ing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Others are ambitious, covetous, active. The learned are adding to their intellectual treasures; the honourable are adding to their splendour and distinctions; the rich are adding house to house, and field to field; and none of them saith, "It is enough." And have you no concern to go from strength to strength, to be changed from glory to glory, to shine more and more unto the perfect day? Will not you add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity?

Here, my Brethren, call forth all your diligence. Here is a prize which is able to reward it, which will assuredly crown it; but which it is impossible to acquire without it. Keep this always in your remembrance, that there is only one way to prosper in relig ion; that your strength is not to sit still; that something more is necessary than airy notions, sleepy wishes, feeble resolutions, wavering and cold endeavours; that temptations are to be resisted, obstacles to be overcome, means to be incessantly used, especially prayer, that divine Grace may be mighty in you, and sufficient for you. "He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack "hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich." "The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath noth"ing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat." "And we desire that every one of you do shew the "same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the "end; that ye be not slothful; but followers of them,

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"who through faith and patience inherit the promis"es." "Wherefore, my beloved Brethren, be ye "steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work "of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour " is not in vain in the Lord."

SERMON XVII.

THE ABUSE OF DIVINE FORBEARANCE.

ECCLES. viii. 11.

BECAUSE SENTENCE AGAINST AN EVIL WORK IS NOT EXECUTED SPEEDILY, THEREFORE THE HEART OF THE SONS OF MEN IS FULLY SET IN THEM TO DO EVIL.

MY Brethren, to know things in their principles has always been deemed the highest kind of science. The attention of a vulgar mind may be roused by effects; but a wise man looks back from consequences to the cause, and explores the source of the disease, in order to prescribe more certainly the means of cure.

That there is much wickedness in the world is undeniable. Whence does it arise? Solomon views it as resulting from an Abuse of Divine Forbearance. Not that this is the only source of iniquity; but it is a very powerful, and a very prevailing one. In such a dreadful course as Sin, a man needs encouragement; and he awfully derives it from the goodness and long-suffering of his God. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, there

"fore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them "to do evil."

THERE IS A SENTENCE DENOUNCED AGAINST SIN. THE EXECUTION OF IT IS COMMONLY LONG SUSPENDED. THIS DELAY EMBOLDENS THE SINNER IN HIS CRIMES. These three things are obviously contained in the words before us; and with these I would engage your present attention. "To-day if ye will hear his "voice, harden not your heart."

I. Sin is deservedly called an EVIL WORK. I fear none of us are sufficiently impressed with a sense of its vileness and malignity. It is "the work of the "devil." It is folly, ingratitude, rebellion, treason. It degrades the soul; it defiles the soul. It robs us of the likeness, the presence, the favour of God. How deplorable are its consequences! What misery has it produced! For it cannot go unpunished. THERE IS A

SENTENCE DENOUNCED AGAINST IT.

God is of "purer eyes than to behold iniquity:" "He is angry with the wicked every day." But what is anger in God? Not a passion, but a principle, a determination to punish. It is justice, and this justice is essential to the perfection of his character; and we could neither adore or love him, if we believed that he was indifferent to an evil which not only subverts his designs, but destroys the welfare of his crea

What would you think of a magistrate who should "bear the sword in vain ;" and who, when you led before him one who had invaded your property, and another who had killed your child, should smile and say, What is that to me? Would you not

exclaim-Why, are you not "a minifter of God for "good, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that "doeth evil?" Crimes, in all well-governed empires, are punished; and on their punishment much of our peace and safety depends. Hence prisons are as necessary as houses, and our houses would afford us no security without prisons. What would be the consequence of the abrogation of all the penalties attached to crimes in this country, but disorder, anarchy, robbery, and murder?

But there is

God is the governor of the world. no governing without laws, and laws are nothing without sanctions; from these they derive their force and their efficacy. Laws issued by a legislator unaccompanied with threatenings, would be harmless, and inspiring no terror, would be trifled with, or considered only as advice. Thus the notion of punishment follows from the very conftitution of law. If any fhould be ready to say, "The case before us is a pe"culiar one, and laws so excellent as those which "God has given us fhould be cheerfully obeyed for "their own sake." We answer, Firft, that man was originally made capable of fear, and that God even in a state of innocency addressed himself to this pas sion to aid his authority and secure his dominion. Witness the threatening, "In the day that thou eatest "thereof thou shalt surely die." Secondly, as man is now fallen and depraved, and lives so much under the dominion of sense, such a revelation of terror is become far more necessary to check the power appetite, and break the force of temptation. Accordingly a sentence the moft tremendous is denounced

of