SERMON X.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

1 PETER, III. 13.

"And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?"

In considering these words, I have already occupied your attention by the first inference, to which the subject led me-namely, that it is to our interest to be righteous. Now, if it be admitted, as I then endeavoured to show-first, that the righteous are placed above the reach of moral injury from the ungodly; secondly, that they are beyond the influence of evil; thirdly, that the interests of this life, being with them not primary, but secondary objects, its afflictions cannot make them miserable whilst they have the consolations of religion; and, lastly, that they need have no fears, so long as they continue to be "followers of that which is good:" I say, if these points were severally established, then the proposition laid down

is at once clearly determined, that it is to our interest to be righteous. Hear the Prophet Ezekiel, too, in confirmation of this truth:-"When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions, he shall surely live and not die." But, "when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die." Here, then, is at once a full confirmation of this important doctrine, and it not only shows, that it is to our interest to be righteous, but that it is also to our interest to continue so..

J

7

I pass on, to the second deduction from this truth, which is the subject now to be considered namely, that, then it must be against our interest to be unrighteous. This will sufficiently appear to us, if we consider, first, that unrighteousness leads even in this world to more suffering than enjoyment. "They that plow iniquity and sow wickedness," says the Patriarch, " the same."

66

reap

Though it be sweet in their mouths, though they hide it under their tongues, though they spare it and forsake it not, yet it is the gall of asps within

them." We may see this sad truth confirmed within our daily experience. Where does the unrighteous man seek enjoyment? Not "where true joys are to be found," but in those pleasures only where continued excitement is elicited; where reflection is absorbed in the activities of sensual pursuit; where the affections are depraved by the seductions of art, of luxury, of flattery, of that visionary bliss, which has the body only for its object, or, at least, in which the soul can find no lasting participation. There is nothing in all this to promote happiness, because, such pleasures quickly pass, and, if succeeded by others, we know that these also cannot continue, but that they must soon fail us altogether. Besides which, when past, they too frequently leave the stings of remorse behind them. The unrighteous man suffers more than he enjoys, because, whilst the desires of the body

and only are gratified, the soul has no peace;

in the soul it is that we suffer the most acutely. Beyond what the desires of the flesh may dictate, the ungodly man seeks for no motive of action; he listens to no monitor but self-love, and, therefore, cannot command those comforts which exclusively attach to such as secure them by the very opposite course. Indeed, the senses are the only repositories of his hopes to gratify them, is the main object of his life; and when they fail him, what must be the prospects before him, to which they can contribute not a single ray of enjoyment: but, on the

contrary, over which dreary presentiments and conscious guilt must combine to cast that gloom which shall arise from the alarms of an apprehended exclusion from the felicities of Heaven, and a dreaded abandonment to the miseries of Hell?!

7

Now, whilst the enjoyments of the unrighteous man are confined to this world, they must be insufficient and nugatory, because they can only/last as long as he has the capacity of indulging in them, and this must ever be to him a source of unquiet reflection. He has no security in these enjoyments. Disease, adversity, and a thousand other ills, which are comprised within the narrow circle of existence, may speedily place them beyond the grasp of his possession. He may see them before him, and not be able to participate in them, having the will, but not the capacity; and often, too, like the fabled fruit of the wilderness, which, to the eye of the thirsty traveller, was an object of alluring invitation, but when applied to the parched and eager lips, yielded only ashes and bitterness!: so, to the unrighteous man shall eventually be theẹ fruits of his iniquity, plucked from the polluted stem of sensual pleasure; he shall taste them till they too only send forth bitterness. He may, indeed, go on for a while successfully, and with little visible suffering, but, in the end, "his travail shall come upon his own head, and his wickedness shall fall upon his own pate." The considerations, the fears, the experience of the fugitiveness, together