the favour and love of God; as is manifest from the great regard God expressed for Abraham on this very account. And the Lord said, shall f hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his houshold after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment: that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. Gen. xviii. 17, 18, 19. This is a great encouragement to parents, to be very careful in the education of their children: they are making provision for their own happiness, at the same time that they are endeavouring to secure that of their children. But, should they be disappointed in these their pious endeavours; they are laying up in store a good foundation of comfort, to themselves at least, against the day of trouble; I mean, if it should please God, that they should live to see their chil

dren wicked and miserable, notwithstanding all the means they shall have used to make them otherwise; for they will then have the consolation to reflect that they are clear from the guilt of their children's sins; and will be free from those bitter self-reproaches that a wicked man must feel, who sees his children ruined by those vices and follies, which his example hath taught them, or his carelessness and neglect occasioned them to fall into. Bitter reproaches, I say, those must undoubtedly be, which such a parent will make to himself, when he considers, that he has his children's sins, as well as his own, to account for; and applies to himself (as he justly may) those dreadful words which God spake to the prophet Ezekiel: When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hands. Ezek. iii. 18. O terrible words of most just judgment! How dreadful

must they sound in the ears of a wicked parent, whose children have perished through his fault!

I have now considered some of those duties to which religion obliges us; and endeavoured to shew how conducive they are to our temporal happiness: by which, I hope, it sufficiently appears, how much good men have the advantage of the wicked even as to this world. And here I cannot but take notice of the wonderful love of God to mankind, who in order to encourage our obedience to his laws, has annexed a present, as well as future, reward to a good life; and has so interwoven our` duty and happiness together, that, while we are discharging our obligations to the one, we are, at the same time, making the best provision for the other.

How much then do they derogate from the honour of God, who represent the precepts of religion as an unprofitable and unpleasant task! when it is plain to any man, that considers things rightly, and is not under the prejudice of his lusts and passions, that

I

the great design of religion is to make us happy here, as well as hereafter. Accordingly, all its rules and precepts are so admirably suited to this end, that, would men be persuaded to live in the practice of them, we should find this world a kind of heaven upon earth.

But, had the practice of our duty been ever so irksome and uneasy, and had nothing but trouble and misery been the lot of good men in this world; yet, when we consider, that this life will shortly have an end, and that there is an eternal weight of glory reserved in heaven for those that truly love and serve God; what wise man would not prefer the rugged paths of virtue and religion, which he knows will shortly lead him into an eternity of bliss and happiness, to the ways of sin and wickedness, (how pleasant soever he might find them) where he is in danger every moment of falling into the pit of destruction, and which, he is sure, will, in a little time, bring him into a place of endless misery and tor

ment.

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But, since there is nothing in re ligion but what tends to make our lives easy, cheerful, and contented; nothing but what is suitable to our natures, and agreeable to the dictates of right reason; nothing but what will ennoble our minds; enlarge our understandings, and inspire us with a generous principle of universal love, and charity, aud good-will, to mankind; in short, since the commands of God are not grievous, but his yoke is easy, and his burthen light; it manifestly follows, that, as a good life is the highest wisdom, so a wicked one is the extreme of folly and madness.

A PRAYER.

O MOST gracious God! who, out of thy great love and tender regard for mankind, has set before us life and death, blessing and cursing; and hast endued us with a freedom of will, and liberty to choose the one, and avoid the other; and, to encourage us to make a right choice, hast annexed a