they would be condemned to die eternally, and who, by the respite granted them, are still furnished with an opportunity of deprecating God's avenging justice, and of being restored once more to his favor, ought not they, I say, however hard or painful may be their lot on earth, still to regard themselves as objects of the special clemency of heaven? Instead of betraying the slightest symptoms of fretfulness or impatience under their afflictions and troubles, ought they not on the contrary, to submit to them with gratitude, as a very light and inadequate compensation for the punishments, incomparably more rigorous and dreadful, which impartial justice has a right to exact? Do criminals convicted of capital offences, and who have forfeited in consequence their lives to the violated laws of their country, conceive themselves treated with severity, do they murmur or complain, when, in lieu of death, which their crimes have merited, the mitigated penalty of fine, exile, imprisonment, or any other inferior punishment is assigned them by the gracious exercise of the royal prerogative? And what comparison is there between temporal and eternal death? What comparison between the privation of a few years of earthly existence, and perpetual seclusion from the society of the blessed? What comparison between the temporary pangs which accompany the violent separation of the body from its kindred spirit, and the extreme anguish of the soul engulphed for eternity in that un

fathomable abyss of torments, where no order, but everlasting horror dwelleth? Oh! my friends, with what transports of joy would those unfortunate victims of wretchedness and desperation, who are now groaning in the regions of woe under the weight of divine indignation, with what raptures of exultation would they consent to sustain the utmost rigors of earthly calamity, could they but upon that condition, be rescued from the evils of their present state? Shall sinners then, who live only by a special favor of the Almighty, who breathe only upon sufferance, who, on the perpetration of the first crime which gave a mortal wound to their souls, deserved to be plunged into the gulph of perdition, and who, since that period, have been accumulating perhaps guilt upon guilt, and adding fresh aggravations to their multiplied enormities, shall they, convicted and punishable culprits, repine at the lenient and temporary chastisements of relenting mercy, at a time when they are obnoxious to the rigorous and eternal vengeance of inexorable justice?

But although among Christians there are unquestionably but too many who come under the denomination of those grievous offenders whom I have just described, yet I am unwilling to include my present hearers in this black catalogue of criminals. It is to be remembered nevertheless that there are also failings of a less heinous description, which, without amounting to a degree of turpitude destructive of the spiritual life of the

soul, tarnish its purity, and render it obnoxious to the divine displeasure. Examine impartially your hearts, my friends, and say if no blemishes of this character be discoverable in them. Will you not, on a fair and unbiassed investigation, have too much reason to lament the contrary? Have you always, for instance, been careful to check the wild rovings of licentious fancy? Have you constantly exercised a becoming vigilance over your senses? Have you used your best endeavours to stifle in their birth the first emotions of anger and impatience? Have you never failed to banish from your minds every rash and uncharitable thought which may have sprung up within them, injurious to the honor and reputation of your neighbour? Has your conversation been at all times tempered with that placid meekness, that gentleness and humility which characterize the true disciples of him who was meek and humble of heart? Does no asperity of language ever escape you; does no peevish, censorious, or ill-natured expression, the result perhaps of inconsiderate thoughtlessness, rather than of rooted malignity, wound the feelings of your friends and associates? Has no fear of reprehension prevailed upon you occasionally to violate the truth? Has not even the value of the very best of your actions been sometimes depreciated by the base alloy of self-complacency and vain glory? Are you conscious of no neglect in discharging the duties of your respective stations? As a father, mother, husband, wife,

child, master, servant, have you always acted your part with religious fidelity? Remember that it is a principle of our holy religion that nothing defiled can enter heaven; that guilt of every description and degree subjects the offender to a proportionate allotment of punishment, and that if that punishment be not endured by him in his present state of probation, it will be inflicted on him hereafter, in a future state of suffering and purgation. This then being the case, should not they who are sensible of having in any manner fallen short of the strict requisitions of the gospel, embrace with heartfelt cheerfulness the crosses and tribulations of this short life, as so many gracious dispensations of mercy, substituted in the place of far more painful torments, which otherwise they would have to undergo beyond the grave, in the mournful regions-though not of endless, yet of long perhaps, and possibly of very intense affliction.

But I will suppose you to have been preserved by the special protection of the Almighty from even the slightest violation of the precepts of the gospel. I will suppose you to have attained a degree of sanctity which it has been given to the most eminent alone among the servants of God to reach. Still are you not to consider the afflictions which you may be doomed to experience, in any other light than as distinguishing marks of the favor of the Most High. For by them he furnishes you with a fit opportunity of exercising a variety of illustrious virtues which would not

otherwise be brought into action, and the exercise of which will entitle you to high distinction in the court of heaven. Unshaken fidelity, steady resolution, unruffled meekness, invincible patience, cheerful resignation, persevering constancy, such are the great and admirable virtues which the servants of God have an opportunity of displaying in their conflicts with afflictions, and such the proudest honors of the court of heaven are destined hereafter to remunerate.

Look into the lives of the most renowned personages whose names are recorded in holy writ, and you will find throughout, the most illustrious among them to have derived splendour from the furnace of affliction. Abel, victim of a brother's envy; Abraham, expatriated sojourner in a strange land; Jacob fleeing from before the face of Esau ; Joseph enslaved, calumniated, imprisoned; Moses, amidst the horrors of a dreary wilderness, assailed by the murmurs, complaints, and provocations of a perverse and ungrateful race; David, object of the unjust persecution of a jealous prince, and of the still more unnatural conspiracy of a rebellious child. Such, my friends, are the worthies exhibited to us in the Old Testament, as peculiarly deserving our admiration and esteem. In perusing the New, we discover afflictions to have been the lot of those who shine forth in it with the brightest lustre. And the divine founder of our holy religion is represented to us by the Apostle of the Gentiles, as having been advanced to that