cations continue no longer than the actions themselves: for then consequences begin to be thought of; reason ascends the throne, and scourges; conscience awakes, and condemns. Nor is it easy for the sinner to creep along to the commission of his crimes unseen by reason, unobserved by conscience: and O! when they are lookers on!— how by their warnings and reproaches do they imbitter his enjoyment! He finds nothing of that contentment and pleasure which he looked for. As he returns home, with the stain and sting of sin! he sighs inwardly-" And is this all? Ö, if this deserve the name of pleasure, how shortlived, how worthless, how mean! O! that I had hearkened to the voice of wisdom and kindness, which said, Turn ye not aside from following the Lord; turn ye not aside for then should ye go after vain things which cannot profit or deliver; for they are vain."

Suppose, now, a sinner were compelled to rise and answer this question, truly-How has sin advanced your well being? What has it done for you? What has it done for your connexions, for your bodies, for your souls, for your property, for your reputation? Suppose the swearer were to tell us what he has gained by his oaths; the drunkard by his cups; the sensualist by his uncleanness; the prodigal by his extravagance, his idleness, his evil company; yea, the proud, the envious, the malicious, by indulging their vile tempers? Suppose he were to sum up his expenses and his savings; to balance his accounts at the end of a year, of a week, of a day-surely he must find that his gains do not counterbalance his loss, his wages do not reward him for his drudgery, his pleasures do not make him amends for his pains. Let any one, as a man of reason, consider his

weary steps, his mean condescensions and compliances; his corroding anxieties and suspicions; his restless desires and tormenting fears-when under the dominion of some lust or passion-to gain a fancy or a feather, to acquire the good opinion of some poor worm, to pick up a little shining dust, to enjoy some light, unsatisfying, and low indulgence and will he not confess that these things are more than unprofitable and vain? Above all, what does a Christian think when he reviews these wicked courses? He is able now to judge between sin and holiness. He now clearly sees what the practice of sin obliged him to forego, and compelled him to endure; he now clearly sees, that it constrained him to live a stranger to his true interest; that it never allowed him one taste of real joy, or one moment of real peace; that it enslaved him, stripped him, starved him. Since he has served God, he looks back with painful regret upon every hour he spent in the service of sin: it appears to him an hour of inconceivable loss and injury: and he goes on weeping, and taking shame to himself for the part he has acted.

And this brings us, II., to consider the disgracefulness of sin. Of these unfruitful things, says the apostle, ye are now ashamed. And well they might; for there is nothing in the world so scandalous as sin. Whatever be a man's station, or office, or abilities, sin degrades all, and renders him vile. It is not a shame to be obliged to labour; it is not a shame to be poor and dependent; it is not a shame to be tired and distressed: but it is a shame to be a sinner. For is it not shameful to be a fool? Is it not shameful to be a base coward? Is it not shameful to be a traitor to

the best of kings? and to be ungrateful and perfidious to the kindest of all friends? If a benefactor should receive you to his house, and afford you all the supplies of his table-would it not be shameful to steal out of his presence, blaspheme his name, and endeavour to counteract all his designs Enlarge the number of images-select whatever may be deemed base and scandalous among men, and be assured it will apply with infinitely greater force to the evil of sin. We say again, nothing is so degrading, nothing can be so shameful as sin.

But, to do justice to this part of our subject, it may be necessary to observe, that there are three kinds of shame which attend sin. The first is natural; the second gracious; and the third penal.

There is a natural shame which arises in men, from the commission of sin. This it was that made our first parents hide themselves among the trees of the garden, as soon as they had transgressed the divine command-so close did shame tread on the heels of guilt. This class of emotions may be in a great measure subdued by continuance in sin; for sin is of a hardening tendency. Accordingly, we read of some who "hide not their sin, like Sodom." Jeremiah says of some, "Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush." And the apostle speaks of some who "glory in their shame." But these characters are not general, and this shamefulness in sinning is not easily, and perhaps never was perfectly attained: "The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me; and disguiseth his face. For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death:

if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death."-Hence they not only repair to corners and elude observation-which they would not do, if there were anything in it that tended to their praise-but hence, also, they frame excuses and apologies. And, if not ashamed of their proceedings, why attempt to deny or palliate? Why plead mistake, ignorance, surprise, infirmity ?-Why ascribe their sins to weakness or necessity, rather than to inclination or choice, unless they deemed them a disparagement to their character? Hence it is, that the sinner cannot endure to be alone, or bear to dwell on his own actions. Though naturally full of a self-love and admiration, he slips away from his own dear presence, and shuns all intercourse with his greatest favourite. And why? Because he is ashamed even to meet himself! Upon the same principle, too, when arrived at a certain pitch of iniquity, he abandons the moral world, and mingles only with those of his own quality: for here mutual wickedness creates mutual confidence, and keeps them from reproaching one another.

There is also a gracious shame which accompanies repentance unto life. This shame does not spring from a fear of the discovery of sin; but from a sense of the pollution and odiousness of it. Some crimes are universally considered as abominable; but all sin appears so to the real penitent: and he is now ashamed of things which pass uncensured in the world, and which once produced no uneasiness in himself. Conversion changes not only a man's state, but his affections, and his convictions: sin appears, in consequence of it, exceeding sinful: and O what holy self-abhorrence, and loathing, and shame are now felt!

"The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. Mine iniquities," says David, "have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up." Ezra said, "O, my God, I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God; for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up into the heavens." And returning Ephraim smote upon his thigh, and confessed, "I am ashamed, and even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.' And so these believing Romans were now ashamed of the sins even of former years. And this ingenuous shame will be in proportion to our perception of the glory, and the goodness of God. The more we think of his patience in bearing with us while we are rebelling against him, and of his mercy and grace in pardoning our sins, and adopting us into his family after all our provocations; the more shall we be affected with our vileness in offending him.

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There is also a penal shame, by which we mean that shame which attends sin in a way of punishment: for God has so ordered things, that if a man be not ashamed of his sins, he shall be put to shame by them. And how often, and in how many instances, is the transgressor dishonoured in this world? See the professor of religion-not reproached for the sake of Christ;" this would be his honour-but "buffeted for his faults:" suffering "not for well-doing, but for evil-doing:" There goes your saint! See the miser: "He is a proverb and a by-word.' See the extortioner: 66 many curse his habitation!" Behold the adulterer: "Whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul: a wound and dishonour

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