down upon yourselves or others may be accomplished?

You allege, that in the moments of cool reflection, you condemn the expressions which fell from your lips in the phrenzy of your rage; you say you are then sorry for the effusions of passion; very true: but do not imagine that what you blush at when past, is therefore innocent in the commission. Know and be persuaded that if the evil which you wish your neighbour be considerable, the sin which you commit, is grievous, and according to the dictates of sound theology, more or less aggravated, according to the relation which the person holds in your regard, and in proportion to his claim to your love, your gratitude, your respect, or the edification of your good example. What shall we say of those parents, who with irreligious and unnatural wish, consign their children to the devil? who, on the slightest offence, committed perhaps without the consciousness of guilt, from the ignorance or simplicity of infancy, burst into rage, and incur the guilt of damnation, while they wish the horrors of it to fall upon their harmless offspring. Oh monsters of barbarity, can you call down wo and endless calamity upon those, who by baptism have been made the adopted children of God, and whom it is your duty, and

ought to be your fondest wish to conduct to everlasting happiness! Such, however, is the inconceivable malice of men, that the parent is heard to call down everlasting perdition upon his own child, the child is heard to curse his parent; and as if christians had determined to offend God, by every possible insult, and had, in the language of the Psalmist, set their mouth against heaven, (Ps. lxxii. 9.) they often introduce the most horrid oaths and curses into their discourse, without connection of language or combination of sentiment, as it were for the express purpose of insulting God, and provoking his anger.

Persons, who profess to be the invariable votaries of honor, whose word, of course should be the word of honor, an undeniable pledge of truth, as if they had lost all claim to common credence, appeal to God on every trifling occurrence, and seal every the most unimportant assertion, with the solemn, sacred testimony of an oath. Often do we hear men calling their Maker to witness the vengeance which they are resolved to take for affronts received, proceeding to horrid imprecations, wishing that they may lose the use of the most precious organs of sense, of their limbs, their faculties, that they may be instantly struck blind or speechless, or may be for ever deprived of the joys of heaven,

if what they assert be not strictly true; when, perhaps they know it to be clearly false; if they do not perform such a deed, when, perhaps, to perform it would be a grievous outrage against the Lord of all, whom they presume to insult and defy. Oh! it is indeed dreadful even to make allusion to curses so tremendous, and I feel that I ought almost to apologize to many of my hearers, for exciting in their minds, ideas of such alarming profaneness: for as the wise man says, (Eccli. xxvii. 15.) the speech that sweareth much shall make the hair stand on end, and its irreverence shall make one stop his ears. I hope however, and this has been my inducement, I hope by the representation in this holy place, of crimes which almost petrify the christian hearer, to bring those who may be guilty of them, to a sense of their crime, and a sorrow for their offences. I trust they will themselves be induced to shudder at the recollection of those shocking blasphemies which they have so often uttered; of those imprecations which they have vomited out against themselves and others, daring to accuse the Deity of injustice and cruelty, and arraigning all his adorable attributes; thus making themselves, by an alarming anticipation, copartners and auxiliaries to the infernal spirits, and making their mouths infectious as the

opened tomb, which exhales nought but corruption. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness (says holy David, Ps. xiii.) their throat is as an open sepulchre. (v. 3.)

Let those then who are unfortunately addicted to this vice, seriously reflect on their past lives, the frequency with which their curses and oaths have been introduced into their discourse on every occasion, and with such stubborn affection, as to make their language almost unintelligible, and their sins even of this kind alone, more numerous than the hairs of their head, or the sands on the sea-shore. Oh, my brethren, does not the society of men ringing with oaths, and curses, and shocking imprecations, resemble those horrid dungeons, where the reprobate, condemned to eternal torture and eternal rage, perpetually blaspheme their offended and despised Lord, and curse themselves with unavailing hatred, for never ending ages! He loved cursing, (says the royal prophet, cviii. 18.) and it shall come unto him... he has put on cursing like a garment, and it has entered like water into his entrails, and like oil in his bones: may it be unto him like a garment which covereth him, and like a girdle with which he is girded continually. Even in this world, if those who thus assail the majesty of heaven with insult and defiance, ex

perience his anger by experiencing terrestrial calamity, is it to be wondered at? A curse, says the Almighty, by his prophet, Zachariah, (v. 4.) shall come to the house of the swearer, and it shall dwell in the midst of his house, and it shall consume it, and its timbers, and its stones. Unhappy man, let it not be alleged as excuse, that it is only in the moment of passion that you thus offend your God, or that the force of habit is irresistible. To overcome habit, is in regard of all sins, a matter of difficulty; but by diligent assiduity and the grace of God, it may be accomplished: and in respect of this sin, as it gratifies no sense, confers no satisfaction, promotes no interest, neither pleases the palate, nor fills the purse, it should be of all the easiest to conquer. St. Augustine found it so, since he declares in his book of confessions, that in three days he subdued it; Triduo moritur pestis. The provocations you may receive from others, may be sinful, but can never justify the person, who when provoked, has recourse to injurious or profane language; for it does not serve to remove the provocation, to silence or punish the offender, nor does it make him feel, in the smallest degree, the effect of resentment. It raises a hurricane within our own breasts, and in any dispute or contest, increases the violence of the external storm,