necessity. Of gloom, if our sins and iniqui- SERM. ties preceding have been so enormous and V. inexcusable, that we may justly fear to approach the presence of our Maker. Of labour, if we have made no efforts previously, as we should have done, to work out our own salvation. This must be done some time, and never suitably without "great fear and trembling;" arising from a due and proper sense of our own manifold infirmities, and God's supreme perfections. And a day of sorrow, too, ought it to be, as far as we have sins to be ashamed of, and the forfeited favor of our blessed Saviour to recover by repentance. But never need it be a day of gloom, or of much labour or sorrow, to the upright and religious man. Pleased to come into the presence of his God, be approaches his temple, with songs of praise, and hymns of joy. With true and sincere repentance, be makes confession of his sins, and glories in being set free from the weight and burthen of them. The hours he devotes to retirement are not passed in any way gloomy to himself, however it may be thought

G

SERM. thought otherwise by the unfeeling and V. inconsiderate. For, to a mind of a sober

and rational turn, meditation on the word of God, or contemplation of his works, are equally productive of the most glorious hopes and most exalted pleasures; hopes and pleasures, founded on a rock, which will not fade and perish, even when the globe which we inhabit shall be broken up and dissolved. These pursuits being thought gloomy by the gay and dissipated, does not make them so. To those who have more reason to be alarmed at the threats, than encouraged by the hopes, of the Gospel, it may be gloomy to turn to the word of God. But the gloom is in their own minds:"For wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous; and, being pressed with conscience, always forecasteth grievous things." It is to be feared, without speaking too harshly, that it is only their folly and want of considération that can make them think themselves gay and happy for those capable of sober

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Wisdom xvii. 11.

thought

t

V.

thought and retired meditation are the SERM. truly happy; those whom the study of the word of God has raised above the frivolous amusements and distracting cares of this mortal life. We may judge of the satisfaction accruing to an upright man from the study of God's word, by the value put upon it by the wise King of Israel, if the Book of Wisdom may be any how referred to him. He knew the worth of worldly things also, for with them he particularly compares the delight arising from religious knowledge. I preferred her before sceptres and thrones, and esteemed riches

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σε

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nothing in comparison of her: neither com

pared I unto her any precious stone; be"cause all gold, in respect of her, is as a

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little sand, and silver shall be counted as

clay before her. I loved her above health

"and beauty, and chose to have her instead of

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light. For the light that cometh from her

never goeth out. All good things together "came to me with her, and innumerable riches "in her hands. And I rejoiced in them all, "because wisdom goeth before them, and I "knew not that she was the mother of them.

"

V.

SERM. He knew not till he tried; and the event would be the same, if we could provoke others to the same trial. Religious meditation is not necessarily gloomy: how should it be so? Is it not true, what the Apostle asserts, that "godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the

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life that now is, and of that which is to "come." Gaiety and dissipation have no such advantages. They can interest only for a very short portion of the life that now is; of that which is to come, they can give us no assurance. Yet one is but a vapour, so soon passeth it away, and it is gone; the other will endure for ever. The one has few pleasures unmixed with pain; the other may abound in pleasures for evermore, as free from sorrow as from death. I shall say nothing of the contemplation of God's works, another suitable employment for the Lord's day; because this must depend, in some degree, upon taste, and, in some degree, upon capacity; and those are as much to be pitied as censured, who are indisposed to study the mighty works of God. His word it is

our

V.

our indispensable duty to search into, and $ERM. meditate upon: his works, no further, unless particularly led thereto, than to know that they are his, and that in wisdom he has made them all. But the Lord's day may be properly hallowed and sanctified, though much of it is given up to social intercourse. Provided our duty to God is not neglected, or postponed improperly, we cannot perhaps hallow the Lord's day more worthily, than by manifesting our love towards our neighbour, by indulging in all those charities of social life, which the several relations in which we stand to our fellow-creatures point out. But it is melancholy to think how times are altered in this respect: formerly, every man was best pleased to pass the sabbath in the bosom of his own family; it was a day that peculiarly brought together those whom business had separated during the other six: now, pleasure commonly separates us upon the sabbath, as much as business has done on the preceding days. We try to spend our hours of relaxation in crowds and mixed assemblies. Private society is thought dull and heavy;