fwept from existence, and their place S ERM. is no more to be found.

I SHALL infift no longer on this representation of things. Enough has been faid, to fhow that the fashion of the world, in every sense, passes away. Opinions and manners, public affairs and private concerns, the life of man, the conditions of fortune, and the earth itself on which we dwell, are all changing around us. -Is every thing, then, with which we are connected, paffing and transitory? Is the whole state of man no more than a dream or fleeting vifion? Is he brought forth, to be only the child of a day? Are we thrown into a river, where all flows, and nothing stays; where we have no means of refifting the current; nor can reach any firm ground, on which to reft our foot?—No, my brethren; man was not doomed to be fo unhappy; nor made by his Creator fo much in vain. There are three fixed and permanent objects, to which I muft now call your atten

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SER M. tion, as the great fupports of human conftancy amidft this fugitive state. Though this world changes and passes away, virtue and goodness never change; God never changes; heaven and immortality pass not away.

First, VIRTUE and goodness never change. Let opinions and manners, conditions and fituations, in public and in private life, alter as they will, virtue is ever the fame. It refts on the immoveable bafis of Eternal Truth. Among all the revolutions of human things it maintains its ground; ever poffeffing the veneration and esteem of mankind, and conferring on the heart, which enjoys it, fatisfaction and peace. Confult the most remote antiquity. Look to the most savage nations of the earth. How wild, and how fluctuating foever the ideas of men may have been, this opinion will find to have always prevailed, that probity, truth, and beneficence, form the honour and the excelJency of man. In this, the philofopher

you

and

*

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and the favage, the warrior and the her- SER M. mit, join. At this altar all have worshipped. Their offerings may have been unfeemly. Their notions of virtue may have been rude, and occafionally tainted by ignorance and fuperftition; but the fundamental ideas of moral worth have ever remained the fame.

Here then is one point of stability, affected by no viciffitudes of time and life, on which we may rest. Our fortunes may change, and our friends may die; but virtue may ftill be our own; and as long as this remains, we are never miferable. Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me. My righteoufness I hold faft, and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me fo long as I live.* He who, with the holy man of old, can hold this language, may with undisturbed mind furvey time flying away, life decaying, and the whole fashion of the world changing around him. He hath within himself, a fource of confolation and hope, independent of all

*Job xxvii. 5, 6.

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SER.M. all earthly objects. Every terrestrial glory fparkles only for a little, with tranfient brightness. But virtue fhines with eternal and unalterable fplendour. It derives its origin from heaven; and partakes both of the luftre, and the ftability, of celeftial objects. It is the brightness of the everlasting light; the unfpotted mirror of God, and the image of his goodness.

IN the second place, God never changes. Amidst the unceafing viciffitude of earthly things, there remains at the head of the universe an eternal protector of virtue, whofe throne is established for ever. With him there is no variableness, neither any fhadow of turning; no inconftancy of purpose, and no decay of wisdom or of power. We know that he loved righteousness from the beginning of days, and that he will continue to love it unalterably to the last. Foreseen by him was every revolution which the courfe of ages has produced. All the changes which happen in the ftate

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ftate of nature, or the life of men, were SER M. comprehended in his decree. How much foever worldly things may change in themselves, they are all united in his plan; they constitute one great system or whole, of which he is the author; and which, at its final completion, shall appear to be perfect. His dominion holds together, in a continued chain, the fucceffive variety of human events; gives ftability to things that in themfelves are fluctuating; gives conftancy even to the fashion of the world while it is paffing away. Wherefore, though all things change on earth, and we ourfelves be involved in the general mutability, yet as long as, with trust and hope, we look up to this Supreme Being, we reft on the rock of ages, and are safe amidst every change. We poffefs a fortrefs to which we can have recourfe in all dangers; a refuge under all ftorms; a dwelling place in all generations.

IN the third and laft place, Heaven and immortality pass not away.

The

fleeting