SERMON private virtues, which in the hours of dissiXVIII pation, in the giddiness of his mind, he is

ready to contemn. Banish sobriety, tem, perance, and purity, and you tear up the foundations of all public order, and all domestic quiet. You render every house a divided and miserable abode, resounding with terms of shame, and mutual reproaches of infamy. You leave nothing respectable in the human character. You change the man into a brute.

THE Conclusion from all the reasoning which we have now pursued is, that religion and virtue, in all their forms, either of doctrine or of precept; of piety towards God, integrity towards men, or regularity in private conduct; are so far from affording any grounds of ridicule to the petulant, that they are entitled to our highest veneration; they are names which should never be mentioned, but with the utmost honour. It is said in Scripture, Fools make a mock at sin*; They had better make a mock at pestilence, at war, or famine. With one who should chuse these public calamities for the subject

of his sport, you would not be inclined to SERMON associate. You would fly from him, as worse than a fool; as a man of distempered mind, from whom you might be in hazard of receiving a sudden blow. Yet certain it is that, to the great society of mankind, sin is a greater calamity, than either pestilence, or famine, or war. These operate, only as occasional causes of misery. But the sins and vices of men are perpetual scourges of Impiety and injustice, fraud and falsehood, intemperance and profligacy; are daily producing mischief and disorder; bringing ruin on individuals; tearing families and communities in pieces; giving rise to a thousand tragical scenes on this unhappy theatre. In proportion as manners are vicious, mankind are unhappy. The perfection of virtue which reigns in the world above, is the chief source of the perfect blessedness which prevails there.

the world.

When, therefore, we observe any tendency to treat religion or morals with disrespect and levity, let us hold it to be a sure indication of a perverted understanding, or a depraved heart. In the seat of the scorner let us never sit. Let us account that wit

contami

XVIII.

SERMON contaminated, which attempts to sport itself on sacred subjects. When the scoffer arises, let us maintain the honour of our God, and our Redeemer; and resolutely adhere to the cause of virtue and goodness. The lips of the wise utter knowledge; but the mouth of the foolish is near to destruction. Him that bonoureth God, God will honour. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and be that keepeth the commandment, keepeth bis own soul.

SERMON XIX.

On the CREATION of the WORLD,

GENESIS, i. 1.

In the beginning God created the heaven, and the earth.

XIX.

SUCH is the commencement of the his- SERMON tory of mankind; an æra, to which we must ever look back with solemn awe and veneration. Before the sun and the moon had begun their course; before the sound of the human voice was heard, or the name of man was known; in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. To a beginning of the world, we are led back by every thing that now exists; by all history, all records, all monuments of antiquity. In tracing the transactions of past ages, we arrive at a period, which clearly indicates the

infancy

XIX.

We behold the

SERMON infancy of the human race. world peopled by degrees. We ascend to the origin of all those useful and necessary arts, without the knowledge of which mankind could hardly subsist. We discern society and civilization arising from rude beginnings in every corner of the earth; and gradually advancing to the state in which we now find them: All which afford plain evidence, that there was a period, when mankind began to inhabit and cultivate the earth. What is What is very remarkable, the most authentic chronology and history of most nations, coincides with the account of Scripture; and makes the period during which the world has been inhabited by the race of men, not to extend beyond six thousand years.

To the ancient philosophers, creation from nothing appeared an unintelligible idea. They maintained the eternal exist. ence of matter, which they supposed to be modelled by the sovereign mind of the universe into the form which the earth now exhibits. But there is nothing in this opinion which gives it any title to be opposed to the authority of revelation.

The doctrine

of