vices of merely human invention, will be equal to our fupport in all the trials and conflicts, to which the present scene of things shall expofe us. Again. The distinction between the importance of the meat which perifheth, and that which endureth unto everlasting life, is a diftinction, which, (if we admit the authority by which it is made, that is to fay, if we admit that the christian dispensation has affured us of a future ftate of happiness and mifery according to diftributive justice,) fhould not only attach us to the fervice of virtue, but fix us, immoveably, in the school of true religion, whofe ways are ways of pleasantness, and whose every path is peace. This general fyftem "hath God, the fa"ther, fealed." We may observe both in the univerfal courfe of nature and in the christian revelation, that virtue and happinefs are ultimately leagued together, and are nearer than fifters to each other. Confcious integrity of heart and mind produces infinitely greater comfort and joy than all that the world has to give, or pretends to offer, as its price. It is a caftle and a bulwark that nothing but madness or folly will attack, and which will equally refift the moft promifing and most daring affaults. The heart of man, confidered as the feat of animal life, may be wounded from a thousand external caufes, but, as the citadel and fortrefs of religion, virtue, and honour, is impregnable from every enemy without, and cannot be taken unless furrendered by treachery within. Remember, therefore, the repeated advice and exhortation of Solomon. 66 Let us diligently keep the commandments of "God," let us "write them upon the "table of our hearts; retain his words ‡, "and bind them continually about us §;" let us keep our heart with all diligence ||; "and guide it in the way**;" or how shall we be able to "" give it unto religion, or let "our eyes observe her ways ††?” 66 In the language of the pfalmift, let us praise the Lord with our whole hearts, and "fhew forth all his marvellous works tt." * Prov. iii. I. ++ Let + Ibid. iii. 3. and vii. 3. Ibid. vi. 21. ** Ibid. xxiii. 19. 1 Pfalm ix. I. Let us refolve, with Jofhua, to fear the Lord and ferve him in fincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which our fathers ferved. Let us come to this determined conclufion in reference to the great first cause of all things, and unite with the prophet of old in declaring, "as for me and my house we will ferve the Lord;" and with the people, in their anfwer, "The Lord our "God will we ferve, and his voice will we " obey *." * Joshua xxiv. 14, 15, 24. SERMON SERMON XX. THE SHORTNESS OF HUMAN LIFE. JOB XVI. 22. WHEN A FEW YEARS ARE COME, I SHALL GO THE WAY WHENCE I SHALL NOT RETURN. WHEN Job was oppreffed with his various and fucceffive afflictions, he appears to have had recourfe to these two principles; a trust and confidence in God that he would deliver him from, or support him under, the weight of his burthen; and a fatisfaction in the speedy close of human life, which would conclude his fufferings, and release him from the cruel and unrelenting hands of his perfecutors. Both |