fidence and security to the soul of a Christian under such a course? Is it that the world, in the midst of which they live, too generally conforms to it? Is it that persons strictly irreproachable do the same? But it ought to be reflected, that before the manners of Christians began to degenerate, things that are now consecrated by usage, were then monstrous singularities. It ought to be considered that we shall be judged by the Gospel, and not by received practice; that whatever has arisen merely from the decay of fervor and piety, are abuses to be deplored, not models to be followed; in a word, that the life of a Christian is too revolting to nature ever to become the taste of the greater number. Suppose I were to tell you from this place, that the Gospel was not in fact so severe a system as it is generally represented; that to idolize the world, and acquit ourselves to God were things perfectly reconcileable; that there was not the least harm in the breathless pursuit of pleasure, which reason alone pronounces to be unworthy of thinking beings; that Christians were at full liberty to rack their invention in order to diversify and give zest to an eternal round of emptiness and folly; that provided they dispense charity with one hand, they may lavish with the other as much as they please; that religion admitted such compensation; that all they hear about a simple, frugal, and retired life, strict attention to domestic duties, perfect modesty of mien and apparel; a life of prayer, penitence, and self denial, cannot, if they mean any thing at all, be applicable to persons, whose condition, from long prescription, entitles

them to more latitude. What opinion would you entertain of this new and very convenient doctrine? Would you consider the man who uttered it, worthy of respect, and better instructed than others in the science of salvation? No, my brethren, you would either openly deride his ignorance, or retire with precipitation and horror, from so shocking a profanation of his sacred function. What are we then, my brethren, I may say, but the bypocritical slaves of the world and its pleasures, when we justify aloud, what we condemn in secret! And how confounding will that judgment be, which condemns us on the evidence of our own hearts! Were it possible for Christians to be calm in the course I have described, free as it is from any thing gross and immoral, let them hear the express words of Jesus Christ on the subject "no man can serve two masters." "Ye "cannot serve God and Mammon." "Woe unto 66 you that are full now, for ye shall hunger! Woe "unto you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn and 66 weep." "Verily I say unto you the world shall "rejoice, but ye shall be sorrowful, and your sorrow "shall be turned into joy." This, my brethren, is the Gospel. What exception appears on the face of it, in favour of any description of Christians? No, the more elevated we are, the greater our prosperity, the more absolutely indispensible an adherence to the letter of our profession, the more incessant should our vigilance be; the more declared and lively our faith, the more fervent and continued our prayer; the more heroic our self denial, the more exalted every virtue. Because, our dan

ger is much greater, and more awful than it would be in an obscurer station. Because, it is the nature of prosperity to corrupt, to bind us faster to the world, to furnish occasions of vice at every step, to favour and facilitate the indulgence of evil passions; to render abortive all good desires, and extinguish in the soul, all aspiring to a better state, all recollection of God and futurity. Above all, because it is a state which Jesus Christ in plain terms has pronounced to be nearly incompatible with salvation.

Were the world to judge us, we might look for the privilege of fancy, of a soft and convenient way. But the world itself will be judged; and he that will judge it, and us too, will not distinguish Christians by their riches, or their rank, but by their merits or demerits, their virtues, or their crimes. Here, will he say, is my law. I delivered it, without an iota of variation, to the mighty and the mean. I inquire not, therefore, what you are; but how you have conformed to it; how you have lived; what use have you made of the talent I confided to you? These will be, my brethren, the terrible questions addressed to all. I leave the inference to yourselves; and return, observing only, that no infatuation can be more deplorable, either with respect to our eternal interest, or even the interest of this world, than that which leads us to ruin, with our eyes open.

If the sex, in their intercourse, be of the highest importance to the moral and religious state of society, they are still more so in their domestic relations.

What a public blessing, what an instrument of the most exalted good is a virtuous Christian mother? It would require a far other pen than mine to trace the merits of such a character. How many, perhaps, who now hear me, feel that they owe to it all the virtue and piety that adorns them; or may recollect at this moment, some saint in heaven, that brought them into light to labour for their happiness, temporal and eternal! No one can be ignorant of the irresistible influence which such a mother possesses, in forming the hearts of her children, at a season when nature takes in lesson and example at every pore. Confined by duty and inclination within the walls of her own house, every hour of her life becomes an hour of instruction; every feature of her conduct a transplanted virtue. Methinks, I behold her encircled by her beloved charge, like a being more than human, to which every mind is bent, and every eye directed; the eager simplicity of infancy inhaling from her lips the sacred truths of religion, in adapted phrase and familiar story; the whole rule of their moral and religious duties simplified for easier infusion. The countenance of this fond and anxious parent, all beaming with delight and love, and her eye raised occasionally to heaven in fervent supplication for a blessing on her work. O! what a glorious part does such a woman act on the great theatre of humanity; and how much is the mortal to be pitied, who is not struck with the image of such excellence! When I look to its consequences direct and remote, I see the plants she has raised and cultivated spreading through the community with

the richest increase of fruit. I see her diffusing happiness and virtue through a great portion of the human race. I can fancy generations yet unborn rising to prove and to hail her worth. I adore that God who can destine a single human creature to be the stem of such extended and incalculable benefit to the world. It is scarce possible for the human mind to offer an argument more powerful in support of an institution like this, to those whose views are christian and public.

In the character of wife we find a virtuous woman equally existing for the happiest purposes. Marriage, 'tis true, is often a state in which neither of the parties is much the better for coming together. When all study and consideration of their worth is put out of the question in the motives that bring on the connexion, the result must generally be, and naturally is, both unfavourable to their felicity and their manners. Judge what a miserable business it is that terminates at best, after a short period, in a compromise to detest each other, with ceremony and politeness, and pursue their respective way of folly or depravity, according to their fancy; a case where terms of endearment are used that the heart disavows, and a mask of union and affection put on in the vain hope of blindfolding the world. Yet such, I fear, is the fate of many, many a pair; and must ever be so where the only inducement to the state is passion, interest, or the pride of alliance. Nothing however is more true than what the Apostle has asserted, that a Christian wife is the salvation

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