all others and therefore a vicious man will always be a contemptible man; a circumftance that will always make him an unhappy man; for it is impoffible for a man to bear contempt eafily, when he knows that he deferves it. So that confider the wicked man as he ftands with regard to himself and his own judgment, and as he stands with regard to the world and the common opinion of mankind, and in both views he seems given up to mifery, and to be the object of his own and the common hatred.

But there is ftill another scene to be opened, which will present us with a larger profpect, and fhew us far greater miferies in referve for the wicked. Hitherto we have confidered his case with respect only to this world and the natural effects of his vice; but afk him, and he will tell you that this is but an imperfect defcription of his condition; that he has other fears about him, and fuch forebodings of future mifery as are fufficient to poifon all the pleasures of life, were they free from all other corruption. He fees that in this life all things come to an end, that the wicked and the righteous equally go down to the grave; but what new diftinctions may arise hereafter, answerable to the natural hopes and fears of the mind, he hates to remember, and yet has it not in his power to forget. These thoughts are his perpetual plague: no fooner is a paffion fatisfied, and the pleasure over, but it appears again in a ghaftly form, and fpeaks to him in the language of Ifrael's King, Know, that for all thefe things God will call thee into judgment.

Say, however, and it is all that the wicked have

to say, that fuch imaginations may be delufive, and such fears may be vain: but yet, weak as you fuppose these fears to be, we must be much weaker than we are, before we can get rid of them; that is, we must lose our reafon and understanding, before we can forget that there is a God who will judge the world in righteoufnefs. These are natural thoughts, the plain refult of that reafon which is born with us; and, be they true or be they false, they have a real effect upon our prefent happiness: and if they are true, as I truft we shall all one day be convinced that they are, they will add eternity to the mifery of the wicked.

We meet fometimes with fuch hardened finners as are proof for many years against all confiderations of this fort; but their hardness is no fecurity to them against the mifery of thefe natural reflections: vice will foon impair their ftrength, and bring down the pride of their hearts; at leaft, time will bring them within fight of the grave; and when weaknefs and infirmities lay hold on them, or death draws near to execute his commiffion, they awake as one out of a dream, and their long filenced fears begin to speak with double terror. And what a condition is a man in, when there is nothing paft that he can reflect on without felf-condemnation, nothing to come that he can contemplate without horror and distraction of mind? Inquire of him in this condition, what profit there is in the pleafures of vice? Afk him, whether the fears of futurity are all idle dreams? And as you like his answer, follow his example.

It is a vain attempt to defcribe the mifery of a

finner, who lies expiring with all his fenfes about him: the imagination cannot furnish ideas ftrong enough to paint out this fcene of wo; and the experience of it may we never know!

There is in all men a natural averfion to death: the beft are not free from it: but this is an evil that has its remedy. Thought and reflection will furnifh us with many arguments to balance against this fear a truft in God, and a comfortable expectation of an happy futurity, will enable us to perform the last act with applaufe, and to give up ourselves with courage and with joy into the hands of our Redeemer. By these fupports the righteous man, after a life of folid comfort, may find comfort too in his death, and wait with patience and tranquillity for that fummons which he trufts and believes will call him to perpetual joys.

Could we but rightly balance this difference between the wicked and the righteous in their lateft hours, it would fufficiently determine which has made the happier choice: but take the whole together; confider the wicked man in his life and in his death, how he lives defpifed by himself, and contemned by the world, without thinking of God, or thinking of him with dread, and at last expires under the utmoft torments and agonies of mind, and we shall feel great reafon to join in the petition of the text, Let me die the death of the righteous, and laf end be like his.

let

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DISCOURSE LVIII.

PSALM CXIX. 165.

Great peace have they which love thy law.

IN expounding this and fuch-like paffages of

Scripture, and in applying them to themselves, men are apt to commit two great mistakes; which, though they are of a very different kind, in their confequences are equally fatal and pernicious. On one hand, they think they can never fufficiently enlarge the promise of the text, or build too great expectations upon the affurances of peace that are given to them; eafily fuffering themselves to be perfuaded, that under the general name of peace is to be comprehended whatever the world calls good: and because the peace which they most affect, and which moft ftrongly poffeffes their imaginations, is that which the world fuppofes to be placed in power and affluence, in an easy fortune, and an healthy body, they fondly conclude, that the promise of peace infers the promise of these good things, which they esteem as the genuine and neceffary effects of peace. On the other hand, to ftrengthen and fecure their title to these things, which they fo paffionately

admire, they confider the condition to which the promise of peace is annexed in quite a different view. Here all their force is employed to limit and restrain, and to expound away the rigour of this article, and to fhew upon how eafy terms, upon how small a portion of righteousness and obedience, a man may be numbered with those who love the law of God, and to whom the affurances of peace are given. Under this head they make very reasonable allowances to themselves upon account of the great perfection of the law, which renders it extremely hard to practife; upon account of their own weaknefs and infirmities, through which they can hardly avoid often mistaking, and often offending against the law; and upon account of the mercy of God, which will incline him to overlook their errors, and to accept their general good meaning, and their imperfect performance, for righteoufnefs and holiness. After thefe deductions are made in the proportion that best pleases them, and that beft fuits their own condition, they can, without difficulty, find themfelves to be within the articles of the peace which the text promises; and then they are in eager expectation of being put into the poffeffion of those good things, to which they think they have fo well made out their title.

But as error naturally produces error and falfehood, fo these mistakes are in their kind exceeding fruitful, and directly lead men to misapprehenfions of God, themselves, and religion: for as long as men conceive the peace and profperity of the world, and the enjoyments of it, to be neceffary attendants upon virtue and holiness, they will be apt to judge