2 CHRON. XXXiii. 12, 13.—And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, And prayed unto him and he was intreatedof him, and heard his suppli- cation, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Preached on the last Sunday of the Year. Deut. xxxii. 29.-O that they were wise, that they un- SERMON S. SERMON I. THE TEMPORAL ADVANTAGES OF GOD LINESS. 1 TIм. iv. 8. "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." THERE is no one principle by which men are more generally actuated, than a regard to their own interest. It is true that what they often pursue is in reality injurious to them: still there are some imaginary or transient advantages attending this real evil, which stimulate their endeavours to attain it. It is true, too, that what men often shun, is something which would be B beneficial to them, and that possibly in the very highest degree. still it is the difficulty or danger, real or apparent, which accompanies it, and which in their practical judgment far outbalances its benefits, that renders it the object of their aversion. It still holds good, generally, that men regulate their conduct with a view to what they consider, in one way or other, advantageous to them. This may be laid down as an uni versal truth. Now it has pleased our gracious and all-wise God to appeal to this powerful and all-pervading principle of our nature, and he frequently, in his word, dissuades men from sin, and urges upon them a serious attention to religion from a regard to their own best interests. Hence, when we dissuade men from forsaking the Lord their God, and from casting off his fear; we are to remind them that it is an evil thing and bitter for them to do so. (Jer. ii. 19.) When we would deter any one from the perpetration of any work of iniquity, we may adopt the language of the apostle to the jailor at Philippi, and say to him, "Do thyself no harm." And in the same way, when we recommend to those who listen to us the ways of divine wisdom, we still appeal to their self-love, their regard to their own interest, and assure them in the language |