be; for he that has lost the fear of God, has nothing by which he can oppose temptation: he has a breast open and exposed, of which interest or voluptuousness take easy possession; he is the slave of his own desires, and the sport of his own passions; he acts without a rule of action, and he determines without any true principle of judgment. If he who fears always, who preserves in his mind a constant sense of the danger of sin, is yet often assaulted, and sometimes overpowered by temptation ; what can be hoped for him, that has the same temptation, without the same defence? He who hardens his heart will certainly be wicked, and it necessarily follows, that he will certainly be miserable. The doom of the obstinate and impenitent sinner is plainly declared; "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

Let us all, therefore, watch our thoughts and actions; and that we may not, by hardness of heart, fall into mischief, let us endeavour and pray, that we may be among them that feared always, and by that fear may be prepared for everlasting happiness.

45

SERMON IV.

ISAIAH, CHAP. LVIII. VERSE 7, 8.

Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rere-ward.

If the necessity of every duty is to be estimated by the frequency with which it is inculcated, and the sanctions by which it is enforced; if the great Lawgiver of the universe, whose will is immutable, and whose decrees are established for ever, may be supposed to regard, in a particular manner, the observation of those commands, which seem to be repeated only that they may be strongly impressed, and secured, by an habitual submission, from violation and neglect; there is scarcely any virtue that we ought more diligently to exercise, than that of compassion to the needy and distressed.

If we look into the state of mankind, and endeavour to deduce the will of God from the visible disposition of things, we find no duty more necessary to the support of order and the happiness of society, nor any of which we are more often reminded, by

opportunities of practising it, or which is more strongly urged upon us, by importunate solicitations and affecting objects.

If we inquire into the opinions of those men, on whom God conferred superior wisdom, in the heathen world, all their suffrages will be found united in this great point. Amidst all their wild opinions and chimerical systems, the sallies of unguided imagination and the errors of bewildered reason; they have all endeavoured to evince the necessity of beneficence, and agreed to assign the first rank of excellence to him, who most contributes to improve the happiness, and to soften the miseries of life.

But we, who are blessed with clearer light, and taught to know the will of our Maker, not from long deductions from variable appearances, or intricate disquisitions of fallible reason, but by messengers inspired by himself, and enabled to prove their mission by works above the power of created beings, may spare ourselves the labour of tedious inquiries. The holy Scriptures are in our hands, the Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto salvation; and by them we may be sufficiently informed of the extent and importance of this great duty; a duty, enjoined, explained, and enforced, by Moses and the prophets, by the evangelists and apostles, by the precepts of Solomon and the example of Christ.

From those, to whom large possessions have been transmitted by their ancestors, or whose industry has been blessed with success, God always requires the tribute of charity: he commands that what he has given be enjoyed in imitating his bounty, in dispensing happiness, and cheering poverty, in

easing the pains of disease, and lightening the burden of oppression: he commands that the superfluity of bread be dealt to the hungry, and the raiment, which the possessor cannot use, be bestowed upon the naked; and that no man turn away from his own flesh.

This is a tribute, which it is difficult to imagine that any man can be unwilling to pay, as an acknowledgment of his dependence upon the universal Benefactor, and an humble testimony of his confidence in that protection, without which, the strongest foundations of human power must fail at the first shock of adversity, and the highest fabrics of earthly greatness sink into ruin; without which, wealth is only a floating vapour, and policy an empty sound.

But such is the prevalence of temptations, not early resisted; such the depravity of minds, by which unlawful desires have been long indulged, and false appearances of happiness pursued with ardour and pertinaciousness; so much are we influenced by example, and so diligently do we labour to deceive ourselves; that it is not uncommon to find the sentiments of benevolence almost extinguished, and all regard to the welfare of others overborne by a perpetual attention to immediate advantage, and contracted views of present interest.

When any man has sunk into a state of insensibility like this, when he has learned to act only by the impulse of apparent profit, when he can look upon distress without partaking it, and hear the cries of poverty and sickness without a wish to relieve them; when he has so far disordered his ideas as to value wealth without regard to its end, and

to amass with eagerness what is of no use in his hands; he is indeed not easily to be reclaimed: his reason, as well as his passions, is in combination against his soul, and there is little hope, that either persuasion will soften, or arguments convince him. A man, once hardened in cruelty by inveterate avarice, is scarcely to be considered as any longer human; nor is it to be hoped, that any impression can be made upon him by methods applicable only to reasonable beings. Beneficence and compassion can be awakened in such hearts only by the operation of divine grace, and must be the effect of a miracle, like that which turned the dry rock into a springing well.

Let every one, that considers this state of obdurate wickedness, that is struck with horror at the mention of a man void of pity, that feels resentment at the name of oppression, and melts with sorrow at the voice of misery, remember that those who have now lost all these sentiments, were originally formed with passions, and instincts, and reason, like his own let him reflect, that he, who now stands most firmly, may fall by negligence, and that negligence arises from security. Let him, therefore, observe, by what gradations men sink into perdition, by what insensible deviations they wander from the ways of virtue, till they are at length scarce able to return; and let him be warned, by their example, to avoid the original causes of depravity, and repel the first attacks of unreasonable self-love; let him meditate on the excellence of charity, and improve those seeds of benevolence, which are implanted in every mind, but which will not produce fruit without care and cultivation.