the sons of Levi

source of grief, all these advantages, I say, are inseparable from piety. A charitable man cannot see, without deep affliction, objects of his tenderest love renounce such inestimable advantages, poison the pleasure of their own life, open an inexhaustible source of remorse, and prepare for themselves racks and tortures

But, my brethren, these are only the least subjects of our present contemplation. We have other bitter reflections to make, and other tears to shed, and there is an exposition of charity more just, and at the same time more lamentable, of the words of my text, Rivers of waters run down mine eyes: because they keep not thy law.'

I am thinking of the eternal misery in which sinners involve themselves. We are united to sinners by ties of nature, by bonds of society, and by obligations of religion, and who can help trembling to think that persons round whom so many tendrils of affectionate ligaments twine, should be threatened with everlasting torments! Some people are so much struck with this thought, that they think, when we shall be in heaven all ideas of people related to us on earth will be effaced from our memory, that we shall entirely lose the power of remembering, that we shall not even know such as share celestial happiness with us, lest the idea of such as are deprived of it should diminish our pleasure, and imbitter our happiness. It would be easy, in my opinion to remove this difficulty, if it were necessary now. In heaven order, and order alone will be the foundation of our happiness; and if order condemns the persons we shall have most esteemed, our happiness will not be affected by their misery. We shall love only in God; we shall feel no attachment to any, who do not love God as we do: their cries will not move us, nor will their torments excite our compassion.

But while we are in this world, God would have us affected with the misery that threatens a sinner, that our own feelings may excite us to prevent it. You have sometimes admired one of the most marvellous phenomena of nature; nature has united us together by invisible bonds, it has formed our fibres in perfect unison with the fibres of our neighbour; we cannot see him exposed to violent pain without receiving a counter blow, an unvaried tone that sounds relief to him, and forces us to assist him. This is the work of that Creator, whose infinite goodness is seen in all his productions. He intends that these sentiments of commiseration in us should be so many magazines to supply what the temporal miseries of our neighbours require.

timents is to oppose the intention of God; to tear these from our hearts is to disrobe our. selves of that charity, without which there is no religion.

Accordingly, the more a mind becomes perfect in the exercise of this virtue, the more it has of this kind of sensibility. Hence it was that St. Paul so sharply reproved the Corinthians, because they had not mourned on account of that incestuous person, who had disgraced their church. Hence it was that Moses, when he discovered that gross idolatry of which we just now spoke, gave himself up to the deepest sorrow, and said to the Lord, 'Oh, this people have sinned a great sin! Yet now, forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book.' Hence it was that Jeremiah said to the Jews of his time, who were going captives into a foreign land, where they would be destitute of the comfort of religion, give glory to God before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains. But if ye wil: not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eyes shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock is carried away captive.' Hence this declaration of Paul to the Philippians, Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.' Hence it was that Jesus Christ, the chief model of charity, when he overlooked the unhappy Jerusalem, and saw the heavy judgments coming upon it, 'wept over it,' saying, O that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.'

Here I venture to defy those of you, who glory in insensibility, to be insensible and void of feeling. No, nothing but the most confirmed inattention to futurity, nothing but the wretched habit we have formed of thinking of nothing but the present world can hinder our being affected with subjects which made the deepest impressions on the soul of the psalmist. Consider them as he did, and you will be affected as he was. You hardest hearts, try your insensibility, and see whether you can resist such reflections as these! This friend, who is my counsel in difficulty, my support in trouble, my comfort in adversity; this friend, who So in regard to eternity, there is a harmo- constitutes the pleasure of my life, will be ny, and, if you will allow the expression, there perhaps for ever excluded from that happiness is a unison of spirits. While we are in this in heaven, to which all my hopes and wishes world, an idea of the eternal destruction of a tend: when I shall be in the society of angels, person we esteem suspends the pleasure, he will be in the company of devils: when he which a hope of salvation promised to our shall knock at the door of the bridegroom who selves would otherwise cause. It is the work opened to me, he will receive this answer, of the Creator, whose goodness shines bright-Verily, I say unto you, I know you not.' This er in religion than in the works of nature. catechumen, in whose mind I endeavoured to That horror, which is caused by a bare ap- inculcate the truths of religion; a part of the pearance, that the man we so tenderly love should be reserved for eternal torments, I say, the bare suspicion of such a calamitous event compels us to flee to the aid of the unhappy object of our esteem, to pluck him from the jaws of destruction by reclaiming him from his errors with the force of exhortation and the power of example. To combat these sen

men, whom I thought I had subdued to Jesus
Christ; a great number of these hearers, whom
I often told, that they would be my joy and
crown in the day of the Lord (certainly you
are our joy and crown,') will perhaps be one
day disowned by Jesus Christ in the face of
heaven and earth. This pastor, whom I con-
sidered as my guide in the way to heaven, this

A good man, on the contrary, is happy in the company of another good man. What countrymen feel, when they meet in a foreign land where interests and customs, maxims and views, all different from those of the land of their nativity, resembles the pleasures believ

where they are only strangers and pilgrims. Accordingly, one of the most ardent wishes of our prophet was, to be always in company with people of this kind, I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts,' said he to God. In another place, 'I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord.' And again,' All my delight is in the excellent saints that are in the earth.'

pastor will himself experience all the horrors contrast, which renders the latter abominable of that state, of which he gave me such dread-in the eyes of all equitable people. ful ideas. This husband to whom Providence united me, this husband whom I esteemed as part of myself, I shall perhaps one day consider as my most mortal foe, I shall acquiesce in his damnation, I shall praise God and say, 'Hallelujah, power belongeth unto the Lord our God! True and righteous are his judg-ers experience when they associate in a world ments! Hallelujah, the smoke of the torment' of him whose company once constituted my happiness, shall rise up for ever and ever!' This child, in behalf of whom I feel I exhaust all that the power of love has of tenderness, this child whose least cry pierces my soul, and who feels no pain without my feeling a thousand times more for him, this child will be seized with horror, when he shall see coming in the clouds of heaven surrounded with holy angels that Jesus whose coming will overwhelm me with joy: this child will then seek refuge in dens, and caverns, and chasms, he will cry in agony of despair, Mountains and rocks, fall on me and hide me from the wrath of the Lamb! He will be loaded with chains of darkness, he will be a prey to the worm that never dies, and fuel for the fire that will never be quenched, and when Jesus Christ shall say to me in that great day, 'Come, thou blessed of my Father,' I shall hear this dreadful sentence denounced against this child, depart, thou cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Too just a subject of grief! Rivers of waters,' tears of love and pity, run down mine eyes: because they keep not thy law.'

But how few of these saints did he find! Most of his misfortunes were brought on him by the very sinners whose depravity he deplores. They were the poison of his life, and them he always saw standing ready to persecute him, and to discharge against his person the impotent malice they had against that God whose servant he considered it as his glory to be.

Does our age differ in this respect from that of David? Are saints more numerous now than they were then? May a good man promise himself among you more approbation, more countenance and support, than the psalmist found?

This is an odious question, and our doubts III. So earnestly do I desire to have your at- may seem to you illiberal. Well, we will not tention fixed on the objects just now mention-press it. But if the bulk of you be saints, this ed, that I shall hardly venture to finish the plan proposed, and to proceed to a third part of this discourse. I wish you were so alarmed with the eternal misery that threatens to overwhelm your fellow-citizens and friends, your husbands and children, and so employed to prevent it, that you were become as it were insensible to the temporal ills to which the enemies of God expose you. However, we do not pretend that love to our neighbours should make us forget what we owe ourselves. As the excesses of the wicked made our prophet shed tears of charity, so they caused him to shed tears of self-interest.

country must be the most delicious part of the whole universe. A good man must be as happy as it is possible to be in this world. In these provinces, free by constitution, opulent by trade, invincible by alliances, and perfectly safe by the nature of their government from tyrants and tyranny, if the number of saints be greater in these provinces than that of the wieked, it must be the most delicious of all residences in this world for a good man: if he stumbles, you will charitably save him from falling, if he errs, you will patiently bear with him, and gently reclaim him; if he be oppressed, you will assist him with firmness and vigour; if he form schemes of piety, charity, and reformation, you will second him with eagerness and zeal; if he sacrifice his health, and ease, and fortune, for our good, you will reward him with gratitude, yea with profusion. May a good man promise himself all this among you? Alas! to be only willing to devote himself to truth and virtue, is often sufficient to cause him to be beset round with a company of contradictors and opposers.

The wicked are the scourges of society. One seditious person is often sufficient to disturb the state; one factious spirit is often enough to set a whole church in a flame; one profligate child is often enough to poison the pleasure of the most happy and harmonious family. Good people are generally the butts of the wicked. A wicked man hates a good man, He hates him, when he has not the power to hurt him, because he has not had the pleasure of hurting him; he hates him, after But we will not engage too deeply in such he has injured him, because he considers him gloomy reflections, we will finish the discourse, as a man always ready to revenge the affront and can we finish it in a manner more suitable offered him; and if he thinks him superior to to the emotions of piety that assembled you in revenge, he hates him because he is incapable this solemn assembly, than by repeating the of vengeance, and because the patience of the prayer with which we began? Almighty God! offended and the rage of the offender form a whose adorable judgments condemns us to

wander in a valley of trouble, and to live, sometimes to be united by indissoluble ties, among men who insolently brave thy commands, Almighty God! grant we may be gathered to that holy society of blessed spirits, who place their happiness in a perfect conformity to thine august laws.

The occupation of the blessed in heaven, (and this is one of the most beautiful images under which a man who loves his God, can represent the happiness of heaven), the employment of the blessed in heaven is to serve God; their delight is to serve God; the design of all the plans, and all the actions, and the motions of the blessed in heaven, is to serve God. And as the most laudable grief of a believer in this unhappy world, which sin makes a theatre of bloody catastrophes, and a habitation of maledictions, is to see the unworthy inhabitants violate the laws of their Creator, so the purest joys of the blessed, is to see themselves in a society where all the members are always animated with a desire to please God, always ready to fly where his voice calls them, always collected in studying his holy laws.

And you too, distressed Rachels! whose voices are heard lamenting, weeping, and mourning, refusing to be comforted, because your children are not; see, behold there in heaven your children, the dear objects of your grief and your love!

·

Oh! Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord! I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.' Let us apply this thought of the prophet to ourselves, and may the application we make, serve for a balm to heal the wounds, which the loss of our friends has occasioned! They shall not return to us,' they shall never return to this society. What a society! A society in which our life is nothing but a miserable round of errors and sins; a society where the greatest saints are great sinners; a society in which we are often obliged to communicate with the enemies of God, with blasphemers of his holy name, violaters of his august laws! No, they shall not return to us,' and this is one consolation. But (and this is the other), but we shall go to them.' They have done nothing but set one step before us into eternity; the pleasures they enjoy are increased by the hope of our shortly enjoying the same with This is the society to which you, my dear them. They, with the highest transports, bebrethren, are apppinted; you who, after the hold the mansions which Jesus Christ has preexample of Lot, vex your righteous souls from pared for us in the house of his Father. 'I day to day at seeing the depravity of the world; ascend unto my Father and your Father, and you, I mean, who shine as lights in the midst to my God and your God,' said our divine Reof a crooked and perverse nation.' Into that deemer, to raise the drooping spirits of his society those happy persons are gone, whom apostles, stunned with the apprehension of his death has taken from us, and a separation from approaching death. This is the language we whom has caused us so many sighs and tears. have heard spoken, this is the declaration we Behold, faithful friend! behold the company have heard made by each of those whom we where now resides that friend to whom your have had the consolation of seeing die full of soul was knit, as the soul of Jonathan was knit the peace of God, 'I ascend unto my Father with the soul of David! See, thou weeping and your Father and to my God and your Joseph See that society where thy good fa- God." O may we be shortly united in the bother now is, that good Jacob whom thou didst som of this adorable Being with our departed convey to the grave with tears so bitter, that friends, whose conversation was lately so dethe inhabitants of Canaan called the place lightful to us, and whose memory will always where thou didst deposit the body, Abel- continue respected and dear! May we be Mizraim, a grievous mourning to the Egyp-united with the redeemed of all nations, and tians.' Look, frail father! look at that socie-kindreds, and people, and tongues, in the prety, there is thy son, at whose death thou didst sence of the blessed God! God grant us this exclaim, 'O Absalom, my son, would God I grace! To him be honour and glory, for ever. had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!' Amen.