vanity and pleasure; if you devote your riches to fplendid and luxurious enjoyment; then it is that the world will flatter you and proclaim you happy. Live to the world, and the world will applaud you. Live to Chrift, and an evil world will not fail to revile and condemn you. How righteous, how rational, is the judgment of Holy Writ! How equitable is the condemnation which the Scriptures pronounce against those who love the praise of men more than the praise of God!

Be ye, my brethren, fervants of the Most High. Seek His favour. Give no real occafion to others to fpeak evil of you. Abstain even from the appearance of evil. There let anxiety cease. Be not uneasy as to the opinions of men. Be not depressed by the lofs of human approbation. Be not elated nor enfnared by poffeffing it. Let it be your main folicitude to be found among those whose praise is not of men but of God. Christ is not like the world, an undiscerning, a capricious, an unjust, a forgetful master, The Lord will come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifeft the counfels of the heart: and then fhall every man, every true Christian,

bave praife of God*. That praise is praise indeed. That praise endureth for ever.

Thirdly: Juftify wisdom, justify true religion, by manifefting yourselves to be her children. Draw not from the preceding observations a conclufion which they do not warrant. If you are cenfured by the world on account of your opinions, or your conduct, repecting religion; imagine not that the cenfure is a proof that you are religious. The cenfure of the world though often mifplaced, is not always misplaced. If you are charged with having judged erroneously, it may be that you have judged erroneously. If you are accused of having acted amiss; you may have acted amifs. If enthusiasm or fanaticism be imputed to you; perhaps you more or less deserve the imputation. Let the cenfure and the praise of others equally fend you to your Bible. Search the word of truth. Compare your religious opinions, your religious practice, with the doctrines and commandments of your Lord. Confult him, in his revealed word, with an humble, and teachable heart, as a child liftens to its inftructor. It was in vain that John the Baptift preached to the fcornful and hardened Pharifees; that generation of vipers, *Rom. ii. 29. 1 Cor. iv. 5.

who, though defirous to escape the wrath to come, would not abandon their fins, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. It was in vain that Jefus Chrift addreffed himself to that self-righteous race, who trusted in their own imaginary merits, and despised the offered atonement of a Saviour. My fon, if thou wilt incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding : if thou feekeft her as filver, and fearcheft for her as for bid treafures: then fhalt thou underStand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wifdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and underftanding. When with reverence and fubmiffion you have liftened to the words of wisdom, recorded from his mouth in the Gospel, ftrive, through the influence of his Holy Spirit, to obey them as an affectionate child obeys its parent. Let your faith prove itself by its fruits. At the fame time that you are found in doctrine, be a pattern of every good work. So fhall you be the children of wisdom: fo fhall you justify wisdom. So fhall you evince that Christ Jefus is made unto you, wisdom, and righteoufness and fanctification, and redemption. So fhall you glorify God in the

*Prov. ii. 1-6.

way

of fal

vation.

vation. So fhall you recommend the way of falvation to mankind.

If you thus juftify wisdom, behold the hour approaches, when before the affembled world wisdom fhall justify you. Fear him who can caft both body and foul into hell. But fear ye not the reproach of men: neither be ye afraid of their revilings. Behold the hour cometh, when Christ shall render to every man according to his deeds. Then fhall the righteous man ftand in great boldness before the face of fuch as have afflicted him, and made no account of his labours. When they fee it, they fhall be troubled with terrible fear: and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his falvation, fo far beyond all that they looked for. And they, repenting, and groaning for anguish of fpirit, fhall fay within them felves; "This was he whom we had fometimë in derifion, and a proverb of reproach. We

re

fools accounted his life madness; and his end "to be without honour. How is he numbered "with the children of God: and his lot is << among the faints* !”

* Wifdom, v. I-5.

SUPPOSE a legiflator, anxious to deter

property.

his fubjects from the commiffion of a particular crime, were to annex to it, as a penal confequence, the total confiscation of Suppofe an individual, forewarned of the impending effects of disobedience, wilfully to commit the crime. Confifcation enfues. The inheritance defigned for his children is intercepted. Suppofe the children arrived at manhood, and treading in the fteps of their father. Suppose them habitually trampling upon ftatutes, which they feel themselves bound by ties of duty to obey; and manifesting by efforts of impotent treafon inherent malevolence