SERM. XV. AFTER fo many teftimonies given by the facred writings to the high importance of a meek and peaceable spirit, what fhall we think of thofe, who, in their fyftem of religion, make flight account of this virtue; who are ready to quarrel with others on the most trifling occafions; who are continually difquieting their families by peevishness and ill-humour; and by malignant reports, raifing diffenfion among friends and neighbours; Can any claims to found belief, or any fuppofed attainments of grace, fupply the defect of fo cardinal a virtue as charity and love?— Let fuch perfons particularly bethink themselves how little the fpirit which they poffefs, fits them for the kingdom of heaven, or rather how far it removes them from the just hope of ever entering into it. Hell is the proper region of enmity and ftrife. There dwell unpeaceable and fiery fpirits, in the midst of mutual hatred, wrath, and tumult. But the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of peace. There, charity. never faileth. There, reigneth the God of XV, Love; and in his prefence, all the SER M. bleffed inhabitants are of one heart and one foul. No ftring can ever be heard to jar in that celeftial harmony; and therefore the contentious and violent are, both by their own nature and by God's decree, for ever excluded from the heavenly fociety.-As the best preparation for those bleffed mansions, let us ever keep in view that direction given by an Apoftle; Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man fhall fee the Lord*. To the cultivation of amity and peace in all our focial intercourse, let us join holiness; that is, piety and active virtue: and thus we shall pass our days comfortably on earth, and at the conclufion of our days, be admitted to dwell among faints and angels, and to fee the Lord, * Heb. xii. 14 ་ SERM. SERMON XVI. On Religious Joy, as giving Strength and Support to Virtue. NEHEMIAH, viii. 10. -The joy of the Lord is your firength. EHEMIAH, the governor of Jeru Nfalem, having affembled the people of Ifrael immediately after their return from the captivity of Babylon, made the book of the law be brought forth and read before them. On hearing the words of the book of the law, we are informed that all the people wept; humbled and caft down by the fense of their prefent weak and forlorn condition, compared with the flourishing state of their ancestors. Nehemiah fought to raise XVI. their spirits from this dejection; and SERM. exhorts them to prepare themselves for ferving the God of their fathers with a cheerful mind; for, fays he, the joy of the Lord is your ftrength. Abstracted from the occafion on which the words were spoken, they contain an important truth, which I now purpose to illuftrate; that to the nature of true religion there belongs an inward joy, which animates, strengthens, and fupports virtue. The illuftration of this position will require that I fhould fhow, in the first place, that in the practice of religious duties there is found an inward joy, here ftyled the joy of the Lord; and in the next place, that this joy is justly denominated the strength of the righteous. I. Joy is a word of various signification. By men of the world, it is often used to express those flashes of mirth which arife from irregular indulgences of focial pleasure; and of which it is faid by the wife man, that in fuch laughter the heart is forrowful, and the end SERM. end of that mirth is heaviness*. It will mentioned partakes of nothing akin to WHEN WE Confider in what manner religion requires that a good man fhould ftand affected towards God, it will prefently appear that rational enlightened piety opens fuch views of him as muft communicate joy. It prefents him, * Prov. xiv. 13. not |