XVIII.

SER M. fuch exceffes? Would he chufe, in their prefence, openly, and without disguise, to fcoff at the oppofite virtues, as of no confequence to their welfare?—If even the moft licentious fhudders at the thought; if, in the midst of his loofe pleasures, he be defirous that his own family should remain untainted; let this teach him the value of those private virtues, which, in the hours of diffipation, in the giddiness of his mind, he is ready to contemn. Banish sobriety, temperance, and purity, and you tear up the foundations of all public order, and all domestic quiet. You render every house a divided and miferable abode, refounding with terms of fhame, and mutual reproaches of infamy. You leave nothing respectable in the human character. You change the man into a brute.

THE Conclufion from all the reasonings which we have now purfued is, that religion and virtue, in all their forms, either of doctrine or of precept; of piety towards God, integrity towards men, or regularity

in private conduct; are fo far from afford- SER M. ing any grounds of ridicule to the petulant,

that they are intitled to our highest veneration; they are names, which fhould never be mentioned, but with the utmost honour. It is faid in Scripture, Fools make a mock at fin. * They had better make a mock at peftilence, at war, or famine. With one, who should chuse these public calamities for the subject of his sport, you would not be inclined to affociate. You would fly from him, as worse than a fool; as a man of a diftempered mind, from whom you might be in hazard of receiving a fudden blow. Yet certain it is, that, to the great fociety of mankind, fin is a greater calamity, than either peftilence, or famine, or war. These operate, only as occafional causes of mifery. But the fins and vices of men, are perpetual fcourges of the world. Impiety and injustice, fraud and falsehood, intemperance and profligacy, are daily producing mifchief and diforder; bringing * Prov. xiv. 9.

ruin

XVIII.

SER M. ruin on individuals; tearing families and

XVIII.

communities in pieces; giving rife to a thousand tragical scenes on this unhappy theatre. In proportion as manners are vicious, mankind are unhappy. The perfection of virtue which reigns in the world above, is the chief fource of the perfect bleffedness which prevails there.

When, therefore, we obferve any tendency to treat religion or morals with difrefpect and levity, let us hold it to be a fure indication of a perverted understanding, or a depraved heart. In the feat of the scorner let us never fit. Let us account that wit contaminated, which attempts to sport itself on facred fubjects. When the scoffer arises let us maintain the honour of our God, and our Redeemer; and refolutely adhere to the cause of virtue and goodness. The lips of the wife utter knowledge; but the mouth of the foolish is near to deftruction. Him that honoureth God, God will honour. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and he that keepeth the commandment, keepeth his own foul.

SER

SU

tory of mankind; an æra, to which we muft ever look back with folemn awe and veneration. Before the fun and the moon had begun their course; before the found of the human voice was heard, or the name of man was known; in the beginning God created the heaven, and the earth. To a beginning of the world, we are led back by every thing that now exists; by all hiftory, all records, all monuments of antiquity.

XIX.

SER M. antiquity.

XIX.

In tracing the tranfactions of past ages, we arrive at a period, which clearly indicates the infancy of the human race. We behold the world peopled by degrees. We afcend to the origin of all those useful and neceffary arts, without the knowledge of which, mankind could hardly fubfift. We difcern fociety and civilization arising from rude beginnings, in every corner of the earth; and gradually advancing to the ftate in which we now find them: All which afford plain evidence, that there was a period, when mankind began to inhabit and cultivate the earth. What is very remarkable, the most authentic chronology and history of most nations, coincides with the account of Scripture; and makes the period during which the world has been inhabited by the race of men, not to extend beyond fix thousand years.

To the ancient philofophers, creation from nothing, appeared an unintelligible idea. They maintained the eternal exiftence of matter, which they supposed to be modelled by the fovereign mind of the uni