thoughts, occasionally force itself upon them, and cast a cloud over many a scene of projected merriment. Can you reckon that to be sincere joy, which is liable to be interrupted and mingled with so many sensations of the most disagreeable nature? In the cup of intemperance, or in the tumult of loose society, the man of pleasure studies to drown them. But often his efforts are vain. When he pushes to the utmost his scenes of criminal revelry, they will carry the resemblance of Belshazzar's feast; at which, while the impious monarch was drinking amongst his lords and concubines, he beheld the finger's of a man's hand writing in unknown characters on the wall over against him; and his countenance changed, and his heart sunk within him.* Thus, in the midst of riot, imagined spectres have been known to haunt the man of guilty pleasure. He sees hands coming forth to write on the wall against him. The very portraits of his ancestors, which hang in his hall, appear to him to look with frowning aspect, and to upbraid him with wasting in licentious pleasures the fortune which their honourable labours or virtuous industry had acquired. -Of all the classes of sinners, it has been found, that none are so liable, in some period of their lives, or at least when life is drawing to its close, to be smitten with severe remorse, as those who have sacrificed to pleasure all the calls of conscience and of duty, LET us consider, in the last place, how unsuitable a life of dissipation and pleasure is to the condition of man in this world, and how injurious to the interests of society. In the world, we are surrounded with scenes of distress. We behold the greatest part of the human race doomed to hard labour and penurious subsistence. We hear the cries of indigence. We know that every day thousands are yielding up their breath, and thousands are attending their dying friends. Our own lives are fleeting fast away. Flourishing as our state may at present seem, we know that there is but a step between us and death. The youngest and the healthiest cannot tell whether they may not, within the space of a few days, be called to undergo the judgment of God. -Is this a time, is this a place, where no other thing is to be pursued but giddy amusement and perpetual pleasure? Have you, my friends, who are spending your days in this wanton abuse of prosperity, no sense of the unsuitableness of such conduct to the condition of mortal man? Do you see nothing in the state of human life to chasten and temper your mirth; to bring serious reflections home to your bosom; to admonish you that it is better to go sometimes to the house of mourning, than to dwell always in the house of feasting ?- -Do you feel no com * Daniel, v. 5. punction at the thought that, by your luxury and extravagance, you are adding to the scenes of sorrow which already abound in this afflicted world? For you, and your follies, the aged parent, or the respectable relation, mourn. To supply the oppressive demands of your pleasures, families are driven from their habitations, and left to poverty and want. Your mirth forces the widow and the fatherless to weep. At the same time you are scattering poison in society around you. You are corrupting the public manners by the life which you lead. You are propagating follies and vices; and by the example which you set are ensnaring many to follow you into ruin.-Consider with how much discontent and indignation the poorer classes of men, all the while, behold you. Especially, if in times of scarcity and of war, such as those in which I now write, they see you indulging in wastefulness and thoughtless profusion, when they and their families are not able to earn their bread. As long as wealth is properly employed, persons in low situation naturally look up to their superiors with respect. They rest contented in their station. They are even disposed to bless the hand which furnishes them with employment on reasonable terms, and occasionally dispenses seasonable relief. But if they feel themselves oppressed, merely that a few may be enabled to squander at pleasure, and to revel in wasteful excess, their discontents are not easily suppressed. With sullen murmurs they issue from their impoverished habitations, prepared for every evil work. SUCH are some of the consequences which flow from dissipation and the intemperate love of pleasure. Let not the effect of what has been said be frustrated by this evasion, that although the descriptions which have been given be just and true, yet they are applicable only to such as have carried their pursuit of pleasure to the most criminal excess; a class, in which few, if any, will admit that they deserve to be ranked.-They who are only beginning the course of vicious pleasure, and who sin within prescribed bounds, may reckon with certainty on their bearing a share of the evils and miseries which I have described. Not only so, but having once entered on an irregular course, they cannot tell where they are to stop. They have drunk from the cup of the enchantress; and being fairly brought within the magic circle, their powers of reflection are laid asleep, and to make an escape may not be in their power. To some, it may perhaps appear, that the whole strain of this discourse refers only to the rich and the great; and that persons of moderate fortune, and of the middle ranks of life, who form the great body of society, have little or no concern in it. But this is entirely a mistake. Splendid fortune, and high birth or rank, afford, beyond doubt, the strongest and most frequent temptations to the loose indulgence of every enjoyment. But throughout all ranks the danger extends, of being misled by pleasure in some of its forms. In this country, where wealth and abundance are so much diffused over all stations; where it is well known that the inferior orders of men are perpetually pressing upon those who are above them, and following them in their manners, a life of dissipation is perhaps not less frequent among the middle, than among the higher classes of society.The modes of amusement may not be so refined. The entertainments and pleasures may be of a grosser kind. But in many an inferior circle, there prevails as much love of pomp and show, as much proportional extravagance in expense, as much rivalry in the competition of passions and pleasures, as in the most fashionable and courtly assemblies. Sober reflections are as much laid aside; the gratification of vanity, and the indulgence of pleasure, are pursued with equal eagerness.- -Let us therefore, my brethren, in whatever rank of life we are placed, proceed upon this as our great principle, that to serve God, to attend to the serious cares of life, and to discharge faithfully the duties of our station, ought to be the first concern of every man who wishes to be wise and happy; that amusement and pleasure are to be considered as the relaxation, not the business, of life; and that if from those sentiments we depart, and give ourselves up to pleasure as our only object, even in laughter the heart shall be sorrowful, and the end of our mirth shall be heaviness. SERMON LXXXIV. ON THE CONSCIENCE VOID OF OFFENCE. Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men.-ACTs, xxiv. 16. THESE words were spoken by the Apostle Paul, in the course of that manly and spirited defence which he made for himself, when accused of sedition and impiety before Felix, the Roman governor. He vindicates himself from the charges brought against him; but boldly avows his principles, conceals no part he had acted, gives up no doctrine he had taught, and with the firm consciousness of innocence, appeals to his enemies themselves for the unblemished integrity of his life and charac ter. To maintain always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men, is a degree of virtue to which, in its full extent, none can lay claim. For who is there among the sons of men that can pretend, on every occasion, throughout his whole life, to have preserved a faultless conduct? How few days, indeed, go over our heads wherein something does not pass, in which our behaviour has not been altogether correct, or free from every offence? In the present imbecility and fallen state of human nature, he is the worthiest person who is guilty of the fewest offences towards God or towards man. But though the character referred to in the text be not attainable by us in a complete degree, it is the character to which we must all study to approach; to come as near to it as the weakness of our nature admits; so that neither in piety towards God, nor in social duties towards men, we may be found remarkably deficient.You will observe, that this great Apostle does not boast of having fully attained to a conscience void of every offence. His words are, that herein he exercised himself; that is, this was his object and his study, to this he formed and trained himself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and men. -Assuredly, there is nothing in human life, more amiable and respectable than such a character. Wherever it appears, it commands universal reverence in every station, whether high or low. It is indeed what all men would wish to gain; at least, they wish that others should believe them to possess it. Even the most corrupt look to it, from afar, with a sigh; and however obliged to condemn themselves for having fallen short of it, cannot help esteeming and respecting others who are dignified by the attainment of it. Let us then consider, first, what is implified in exercising or forming ourselves to maintain the conscience void of offence; and next, what the effects will be of having, in some degree, attained it. I. In exercising ourselves for this purpose our first care must be to have our conscience well informed, or properly instructed, as to what is, or is not, real ground of offence towards God, or towards men. Conscience is the guide, or the enlightening and directing principle of conduct; and as our Saviour has warned us, If the light which is in thee be darkness, how great will that darkness be? If that which should guide us be itself misled, how widely must we wander astray?-There are two extremes here, to each of which, different sets of men are apt erroneously to incline. One set of men are apt to be minutely scrupulous about matters of smaller importance; tithing, as the Scripture describes them, mint, anise, and cumin, while they neglect the weightier matters of the law. Punctual in their observance of all the forms and ceremonies of religion, they hope by this means to compensate for allowing themselves in unlawful pleasures or unrighteous gains. Another, and perhaps a more numerous set of men, err from loose casuistry in matters of moral duty. They admit the obligation they are under to virtuous practice; but they lay the whole stress of virtue on some particular good dispositions to which their temper inclines them. On these they highly value themselves; but breaches of other parts of duty, they are apt to consider as small and venial transgressions. They have balances of their own, in which they weigh every transgression; and if any of the offences they have committed, either against God or their neighbour, weigh light in the scale of fashion or general practice, they appear to them as scarcely any of fences at all. Both these extremes we must carefully guard against and study to regulate our conduct by the pure unsophisticated laws of God; resting our character neither on a strict observance merely of the external forms of religion, nor on a partial regard to its moral duties; but attending to all that God • Matth. vi. 23. |