of pleasure, what fruit has he? For all his enjoyment, health is one indispensable ingredient. Without this, all the delights and luxuries that the world can offer, will pall upon the sense. Vainly for the sick man will the banquet be spread; vainly will the melody of music arise. He cannot taste what he eats or what he drinks; neither can he "hear any more the voice of singing men and singing woment."

But, if health be indispensably necessary for enjoyment, where shall we look for health? Shall we look for it in the bloated and feverish frame of the glutton or the drunkard; in the wasted form of the debauchee? or shall we not rather look for it in the temperate, chaste, and self-denying Christian?

I do not mean to argue that disease, or even a doubtful state of health, is always to be found with the two first of these characters, or sound health always with the last. But I ask every impartial man, with which of these characters he would generally expect to find health? Surely with the last. Therefore, generally speaking, we may affirm, that the excessive votary of pleasure curtails his enjoyments, by injuring his health.

Again. One very important source of real

1 Sam. xix. 35.

enjoyment, is that elastic state of mind, which is termed cheerfulness-that equable, regulated temper, which, though it seldom breaks forth into violent mirth, seldom suffers the spirits to sink altogether under any pressure.

But that unnatural excitation of the pas+ sions, that intense gratification of the appe tites, which is produced by excess of any kind, seldom, we may say never, fails to be succeeded by a corresponding depression. And the more artificial means are employed, to stimulate those appetites, so much the more difficult it becomes to gratify them, and so much the more are they rendered fastidious and incapable of enjoyment.

The Almighty has placed " by a perpetual decree bounds for our powers of enjoyment, beyond which they cannot pass, at least not with impunity. The same law seems to prevail with respect to our appetites, as with respect to our limbs. So long as they are applied to purposes for which God has appointed them, they may be made the source of pleasure and advantage; but when an attempt is made to exert and force them beyond this, then, like a strained limb, they cause pain and misery.

Jer. v. 22.

“Even in laughter," saith Solomon, “the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness." If the noisy merriment of the drunkard be the expression of happiness, (which is much to be questioned) what is he in his sober moments? Is he not any thing but cheerful? Is he not heavy, depressed, and vapid? Is his state of mind to be compared with that of a temperate man? The same may be said of luxury, and excess of every kind. They only render the taste more fastidious, the spirits more feeble, the mind more frivolous and dissipated, and incapable of intellectual pleasures. The lovers of them may well be asked, even in point of present enjoyment, "What fruit had ye in those things."

How much more rational is his prospect of real pleasure, even in this life, who lives upon the system pointed out and sanctioned by religion; who partakes of what is called pleasure with moderation; looks upon it not as the business of his life, but only as a relaxation from the more dignified and weighty pursuits which ought chiefly to occupy man, considered as a reasonable, and a responsible being. How much more cheerfully, not to say profitably, will the hours roll on with that man,

* Prov. xiv. 13.

whose mind is actively engaged in the duties of his station as a member of society, and a servant of God, than with him, whose listless, and trifling mind is ever hankering for fresh amusements; and who is wasting his body, and debasing his intellect in excess, and sensuality?

Thus even with reference to that enjoyment, for which they thirst, and pay the price of their souls, it may be said to them, “What fruit had ye in these things?"

II. Again. Apply the question of our text to the dishonest. Even that very lucre, for which he sacrifices all, is not unfrequently lost by over-eagerness and dishonesty. "Covetousness is as Idolatry." It requires the souls of its votaries to be prostrated before it, as the body of a man is bowed down at the feet of an Idol. His whole heart is devoted to gain; and "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth" will speak, notwithstanding all his efforts and caution to prevent the disclosure of his real character. He soon becomes known from his deeds. He is as completely distinguishable, as the followers of Baal were known, when crowded into the temple, and clothed in the vestments of their Idolatrous worship.

2 Kings x. 23.

The hands of all men are raised against him. He shews the object of his worship by selfishness, by meanness, by extortion, by overreaching, and by various sordid and dishonest practices. Men, at length, shrink back from assisting or even having dealings with such a man. The covetous is abhorred of God and man. Every one fears to trust him, every one suspects him as a treacherous enemy, who would gladly take any advantage of them, however unjust.

It is, I think, much to be doubted, whether in the generality of cases, these men, however dexterous, cunning, and daring they may be, do not fail in the attainment of their grand object; and after a few successful efforts of dishonesty, so rouse the vigilance and the resentment of the community, as to cause their schemes to be thwarted, and themselves overwhelmed with mortification and disappoint

ment.

It is true, that there is a propensity very prevalent to exclaim with the Psalmist upon the prosperity of the wicked. But, I think, a careful and unprejudiced examination would frequently lead us to the same conclusion, to which a more mature and dispassionate consideration of the matter conducted David himself,"Namely, how thou, O God, dost set