VI.

SERMON ing operation of his hands. We are to look up to an awful and irresistable Providence, stretching its arm over our heads; directing the fate of men, and dispensing at its pleasure happiness or misery. In the giddy moments of jollity, the wanton and thoughtless are apt to say: "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Nothing " is better for man, than to rejoice as "much as he can all the days of his vain life; and to keep himself undisturbed by superstitious terrours. He who sit

teth in the heavens bestows no minute "attention on the sons of earth. He per"mits all things to come alike to all; one " event to happen to the righteous and to the "wicked."-Be assured, my brethren, it is not So. You greatly deceive your selves, by imagining that your Creator and Governour is indifferent to the part you are now acting; or that the distri bution of good and evil, which now takes place, has no relation to your moral conduct. In some instances, that relation may not be apparent; because the moral government of God is not completed in this world. But a multitude of proofs shew government

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to be already begun ; and point out to you SERMON the train in which you may expect it to proceed.

In the history of all ages and nations, you cannot but have observed a thousand instances in which the operation of the divine hand has been displayed; overtaking evildoers sooner or later with punishment, and bringing on their own heads the ruin they had devised for others. You are not to imagine that this displeasure of Providence is exerted only against the ambitious, the treacherous, and the cruel, who are the authors of extensive misery to the world. Under this idea, perhaps you may be desirous to shelter yourselves, that your excesses are of a harmless kind; that you seek nothing more than the enjoyment of your own pleasures; that your feast and your wine interfere not with the order of the world and that therefore you have done nothing which should awake the sleeping thunder, and bring it down from heaven on your heads. Though not stained with the blackest colours of guilt, your conduct may nevertheless be highly offensive to the Ruler of the world. His go1.3

vernment

SERMON vernment is not of that indolent inattenVI. tive kind, which allows impunity to every

lesser criminal. He beholds with displeasure the behaviour of those who degrade their nature by vicious disorders; and contaminate, by their example, every society with which they are connected. His measures are taken, that, in one way or other, they shall suffer.

Look around the circle of your acquaintance, and observe, whether they are not the sober, the industrious, and the virtuous, who visibly prosper in the world, and rise into reputation and influence; observe whether the licentious and intemperate are not constantly humbled and checked by some dark reverse either in their health or their fortune; whether theirreligious and profligate are ever suffered to escape long, without being marked with infamy, and becoming objects of contempt. I ask, to what cause this is to be ascribed, but to that operation of the hand of Gad, which I am now calling you to consider ? Does it not obviously carry the marks of a plan, a system of things contrived and fore-ordained by Providence,

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for rewarding virtue, and punishing vice SERMON in every form of its disorders?-The Governor of the world need not for this purpose step from his throne, or put forth his hand from the clouds. With admirable wisdom he hath so ordered the train of human affairs, that, in their natural course, men's own wickedness shall reprove them, and their backslidings correct them; that they shall be made to eat the fruit of their doings, and to fall into the pit which themselves. had digged.

These things have been alway; so apparent to observation, that though a man may have been seduced into irregular and evil courses during his life, yet, at the close of it, it seldom happens but he discerns their pernicious nature, and condemns himself for them. Never, perhaps, was there a father, who, after he had spent his days in idleness, dissipation, and luxury, did not, when dying, admonish the children whom he loved, to hold a more honourable course, to follow the paths of virtue, to fear God, and to fulfil properly the duties of their station.-To yourselves, indeed, I can confidently apI 4 peal,

SERMON peal, whether what. I am now saying, be VI. not confirmed by your own testimony,

After you have been guilty of some criminal acts, in the course of those riotous pleasures which you indulge, have you not, at certain times, felt the stings of remorse? Were you not obliged to confess to yourselves that a sad prospect of misery was opening before you, if such excesses were to continue? Did you not hear an inward voice upbraiding you, for having sunk and degraded your character so far below that of many of your equals around you?-My friends, what was this but the voice of God, speaking, as the Governour of his creatures, within your heart; testifying loudly, that your course of life was displeasing to him and warning you of punishments that were to follow. If his displeasure against you is already begun to be testified, can you tell where it is to stop, or how long it may continue to pursue you, throughout future stages of your existence ? Who knoweth the power of his wrath? -To this awful, this warning voice, will you not be persuaded reverently to listen? Im

pressed