V.

"fhall refound through the hall. For me SERM. "the daughters of beauty shall display their "charms. For me the dance, and the "course, and the chace, thall present their "enlivening delights. I mean not to dif "card the thoughts of religion altogether. "When my hairs begin to whiten, and my "paffions to cool, I will liften to her ad"monitions." In the night, perhaps, of diffolute feftivity, God requires his foul, and stretches him a breathlefs corpfe amidst his riotous companions, as an awful example of the truth of religion, and of the va nity of the world!

But, why should I reprefent, to the profligate and the giddy, the ftriking uncertainty of human life, as an argument for the neceflity of remembering their Creator in the days of their youth? In the true fpirit of Epicurifm, they regard this as a motive for the enjoyment of illicit pleasure : "". As · “life is short," they fay, let us render it agreeable. Let us enjoy the prefent which "is our own, regardless of the future which "we may never fee." Endeavouring to compenfate

66.

V.

SERM. compenfate the shortness, by the accumulation, of their pleasures, they drink up iniquity with greediness*, because the intoxicating cup will foon be dafhed from their hands.

Frantic fons of perdition! what you call pleafure is pain, what you call enjoyment is vexation, what you call happiness is mifery! Already you feel this to be the cafe, in those bodies to which your fouls are prostituted, for which they are ruined for ever. That pale, fickly countenance; thofe limbs tottering under the burden of age, even in the flower of youth; that canker, which devours every remaining bloffom of health; those racking pains, you endure; that fevere regimen, that mortification and felf-denial, you must undergo, in a greater measure, for the fake of vice, than would have been required of you, for the fake of religious virtue; that contempt, into which you have fallen among the judicious and wife; that ficklenefs, feebleness, and impotence of mind, which characterize the whole of

duct; that envy, with which

your con

you

look up

to

* Job xv. 16.

V.

to the healthy frame, and the honourable SERM. diftinction of those who engaged in the purfuits of men, while you debased yourselves even below the brutes,-all these intimately convince you of the folly of your choice. If you pretend contrary fentiments, it is only because, like the father of lies †, and of iniquity, you defire to have companions in your misery and disgrace.

Meanwhile, the judgments of God strike you with terror. There are certain alarming forebodings, that attend a course of profligacy, which neither sophistry can remove, nor the intoxication of vice confign to oblivion, nor hardness of heart itself entirely fupprefs. Conscience retains the power to condemn the vices which she could not prevent. Then, you prolong, in imagination, that life which, in the full vigour of trans greffion, you acknowledged to be short, in order to devote it, exclufively, to pleasure ;

and
you flatter yourselves with the prof
pect of reforming, in advanced years, the
vicious inclinations, and habits which the
whole

+ John viii. 44.

SERM. whole of your paft lives have been employ. ed in acquiring and confirming.

V.

Let us fuppofe that God mercifully fpares you till that period. Is there any ground for believing that it will be allotted to repentance and amendment of life, to the study, and the practice of religion? Though your course of conduct be changed, the change will not be for the better. Though you have found the service of fatan fo full of uneafiness and difguft, your hearts will not be restored to God. Before you accufe me of injustice, and cruelty in forming this opinion, I entreat you, my brethren, to at tend to the reasons on which it is grounded. This brings me to the second pretext for delaying the concerns of religion-the cares of the world, or rather, the change of vi cious pursuits.

II. It is a certain maxim, that men are neither virtuous, nor vicious, at once, and that it is equally difficult to correct bad habits, long established, and to acquire good, ones to which we have long been strangers.

The

The fame gradual progress, which God ob- SERM. ferves in the works of Nature, he common

grace. He

ly pursues in the operations of
shakes the heart of the finner with his ter-
ror before he melts it with his mercy. He
infpires it with averfion from fin, before he
fires it with the love of holiness. He, first,
drops the feeds of virtuous dispositions in
a proper ground; then, he makes them
fpring in their feafon. He waters them
with his grace, and plucks up the weeds
that choke and impede their growth. He
makes them bud and bloffom. He forms
the tender fruit, and advances it to that
maturity of righteoufnefs, which is to his
glory and praife, and to the poffeffor's

eternal falvation.

Confider, then, if those, whofe hearts are already over-run with the rank and poisonous weeds of idleness and diffipation, of luxury and extravagance, of licentioufnefs and debauchery, of irreligion and profanity, and a complete difregard of moral principle, are likely, in maturer years, to plant and cultivate that righteousness, whose fruit

V.

Phil. i 11.