and comeliness in religion, as no one can behold it but with love and admiration; and therefore he endeavours to draw a veil over its lustre, and to raise in our minds frightful ideas concerning it. And too many, alas! are misled by such false and unjust representations.

But would men be persuaded once to make the experiment; would they forsake the dangerous paths of sin, and walk in the way that leads to everlasting happiness; would they retire from the noise and tumult of a loose and disordered life, and listen to the still voice of reason and religion; they would quickly find how grossly they have been cheated, and wonder how it was possible they should so long have been deceived: They would soon discover, and then admire, the beauty of holiness,' and be thoroughly convinced that there is no pleasure like that of a good conscience; no real and solid happiness but what results from a life of virtue and holiness. They would then bless the happy change they had made, and would not part with their interest in heaven for the greatest enjoyments this world could give them. All those empty pleasures which once captivated and ensnared them, would then appear mean and contemptible; and nothing would be thought of any real value, but what sets them forward in the way of salvation.

O, happy man! (whosoever thou be) that hast made this noble trial, and, by a true and sincere repentance, art restored to the favour and love of God! Thou hast turned away thine eyes from beholding vanity,' and canst now look up with confidence to God, and relish the pleasures of a virtuous life. How is thy mind filled with love and joy and admiration, when thou considerest, that, by the grace and goodness of God, thou art rescued

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out of the jaws of the devouring lion, and art delivered from fear and shame, and self-condemnation; the sure and miserable attendents of a guilty conscience!

We may have some idea of the happiness of such a man, by considering what is the pleasure of a redeemed captive when restored to his country, his liberty, and his friends; or, of a mariner got safe to shore after a storm, wherein he was every moment in expectation of being swallowed up by the deep. And yet it must be owned, the comparison falls infinitely short: for what slavery is so great as a soul under the bondage and dominion of sin? or, what are the most terrible dangers of the sea, when compared with those to which the sinner is continually exposed?

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But have not some, it may be asked, made trial of religion, and yet have found no satisfaction therein; as may be concluded from their returning again to their former course of life? It is true, there are some instances (and sad ones they are, God knows) of some, who, after they have been once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, have yet fallen away,' and entered again into a life of sin and debauchery. But has this been owing to a dislike of religion? By no means; but rather to a want of care in not avoiding the company which has formerly seduced them; or to a forgetfulness, or at least to a neglect, of the vows and resolutions they have made: or, it may be, they have fallen under some violent temptation, which they have not so vigorously resisted as they might and ought to have done. Instances, however, of this kind, I trust, are but rare. Whereas, on the other hand, how many are there, who, having for

saken the company and conversation of the wicked, and having lamented the folly and madness of their past lives, have, from being the slaves of sin and Satan, become the servants of God? These will tell you, from their own experience, that they have found more true peace and satisfaction in conquering one vicious habit, than they ever met with in the most sensual enjoyment; that all their past sinful pleasures yield them now no other fruits than those bitter ones of shame and remorse; and that in religion, on the contrary, they find such a spring of comfort continually refreshing their souls, as they would not part with it for all this world can possibly give them; that they taste such a pleasure in the service of God, as makes them, with holy David, desire to dwell in the house of the Lord: all the days of their lives, to behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and to visit his temple;' (Psalm xxvii. 4.) and, like him, esteem it better to be a dourkeeper in the house of the Lord (one of the meanest of God's servants), than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness,' amid the delights and pleasures of a wicked and deluded world.

In fact, nothing can give a man so exqusite a satisfaction, as to reflect upon the actions of a wellspent life; to consider that he has made God his friend, and secured an interest in the favour of Him, who is the eternal source and fountain of all good; infinite in mercy and loving-kindness, as well as in power: not only able, but willing and ready, to help and assist him in all difficulties: a Being to whom he may have recourse under every trial and temptation, under the greatest calamities and troubles of life; to whom he may lay open all his wants and infirmities, pour forth all his sorrows and afflictions, and may at all times with confidence

look up, as being assured that he has a powerful intercessor in heaven, Jesus Christ the righteous, ' in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins;' Col. i. 14; and who is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them; Heb. vii. 25.-I say, for a man to consider these important truths; to think that he is answering the end of his creation; that he is doing the work for which he was sent into the world; that he is become a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven :" how must such thoughts cheer and refresh his soul with a solid, substantial, and lasting pleasure! in comparison whereof, all the vain and empty enjoy-" ments of this world are as nothing.

But then, on the contrary, for a wicked man to reflect, that the face of the Lord is against them that do evil,' Psalm xxxiv. 16, and consequently that he is in the number of those against whom God has declared his displeasure; that, instead of working out his salvation with fear and trembling,' he is daily heaping up to himself wrath against the day of wrath;' and though (it may be) he is now clothed with purple and fine linen, and fares sumptuously every day;' though he may at present live in all the gaiety and splendour, the pomp and luxury of a great fortune; yet there will come a time (and, for aught he knows, it may not be many moments off) when he shall be stripped of all his pleasures and enjoyments, and want even a drop of water to cool his tongue :' surely, such considerations as these must strike the sinner with horror and amazement, and, like Belshazzar, when he saw the hand-writing upon the wall, make him tremble even in the midst of his greatest mirth and jollity.

And can a man with such impressions on his? mind (and these, or something like these, will be sure to haunt the sinner) be said to be happy? Are the stings of conscience, the terrors of an Almighty Judge, and the dreadful expectations of God's vengeance, consistent with a state of satisfaction? Alas! the libertine may flatter himself as he pleases, and think to deceive others, by putting on an air of gaiety and pleasantness; but it is certain, his mind can never be long at rest, while he carries about him a faithful monitor, that will be continually upbraiding him for his folly and madness; representing to him the dangers to which he is exposed, and crossing him, as it were, in his way, while he is in full pursuit of his unlawful pleasures. And though he may, perhaps, be able sometimes to silence the voice of this troublesome companion, by mere dint of noise and extravagance; yet, when his passions abate (as they will not always bear to be upon the stretch), and the man grows cool, he will find the upbraidings of his conscience return upon him with the greater violence. The shame and anguish, the horror and confusion, that he will then feel, will infinitely overbalance all the satisfactions he can meet with in the enjoyments of his sinful plea

sures.

I own, indeed, this is not the case of every sinner. A man, by a long course of wickedness, may arrive at such a hardened state, as to be incapable of any virtuous impressions; his soul may be seared, as it were, with a hot iron, and be fallen into such a deep and fatal lethargy, as nothing, perhaps, shall be able to awaken it, till it comes to feel the very torments of the damned. But no one, I believe, will think this to be a state of happiness.

with

The truth is, if we consider a wicked man, respect to this world only, abstractedly from what