prefence of the Lord and the glory of his power. It is, at least, poffible this may be the truth. The arguments for a righteous government in nature, and for the truth of Christianity, have, at least, force enough to prove that it is not certain but that wickednefs will produce the greateft loffes and evils in another world; and that, confequently, there is a real and inconceivable danger attending it.-Confider, now, that an upright life is a fure prefervative from this danger. If all who forget God and practise iniquity are hereafter to be rejected by the Deity, and to be configned to everlafting deftruction; if, I fay, this fhould prove to be the truth, the good man will be fafe, and the wicked man undone. But fhould all that reason and Christianity teach us on this point prove a delufion; ftill a good man will lofe nothing, and a bad man will get nothing. Nay, a good man, even in this case, will gain a great deal: For he will gain all that fatisfaction which goodness generally brings with it in this life, and which vice must want.

Thus you fee what fecurity an upright man enjoys. He goes upon even and firm ground. He has on his fide all good be-. ings; the convictions of his confcience; the order of nature; and the power of the, Deity. It is impoffible he fhould be deceiv

ed

ed in thinking, that it is right to adhere inviolably to the laws of righteoufnefs.-. Should there be that execution of Divine juftice on wickednefs which we have been taught to expect, he will have nothing to fear. The worst that can happen to him is better than the best that may happen to an unrighteous man. The best that wicked men generally expect is the loss of existence at death; and this is the worst that can happen to a good man. But upon the one, it will come after a life of fhame, and disease, and folly; and on the other, like fleep at night after a day spent in peace, and health, and honour, and useful labour.-I need not tell you what a recommendation this is of a courfe of uprightness.-It is our furest guard in all events; our best shelter against evils under God's government. Safety is what every perfon, in the common concerns of life, values and feeks. Here alone is it to be found completely and certainly. Nothing but virtuous conduct can preserve us from the danger of God's difpleafure, and of ruin after death. Without it we must ftand expofed to the fevereft calamities that can come upon reasonable beings.

I will conclude this difcourfe with the following inferences.

First, From all I have faid we learn, in the plainest manner, how much we are

bound

bound in prudence to walk uprightly. This appears to be prudent if we regard only our prefent intereft. The way in which an upright man walks (it has been fhewn) is plain and open. It is fo eafy to find it, that we can never fwerve from it while we retain an honeft defire to keep in it. It is liable to no hazards; and it is always pleafant and joyous. More compendious ways, I have acknowledged, we may fometimes find to wealth and power; but they are full of danger, and he who forfakes integrity in order to go into them, and thus, by a fhort cut, to get at worldly advantages, acts like a man who forfakes a quiet and fure path in order to run the risk of being loft among quickfands, or of breaking his neck by going over rocks and precipices. If, therefore, we love prudence, we fhall not, in our tem-poral concerns, ever fwerve from uprightnefs.

But we have reafon to apprehend that we fhall exift in another ftate; and if we confider this, we fhall be forced to conclude: from what has been faid, that the prudence of a virtuous courfe is greater than can be expreffed. If this life is not our whole exiftence, fome precautions ought to be used with refpect to the state that is to fucceed it; and the best precaution is the practice of true piety and goodnefs. If there is a life to

come,

come, it will, in all probability, be a state of retribution, where prefent inequalities will be fet right, and the vicious fink into infamy and mifery. The practice of virtue is, in this cafe, our fecurity. It is the image of the Deity in our fouls; and what we ought to reckon upon is, that nothing amifs will ever happen to it. Let us then adhere to it in all events. Let us endeavour, in this instance, to use the fame prudence that the children of the world ufe in their affairs.. What pains will they take, and what precautions will they employ, to avoid any dangers which they forefee, or to prevent evils which may poffibly come upon them!There is a danger hanging over us, as moral agents, greater than any this world can threaten us with; a danger dreadful and unutterable; the danger of falling into the punishment of fin, and of lofing eternal happiness. Were there ever fo hard and expenfive a method propofed to us of being. fecured against this danger, it would be our wifdom cheerfully to practise it.—But true goodness affords us, not a hard and expenfive, but a cheap and eafy method of being fecured against it. Walking uprightly will add to our prefent comfort, at the fame time that it will preferve us from future danger., What is required of us, in this inftance, is only to part with our follies and difeafes

and

and to make ourselves happy now, in order to be safe for ever.

All I have been saying is true, though there fhould be the greatest uncertainty with respect to the principles of religion. I have been all along fpeaking on the fuppofition of fuch an uncertainty, in order to fet before you, in a ftronger light, the wifdom of being virtuous, and the folly of a finful course. But if we will fuppofe that there is no fuch uncertainty: If we will fuppofe it not only poffible, but probable or morally certain, that the principles of religion are true; that Christianity comes from God; and that, agreeably to its affurances, all who are now in their graves fhall hereafter hear the voice of the Son of God, and come forth; those who have done good to the refurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the refurrection of damnation: If, I fay, we fuppofe this to be the truth, how great will the wifdom of a virtuous courfe appear, and how fhocking the folly of wickednefs!

There are, probably, few fpeculative and inquiring men who do not fometimes find themselves in a ftate of dejection, which takes from them much of the fatisfaction arifing from their faith in very important and interesting truths. Happy, indeed, is the person who enjoys a flow of fpirits fo even and conftant as never to have experi

enced