nesses descend upon such a temper, as showers of rain, or rivers of water, into the sea: the sea swallows them all, but is not changed, or freshened by them. I may truly say of the mind of an ungrateful person, that it is proof against all kindness. It is impenetrable, unconquerable: unconquerable by that which conquers all things else, even by love itself. Flints may be melted, but an ungrateful heart cannot; no, not by the strongest and the noblest flame. After all your attempts, all your experiments, for any thing that man can do, He that is ungrateful, will be ungrateful still. The thread that nature spins, is seldom broken off by any thing but death. I limit not, however, the operation of God's grace: but, humanly speaking, it seldom fails but that an ill principle has its course, and nature makes good its blow.

Lastly, Wheresoever you see a man notoriously ungrateful, you may rest assured, that there is in him no true sense of religion. You know the Apostle's argument: He who loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen; how can he love God, whom he hath not seen? So, by parity of reason, we may argue; if a man has no sense of kindnesses from one like himself, whom he sees and knows; how much less shall his heart be affected with the grateful sense of his favours, whom he converses with only by imperfect speculations, by the discourses of reason, or the discoveries of faith?

But indeed it is too evident to need any proof. For shall that man pass for a proficient in Christ's school, whose doctrines would have been exploded in the school of Zeno or Epictetus? or shall he pretend to religious attainments, who is defective and short in moral? which are but the rudiments, the mere beginnings, of religion; whilst religion is the perfection of morality: so that it presupposes it; it builds upon it: and grace never adds the superstructure, where virtue has not laid the foundation. There may be virtue indeed, and yet no grace; but grace is never without virtue: and therefore, though gratitude does not infer grace, it is certain that ingratitude excludes it.

SERMON XXXII.

FROM SOUTH.

PROVERBS X. 9.

He that walketh uprightly, walketh surely.

As it were easy to evince, both from reason and experience, that there is a restless activity in the soul, continually disposing it to exert its faculties; so Scripture most appositely expresses the life of man by walking; that is, it represents an active principle in an active posture. And, since his nature prompts him thus to action, it is no wonder if the same nature renders him equally solicitous about the issue and event of his actions. And, for a man to bring his actions to the event proposed and designed by him, is to walk SURELY.

Now, he who guides his actions by the rules of piety and religion, lays down these two principles as the ground of all his actions:

First, That there is an infinite and eternal Being so governing the affairs of the world, and taking an

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account of the actions of men, as, according to their deserts, either to punish or reward them.

Secondly, That there is a state of happiness or misery allotted to every man hereafter, according to that he hath DONE, whether it be good or bad.

Now, it being clear, that this first of Beings must be infinitely perfect, it will follow, that all other perfections must be derived from him: and thus we infer the creation of the world. Supposing, then, the world to be created by God; since it is by no means reconcileable to God's wisdom, that he should not also govern it, creation must needs infer Providence. And, it being granted, that God governs the world; it will also follow, that he does it by means suitable to the natures of the things he governs, and to the attainment of the proper ends of government. Now, man being by nature a free agent, and so, capable of deviating from this duty, as well as performing it; it is necessary that he should be governed by laws. And, since laws require that they be enforced with the sanction of rewards and punishments, sufficient to operate upon the minds of such as are to be governed by them; and, lastly, since experience shows, that rewards and punishments, terminated only with this life, are not sufficient for that purpose; it fairly and rationally follows, that the rewards and punishments by which God governs mankind, do, and must, look beyond it.

Whilst, therefore, a man steers his course by these principles; that is, if he acts piously, soberly, and temperately; I suppose there needs no farther arguments to prove, that he acts prudentially and safely For he acts as under the eye of a just and severe Judge, who reaches to his creature a command with one hand, and a reward with the other. He sees an eternal happiness or misery, suspended on a few days' behaviour: He lives, therefore, every hour as for eternity; and his future condition has this powerful influence upon his present practice, because he entertains a continual apprehension, and a firm persuasion, of it.

But, for a man to believe it certain, that he shall be judged according to his actions here, and, after judgment, shall receive an eternal recompence, and yet to indulge himself in all the pleasures of sin, Is it not greater madness than for a man to take a purse beneath the gallows, whilst he is actually seeing another hanged for the very same offence? it is really to dare and to defy the justice of heaven, and, in a word, to bid Omnipotence do its worst. Whilst ruin stares him in the face, and the sword of vengeance points directly to his heart, still to press on to the embraces of his sin, is a problem unresolvable upon any other ground, but that sin infatuates before it destroys.

It were well if every bold sinner, when he is about to engage in the commission of any known sin, would arrest the execution of his purpose,