and poisons the feaft of affluence. It is in vain that the good things of this life are placed before, whilst the rod of divine vengeance is over them; they cannot taste or enjoy them; the flesh cannot rejoice when the spirit is wounded. All the misfortunes which arife from our own folly, (and most of them are the confequences of it) are chiefly embittered by our reflection on having thoroughly deferved them. Afk the libertine on his bed of fickness, whence his greatest anguifh proceeds, and he will confefs, that it is not what he feels from the disease, fo much as his confcioufnefs of that guilt and intemperance which was the occafion of it. Afk the remorfelefs ufurer, who, after preying for years on the wants of his fellow-creatures, is at last detected in his iniquity, and reduced to penury and diftrefs, what it is that renders his condition most miferable: if he speaks with fincerity, he will tell you, it is not the lofs of his riches which fits heavy on him, fo much as the unjuft means by which he acquired them; not that he feels himself poor and deftitute, but that he knows at the fame time how much he deferves to be fo. Afk the atheist and freethinker, in the bitterness of disease, or the hour of death, whence his greatest mifery arifes, and he will tell you, that it is not from the sense of present pain, but the fears of future mifery; not from the lofs of that which he is leaving here, but the dread of what he may expect hereafter. Will they not, ought they not, effectually to convince us, that to be happy,

we must be good; to be at peace, we must be innocent. There is a practice amongst us, which hath often been the fatal effect of this difquietude, -the practice of self-murder; a practice fo common, that every year, every month, every week, nay almoft every day, furnishes us with fresh examples of it; a practice, which, dreadful and abominable as it is, hath been honoured by the tear of pity, and even fometimes encouraged by the fanction of public applaufe. How grievoufly muft the fpirit be wounded, when that death which it had fo long contemplated with horror and averfion, fhall become the object of its defires: the ftorm of worldly afflictions must beat very hard upon us, when we fly to the grave for a fhelter from it. When we cry with Job, Why is light given to him that is in mifery, and life unto him that hath an heavy heart? for I will fleep in the duft, and if thou feek me in the morning I fhall not be found. The good Job indeed, notwithstanding thefe his complaints, fubmitted to the heavy judgments of his Creator: he knew (as every wife and pious man must know) that God only had a right to deftroy that being which he had made; and that our own life is no more at our own difpofal, than that of others. The crime of fuicide is doubtlefs of all wickednefs the most dreadful, because it admits not, like other crimes, of reparation or repentance. The deferter may return to the field of battle, and redeem that character by, bravery which he had loft by cowardice; but when the fearful un

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manly foldier has quitted his poft in this life, who shall restore him to his duty? how fhall he wipe off the ftain of his difobedience, or reconcile himself to his divine commander? All that can be expected therefore, from a deed so daring, muft be, that we fhall rush with added guilt into the prefence of our judge; that our fcene of mifery will only be changed, and inftead of the important rage and malice of weak man, we fhall incur what is infinitely more dreadful, the wrath of the living God. Why does the wicked man fhun darkness and folitude, but because there, he knows, man (on whom he trufts) will not be, but God may be there, whom he hath offended? He is afraid of every part of nature, because every part was made by that Being whom he hath provoked, and for ought he knows may rise up against him, and vindicate their Creator. He is afraid, therefore, where no fear is. The wicked, fays Solomon, flees when no man purfueth. It is part of the curfe which attends on guilt, that it always makes men cowards: it makes them fee dangers where there are none, and feel calamities which are never inflicted. Since then, my brethren, fuch and fo dreadful are thofe wounds which are inflicted on the spirit of man, what grand specific fhall we find to foften and relieve them? Surrounded as we are with miferies, both of the foul and body, both natural and acquired; thus befet with evils and calamities on every fide, to whom shall we apply for fuccour and redress? Is there, as the prophet fays, no balm in Gilead? is there no

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phyfician there? Let us hear what reason and religion, thofe great phyficians of mankind, will prescribe unto us. And firft, then, in regard to natural and corporeal evils, the com. mon lot and portion of mortality, it may not be improper to obferve the mutual actions of mind and body on each other in this life; which fhould make us extremely careful to preferve a proper temperament in both. When our weak frame is afflicted with diforders, it is impoffible for the foul abfolutely to preferve its tranquility. Not all the affluence of fortune, nor the acquifitions of fame or power, can extirpate the fenfe of pain. All that the mind can do in regard to the infirmities of nature, is to prevent, if poffible, what it cannot cure, and to foften what it cannot remove. Temperance, therefore, may preferve us from many diforders; and if men were as careful to acquire and preferve health, as they are to accumulate riches and honours, they would not so often lament the want of it. But those natural and unavoidable evils, which it is not even in the power of temperance and virtue to prevent, refolution and courage should teach us to bear. To fhrink beneath the flightest touch of calamity, to yield to the fofteft preffure, betrays a weaknefs of foul that debafes our nature, an infirmity unworthy of an immortal fpirit. We are placed by our great leader in a poft of danger, and it is our duty to maintain it against all oppofition, if we hope from him preferment or reward. Let us not, then, be tamely borne down the stream of adverfity,

verfity, but endeavour to ftem the torrent. If we refift evil, like the author of it, it will flee from us: let us fight the good fight, exert all our strength, defend ourselves against every attack with all the power we are mafters of, and then if we fall, we fall with honour, and if we rife, we rife to glory. But after all, the great prefervation of happinefs, the only impenetrable armour which can fhield us from the blows of fortune, and turn aside the arrows of affliction, is virtue. Nothing can heal the wounded spirit but the balm of innocence: by this alone the health of the foul can be preserved; by this alone it can be restored. If thou art fatigued with the toils and labours of this life, fhe will give thee reft; if thou art heavy laden with the afflictions of it, she will refresh thee; he that hath her, need not fear what man can do unto him. Are we forrowful? this is joy: Are we poor? this is riches: Are we fick? this is health. This, and this alone, can fuftain all our infirmities; this will fupport us under every calamity, in pain, ficknefs or adverfity, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment.

But laftly, my brethren, To our innocence and virtue, we must be careful to add an entire confidence in, a firm reliance on, and an humble refignation to, the divine Being. We may reft affured, that he who made our fouls will be careful to guard and preferve them; he will not defpife or neglect the work of his own hands. There is a perpetual acting Providence prefiding over, and directing all human affairs; and we need not doubt but that the spirit of

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