God requires the punishment of vice, must they not infer, that, if the sinner be happy here, he will be miserable hereafter? And since they are endowed with foresight, and are capable of being actuated by distant motives, ought they not to forsake sin from the fear of future wrath, though the practice of it were attended with no present disadvantage? To do otherwise is the conduct of madmen, who have neither reason, conscience, nor foresight. To persist in iniquity because sentence is not speedily executed, is like men who refuse to take shelter from the coming storm till it has burst upon them in all its fury; like men who refuse the assistance of a friendly hand to rescue them from the waves, till they are actually buried in the deep. To reason with such men were useless, to attempt to convince them were desperate; I will only remind them of this awful warning of God himself. "These things hast thou done, and I kept si"lence thou thoughtest that I was altoge "ther such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before "thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that for

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get God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there "be none to deliver."

Your conduct is still more unjustifiable, your presumption is still more evident when you know that you are spared not for your own sakes, but for the sake of others. You are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, and your doom is delayed that the vessels of mercy may be gathered in and saved from that vengeance which shall be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. While you grow together with the wheat, you may escape, hut a time cometh when God shall gather the wheat into his garner, and burn up the tares with unquenchable fire. Be not deceived, ye are

not the favourites of heaven. As children of the Almighty, ye are the objects of his compassion; as enemies of heaven, and transgressors of his laws, ye are the objects of his abhorrence. The lenity and indulgence now exercised towards you are not on your own account, but on account of your relations, friends, and connections, who would be involved in your ruin. Those pious men whom you despise, and whose manner of life you like, are your patrons and protectors, who now for a little shelter you from that dreadful

dis

storm which shall consume all the workers

of iniquity.

Last of all, consider the intention of God in delaying the punishment of sinners, and your conduct must appear both foolish and ungrateful. The reason of this delay, we have already seen, is that we may repent and return. If you had contracted to finish an important work before a certain period, under a severe penalty in case of non-preformance; if the penalty were forfeited, but through lenity and indulgence the term was still prolonged, you could not possibly justify yourself for idleness, or engaging in any other business while the great work remained unfinished. Now you have the great work of your salvation to work out; the penalty is no less than eternal misery in the infernal abodes; this penalty you have forfeited, but through the mercy of God, the term of your probation is still continued. Will you still be so foolish as to neglect the opportunity you enjoy? Will defeat the purposes of heaven? Will you be insensible to the goodness of God? Will you abuse and insult the mercy of heaven? Will you continue in sin that grace may abound? A delay of repentance may admit a shadow of

you

apology. A determined resolution to persist in iniquity can be the offspring only of a distempered brain. God forbid that either of these should be the situation of any in this assembly. AMEN!

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SERMON VIII.

On the Resurrection of the Body.

JOB, CHAP. 19, VER. 26.

"Though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."

MAN dieth, and where is he? He descendeth into the narrow house, and we behold him no more. The immaterial part which is indivisible and indestructible, being separated from the body, passes into regions unknown, where it is no longer the subject of observation; where its destiny, its state, and its operations are concealed from our view. The other component part of man, the body, we can trace a little farther. We see it deposited in the earth, it there decays, in a few years it mingles with the common mass of matter, from which ere long it cannot be distinguished. With this account of the matter, the great multitude of men are satisfied, they re