upon the cross is that sovereign balm that can soothe the pain of the wounded conscience. He is the tender, skilful Physician, that can bind up the broken-hearted, and make us hear that transporting voice, Son, or daughter, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou art made whole. Do we dread the righteous displeasure of our offended Maker? Do the terrors of his justice fall upon us, and the sanctions of his violated law make us afraid? The blessed Jesus hath satisfied the demands of justice, magnified the law and made it honourable, and rendered the Deity propitious to his offending creatures. He died for our offences, and rose again for our justification; and to them that are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? If, then, we believe in Christ, and by faith have received the atonement, we can look up to God as our reconciled God and Father; and may appropriate the language of the psalmist, and say, Return to thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. No longer alienated from God, we can contemplate him with filial affection, and delight in his presence. But in order to this, we must lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth most easily beset us, and walk in all the statutes and ordinances of the Lord. As Christ died for sin, we must die unto it; and as he rose again from the dead by the glory of the Father, we must rise unto, and walk in newness of life. Our rejoicing must be this, even the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity,

not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have our conversation in the world.-The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest.-Wasting and destruction are in their paths: and the way of peace they know not.-But great peace have they who love God's law. The work of righteousness is peace: and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

3. They who walk in the ways of religion find rest to their souls, as they are thereby delivered from those sources of disquietude which spring from sinful and unruly passions.

History is little more than a record of the triumphs of passion over reason and justice; and the revolutions of states and empires have seemed to depend upon the nod of ambition, covetousness, lust, or revenge. Men, under their impulse, have been intractable as the storm that agitates the ocean, and frightful as the howling wilderness. They have set the terrors of death at defiance, and rushed headlong into immediate and certain destruction, only to obtain a momentary gratification of their pride or their revenge.

What have been the lives of the wisest and best of men, but one continual uninterrupted struggle against the corruptions of their own hearts? On every side they are surrounded by objects that irritate their passions, or excite them to evil. The breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and all those divine succours which are offered to the Christian militant, would never have been prepared, if the danger arising

from our own passions had been inconsiderable, or the conquest of them easy.

What a prolific source of disquietude, for instance, is an envious, a repining temper! Must not the bosom, while tortured with wounded pride, with disappointed hopes, or with rankling envy, be a stranger to inward peace? Look at the wretched Haman. Neither the glory of his riches, nor the multitude of his children, nor all the things wherein the king had promoted him, could yield him tranquillity and happiness. All this, said he, availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.

What a slave and drudge is he, who is possessed with an inordinate love of the world! And how do the boilings of anger, and the anxieties attendant upon worldly ambition, distress and torment the mind! Would we frame an idea of misery, we need only figure to ourselves the man of ambition, denied the respect and honour he haughtily claims; or the avaricious man disappointed of his gains, and reduced to poverty; or the impatient and selfish man crossed in his views and desires. And that which makes their condition the worse is, that every man who is the slave of appetite and passion, is wholly, at first, and afterwards, in some degree, consenting to his own bondage. In other cases, men are made slaves against their will, by the force and power of others; but the sinner has himself forged the chains with which he is bound, and sold himself to do wickedly. And I may add, that this slavery is accompanied with this farther aggrava-、

tion, that the sinner is a slave to his own servants. Those appetites, inclinations and passions, which he has raised to lawless rule, were plainly designed to be under the direction of a higher power. Of themselves, they are headstrong and blind; they bear all the marks of intended subordination; and conscience is invested with every ensign of authority and supremacy. But, in the man who is under the control of appetite and passion, this order is subverted. He is compelled to bow down before those that were born to be subject to him. And as it has always been observed, that none are so insolent in power as they who have usurped an authority to which they have no right; so it is in this instance. The passions and appetites of the sinner having once obtained a despotic sway, trample him under their feet. He is like the Centurion's servant; when they say to him come, he must come; and when they say to him go, he must go; when they say do this, he must do it; because he is under imperious authority.

Now, religion is an effectual remedy for all these evils. It frees us from this ignoble bondage, and restores us to the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And with this view, it points out to us the end and purpose for which the passions were implanted in our nature; lays down rules for the regulation of them; and affords strength and assistance to rescue us from the miserable state of those who are under their dominion. So that there is nothing wanting but a willing mind, in order to break these bands asunder, and cast these cords

from us. If we quit ourselves like men, the power of God and his grace will crown our endeavours with victory and success.

I appeal to your experience, Christians, for a proof of what I have been observing. Have you not found the motives and promises of the gospel, and especially fervent prayer at a throne of grace, effectual in diffusing a settled calm and serenity over the soul, when it has been agitated and discomposed by turbulent passions and irregular affections of one kind or another? Or, if at any time you have failed of success, I dare venture to say, that the failure has not been owing to the want of a remedy, but to your not applying it. How many, for instance, are there, who seem to consider what is commonly called a bad temper, as something merely constitutional, for which they are no more accountable than for the particular formation of their bodies? It must be admitted, that some, by the original frame of their minds, are more mild and placid than others; or, in other words, that some tempers require a greater share of cultivation than others. But this affords no justification to those who neglect to oppose, in the strength of divine grace, the corruptions to which they are prone. Ask the most violent and passionate man, one who has taken no care to govern his mind from motives of duty, whether he has not often checked the emotions of anger and resentment, from a regard to time, place, and circumstances? Let him tell you, whether he has not had respect of persons; and whether he has not often governed his tongue