Its avenger

SERM. education, or want of feeling, or want of Xi honor and honesty, in a condition to make

a mock at sin. Sin is of most serious and weighty importance. In the end it will inevitably make a mock of those who are weak enough here to foster and indulge it.

stands ready to meet us at the utmost confines of this short and transitory life, armed with its scourges, more bitter and dreadful than it is in our power to de scribe. To the righteous, that is, to the devout and repentant Christian, death has no sting, nor over them can the

grave

obtain a victory : not so with “ the mockers;" their “ bands shall be made strong."

The Lord of the whole earth seeth their vanity, and if they will not learn in time to turn from the evil of their ways, “ be that dwell" eth in heaven, will laugh them to scorn; the

Lord, the Almighty God, will bave them 6 in derision."

To conclude_The wise King who gave us this general character of fools, that they are disposed to make a mock at sin, has accompanied his remark, in the chapter

eousness.

to all.

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whence my text is taken, with many other SERM. proverbial precepts, which admirably tend XV. to shew, how truly it may be called folly to mock at sin ; how justly it may be denominated wisdom, to follow after right

The propriety of the passages need not be discussed. They are obvious

Fools," says he, “ make a mock at “ sin ; but with the righteous there is favour.”

The house of the wicked shall be overtbrown, “ but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are

the ways of death. Even in laughter the “ heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth “ is heaviness. A wise man feareth and departeth from evil, but the fool rageth and is confident. The evil [shall] bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. Do they not err that devise

evil, but mercy and truth s ball be to them “ that devise good. In the fear of the Lord “ is (true) confidence, and his children shall “ bave a place of refuge. The wicked will “ be driven away in bis wickedness, but the righteous bath hope in his death !”

SERMON

SERMON XVI.

THE BEATITUDES.

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LUKE VI. 20.

And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, Blessed be ye poor, for your's is the kingdom of God.

IN the same strain, and in the verses im- SERM. mediately following my text, our Saviour XVI. announces blessings to various other descriptions of persons; "Blessed are ye that "hunger, for ye shall be filled; blessed are that weep now, for ye shall laugh," and so on. There is nothing that has more constantly and generally engaged the attention of men of reflection, than to find out what they call man's chief good; I speak of those speculative reasoners who have

ye

SERM. have thought that the human nature might
XVI. be brought to perfection, and man's per-

manent happiness established, by some
system of human laws, and some scheme of
morality founded on the mere nature of
things. We, as Christians, are able to cut
the matter short, and without the aid of
great acquirements in learning, to leave all
these great reasoners behind. God has
been pleased to reveal to us much of his
ways, and the whole of his will in regard
to mankind in general; and we know to a
certainty, without the labour of argument,

,
and the doubts and difficulties of much
study, that the “ chief good” of man con-
sists in virtue and religion. To love the

Lord our God with all our hearts, and
“ mind and soul," and to act towards our
fellow creatures as we would they should
act by us.. This will tend to render our
life here below tranquil, quiet, and happy,
and hereafter will certainly recommend us
to our heavenly Father, purchase for us
the benefits of Christ's passion, and put us
in possession of unfading glory and hap-
piness, either by continuing for ever and

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