suality and vice, and become in a moment humble and merciful, pure and pious? "Can the Ethiopian change his skin and the leopard his spots?" says the prophet, "Then may ye," at such an hour, "learn to do good who are accustomed to do evil."

If such a reformation is difficult in the vigour of health and the fulness of leisure, what shall we say of it at the hour of pain and disease; amidst the terrors and the pangs of death? What do I infer, my young friends? This, only this; trust not to a death-bed repentance. "Now is the accepted time," "Now is the day of salvation." "The night cometh when no man can work."t "Give glory then to the Lord your God, lest when ye look for light he turn it into the shadow of death." If you wish to die the death of a Christian, live a Christian's life.

Let me suggest a few brief counsels for the achievement of this great work; and let me intreat you, with the fervour of friendship; let me conjure you by the sacredness of religion, to imprint them on your hearts.

The first is, cultivate prayer. Without the assisting grace of God all human resolutions, all human attempts to reform and regenerate the soul, will be vain and impotent; and the assisting grace of God can be obtained and procured no otherwise than by prayer. Of daily prayer, daily confession and repentance, form a necessary part: and oh! how will these anticipate a death-bed repentance, and lighten the burden of the last hour! The second counsel is; study the Scriptures, and improve to the utmost, cheerfully and strenuously improve, the various opportunities of acquiring religious knowledge which this place affords. The third is, avoid as far as possible the company, and firmly reject all advances to the intimacy, of any man, young or old, whom you once discover to be vicious and profane. So will you easily escape the phrenzy of the gamblingtable, the rage of the duellist, the degradation of drunkenness, and the pollution of impurity. Virtuous and ingenuous youths never seek such scenes single and unimpelled; vicious examples, vicious ridicule, are to them the source of almost every crime.

Jer. xiii. 23.

+2 Cor. vi. 2; and John, ix. 4.

Finally, be diligent in every praiseworthy pursuit your age and situation demand. Thus will your activity take a salutary direction. So will you "Grow in wisdom and stature, in favour with God and man."* So shall you live respected and beloved, encounter death with sincere and steady hope, and finally rise to immortality and bliss, through the merits and mediation of that Jesus, who is at once your Instructor and Model, your Friend and Redeemer, Sovereign and Judge, to whom with thee O! Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory now and for ever. Amen.

* Luke, ii. 52.

590

SERMON L.

OCCASIONED BY THE IRISH REBELLION, IN 1803.

[Preached in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, on Sunday, the 28th of August, 1803; published at the desire of the Provost.]

LUKE, XIII. 1, 2, 3.

"There were present at that season, some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices; and Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

THIS solemn warning addressed by our divine Lord to the Jews, well deserves our serious attention at this awful period, my fellow-Christians. The events which gave rise to it were most calamitous. Some of the Jews had perished by a sudden and fatal accident; "the tower of Siloam had fallen upon them and slain them."* Others had perished by the fury of a sanguinary foe; Pilate had fallen upon them when collected at a religious solemnity, and slaughtered them with unrelenting cruelty; "their blood had been mingled with their sacrifices." The Jews related this tragical event to our Lord, doubtless with the strongest manifestations of joy and self-congratulation, at their having been exempted from a fate so dreadful. The Judge of man who penetrateth the inmost secrets of the heart, perceived, that with this joy and self-congratulation, were combined feelings inconsistent with that temper of mind, which a due improvement of such mercy was calculated to inspire. He perceived that they attributed their exemption from such a visitation to their own superiority in righteousness, compared with the unhappy sufferers; that they were thus puffed up with spiritual pride, and lulled into an irreligious self-confidence; that far from being warned of the necessity of averting the divine

* Luke, xiii. 4.

judgments by the deepest penitence, and labouring humbly and earnestly after improvement, they were confirmed in the selfflattering opinion, that it was their own pre-eminent goodness which had entitled them to the peculiar protection which they had so recently experienced; and that therefore repentance and reformation were unnecessary.

none.

Against this impious and fatal delusion, our Lord raised His warning voice. "Suppose ye," says He, "that they who suffered such things were sinners above all the Galileans? I tell you nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish ;" and He illustrates His sentiments in such a manner, as while it developes the object of the divine administration, must humble effectually the pride and self-confidence of man. For "He spake also this parable; a certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon and found Then saith he to the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down."* To this solemn warning of the supreme Lord and Judge of man, would I direct your attention, my fellow-Christians, lest the divine protection we have hitherto experienced, should fill us with pride instead of humbling us to repentance.

We, my brethren, have been preserved from dangers the most dreadful, amidst deeds of horror, and of blood. The most awful visitations of calamity, the most visible judgments of God have become familiar to us; every where we behold "nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming upon the earth."+ This our island, remote and secluded as it appears in the map of Europe, is hurried into the vortex of foreign war, and convulsed by internal discord and sedition. The same ambitious and destructive power, which has overwhelmed so great a part of the civilized world with the horrors of servitude and misery, threatens to overwhelm us also

Luke, xiii. 6—10.

+ Luke, xxi. 10 26.

with similar ruin. The same principles of disunion and anarchy which have facilitated its progress in other countries, prevail also here, and menace us with similar effects.

In the midst however of these awful visitations, the mercy of God has been graciously extended to us, and the Divine Power manifested in our protection. The unmerited goodness of our God intended to warn and reform, but not to destroy us. Three times has hostile violence burst upon our shores, and three times has Providence interposed its all-protecting arm, and we have been preserved. Twice has rebellion lifted his sanguinary hand and (that all might feel themselves within the reach of fate) some of the most distinguished, and deservedly distinguished in society, have fallen-ever to be lamented-fallen beneath his ruthless stroke. But these were few; only sufficient to awaken us to a lively sense of the danger from which we have escaped. "The Lord has put a hedge about us and about all we possessed on every side." The ministers of his wrath, famine and war and rebellion, all resistless as they are, knew their appointed bounds. Us they have spared-but still our repose is disturbed, and our destruction menaced-the judgments of God are suspended, not withdrawn.

Such a situation of things, my fellow-Christians, is awful beyond expression, calculated to awaken even in the most inconsiderate, serious reflection and religious awe. The protection we have hitherto experienced, must impress us with the deepest gratitude to that Divine mercy which has so signally preserved us-preserved us too where the blow was so secret and sudden, no human vigilance could ward it off. It must animate us with the firmest confidence in the power of that supreme Being who alone dispenses peace and war, directs the hearts of kings, and controls the madness of the people; "who giveth not the race to the swift, nor the battle to the strong," but heareth those who seek him, and protecteth the humble of heart; "who doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and amongst the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say, what dost thou ? Who is the king of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment, and those who walk in pride he is

* Job, i. 10.