happy! And how expressly does God himself declare, "There is no peace to the wicked:" no peace of mind; and without this, there can be no happiness.

But not to avail ourselves of authority, let us weigh the thing in the balance of reason. I ask, What can make a wicked man happy? You answer, He has gained the whole world. We allow it, and what does this imply? He has gained all that gratifies the senses: in particular, all that can please the taste: all the delicacies of meat and drink. True; but can eating and drinking make a man happy? They never did yet; and certain it is, they never will. This is too coarse food for an immortal spirit. But suppose it did give him a poor kind of happiness, during those moments wherein he was swallowing; what will he do with the residue of his time? will it not hang heavily upon his hands? Will he not groan under many a tedious hour, and think swift-winged time flies too slow? If he be not fully employed, will he not frequently complain of lowness of spirits? An unmeaning expression, which the miserable physician usually no more understands, than his miserable patient. We know, there are such things as nervous disorders. But we know likewise, that what is commonly called nervous lowness, is a secret reproof from God, a kind of consciousness, that we are not in our place; that we are not as God would have us to be; we are unhinged from our proper centre.

8. To remove, or at least soothe this strange uneasiness, let him add the pleasures of imagination. Let him bedaub himself with silver and gold, and adorn himself with all the colours of the rainbow. Let him build splendid palaces, and furnish them in the most elegant, as well as costly manner. Let him lay out walks and gardens, beautified with all that nature and art can afford. And how long will these give him pleasure? Only as long as they are new. As soon as ever the novelty is gone, the pleasure is gone also. After he has surveyed them a few months, or years, they give him no more satisfaction. The man who is saving

his soul, has the advantage of him in this very respect.

For he can say,

"In the pleasures the rich man's possessions display, Unenvy'd I challenge my part;

While every fair object my eye can survey,

Contributes to gladden my heart."

9. "However, he has yet another resource: Applause, Glory. And will not this make him happy?" It will not: for he cannot be applauded by all men ; no man ever was. Some will praise: perhaps many; but not all. It is certain some will blame: and he that is fond of applause, will feel more pain from the censure of one, than pleasure from the praise of many. So that whoever seeks happiness in applause, will infallibly be disappointed, and will find, upon the whole of the account, abundantly more pain than pleasure.

10. But to bring the matter to a short issue. Let us take an instance of one, who had gained more of this world than probably any man now alive, unless he be a sovereign prince. But did all he had gained, make him happy? Answer for thyself. Then said Haman, Yet "all this profiteth me nothing, while I see Mordecai sitting in the gate." Poor Haman! One unholy temper, whether pride, envy, jealousy, or revenge, gave him more pain, more vexation of spirit, than all the world could give him pleasure. And so it must be in the nature of things; for all unholy tempers are unhappy tempers. Ambition, covetousness, vanity, inordinate affection, malice, revengefulness, carry their own punishment with them, and avenge themselves on the soul wherein they dwell. Indeed what are these, more especially when they are combined with an awakened conscience, but the dogs of hell, already gnawing the soul, forbidding happiness to approach! Did not even the Heathens see this? What else means their fable of Tityus, chained to a rock with a vulture continually tearing up breast, and feeding upon his liver? Quid rides? Why do you smile? Says the Poet;

-Mutato nomine, de te

Fabula narratur.

his

It is another name. But thou art the man! Lust, foolish desire, envy, malice, or anger, is now tearing thy breast: love of money, or of praise, hatred, or revenge, is now feeding on thy poor spirit. Such happiness is in vice! So vain is the supposition that a life of wickedness is a life of happiness!

11. But he makes a third supposition, "That he shall certainly live forty, or fifty, or threescore years." Do you depend upon this? on living threescore years? Who told you that you should? It is no other than the enemy of God and man: it is the murderer of souls. Believe him not; he was a liar from the beginning; from the beginning of his rebellion against God. He is eminently a liar in this; for he would not give you life, if he could. Would God permit, he would make sure work, and just now hurry you to his own place. And he cannot give you life, if he would: the breath of man is not in his hands. He is not the disposer of life and death: that power belongs to the Most High It is possible indeed, God may, on some occasions, permit him to inflict death. I do not know, but it was an evil angel who smote an hundred, fourscore and five thousand Assyrians in one night and the fine lines of our poet are as applicable to an evil, as to a good spirit:

"So when an angel by divine command,

Hurls death and terror o'er a guilty land :

He, pleas'd the Almighty's orders to perform,

Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm."

But though Satan may sometimes inflict death, I know not that he could ever give life. It was one of his most faith. ful servants, that shrieked out some years ago, "A week's life! A week's life! Thirty thousand pounds for a week's life!" But he could not purchase a day's life. That night God required his soul of him! And how soon may he require it of you? Are you sure of living threescore years? Are you sure of living one year? one week? one day? O make haste to live! Surely the man that may die to-night, should live to-day.

12. So absurd are all the suppositions made by him, who

gains the world, and loses his soul! But let us for a moment imagine, that wickedness is happiness, and that he shall certainly live threescore years; and still I would ask, "What is he profited," if he gain the whole world for threescore years, and then lose his soul eternally?

Can such a choice be made by any that considers what eternity is? Philip Melancthon, the most learned of all the German Reformers, gives the following relation. (I pass no judgment upon it, but set it down nearly in his own words.) "When I was at Wirtemberg, as I was walking out one summer-evening with several of my fellow-students, we heard an uncommon singing, and following the sound, saw a bird of an uncommon figure. One stepping up, asked, In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, what art thou? It answered, I am a damned spirit: and in vanishing away, pronounced these words, O Eternity, Eternity! who can tell the length of Eternity!" And how soon would this be the language of him, who sold his soul for threescore years' pleasure! How soon would he cry out, "O Eternity, Eternity! who can tell the length of Eternity!"

13. In how striking a manner is this illustrated by one of the ancient fathers! Supposing there was a ball of sand as big as the whole earth. Suppose a grain of this to be annihilated in a thousand years: which would be more eligible, to be happy, while this ball was wasting away at the rate of one grain in a thousand years, and miserable ever after? Or to be miserable, while it was wasting away at that proportion, and happy ever after?" A wise man, it is certain, could not pause one moment upon the choice; seeing all that time wherein this ball would be wasting away, bears infinitely less proportion to eternity, than a drop of water to the whole ocean, or a grain of sand to the whole mass. Allowing, then, that a life of religion were a life of misery, that a life of wickedness were a life of happiness, and that a man were assured of enjoying that hap piness for a term of threescore years: yet what would he be profited, if he were then to be miserable to all eternity?

14. But it has been proved, that the case is quite other wise; That religion is happiness, that wickedness is misery, and that no man is assured of living threescore days: and if so, is there any fool, any madman under heaven, who can be compared to him that casts away his own soul, though it were to gain the whole world? For what is the real state of the case? What is the choice which God proposes to his creatures? It is not, "Will you be happy threescore years, and then miserable for ever: or, will you be miserable threescore years, and then happy for ever?" It is not, "Will you have first a temporary heaven, and then hell eternal: or, will you have first a temporary hell, and then heaven eternal ?" But it is simply this: Will you be miserable threescore years, and miserable ever after: or, Will you be happy threescore years, and happy ever after? Will you have a foretaste of heaven now, and then heaven for ever; or, will you have a foretaste of hell now, and then hell for ever? Will you have two hells, or two heavens?

15. One would think, there needed no great sagacity to answer this question. And this is the very question which I now propose to you in the name of God. Will you be happy here and hereafter, in the world that now is, and in that which is to come? Or will you be miserable here and hereafter, in time and in eternity? What is your choice? Let there be no delay: now take one or the other. I take heaven and earth to record this day, that I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. O choose life! The life of peace and love now; the life of glory for ever. By the grace of God now choose that better part, which shall never be taken from you. And having once fixed your choice, never draw back: adhere to it at all events. Go on in the name of the Lord, whom ye have chosen, and in the power of his might! In spite of all opposition, from nature, from the world, from all the powers of darkness, still fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life! And then there is laid up for you a crown, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give you at that day!