III. effence. We fhall have continually before SERM. us the fource of all wisdom, the pattern of all virtue, and admire, and love, and adore, and imitate,-for ever? Though it doth not yet appear what we shall be, we know that these enjoyments shall be exposed to no viciffitude, accompanied with no anxiety, and fucceeded by no disgust; that they fhall not last for a few years only, or for a period, fuch as human life; but that, when fun, and moon, and ftars fhall have faded away, they fhall feem but beginning their courfe, which shall run to eternity! After all, it doth not yet appear what we shall be; for eye bath not seen, nor ear heard, neither bath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him*. Such, my brethren, are the joys of Chriftianity, in this,-fuch its joys, in a future world! It prescribes the only fyftem of conduct which can unite prefent fatisfaction with the hopes of eternal felicity. Muft you not, then, acknowledge, that it is fubject of deep regret to every feeling mind, * 1 Cor. ii 9. that SERM. that fuch glorious profpects should be ob III. scured by the clouds of error and mifrepresentation, or the enjoyment of them damped, to Chriftians themselves, by the flavery of vice? Can fuch joys be purchased at too high a price; or can the world itself, with all its pleasures and fplendours, compenfate the loss of them? On account of fuch rewards as our religion holds in her right hand, while virtue and wisdom are in her left, fhould we not, if heaven command, take up our cross, and follow our Saviour *, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, defpifing the shame, and is, therefore, fet down at the right hand of the throne of God? Is it not the excess of folly, the blindness of infatuation, the raving of madness itself, to forfeit these joys for a groveling and momentary pleasure, for an infignificant advantage, for a precarious advancement in the world? Thefe, however, and fimilar objects, are the only temptations which Chriftians have, at prefent, to violate confcience, to difgrace their religion, to relinquish the divine favour, and Matth. xvi. 24. + Heb. xii. 2. III. and to forego heaven itself. With what SER M. ftrong expreffions of indignation do the philofophers of antiquity reprobate those who facrificed virtue and mental dignity to pleasure, to pomp, or to power? But words are wanting to express such folly in a Christian, whose duty is fo clearly defined, whofe affiftance is fo powerful, whose profpects are fo certain and glorious! Yet, how many, I should rather fay, all of us, have hazarded both prefent, and everlasting happiness, for the fake of fuch contemptible objects. May God grant, that the impreffion of this folly may make us renounce it for ever, strive to adorn, by the purity, those doctrines we have fo much difgraced by the corruption,-of our lives; and secure that falvation we have fo much endangered. May he conduct us, by his Spirit, along the path of faith and holiness, to the everlasting poffeffion of that joy, which our Saviour has procured and prepares for us. Hold ye faft the profeffion and practice of your faith without wavering*; and rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I fay, rejoice. 78 SERMON IV. ON THE NATURE, THE CAUSES, AND THE GARD TO RELIGION. [Preached before the Society in Scotland for propagating Christian knowledge, June 5. 1801.*] "At a General Meeting of the Society in Scotland for propagating Christian Knowledge, "THE EARL OF LEVEN AND MELVIL, PResident. "The thanks of the Society were given from the Chair to "the reverend Dr Brown, for his excellent Sermon this day "preached before them; and he was requested to give his "manuscript of the same, to be printed for the benefit of the "Society. Jo. KEMP, Sec." IV. my brethren, is more conducive to the wel- SERM. fare of fociety, in general, or to the happinefs of the individual who cultivates it, than that which is termed MODERATION. It is founded in folidity of judgment, is accompanied by the mildness of benevolence, and maintains order and proportion among the affections. Without it, the nobleft principles of our conftitution receive a wrong direction, purfue improper objects, lose their original nature, and terminate in vice, under the appearance of virtue. That this excellent quality has, in the age in which we live, diffused a beneficent influence over the Chriftian world, cannot be called in queftion. Under its guidance, men's minds have been brought to discover and renounce many religious prejudices, to which they were before enflaved. Controverfy has been conducted without thofe violent heats, which, while they were highly indecent in themfelves, proved fatal not only to truth, but to the enjoyment of social intercourfe.. Perfecution is now abhorred by almost every denomination of Chriftians, and |