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can be more fufpicious than for reasonable creatures to decline the bar of reafon? What can be more fhameful than for those who have an understanding, not to be able or willing to give an account of their actions to themselves? What can be more reproachful than for men to allow themselves in a courfe of life, which they have not the courage or the confidence to reflect upon?

Sinner! deal plainly with thyfelf. If thou wert not ashamed of thyfelf, Why, in the name of the allknowing God, fhouldst thou decline converfing with thyfelf? If all were well at home, what should make thee fo fond of rambling abroad, and lofing the remembrance of thyself in a crowd of vain amusements? Here, here is the caufe of thy love of noife and hurry, and tumult and diffipation, and perpetual diverfions: thy aim is by this means to escape from thyfelf, to employ and divert thy mind, that it may not be forced upon fuch an ungrateful fubject. Yet, here wifdom begins. Thou never canft afcend to the knowledge of Him whom to know is life eternal, without knowing thyfelf; and thou canft never know, thyfelf, without retiring from the world, without ftripping off whatever is artificial about thee, without throwing off the veil which thou wearest before men, and devoting thy fecret hours to ferious confideration. Enter then into thy chamber, fhut the doors about thee, commune with thine own heart, be Atill, say with the Pfalmift, "Search and try me, O Lord; "fee if there be any evil way in me, and lead me in "the way everlasting." |

In the fourth place, Retirement and meditation will open a fource of new and better entertainment

than you meet with in the world. You will foon find that the world does not perform what it promifes. The circle of earthly enjoyments is narrow and circumfcribed, the career of fenfual pleasure is foon run, and when the novelty is over, the charm is gone. Who has not felt the fatiety and wearinefs of the king of Ifrael, when he cried out, "All is vanity and "vexation of fpirit?" Unhappy is the man who in thefe cafes has nothing within to confole him under his disappointment. Miferable is the man who has no refources within himself, who cannot enjoy his own company, who depends for happiness upon the next amusement, or the news of the day.

But the wife man has treasures within himself. He has a spring fhut up, and a fountain fealed. The hour of folitude is the hour of meditation, He communes with his heart alone. He reviews the actions. of his past life. He corrects what is amifs. He rejoices in what is right, and, wifer by experience, lays the plan of his future life. The great and the noble, the wife and the learned, the pious and the good, have been lovers of ferious retirement. On this field the patriot forms his fchemes, the philofopher pursues his discoveries, the faint improves himself in wisdom and goodnefs. Solitude is the hallowed ground which religion in every age has adopted as its own. There her facred infpiration is felt, and her holy mysteries elevate the foul; there devotion lifts up the voice; there falls the tear of contrition; there the heart pours itfelf forth before Him who made, and Him who redeemed it. Apart from men, live with Nature and converse with God.

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SERMON XXIII.

ISAIAH lvii. 21.

There is no peace, faith my God, to the wicked.

It is univerfally agreed that the works

of creation demonftrate the being and the attributes of the Deity. The invisible things of God, even his eternal power, his unerring wisdom and his infinite goodness, are every where legible throughout the great book of Nature. It is very astonishing, however, that many perfons who from the creation of the world infer the existence and perfections of the Deity, should, from the government of the world, infer the neceffity of a day of judgment to rectify the course of Providence, and vindicate the ways of God. The works of God muft certainly be uniform and of a piece. According to the representations of Sacred Scripture, the day of judgment was not appointed to account for the conduct of Providence, but to pafs fentence on the actions of men. All the administrations of God are conducted with fupreme wifdom and goodness. He is forever employing the power of his providence to favour the caufe of righteoufnefs, and to diffufe happiness over the world. When the bleffed above fing the wonders of creating power, and cry out," Great and mar"vellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty;" they alfo add," Juft and true are all thy ways, thou King of faints." If the Almighty is poffeffed of

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"infinite perfection; if, as the Scriptures affert, he loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity, we may naturally infer it to be one of his eternal decrees, that righteousness and happiness, that fin and mifery, must be inseparable in the courfe of things.

Notwithstanding the force of the arguments that prove this truth, opinions pretty general prevail to the contrary. Many perfons are of opinion that the wicked man has more enjoyment in life than the good man has, that virtue expofes us to many evils, and that if it were not for a future ftate, Chriftians would be of all men the most miferable. The origin of this opinion it is not difficult to unfold. It is natural for men to judge of the courfe of things, by what happens in their own lot. When we are in a profperous fituation, when the candle of the Lord shineth upon our heads, all nature puts on a face of beauty and wears a fmiling appearance. But, when adverfity and a train of afflictions come in their turn, the eye of the impatient fufferer tinctures every thing around him with its own baleful colours. To his difordered mind, darkness seems to involve the fys. tem of nature, malignant demons to ufurp the fceptre of Providence, and invade the throne of God. Hence the many complaints of good and holy men in facred writ, that the righteous were cut off from the earth, whilst the wicked flourished like a green bay-tree. But thefe were not the maxims which governed their lives, they were only fudden exclamations made in the moments of impatience under diftrefs. The univerfal voice of Scripture is expreffly on the other fide. "Say ye to the wicked, It "shall be ill with him; fay ye to the righteous, It

"fhall be well with him.

..

my God, to the wicked. "who love the laws of the

There is no peace, faith

Great peace have they Lord."

In further treating upon this fubject, I shall endeavour to fhow you, that there is no peace or happiness to the wicked, whether you confider him as a fubject of the divine government, as a member of fociety, or as an individual.

In the first place, then, Let us confider the wicked in his religious capacity as a fubject of the divine government.

Religion is the distinguishing quality of our nature, and is one of the ftrongest features that marks the human character. As it is our distinguishing quali. ty, fo it poffeffes fuch extenfive influence, that however overlooked by fuperficial inquirers, it has given rife to more revolutions in human fociety, and to more changes in human manners, than any one caufe whatever. View mankind in every fituation, from the earliest state of barbarity, down through all the fucceffive periods of civilization, till they degenerate to barbarity again, and you will find them influenced strongly by the awe of fuperior fpirits, or the dread of infernal fiends. In the heathen world, where mankind had no divine revelation, but followed the impulfe of nature alone, religion was often the bafis of the civil government. Among all claffes of men, the facrifices, the ceremonies and the worship of the gods were held in the highest reverence. Judge what a ftrong hold religion must have taken of the human heart, when, inftigated by horror of confcience, the blinded wretch has fubmitted to torture his own flefh before the

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