mankind. to fupport all the indigent, incurable and aged; it is not in your power to train up in the paths of virtue many friendless and fatherless children; but if as far as the compafs of your power reaches, nothing is deprived of the influence of your bounty, and where your power falls fhort, you are cordially affected to fee good works done by others; those charities which you could not do, will be placed to your account. To grafp thus the whole fyftem of reasonable beings, with an overflowing love, is to poffefs the greatest of all earthly enjoyments, is to make approaches to the happiness of higher natures, and anticipate the joy of the world to come. For it is impoffible, that the man who, actuated by a principle of obedience to his Creator, has cherished each generous and liberal movement of the foul, with a head ever ftudious to contrive, a heart ever willing to promote, and hands ever ready to distribute to the good of his fellow creatures, should notwithstanding be doomed to be an affociate for ever with accurfed fpirits, in a place where benevolence never fhed its.

It is not indeed in your power

kindly beams, but malice and anguish, and blackness of darkness reign for ever and ever. No, the riches which we have given away will abide with us for ever. The faine habit of love will accompany us to another world. The bud which hath opened here will blow into full expanfion above, and beautify the paradife in the Heavens.

SERMON XII.

MATTHEW v. 19.

Whofoever therefore fhall break one of these leaft Commandments, and shall teach men fo, be fhall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven.

THE Roman Catholics divide fins into

TH

two claffes, the venial and the mortal. In the first class, they include those flight offences which, as they fay, are too inconfiderable to offend the Deity, and, in the second, thofe great and aggravated tranfgreffions which expose men to the Divine vengeance in the world to come. Although this diftinction, which overthrows the law of morality, is abjured by all Proteftants, yet something like it is still re

tained by great numbers of men. What the Papifts call venial fins, they call fins of infirmity, human failings, imperfections infeparable from men. And their own favourite vices, whatever they be, they call by these names. Cruel is the condition of the human kind, fay they, and rigorous the fpirit of the Chriftian law, if we are to lie under fuch terrible reftrictions; if breaking one of the least commandments shall exclude us from the kingdom of God. Will the Great Creator be offended by a few trivial tranfgreffions, with little liberties, which ferve only for amufement? If others take a general toleration, fhall we not have an indulgence at particular times? If we are prohibited from turning back in the paths of virtue, may we not make a random excurfion? If we are not allowed to taste the fruits, may we not at least crop the bloffoms of the forbidden tree? While the waters of pleafure flow fo near, and look so tempting, shall we not be permitted to taste and live? Will the Great Judge of the world condemn us to eternal punishment, for the indulgence of a wandering inclination,

for the gratification of a fudden appetite, for a look, a word, or a thought?

As this is the apology of vice, which, at one time or another, all of you make to yourselves, I fhall now fhow you the dangerous natúre and fatal tendency of thofe offences you call little fins. And in entering upon the fubject, Chriftians, I must observe to you, that the attempt to join together the joys of religion and the pleasures of fin, is altogether impracticable; the Divine law regulates the enjoyments as well as the business of life. You are never to forget one moment that you are Christians. The joys which you are allowed to partake of, are in the train of virtue. While you are pilgrims in the wilderness, if you return to Egypt again, you forfeit your title to the promised land. You have left the dominions of fin, you have come into another kingdom; and, if now you revolt to the foe, you are guilty of treason, and may expect to meet with the punishment which treafon deferves. How fhall we diftinguish then, vou say, between the fins of infirmity, in

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