to be the righteous Judge of the world, in which character we are chiefly concerned to know him.

Thirdly, We may obferve from hence, what care the wife Author of our nature has taken, not only to manifest himself and his laws to us, but likewise to fecure our obedience, and thereby our eternal happiness and welfare. It is thought a great disadvantage to religion, that it has only fuch diftant hopes and fears to fupport it; and it is true, that the great objects of our hopes and fears are placed on the other fide the grave, whilft the temptations to fin meet us in every turn, and are almoft conftantly present with us. But then to balance this it must be confidered, that though the punishments and rewards of religion are at fuch a distance, yet the hopes and fears are always prefent, and influence the happiness of our lives here, as much, and often much more, than any other good or evil which can befall us. The peace of mind which flows from doing right, the fear, the anxiety, the torment which attend the guilty, will inevitably determine the condition of men to happiness or mifery even in this life. And no man, whatever his present contempt for religion may be, can be fecure that he is not by his wickedness drawing down on himself the greatest mifery that man is capable of fuftaining. As little as you think now of the confequence of your iniquity, a very little time, or a very trivial accident, may open the paffage to other reflections. The fons of Jacob had no remorse, when they fold their brother to be a flave; they had delivered themselves from a foolish fear they had entertained, that he would one day be greater

than they, and their cafe was much mended by the riddance they had of him: but the very firft miffortune that befel them, a little rough ufage in a ftrange country, awakened their guilty fears, and they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we faw the anguish of his foul when he befought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this diftrefs come upon us. Misfortunes may befall the good as well as the evil, for righteous men have no promise to secure them in this life against the common calamities incident to it; but then, under the fame circumftances, there is a mighty difference in their sufferings, arifing from the different reflections their feveral cafes afford. The innocent man, who finds nothing to charge himself with as the caufe of his calamity, fubmits to it as to an accident of life, to which he always knew himself subject, or as a difpenfation of the providence of God towards him, whofe kindness he has no reafon to miftruft. But when any calamity overtakes the finner, and setting afide at present what his fins may deserve, even as a man he is fubject to the cafualties of life; and, whenever they overtake him, will it be poffible for him to think that they are not the punishment of those fins which, he is conscious, have deferved them? And what weight muft this add to his woe! how tormenting muft the thought be, that all his fufferings are effects of God's wrath, and the prefage of greater woe to come! Innocence may fometimes fteal a man from the sense of his pain, and his peace of mind make him forget the forrow and affliction of his heart: but guilt has no

refting-place; it raises every faculty of the foul to increase the present mifery. How does the memory of what is past, and the fear of what is to come, give an edge and sharpness to affliction! How does the imagination work to paint in all the colours of terror the fad doom that is expected! It is this only that renders the afflictions of life truly infupportable; for the Spirit of a man will fuftain his infirmity, but a wounded Spirit who can bear? So that, if we confider the cafe fairly, we fhall find, that though the final reward of virtue, and punishment of vice, are reserved to another time and place; yet there are fuch rewards and punishments annexed to them here, and which have their foundation in the very frame and conftitution of our minds, as are fufficient to determine the choice of a wife or reafonable man. And if fome, who pretend to doubts and uncertainties concerning a future ftate, are ferious, let them confider, whether that defect, as they suppose, in the foundation of religion be not supplied by what we now speak of: for, were they ever fo certain of a future ftate, their duty would confift in those very things which their own reason requires of them, and which are abfolutely neceffary to the peace of their minds, upon which all their happiness depends. Allow them then their doubts, will the confequence be, that they may fafely go contrary to their own reason, and the measures of their present happiness? How then does this uncertainty affect the practice of virtue, fince the certainty requires nothing of us but what our reason and present intereft will teach us without it? And

this fhews how effectually God has laid before us the knowledge of his law, together with proper and fufficient motives to fecure our obedience.

To conclude then: as you value the use of that reason which distinguishes you from the creatures of a lower rank, as you value the comforts of this life, and the glories of the next, (and, if these arguments will not weigh, there is nothing more to add,) take heed to preserve innocence and virtue, which fill up the character of that godliness, which, the Apoftle tells us, is great gain, having the promise of this life, and of that which is to come.