enemies, than he who always does what is juft and fair, what is pleafing to God and acceptable to man? Who can more reasonably expect to live long and to fee good days, than he that is temperate in all things, who keeps his foul in peace, and his lips that they speak no guile? Such a man hath no need of weapons, nor of armour; for his own innocence is an impenetrable shield against the fiery darts of the wicked: and although all things without be tumult and confufion, yet he enjoys within himself a perpetual calm, a fovereign remedy for all outward evils, the fatisfaction of a good confcience; a pleasure, to which the gratifications of sense are mean and vile. These wretched pleasures soon end in fatiety and forrow; for the joy of the wicked is but for a moment, and the end of their mirth is fadnefs; but a good confcience is a continual feast; it doth good like a medicine; it enables us to eat our bread with comfort, and truly to enjoy the fruit of our labour, because God answereth us in the joy of our hearts.

Moreover, a good man lives in reputation and honour, as well as in fafety and pleafure; for even the wicked muft either speak

of him with refpect, or else they give a blacker dye to their own infamy and difgrace. Integrity truly deserves universal praife, for it may well be confidered as a public bleffing. A man of great abilities, of great power, without integrity, is, in society, moft noxious and deteftable: but he who faithfully strives to do his duty, who fcorns to commit an unworthy action, is, of all characters, the most noble, the moft to be admired he muft, of course, obtain the favour of the great, the friendship of the good, and the esteem of all men ; his name must always command refpect, and his very enemies must do him homage.

;

Here then we behold the wisdom of integrity from the prefent good that attends it but "mark the perfect, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace!" His life is ferene and happy, and his death comfortable; for there is peace in his end, and his hope is full of immortality when the memory of the wicked shall be no more, when their schemes and labours fhall be execrated or forgotten, the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance." But the argument doth not rest here; for the bleffings

and

bleffings that attend the good in this life may be confidered as the natural confequences of virtue; but the righteous man hath reason to expect a far more glorious recompence in a future ftate, wherein he fhall be received with this divine falutation, "Well done, thou good and faithful fervant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

To conclude: Let us often, feriously, confider that this life is a ftate of trial and probation; that pofitive happiness is denied to us on this fide of the grave; but that we may entertain a reasonable hope of it in a future ftate, provided that we work out our own falvation until the day, perhaps, be far spent, and the time of retribution approach. Let us all, therefore, ftrive to make our calling and election fure; and by frequently reflecting on the present and the future benefits arising from an holy life, fo conform ourselves unto it, as that we may all die in peace, in fure and certain hope of a glorious refurrection! Which God, in heaven, grant, to whom, with the Son and holy Spirit, be afcribed all might, majesty, and dominion, both now and for ever. Amen.

SER

L

SERMON III.

ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, AND SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.

JOHN iv. 24.

God is a fpirit: and they that worship him, muft worship him in fpirit and in truth.

I

N this chapter, our Saviour in a dialogue

with a woman of Samaria, instructs mankind in the right way of worshipping God; not by carnal facrifices, but by a spiritual worship; for "God is a spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now this fpiritual worship, in this age of mental refinement and improvement, is almost every where acknowledged; but fome perfons refine too much upon it; they prefumptuously form conclufions from the fubtleties of their own reason that are not warranted