Is it not amply sufficient to cause them to embrace with avidity a proposal made for their good, and worthy of all acceptation? Must the offer be renewed over and over again? Must they with other sinners be persuaded and repersuaded? Must certain forms of etiquette and ceremony be rigidly observed, ere they will consent to be happy; ere they will come to Christ, and allow their souls to partake of the rest procured through the warmth and fervency of a Saviour's love? Alas, Brethren, a better return than this would well become the objects of his benevolence. To him, it would be better for you to repair with the velocity of the arrow to its target. And do ye still refuse; still exact greater condescension on his part; that he should even stand at the door of your several hearts and knock, after repeated applications have remained unanswered, or only answered with ungrateful denials of admission? I know not but he may. I do not positively know the extent of the divine forbearance. But the course adopted by the Son of man throughout his ministry, and upon which I have enlarged in the commencement of this discourse, implies, that when he calls, ye are to answer without unnecessary delay; when he says, "Come unto me," ye are to enter into his rest, without debating in your minds about the suitableness of the times and seasons, in which the message is delivered by his ministers. From his own mouth it was announced before assembled multitudes, The example is still followed by his faithful ambassadors, and sure I am, that if ye do actually labour and are heavy laden, by reason of repented sins and a contrite spirit, ye will not put his long-suffering mercy to further trials; ye will not hesitate openly to avow him for your Master, to wear his livery, and glory in his service.

In the verses succeeding the text, he described that service, as an easy yoke and a light burden. For once then summon to your hearts sufficient confidence to believe in him. Let the world call it irksome and severe, a restrictive system contrived with the view of marring human happiness. But for once have the good sense and resolution to think, that ye may judge and act for yourselves. Are ye fearful and timorous, anxious indeed to be found in the path of duty, and yet apprehensive lest your best efforts should prove unavailing to ingratiate yourselves with Him, whose grace and favour are most to be desired? Permit me to say, that never was there a gentler master, than our Saviour Christ, to beam with the eyes of love and complacency on obedient servants. He is not hard, that

he should reap where he has not sown, or gather where he has not strewed. He it was, who passed so high an encomium on the poor widow's mite. He it was, who declared that a cup of cold water given to his little ones should in no wise lose its reward, Take courage therefore, all ye that labour with distrust, all ye that are heavy laden with despondency. Be of good courage and a confiding heart, Come to Christ, and he will give you rest. He will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withold from them that walk uprightly; from them that love him and keep his com mandments. AMEN,

ion of some men, all pleasure is sinful, all pleasure unworthy, not merely of the holiness of the Christian, but of the dignity and the glory of man. They listen to the melody of the woods, and in that melody, they perceive no harm. They observe the pastime of the aquatick tribes, the gayety of every animal, that God hath made, and they discern no evil. But let the animal man only smile, and it becomes a crime. Let him wear a cheerful countenance, that best index of a good conscience and a rejoicing heart, and he is condemned to herd on earth with sinners, and to perish everlastingly in hell with reprobates. As if Almighty God really intended, that while all the lower orders of creation should spontaneously rejoice in their Maker's love, the highest link in its long extended chain; the noblest, because the only intellectual and responsible among his creatures, should clothe his brows with gloom, and soil his cheeks with perpetual tears. There can be no greater absurdity. Pleasures the fairest and the purest surround us on every side. In this manner our benevolent Creator clearly reveals his inclination and his will to promote our happiness.

If you take an infant, healthy and vigorous, how little cause have we, surveying his innocent gambols, the sports springing from the impulse of untutored nature, how little cause have we, to pronounce of God, that he denounces pleasure and exults in pain; how little to proclaim of Christ, that he intended to deprive us of every amusc ment, when his declaration was, "Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." If you take an individual in the full maturity of his faculties, and throughout the entire range of his relations, the same observations apply; or, why is not every thing acrid to his taste, and odious to his sight, and noisome to his smell, and dissonant to his hearing, and repulsive to his touch? Reply is needless. The pleasure of eating is not made criminal, because we feed on sweets; of seeing, because we are charmed with beauty; of smelling, because we breathe the fragrance of the rose; of hearing, because we are delighted with musick; of feeling, because we enjoy the texture of velvet. I find no such sins enumerated in the oracles of God. I do not find any thing vicious in the innumerable joys, which pertain to domestick or social life; to the warm attachment cherished for the partner of our bosoms; to the fond caresses bestowed upon our offspring; to the cordial grasp of friendly hands.

Misanthropes may condemn these things; but search the scriptures, and instead of condemning, they enjoin them, they enjoin love to all mankind.

Nor can you there discern the slightest prohibition of purely intellectual pleasures. If we may not read Milton, and Young, and Cowper, because they have sought to please the ear with the harmony of numbers, then is the poetry of Isaiah, then are the lyricks of David, sinful. If all works of moral fiction are to be abjured, what are we to do with the allegories of the prophets, and the parables of Christ? If the study of natural philosophy is to be discarded, why is it written, "The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead?" And thus I might proceed through the infinite variety of objects calculated to gratify the mind and exhilarate the senses. So far from being interdicted by God, they were made by him; they were devoted to our use; they were designed to contribute largely and liberally, though not exclusively, to our felicity.

Are there any pleasures then that are sinful? I once more reply in the affirmative. There are many. I will dispose of them in three classes. First, all those that in their nature contravene the laws of God. The Romans for instance were inveterately attached to the shows of gladiators. They were perfectly enraptured with the mortal struggle, and the successful combatant received unbounded applause for the dexterity, with which he pierced the heart of his antagonist. And so, among the moderns, similar exhibitions sometimes prevail. The fashionables, or rather the fancy, of England have become proverbial for their pugilistick encounters, occasionally terminating in death. With us, they only substitute beasts and fowls for men. But there is the like depraved taste, the like vicious enjoyment. We have no divine warrant whatever for inflicting unnecessary pain upon inferiour animals. They may be justifiably destroyed for food, or owing to their mischievous character. But all wanton destruction is highly criminal, and all wanton cruelty. I allude not merely to the sports of the fowler and the angler, when pursued with no other object than amusement. I include the raceground, subjecting the noblest of all our domestick animals to a large amount of pain. With what view? To gratify a passion for gaming; to please the thoughtless and inconsiderate with a display

of speed, which, every day of their lives, they may witness far surpassed by the flight of birds; and this, without whip or spur, gasping lungs or panting sides, bleeding veins or foundered limbs. Oh! which of our number, seriously reflecting upon such scenes, can have the heart to encourage, by his presence, so cruel a perversion of human power; one, notwithstanding the usual pretences, so utterly destitute of beneficial tendencies, so fraught with those that demoralize society, and to a very great degree impair the kindly feelings of humanity? If I remember right, the mild and amiable Claudius is said to have become a monster of barbarity, owing to the frequency, with which he gratified the populace of Rome with gladiatorial combats.

The second class of pleasures, which are sinful, are those that, originally innocent in themselves, become the reverse through excessive indulgence. We may drink wine, or the grape would not have existed; Paul would not have written this prescription for Timothy, "Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities." But to become inebri→ ated; to intoxicate the senses with the fumes of liquor; to put out for a time the light of the mind, is eminently iniquitous as well as pernicious. It is perverting to unhallowed purposes what God intended for good. It is seeking pleasure beyond its just limits. It is returning the bounty of Providence with personal shame and personal degradation. And all excess in pleasure, if not to the same extent, is in a similar point of view evil, and therefore forbidden. When we trample upon the modesty of nature; when we exceed her moderate desires, yielding all our faculties to amusement, and all our members as instruments of time and sense, vice is necessarily engendered, licentiousness prevails without a license, and guilt without excuse. On perusing the parable of the rich man, I do not discover, that he was condemned for his knavery or his ferocity; for the violence of his anger or the vindictiveness of his revenge. He was merely voluptuous and convivial. "He was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day." Still however, after death, “in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments." He is excluded from heaven. He is not allowed to plead in justification of his conduct, the craving of his appetites, the enticing character of his enjoyments; that at most, they only injured himself; that, arrayed against many other offences, they were comparatively