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The voice of nature, of conscience, SERMON and of God, will make itself be heard within him. He will feel that he is a wretch. He will become despicable in his own sight. He will become sensible that all good men have reason to hate him, and that the just Governor of the world has reason to punish him. Conscience, bringing to remembrance all his secret crimes, will hold them up to his view with this fearful inscription written upon them, God will bring every work into judgment.

Hence the haggard look, and the restless couch, days never free from bitterness, and nights given up to remorse.

This remorse will prey the deeper on the bad man's heart, if it shall happen, as it sometimes does, that there was a period in his life when he was a different man; when, having been educated by virtuous parents in sober and religious principles, and being as yet uncorrupted by the world, he passed his days without reproach or blame. The recollection of what he then felt, compared with the state into which he has now brought himself by forfeited integrity and honour, will wring his heart

SERMON with sad remembrance. "Once I knew

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"what it was to enjoy all the comforts
"of innocence, and to take pleasure in the
thoughts of heaven, when my hands were
"unstained and my mind was pure.
"I was ever cheerful, easy, and free.
"ven and earth seemed to smile upon me.

Then

Hea

My nights were peaceful, and my days "were pleasant. Innocent joys and com"fortable hopes were ever at hand to en"tertain my solitary hours. Where now "are these gone? Why am I thus so al"tered and changed from what I was, and

so uneasy to myself? What, alas! have "I gained by those worldly pursuits and "ambitious plans which seduced me from "the plain and safe paths of integrity and " virtue !"

SUCH are the wounds of the spirit, occasioned either by folly, by passion, or by guilt, and too often by a complication of all the three together. For though they be of separate consideration, and each of them may be felt in a different degree, yet they are seldom parted wholly asunder from one another. Folly gives rise to unrestrained and disor

derly

IV.

derly passions. These betray men into SERMON atrocious crimes; and the wretched sinner is stung as by a three-headed snake; at once, reproached by reason for his folly, agitated by some strong passion, and tortured with a conscious sense of guilt.When these disorders of the mind arise to their height, they are, of all miseries, the most dreadful. The vulgar misfortunes of life, poverty, sickness, or the loss of friends, in comparison with them, are trivial evils. Under such misfortunes, a man of tolerable spirit, or of a moderate share of virtue, will be able to find some consolation. But, under the other he can find none. What is but too decisive as to the degree in which they surpass all external evils, they are those wounds of the spirit, the shame of folly, the violence of passion, and the remorse for guilt, which have so frequently produced that fatal crime, so much the reproach of our age and our country; which have driven men to the most abhorred of all evils, to death by their own hand, in order to seek relief from a life too embittered to be endured. Far from each of us be such desperate calamities! — But, if

SERMON it be the certain tendency of those wounds

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of the heart, to introduce the greatest disquietude and misery into the life of man, then, from what has been said, let us be taught,

In the first place, to give the most serious and vigilant attention to the govern ment of our hearts. It may be thought by some, that the formidable representation I have given of the miserable effects of a wounded spirit, attaches only to them who have gone to the utmost lengths in folly or passion; but that, by some more temperate regulation of conduct, indulgence may be given, without harm, to the free gratification of certain favourite desires. - Be assured, my brethren, that, under ideas of this kind, there lies much self-deception. Supposing it in your power to stop at some given point without rushing into the greatest disorders, still you would suffer from the licence you had taken to drop the government of your hearts. The lesser criminal never escapes without his share of punishment. In proportion to the quantity you have drunk out of the poisoned

cup

IV.

cup of pleasure, you will feel your inward SERMON health and soundness impaired; or, to follow the metaphor of the text, not by a deep wound only, but by every slighter hurt given to the heart, you will suffer in that peace and tranquillity which makes the comfort of life.

But besides this consideration, strict attention is the more requisite to the government of the heart, as the first introduction to those disorders which spread their consequences so deep and wide, is for the most part gradual and insensible, and made by latent steps. Did all the evil clearly shew itself at the beginning, the danger would be less. But we are imperceptibly betrayed, and from one incautious attachment drawn on to another, till the government of our hearts be at last utterly lost; and wounds inflicted there, which are not to be healed without much shame, penitence, and remorse. How much does this call for the attention of youth in particular; whose raw and unexperienced minds are so apt to be caught by every new and enticing object that is held forth to their passions? How much does it concern them to beware of

VOL. V.

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the