where it is not, is uneasy in waiting for the season of enjoyment; surfeited and dissatisfied even at the moment he longed for; pained at the retrospect; alarmed when he looks forward to death and judgment; and he can find no respite from anx, iety, but by banishing reflection, and foregoing the noblest privilege of the rational nature.-Your smiles, ye votaries of pleasure, are hypocritical; your mirth affectation; your heart is heaviness in the midst of your loudest peals of laughter: remorse of conscience and foreboding fears often disturb even your most jovial hours, and extort the unwilling sigh; but they render solitude and reflection bitterness; whilst the least remembrance of death, or symptom of its approach, excites a horror I have felt, but cannot describe.

This is earthly, ungodly pleasure, even when health, affluence, and all conceivable advantages concur to add relish to it: but when sickness seizes the poor wretch, who knows no other joy; when poverty and adversity depress, and death approaches, his case is so miserable, and his anguish so intolerable, that no words can sufficiently express it.

But true religion is the source of the sweetest serenity, the most refined delight, the most exquisite enjoyment. From conscious integrity, peace with God, submission to his will, and reliance on his providential and gracious care, spring calm content with the present, and serene expectations

of the future: and these form a "peace of God, "which passeth all understanding." Victory over the fear of death, and a well-grounded and lively hope of eternal happiness, support the soul in adversity, and increase the enjoyment of prosperity. Contemplation on the glories of the divine character, and the wonders God hath wrought, issuing in admiring love, adoring gratitude, and fervent praises, inspires the soul at some seasons" with "joy unspeakable, and full of glory." A life of communion with God, an uniform walk in his pleasant ways, an increasing assurance and experience of his love, fill the christian's peaceful soul with an abiding satisfaction; which nothing greatly interrupts but the stirrings of corruption, the force of temptation, and the imperfection of his obedience. By these at times guilt burdens his mind, and sorrow oppresses his heart; yet even godly sorrow itself rather increases than lessens his enjoyment and if he for a season be unhappy, it is not because he is religious, but because he is no more so. Nor is there any rational satisfaction which he doth not enjoy with more real relish, because with more moderation, than others do: for real religion abridges us of no enjoyment, but that which is irrational, debasing, or inordinate. In short, a flash of lightning, which for a moment interrupts, and then increases, the midnight gloom; bears more comparison to the cheerful gepial light of the sun; than the most exquisite

gratifications of sin, to those joys which the real .diligent christian experiences from day to day. "Come taste and see how gracious the Lord is, " and how blessed they are who trust in him.'

But doth Satan persuade you, that you shall have time enough hereafter? Alas! can you be the dupes of so bare-faced an artifice? You know you have no lease of your lives, nor are sure of beholding to-morrow's light. Many as young, as healthy, as vigorous, as you, are followed to the tomb. Dare you risk eternal happiness or misery on such a peradventure? Reflect also, that your lives are in the hands of that God, whom your sins have greatly provoked, and your presumptuous impenitency still more. May he not even at this moment be saying, "Thou fool, this night "shall thy soul be required of thee?" Hast thou not, deluded sinner, done enough already to provoke him to it? And shouldst thou slight the present warning, and rush into forbidden pleasure: seriously consider, whether thou mayest not reasonably fear, lest in the midst of some daring provocation, he should "cut thee off with a stroke!", and "then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.”

Dare you flatter yourselves with the presumption of repenting, if not before, yet on a deathbed? Alas, how many are cut off by sudden death! how many bereft of reason by the violence of disease! how many are seized with madness,-incurable madness! how many, I say, perish without

one cry for mercy, and eternally curse their folly, in being tlie dupes of such a delusion! "Surely "in vain is the net spread in the sight of any "bird." You evidently see the design of Satan in this temptation: he aims only to lull you into security, till he can plunge you into despair; and then he will insult over you. But even should you have a space given you before death, can you reasonably hope, that God will then give you his grace, which you have so long refused? Are you sure you shall improve those hours? Can you at last in your own strength, when you are languishing under a violent disorder, overcome all those difficulties, which you have considered as next to insurmountable, even with the assistance of divine grace, all the days of your health? Will health? Will you need any additional anguish, when your bones are full of strong pain, and nature is even sinking under the load? Can you then be sure that your repentance is real and genuine, when you have no opportunity of bringing it to the trial by the fruits it produces? One instance indeed is recorded of a dying penitent, to shew that repentance even in those circumstances is neither impossible nor unavailing; and but one, to teach us that such cases are very rare. To-day, then, make sure of this important concern. "Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eye-lids: deliver thy"self as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as "a bird from the snare of the fowler."

"Remember therefore your Creator in the days "of your youth." Remember your obligations and relations to him, and your offences against him: remember, repent, and seek forgiveness without delay, through that Saviour, who hath promised, that "they who seek him early shall "find him.'

But, perhaps, this best season is already elapsed with many; and it is too late to exhort them to early repentance. Perhaps some are secretly lamenting: My youth hath been spent in vanity 'and ungodliness: yea, the prime of life is irrecoverably past, and I am growing hoary in the ways of wickedness: What must I do? Is there nothing for me, but a certain fearful looking for ' of judgment, and fiery indignation?' Indeed, my fellow sinner, thy case is very deplorable: thy day is almost spent; the night, wherein no man can work, is swiftly approaching: thy work is not begun; yea, all thou hast been doing, during the whole course of thy life, must be as it were undone. Thou must travel back again, with weeping and supplication, all the way thou hast trodden for so many years. Death, judgment, and eternity press upon thy unprepared soul: the grave is yawning for thy enfeebled body and should death seize upon thee ere repentance hath taken place, it had been good for thee, hadst thou never been born. Still, however, thy case is not desperate though provoked by thy impenitency, the