the mountains of Zion, where the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.*

While the man of this disposition is happy within himself, let it not be forgotten, that he is at the same time gaining on all around him. From the quarrelsome and rude, all men naturally recoil; and except when necessity obliges them, avoid their intercourse. But the lover of peace conciliates general good-will, and is both respected and beloved. Though no absolute security can be devised against the malice and injustice of the world, yet, for the most part, it will be found that there is no more effectual guard against violence, no surer road to a safe enjoyment of life, than an established character for benignity and regard to peace. The man of this character, if unjustly attacked, will have many to defend him and take his part. In his prosperity he will be unenvied, and his misfortunes will be alleviated by general sympathy.

LET us consider, in the last place, how strongly the precept in the text is enforced by the most sacred religious obligations. You all know what a high place charity, under all its forms of meekness, forbearance, and forgiveness, possesses in the Christian system. To bring authorities in support of this, were to recite a great part of the New Testament before you. The God whom we worship, is known by the title of the God of peace.That evil spirit who is opposite to him, is described with all the characters which express malignity; the enemy, the accuser, the liar, the destroyer. When Christ came into the world as our Saviour, he is styled the Prince of Peace. The blessings which were proclaimed at his birth were, peace upon earth, and goodwill towards men. The whole of his life was one continued exemplification of all the virtues that characterise the meek, the peaceable and forgiving spirit. Never was any one's temper tried by so many and so great provocations; never did any one retain under these provocations such a calm and unruffled tenor of mind; insomuch that the Apostle Paul, on an occasion of earnest in, treaty to the Corinthians, beseeches them by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, as the most noted and well-known parts of his character. What can be said higher of any virtue than that it is the quality, under the denomination of which the Son of God chose to be known when he dwelt on earth? Let us add, that it is also the distinguishing character of God's own spirit. The Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of peace. Meekness, gentleness, and long-suffering, are expressly denominated his fruits; and on a certain memorable occasion, his appearance was marked with signals that express the mild and quiet spirit as distinguish

• Psalm cxxxiii. 3.

t2 Corinth. x. 1.

guished from violence. When Elijah the great prophet was called to go forth and stand before the Lord, behold, a great and strong wind rent the mountains, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After that, there came forth a still small voice. When Elijah heard it, he knew the symbol of God's spirit; he wrapped his face in his mantle, and worshipped.*

AFTER SO many testimonies given by the sacred writings to the high importance of a meek and peaceable spirit, what shall we think of those, who in their system of religion, make slight account of this virtue; who are ready to quarrel with others on the most trifling occasions; who are continually disquieting their families by peevishness and ill humour; and by malignant reports, raising dissension among friends and neighbours? Can any claims to sound belief, or any supposed attainments of grace, supply the defect of so cardinal a virtue as charity and love?-Let such persons particularly bethink themselves how little the spirit which they possess, fits them for the kingdom of heaven, or rather how far it removes them from the just hope of ever entering into it. Hell is the proper region of enmity and strife. There dwell unpeaceable and fiery spirits, in the midst of mutual hatred, wrath and tumult. But the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of peace. There, charity never faileth. There, reigneth the God of love; and, in his presence, all the blessed inhabitants are of one heart and one soul. No string can ever be heard to jar in that celestial harmony: and therefore the contentious and violent are, both by their own nature and by God's decree, for ever excluded from the heavenly society.-As the best preparation for those blessed mansions, let us ever keep in view that direction given by an Apostle, Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. To the cultivation of amity and peace in all our social intercourse, let us join holiness; that is, piety, and active virtue; and thus we shall pass our days, comfortably and honourably on earth, and at the conclusion of our days, be admitted to dwell among saints and angels, and to see the Lord.

SERMON LXXXVII.

ON RELIGIOUS JOY, AS GIVING STRENGTH AND SUPPORT TO

VIRTUE.

The joy of the Lord is your strength.-NEHEMIAH, viii. 10.

NEHEMIAH, the governor of Jerusalem, having assembled the people of Israel immediately after their return from the captivity of Babylon, made the book of the law be brought forth and read before them. On hearing the words of the book of the law, we are informed that all the people wept; humbled and cast down by the sense of their present weak and forlorn condition, compared with the flourishing state of their ancestors. miah sought to raise their spirits from this dejection; and exhorts them to prepare themselves for serving the God of their fathers with a cheerful mind, for, says he, the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Nehe

Abstracted from the occasion on which the words were spoken, they contain an important truth, which I now purpose to illustrate; that to the nature of true religion there belongs an inward joy, which animates, strengthens, and supports virtue. The illustration of this position will require that I should show in the first place, that in the practice of religious duties there is found an inward joy, here styled the joy of the Lord; and in the next place, that this joy is justly denominated the strength of the righteous.

I. Joy is a word of various signification. By men of the world, it is often used to express those flashes of mirth which arise from irregular indulgencies of social pleasure; and of which it is said by the wise man, that in such laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness." It will be easily understood that the joy here mentioned partakes of noth

ing a-kin to this; but signifies a tranquil and placid joy, an inward complacency and satisfaction, accompanying the practice of virtue, and the discharge of every part of our duty. A joy of this kind is what we assert to belong to every part of religion; to characterise religion wherever it is genuine, and to be essential to its nature. In order to ascertain this, let us consider the disposition of a good man with respect to God; with respect to his neighbours; and with respect to the government of his own mind.

WHEN We consider in what manner religion requires that a good man should stand affected towards God, it will presently appear that rational enlightened piety opens such views of him. as must communicate joy. It presents him, not as an awful unknown Sovereign, but as the Father of the universe, the Lover and Protector of righteousness, under whose government all the interests of the virtuous are safe. With delight the good man traces the Creator throughout all his works, and beholds them every where reflecting some image of his Supreme perfection. In the morning dawn, the noontide glory, and the evening shade; in the fields, the mountains, and the flood, where worldly men behold nothing but a dead, uninteresting scene; every object is enlivened and animated to him by the presence of God. Amidst that Divine presence he dwells with reverence, but without terror. Conscious of the uprightness of his own intentions, and of the fidelity of his heart to God, he considers himself, by night and by day, as under the protection of an invisible guardian. He lifts up his eyes to the hills from whence cometh his aid; and commits himself without distrust to the Keeper of Israel, who never slumbers nor sleeps. He listens to the gracious promises of his word. With comfort he receives the declarations of his mercy to mankind, through a great Redieemer; in virtue of whose atonement provision is made for pardon to human infirmities, and for our reception in the end into a happier world. All the various devotional exercises of faith and trust in God, all the cordial effusions of love and gratitude to this Supreme Benefactor in the acts of prayer and praise, afford scope to those emotions of the heart, which are of the most pleasing kind; and which diffuse a gentle and softening tenderness over the affections. In a word, a truly pious man, who has always before him an object so sublime and interesting as this great Father of the universe, on whom his thoughts can dwell with satisfaction, may be truly said to partake highly in the joy of the Lord.

But it may here be objected, are there no mortifications and griefs that particularly belong to piety? What shall we say to the tear of repentance, and to that humiliation of confession and

remorse, which may, at times, be incumbent on the most pious, in this state of human infirmity?-To this I reply, first, that although there may be seasons of grief and dejection in a course of piety, yet this is not inconsistent with the joy of the Lord, being on the whole, the predominant character of a good man's state; as it is impossible that, during this life, perpetual brightness can remain in any quarter, without some dark cloud. But I must observe next, that even the penitential sorrows and relentings of a pious heart, are not without their own satisfactions. A certain degree of pleasure is mingled with the tears which the returning offender sheds, in the hours of compunction; the ingenuous contrition that he feels, relieves his heart, at the same time that it gives it pain. If we attend to the workings of human nature on other occasions we shall find that it is no unusual thing for a secret mysterious pleasure to be mixed with painful feelings. This we all know to be the case in those exercises of pity and commiseration to which we are led by sympathy with the afflicted. We grieve and are pained for their distress; yet we choose to indulge that grief; satisfaction is felt in the indulgence; and we are unwillingly separated from the object which has occasioned this painful, but tender sympathy. A mixture somewhat similar, of pleasure and pain, takes place in the sentiments of penetential sorrow, which good men sometimes feel. In the midst of their distress, they are soothed by an internal consciousness, that they are affected as it becomes them to be; that they feel as they ought to feel; and they are gradually relieved by the hope rising in their breast of finding mercy and acceptance with their Creator and Redeemer. Where the mind is properly instructed in religion, it will not long be left in a state of overwhelming dejection, but will return to tranquillity, and repossess again the joy of the Lord.

WHEN We consider, next, the disposition of a good man towards his fellow-creatures, we shall find here the joy of the Lord exerting its influence fully. That mild and benevolent temper to which he is formed by virtue and piety; a temper that is free from envious and malignant passions, and that can look with the eye of candour and humanity on surrounding characters, is a constant spring of cheerfulness and serenity. Indeed if there be joy at all in human life, it is, perhaps, in this state of the mind that it is most sensibly felt, and felt with the least check or allay. It is truly said, to the wicked there is no peace. In proportion as any one of the bad passions predominates in the breast, it never fails, in the same proportion, to corrode the heart, and to shed over all the comforts of life a poisonous and baneful influence. Whereas all those exercises of friendship, compassion, and generosity, which are essential to the disposition of a virtuous man,