fhrine of the incenfed Deity, and the fond father has been driven to offer up with his own hands his firstborn for his tranfgreffion, and the fruit of his body for the fin of his foul. It is poffible to fhake off the reverence, but not the dread, of a Deity. Amid the gay circle of his companions, in the hour of riot and diffipation, the fool may say in his heart that there is no God; but his confcience will meet him when he is alone, and tell him that he is a liar. Heaven will avenge its quarrel on his head. Judge then, my brethren, how miferable it must be for a being made after the image of God, thus to have his glory turned into fhame. How difmal muft the fituation be for a fubject of the divine government to confider himself as acting upon a plan to counteract the decrees of God, to defeat the defigns of eternal Providence, to deface in himfelf the image and the lineaments of heaven, to maintain a state of enmity and war with his Creator, and to affociate with the infernal fpirits, whofe abode is darkness and whofe por tion is despair!

Reflections upon fuch a ftate will give its full measure to the cup of trembling. Was not Belfhazzar, the impious king of Babylon, a ftriking instance of what I am now faying? This monarch made a feafl to a thousand of his lords, and affémbled his princes, his concubines and his wives. In order to increase the festivity, he fent for the confecrated veffels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple of Jerufalem, and in these veffels, which were holy to the Lord, he made libations to his vain idols, and in his heart bade defiance to the God of Ifrael. But, whilft thus he defied the

living God, forth came the fingers of a man's hand, and on the wall, which had lately refounded with joy, wrote the fentence of his fate! In a moment his countenance was changed, his whole frame fhook, and his knees fmote one against another, whilst the prophet in awful accents denounced his doom: "O man, thy kingdom is departing from thee!" Although Providence fhould not now particularly interpofe to punish thee, O guilty man! yet the fentence of thy doom is written in thy heart, and there is a prophet within, who upon the commiffion of crimes will tell thee, that for these the kingdom of heaven is departed from thee.

In the fecond place, As wickednefs makes a man miferable in his religious character, fo does it alfo in his focial.

However corrupted men may be in their lives, their moral fentiments are juft and right; that is, although from an immoderate felf-love we may excufe wickedness in ourselves, yet fuch is the force of conscience within, fo deeply rooted in the mind is the eternal difference between good and evil, that, by the very frame of our natures, we abhor wickedness in others. When we are converfant in the world, or give our attention to a story that is a faithful picture of human manners, from the impulfe of natural feeling, we attach ourselves to the fide of innocence, we take part with the virtuous hero, and confider his enemies as our own. There is no vice but what tends to make a man contemptible or odious to fociety. Against the greater and more attrocious crimes, the sword of the law is forever drawn, and its ftroke is death. Other vices which come not

under the cognizance of the laws, either have ways of punishing themselves, or are marked with public infamy. Pride makes every affront a torment, and puts a man's happiness in the power of every fool he meets with. The envious man is literally his own tormentor, and preys upon his own bowels. The drunkard expofes himself to the derifion of mankind, and falls into follies that cover him with fhame in his fober hours. Does not a habit of intoxication deprive a man of all fenfe of decency, indispose him for the business of life, and render him a forrow to all his friends? Will the atheist conciliate the love of men by fhewing us that he poffeffes not the fear of God? Is not the mifer pointed at with the finger of fcorn, and doomed to the double curfe of hoarding and guarding? Is not a liar univerfally odious, and does he not prepoffefs us against him even when he speaks truth? Do not fraud and dishonesty mar a man's fortune, ruin his reputation, and hinder his fuccefs in life?

In truth, my brethren, there is not a fin but what one way or other is punished in this life. We often err egregiously by not attending to the diftinction between happiness and the means of happiness. Power, riches and profperity, those means of happinefs and fources of enjoyment, in the course of providence are sometimes conferred upon the worst of men. Such perfons poffefs the good things of life, but they do not enjoy them. They have the means of happiness, but they have not happiness itself. wicked man can never be happy. It is the firm deeree of Heaven, eternal and unchangeable as JEHOVAH himself, that mifery muft ever attend on guilt, Oo

A

that when fin enters, happinefs takes its departure. There is no fuch thing in nature, my brethren, there is no fuch thing in nature, as a vitious or unlawful pleafure. What we generally call fuch, are pleasures in themfelves lawful, procured by wrong means, or enjoyed in a wrong way; procured by injustice, or enjoyed with intemperance; and furely neither injustice nor intemperance have any charm for the mind; and unless we are framed with a very uncommon temper of mind and body, injuftice will be hurtful to the one, and intemperance fatal to the other. Unruly defires, and bad paffions, the gratification of which is fometimes called pleafure, are the fource of almoft all the miferies in human life. When once indulged, they rage for repeated gratification, and subject us, at all times, to their clamours and importunity. When they are gratified, if they give any joy, it is the joy of fiends, the joy of the tormented, a joy which is purchafed at the expence of a good confcience, which rifes on the ruins of the public peace, and proceeds from the miseries of our fellow-creatures. The forbidden fruit proves to be the apples of Sodom and the grapes of Gomorrah. One deed of fhame is fucceeded by years of penitence and pain. A fingle indulgence of wrath has raised a conflagration which neither the force of friendship, nor length of time, nor the vehemence of interceffion, could mitigate or appease, and which could only be quenched by the effufion of human blood. One drop from the cup of this powerful forcerefs, has turned the living ftream of joy into waters of bitterness. "There is no peace, faith my God, to the wicked."

r

If a wicked man could be happy, Who might have been so happy as Haman? Raised from an inferior station to great riches and power, exalted above his rivals, and above the princes of the empire, favourite and prime minister to the greatest monarch in the world. But with all thefe advantages on his fide, and under all thefe fmiles of fortune, his happiness was destroyed by the want of a bow, ufual to those of his station, from one of the porters of the palace. Enraged with this neglect, this vain great man cried out in the pang of difappointment, "All "this availeth me nothing, fo long as I fee Mordecai "fitting at the king's gate.' This feeming affront fat deep on his mind. He meditated revenge. A fingle victim could not fatisfy his malice. wanted to have a glutting vengeance. He refolved, for this purpose, to involve thoufands in deftruction, and to make a whole nation fall a facrifice to the indulgence of his mean-fpirited pride. But, as it generally happens, his wickedness proves his ruin, and he erected the gallows on which he himself was doomed to be hanged!

He

In the third place, If we confider man as an individual, we shall fee a further confirmation of the truth contained in the text, "That there is no peace "to the wicked."

In order to strengthen the obligations to virtue, Almighty God hath rendered the practice of fin fatal to our peace as individuals, as well as pernicious From the to our interefts as members of fociety. finner God withdraws his favour and the light of his countenance. How dark will that mind be, which no beam from the Father of lights ever vifits? How