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great day, the book of life fhall be produced, where action is marked down, and every every fyllable recorded; how dreadful will his fituation be in that awful and tremendous hour, when all those whom he had injured, or defrauded, fhall appear face to face, and bear witness against him! With how different an eye will the sensualist then behold the object of his luft! With what an altered countenance will the great and powerful then look upon the object of his ambition! How will the hypocrite avoid the fight of thofe whom he hath deceived and betrayed! And how will the evil fpeaker dread the accufing voice of those whom he hath calumniated!

But let us turn our eyes from a scene fo dreadful towards its oppofite, towards that confolation which the divine juftice will administer to the good; an inexhauftible fountain of comfort and fatisfaction to him in every ftation and circumftance of life; whilft God is juft, the good man need not fink under his afflictions, because he may reft affured that they will one day be removed; whilft God is juft, he need not repine at the fuccefs of the wicked, because he may be certain that they will one day be punished: here he hath always an appeal from the partial determinations of human equity; here he hath an asylum to flee unto from every human injury.

Virtue, we know, feldom appears in public, without the veil of modefty, which though it heightens her charms in the eye of the judicious, may yet conceal them from the vulgar. If therefore on the juftice of God muft de

pend

pend all our hopes of happiness, both here and hereafter; if we would enjoy the benefits of this divine attribute, we muft ourselves aspire to the imitation of it; if we hope to be bleffed, as God is bleffed, we must be just as he is juft, and pure as he is pure.

In all our dealings therefore with each other, we should above every thing take care to be strictly and inflexibly just before we suffer the will to give its decifive conclufion; we fhould try and examine ourselves by the great rule of action, the infallible standard and criterion of doing as we would be done unto. Men for the most part complain of the injustice of others, and at the fame time do not recollect their own. God hath gracioufly implanted in the breafts of all, a natural juftice, and a natural benevolence, and as much as we murmur against the ingratitude of mankind, it is not, perhaps, after all, so often met with, as it is complained of.

In the natural world, it is worth our obfervation to remark, that like always produceth like; trees, herbs, plants, and flowers, partake of the fame qualities, powers and perfections, as the roots and ftocks from whence they fprung; and if we rise from vegetable to animal life, we fhall ftill perceive the fame invariable fimilitude; and every creature by its form, its motion, and its faculties, pointing out its different originals.

And fo it is in the moral world also; love will naturally produce love; pity will beget compaffion; liberality is the child of benefisence; knowledge the offspring of wisdom,

and

and piety the parent of devotion; and on the other hand, from the feeds of hatred and animofity, fprings up a plentiful harveft of dif cord and averfion; fraud is repaid by treachery, injustice by its oppreffion, and hardness of heart is recompensed by inhumanity.

Man therefore, we fee, may be happy if he will: if we are kind and benevolent, and affectionate to others, they will be fo to us. There are very few difpofitions fo four and implacable, but a conftant endeavour to ferve and oblige, will foften them into complacency. God hath directed the ftream of benevolence towards the various ties and connections of human life, on purpose to embellish it? from his goodness arise all thofe mutual charities, thofe tender relations, thofe bonds of natural affection which raife enjoyment into rapture, and pleasure into tranfport; all thofe engaging duties, the due performance of which, whilft they make us happy here, recommend us at the fame time to the divine favour hereafter.

In all our connections therefore with each other, let us be humane, charitable, and benevolent; obliging if we expect to be obliged, forgiving if we expect to be forgiven. If the father expects duty and obedience from his children, he muft behave with parental tenderness and affection towards them; if the mafter would be ferved with care and fidelity, he must be juft, compaffionate, and kind to his fervants; if the hufband expects love, conftancy, and affection from the partner of his bed, he must be faithful, tender, and affectionate towards her; if from our neighbours,

from

from those who are in the fame sphere of life with ourselves, we expect kind and friendly offices, we muft on our part be always ready to return them; if from our companions and acquaintance, we expect cheerfulness, good humour and complacency, we must exert the fame focial qualities towards them.

And lastly, As it is with regard to our fellow-creatures, fo is it also in our relation towards our Creator; as we act to him, he will act to us.

If therefore we expect favour or protection from our Almighty Friend and Benefactor, we on our part must be diligent obfervers of his word, grateful acknowledgers of his bounty, fincere and pious followers of his doctrine; if we expect that our bleffed Saviour and Redeemer fhould intercede for us at the throne of grace, we muft ftudy his gofpel, embrace his holy faith, and practise his divine laws; as he hath himfelf informed us, that whofoever shall be afhamed of him and of his words, of him also shall the fan of man be afhamed when he cometh in the glory of his father;-for with the fame measure that we mete withal, it fhall be measured unto us again.

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SERMON

ON PETER.

SERMON L

MATTHEW XXVI. 75.

Peter remembered the words of Jefus, which faid unto him, Before the Cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice: and he went out, and wept bitterly.

IT is impoffible to read with any degree of

attention, the account of our Saviour's life and fufferings, without being fhocked at the inconftancy and ingratitude of his difciples, who when he was furrounded by dangers, oppreffed on every fide, and juft on the point of being delivered up to his inveterate enemies, instead of affifting and fupporting him in the hour of terror and diftrefs, forfock him and fled; that those who not long before had left all to follow him, thofe who had been fellowtravellers and fellow-fufferers with him, fhould thus tire at the end of the journey, and totally defert fo good a mafter, was a melancholy inftance of human frailty and irrefolution, that muft greatly aftonifh us, whenever we ferioufly reflect upon it.

But amongst all thofe ungrateful and unprefitable fervants, Peter feems to have acted in a manner the moft inexcufable.

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