nature. We have gone through another year. Short as that portion of time is in itself, confiderable it is, however to man whofe life is but a hand's breadth, whofe eternal lot depends on the proper ufe of the years he has here to pass on earth. What can appear more frivolous in actual existence than the purfuits and occupations of childhood? Yet upon the proper improvement of this feafon depend the wifdom, the utility, the happinefs of riper years. Thus it is with life, which is the period of our education for a future ftate, and unless we duly employ this time, we fhall be more unqualified to derive happiness even from the happiness of heaven, than the most rude uncultivated peafant can be to receive pleasure or inftruction from the abftrufe researches of philofophy. We look upon all our neighbours as mortal; we form fchemes to ourfelves upon their decease, but forget all the while that we ourselves are to die. O foolifh and infatuated race, will you always continue deaf to the voice of wifdom? Will neither the inftructions of the living, nor the warnings of the dead, induce you to serious thoughts? Will you continue to lengthen your prospects, when perhaps you stand on the very verge of life; and can you enjoy the banquet, when the fword hangs over your head by a fingle hair? Who knows what a day may bring forth? The morn ing has fmiled upon multitudes, who before the evening have flept the fleep of death. The tongue

of

of the preacher will fhortly be mute. The ears which hear these sayings may foon be shut for ever; and the heart that now throbs at the thought, may in a little while be mingled with the clods of the valley. Some who laft funday worshiped within these walls, are now gone to the eternal world, and heaven only knows how foon fome of us may follow. But fhall we ftop fhort at the bare acknowledgment of the foregoing truths? Should we content ourselves with the conviction of their certainty? A lamentable certainty this would be, if it were of no farther utility to us! A certainty that would in that cafe embitter the whole courfe of our life, render all its pleasures infipid, deject us at every the leaft misfortune, reprefent death to us under the moft frightful images, and entirely overwhelm us at its approach. Is it expedient for us to profit by these truths, we fhould make a totally different ufe of them. They fhould be continually present to our mind, and have a permanent, uniform influence upon our life and conduct. They fhould moderate our esteem and affection for the privileges and endowments of the world, and make us treat them with a generous contempt. They fhould induce us to feek our happiness and joy where they are only to be found, and to pursue with all our ardour the poffeffion and enjoyment of thofe things that are conftant and everlafting. And what are these things? God, my friends, God is eternal. He has always been, and will for ever be. His

HH 4

mercy

mercy is unchangeable: it is the inexhaustible fource of light, of life and happiness. Whoever is in communion with him, and may be numbered with his friends, mny promife himself an eternal, an uninterrupted felicity. Our spirit is everlasting. If it had a beginning, yet it will know no end. It will never discontinue to think, to will, to be happy or unhappy. It will live when our body is crumbled in the grave, nd reduced to duft and afhes. Truth and virtue are eternal: no change of time can destroy them. They will furvive the conflagration of the world. They will be in the new heaven and on the new earth, what they are at prefent. They will then be the perfection and happiness of all rational creatures. These are things that merit all our attention, and all our cares. They fhould therefore be the object of all our defires, our views and exertions. If by the way of repentance, of faith and fanctification, we fecure to our. felves the favour and complacency of the fupreme being; if we make the redemption and the falvation of our immortal fpirit the grand concern of life; if we seek in earnest the kingdom of God and his righteousness; if we ftrive ever farther to advance in the knowledge of revealed truth, and in the practice of the chriftian virtucs, and to become rich in good works: then our happiness rests upon a fure foundation; then we walk the way that leads to true enjoyment, to folid and eternal blifs; then may we be tranquil amid the viciffitudes of all

earthly

earthly things, and behold with indifferent eyes their emptiness and vanity. Then, let the heavens and the earth pass away, let the elements melt with fervent heat, and every work of man be destroyed; we shall still remain; we fhall rife above the ruins of a demolished world, and our hopes will never be put to confufion.

New-year's day, 1764.

SERMON L.

Of the practical Character of Jefus Chrift.

GOD, we are here affembled before thee to

awaken in our minds fuch ideas and fentiments as may fit us for worthily celebrating the holy fupper. Of what important, what falutary tranfactions does this feafon remind us! How ungrateful, how infenfible fhould we be were we to remain cold and unaffected at it! It is confecrated to the commemoration of Jefus and his great work on earth; to the commemoration of our authentic teacher and guide, our magnanimous deliverer and faviour. And in this commemoration we find whatever can foothe, comfort, quicken and rejoice us! Light in darkness, ftrength under a deep fenfe of our weakness, fortitude in afflictions, hope in death! Oh might the image of our loving, fuffering, dying Lord, who by his love, by his fufferings and by his death brought falvation to the world, be ever before our eyes! Might all, and particularly his last difcourfes and actions, be deeply engraven