SERMON XXX.

Description of the World.

2 PETER III. II.

Seeing, then, that all these things fhall be diffolved,what manner of perfons ought ye to be in all holy converfation and godlinefs? looking and haftening unto the coming of God.

THE fubject upon which St. Peter is difcourfing in this chapter, is the certainty of Chrift's coming to judge the world; and the words of the text are the moral application he draws from the reprefentation he gives of it,-in which, in anfwer to the cavils of the fcoffers in the latter days, concerning the delay of his coming, he tells them, that God is not flack concerning his promises, as some men count flackness, but is long fuffering to us ward;-that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens fhall pass away with a

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great noife, and the elements fhall melt with fervent beat, the earth alfo, and the works that are therein, fhall be burnt up. -Seeing then, fays he, all these things fhall be diffolved, what manner of perfons ought ye to be in all holy converfation and godlinefs?-The inference is unavoidable,—at least in theory, however it fails in practice-how widely these two differ, I intend to make the fubject of this discourse; and though it is a melancholy comparison, to confider,

what manner of perfons we really are,' ⚫ with what manner of perfons we ought to be,' yet, as the knowledge of the one is at least one step towards the improvement in the other, the parallel will not be thought to want its use.

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Give me leave, therefore, in the first place, to recal to your obfervations, what kind of world it is we live in, and what manner of perfons we really are.

Secondly, and in oppofition to this, I fhall make use of the apoftle's argument, and, from a brief reprefentation of the Chriftian religion, and the obli

gations it lays upon us, fhew, what manner of perfons we ought to be in all holy converfation and godlinefs, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God.

Whoever takes a view of the world, will, I fear, be able to difcern but very faint marks of this character, either upon the looks or actions of its inhabitants.

Of all the ends and purfuits we are looking for, and haftening unto,-this would be the leaft fufpected,-for, without running into that old declamatory cant upon the wickedness of the age,we may fay within the bounds of truth, -that there is as little influence from this principle which the apoftle lays stress on, and as little fenfe of religion,-as fmall a fhare of virtue (at least as little of the appearance of it) as can be fupposed to exift at all in a country where it is countenanced by the ftate.-The degeneracy of the times has been the common complaint of many ages :-how much we exceed our forefathers in this, is known alone to that God who trieth

the hearts. But this we may be allowed to urge in their favour, they studied at leaft to preferve the appearance of vir-tue; public vice was branded with public infamy, and obliged to hide its head in privacy and retirement. The fervice of God was regularly attended, and religion not exposed to the reproaches of the fcorner.

How the cafe ftands with us at prefent in each of these particulars, it is grievous to report, and perhaps unacceptable to religion herfelf; yet as this is a feafon wherein it is fit we fhould be told of our faults, let us for a moment impartially confider the articles of this charge.

And firft, concerning the great article of religion, and the influence it has at present upon the lives and behaviour of the present times;-concerning which I have faid, that, if we are to trust appearances, there is as little as can well be supposed to exift at all in a chriftian country. Here I fhall fpare exclamations, and, avoiding all common-place railing upon the fubject, confine myself

to facts, fuch as every one who looks into the world, and makes any obfervations at all, will vouch for me.

Now whatever are the degrees of real religion amongst us,-whatever they are, the appearances are ftrong against the charitable fide of the queftion.

If religion is any where to be found, one would think it would be amongst thofe of the higher rank in life, whofe education, and opportunities of knowing its great importance, fhould have brought them over to its intereft, and rendered them as firm in the defence of it, as eminent in its example.-But if you examine the fact, you will almoft find it a test of a politer education, and mark of more fhining parts, to know nothing, and, indeed, care nothing at all about itor, if the fubject happens to engage the attention of a few of the more fprightly wits, that it ferves no other purpose, but that of being made merry at, and of being referved as a standing jeft, to enliven difcourfe, when converfation fickens upon their hands.