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XXII.

SERM. then suddenly blasted all the hopes, which have been formed of them, by the fatal prevalence of bad company. Besides the tendency in man, already noticed, to imitate what he constantly sees, there is yet another cause of danger to the morals, from profligate associates. It is the property of vice to endeavour to draw over to its party all who come within its influence :--the libertine, the drunkard, and all tae other votaries of profligacy, have ever taken delight to render others as wicked as themselves; to compass this point, they spare no arguments, no solicitations:the tons of virtue, I fear, are not half so anxious to make converts as the children of darkness to make apostates. Let not him, therefore, who has not sufficient selfdenial to decline the society of the vicious, flatter himself that he shall have sufficient fortitude to withstand their temptations; more particularly when supported, as they

always

XXII.

always are, by the shafts of ridicule. If he SERM. preserve his integrity, his escape is miraculous; his temerity merits not that he should-for who does not deserve the fate he experiences, who unnecessarily exposes himself to a danger from whence little less than a miracle can rescue him without destruction? Let me not, however, be mistaken; I do not mean that any such inevitable hazard is incurred by our accidentally falling into the society of the profligate; or that, on account of the uneasiness we occasionally undergo in their company, we should therefore altogether avoid it; for if this were required of us, we must needs, as St. Paul observes, go out of the world; we must abstain from all intercourse with mankind whatever; and besides, there would be a want of charity in such extreme caution, for if the vicious were driven to herd with themselves, exclusively, all hope of their re

forma

SERM. formation would be done away.

XX.

Vice,

though sufficiently infectious, is not, I trust, by those at all well principled, to be imbibed at casual interviews; what I wish you to guard against is a fondness for a delight in the society of vice, whatever seducing attractions it may possess-and against an intimacy, a close connexion with the vicious; you may perform, with safety, the offices of civility and neighbourhood to them, but you are not to take them for intimates; if you do, be assured that you will one day, in the bitterness of your heart, lament it, when you attribute to them, as you justly may, one or all of these calamities-the ruin of your character-the injury done to your fortune-the interruption of your quiet-the perversion of your morals-or (which God forbid) the loss of your eternal salvation.

SERMON

SERMON XXIII.

THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER.

LUKE Viii. 8.

And other fell upon good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundred fold.

THESE

XXIII.

HESE words are the conclusion of the SERM. parable of the sower who went out to sow his seed. The whole of it is thus related by St. Luke." A sower went out to sow "his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by "the way side, and it was trodden down, " and the fowls of the air devoured it; and "some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up it withered away, be

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SERM." fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang

XXIII.

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up with it and choked it. And other fell

upon good ground, and sprang up, and "bare fruit an hundred fold."

This parable was spoken by Jesus Christ to the people at large, and, at their request, explained afterwards to his disciples in private. The different ways in which the gospel would be received at its first publi cation, is, perhaps, the chief object of it, but it certainly applies, very naturally and exactly, to mankind in every subsequent period. By the word of God is meant, religion, and you have here the behaviour of four different sorts of persons, on having it proposed to them.

First, you have those, into whose heart any pious instruction falls, like seed sown by the way side; it makes perhaps none, or perhaps only a momentary impression; for as the birds instantly pick up the seed, so the devil comes immediately and re

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