the ocean, when the sun shines upon it. Religious meditation and devotion draw it forth into use; and shew so many ways of applying it to the edification of the mind, that if we can bring any qualified person to this one employment, he will never complain that Christianity is a dry study. It infuses a new spirit into common things, which in themselves are dull and insipid: every trifling event assumes a new figure and new importance, when applied to spiritual things: every common object changes its nature and value: the touch of a devout mind has a magical effect upon it, and turns it into gold; so that to live by this rule, and turn all objects to a spiritual use, is the next thing to living in a spiritual world.

There will be this further advantage, and a great one it is, that we shall find this sort of devotion our best security against temptation. Good thoughts will keep out evil ones. The tempter makes use of all objects to corrupt our minds, and draw us into evil: the way of turning them to godliness, is directly contrary to his way of turning them to sin: and therefore it is the best remedy in the world against his devices; it may be used also, as a test to the mind, whether it be alive to God or not. If the Christian finds himself disposed to it, or if he does not, he may thence learnt he state of his own soul, and discover, whether he is a carnal or a spiritual man; whether he is in the light or in the dark: if he feels no inclination to it, his own soul is then a thing of no concern to him. Satan may have it, for what he cares; this world has blinded his eyes: all the objects in it serve to wrong uses; it is a curse, and not a blessing to him, that he was brought into it; and when that perishes, he must perish with it.

* If the reader wishes to know better this art of applying natural objects to sacred subjects; I would desire him to consult a small Key to the Language of Prophecy, bound' up with the third edition of the Book of Nature; also, Lectures on the Figurative Language of the Scriptures. The Husbandman's Manual; with such other things as he can collect of the same kind: particularly a Treatise on Ejaculatory Prayer, by the Rev. Robert Cooke, late Vicar of Boxted, in Essex.

If a man sees nothing spiritual here, he will see nothing hereafter but if he looks at the things of this world with an eye of faith, and can make them the subject of some petition to God, he may then conclude, that his heart is alive; and that, with the help of divine grace, he may so pass through things temporal, and make such a use of them, that they shall help him to pass on through them, to thingseternal,

Before I conclude, my beloved brethren, suffer me once more to look back to the subject of prayer in general; of which I must always think, and will always affirm it, that it is the first practical duty of the Christian religion: on which consideration, I know not what to say of those Christians, who do not pray: they will pardon me, if I know not what to call them; I can scarcely cry out with the prophet, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead. To speak freely, I wonder how any family can look one another in the face, when they assemble together in the morning, to begin the works of the day, without a solemn invocation of Almighty God, for his direction, help, and blessing on all the affairs of this transient and dangerous state. I shall be thankful, if one single soul shall be brought by what I have here said to a better mind.

SERMON XII. ·

BECAUSE SENTENCE AGAINST AN EVIL WORK IS NOT EXECUTED SPEEDILY, THEREFORE THE HEART OF THE SONS OF MEN IS FULLY SET IN THEM TO DO EVIL.-Eccles. viii. 11.

IF

F it were executed speedily-for instance, if every man who committed a theft were immediately to lose the use of his right hand, there would be no such thing as theft in the world but the honesty produced by such a measure would be of little value, because it would be the effect of force; there would be no principle in it but that of fear;

which is the principle of a slave; the same with that which keeps brute beasts in order. The works of men can be good or bad only so far as they are the works of the will, which is at liberty to choose between good and evil. True religion assists the will of man, and works with it, but does not destroy it. Therefore sentence is not executed speedily against an evil work; but the punishment of it is generally suspended for a time, and the decrees of God in that respect are left to the contemplation of faith, which sees things as yet invisible. In some cases punishment is deferred for so long a time, that men persuade themselves it will never be executed: that there is no invisible judge of human actions; or, if there is, that he either careth not about them, or puts off all punishment to another world: and that therefore men may act as they please in this world without any fear of the consequences. These are persons of a very untoward disposition of mind, and there is little hope of doing them much good: but if it were possible to open their eyes, they might judge in a different manner. I shall therefore attempt to prove in this discourse, that although God does not punish speedily, he punishes certainly. Sin and misery do so belong to one another, that they will meet together; in many cases much sooner than people are aware of: this is what I mean to shew by arguments taken from the nature of sin, from the records of holy Scripture, and from the opinions of good men.

The nature of sin is such (of some sins more than others) that it either carries its own punishment with it, or soon brings it. Among a list of unrighteous persons St. Paul places the drunkard, the fornicator, the covetous, and assures us, that "such persons shall not inherit the kingdom of God:" which is certainly true, because the kingdom of God can never bear what is contrary to its nature. But follow such persons for awhile, and see what becomes of them in this world. Is there any misery in poverty? How much more miserable does it soon become if you add

drunkenness to it! In honest poverty there is no shame; but the poor drunkard is all shame: he is a nuisance to himself and to the world. If the drunkard be rich, will that save him? How many such are carried off suddenly ; some by distempers; some by evil accidents; some by fighting and contention! And they who may seem to be at a stand, as if they were in no danger, are slowly undermining their constitutions, or bringing ruin upon their affairs, and paving the way to a prison.

If you look into a jail, you see men sitting there pensive and in rags that is their posture now had you seen them awhile ago, they were uttering shouts of riotous exultation among their profligate companions, as if no harm could possibly come to them. Then as to covetousness, which is the opposite vice, all the world agrees that it is a torment to itself, by giving to a covetous man the name of a miser or miserable one. To a man in a dropsy thirst is a tormenting part of the distemper. What he drinks never quenches it, but makes it worse: such is the appetite of the miser for wealth: what he gets never satisfies, but only increases the distemper of his mind. Evil trees will bear evil fruits. No thorn will produce grapes; no thistle or bramble will bear figs; so can no happiness arise out of sin. As men sow they will reap; perhaps not to-day, nor to-morrow; but certainly, though not speedily: and you must have seen so many examples of this, that a doubt ought not to remain on your minds. Health may as well consist with poison, as peace and happiness with a sinful life; and if there were nothing to prove it but the natural effect of vice, that alone would be sufficient with wise men. But as all vice is disobedience, and disobedience against God, whose laws are transgressed by it, vice is not left to its natural effects, though they are sufficiently disastrous, but calls down various punishment from God. These judicial effects of sin bring us to the examples of the Scripture, which are to be found in every part of it. Cain the

first murderer was not (as murderers are now) put to death immediately; but is that man under no punishment, who is condemned to constant terror of mind, and cast out as a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; like the Jews at this day, who are under the same sentence for the same crime? Every day of their lives, they rise up in the morning with that sentence upon their heads, and carry the guilt and punishment of it with them when they go to their rest in the night. Hophni and Phineas, the two profligate sons of Eli, whom he did not correct as he ought to have done, went on for a time in their own ways, but signal vengeance overtook them in the midst of their course: in one day they died both of them by the sword of the enemy, as it had been foretold of them. David fell in an evil hour into the sins of adultery and murder of his guilt he was for a while insensible, till he was alarmed by a message from Nathan the prophet; and from that time forward he saw no more happiness and peace in this world: his life was disturbed with tumults and rebellions; always do we find him either flying from danger, or weeping with sorrow. Let no man then hereafter tell us of the example of David, as an encouragement to sin; the miserable consequences of sin were never more displayed than in the history of that man. He was a sinner for a comparatively short period, and he was a sorrowing, afflicted, and tortured penitent for the rest of his life. We learn from the case of David, that God can punish and that he can forgive at the same time. How that can be, and why it happens, may be considered in another place.

If we go to the New Testament, we are there taught how sin is punished in this world. When a poor man, who had suffered from an infirmity thirty and eight years, was cured by our Saviour at the pool of Bethesda, he added some words of advice in consequence, which contain much in a little compass, and throw great light on our subject when examined "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come to thee :"