laughter and joy, regardless of future bliss, and sorrow which shall never end! Woe be to you

who laugh now, says our blessed Lord, for you shall mourn and weep. (Luke vi. 25.) If so, my brethren, why should we be solicitous about present gratification and pleasure, which must soon terminate; why should any of you ambition or envy the seeming felicity of the great and wealthy; seeing that their apparent.joys are mingled with sorrows, and that the smiles, which play upon their countenances are not infallible tokens of a heart at rest; seeing, too, that laughter here is not the surest means of arriving at happiness hereafter. At the sight of that prosperity which the wicked seemed to enjoy, holy David confesses that he was almost induced to envy their lot, and forsake the service of God; but reflection and experience convinced him, that true peace and true happiness were only to be found in the practice of virtue, and the paths of righteousness. My feet, says he, were almost moved: my steps had well nigh slipped: because I had zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners. (lxxii.2.) They are not in the labour of men, neither shall they be scourged like other men. (5.) Therefore hath pride held them fast; they are covered with their iniquity and their wickedness. (6.) They have set their

mouth against heaven, and their tongue hath passed through the earth. (9.) Behold these are sinners, yet abounding in the world, they have obtained riches. And I said, then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent: and I have been scourged all the day, and my chastisement has been in the morning. (12.) But considering the end of their false glories, and the judgements of God upon them, he says, that he discovered the wrath of the Lord falling upon them for their iniquities, and his eyes were opened to the wisdom of the righteous, and the folly of the unjust.

I studied that I might know this thing: it is a labour in my sight, until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last end. (16.) But indeed for their deceit thou hast put it to them; when they were lifted up thou hast cast them down. How are they brought to desolation; they have suddenly ceased to be; they have perished by reason of their iniquity. As the dream of them that awake, O Lord, so in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing. (18.) He concludes by acknowledging the goodness of God to him, in directing him in all his ways, and setting him in the paths of virtue and bliss. Thou hast held me by my right hand, and by thy will thou hast conducted

me; and with glory thou hast received me. (24.) For what have I in heaven; and besides thee what do I desire upon earth. (25.) Behold they that go far from thee shall perish; thou hast destroyed all them that are disloyal to thee. (27.) But it is good for me to stick close to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God. (28.) Let us, my brethren, make the same conclusion: let us not envy the splendours of the great and opulent, neither let us repine under the tribulations which an omniscient and loving God is pleased to inflict upon us. If we are in the grace of God, affliction is a source of merit and the means of purifying our souls from the dross of earthly affections: if, unfortunately, we are in sin, it is by affliction that we are most forcibly stimulated to a sense of our misery; by suffering we are enabled to appease the divine wrath. It is through many tribulations that we must enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts, xiv. 21.) Let us not, therefore, murmur, like the jews in the desert, lest, like them, we be excluded from the land of promise; but let us imitate those true Israelites, who being led captives to Babylon, appeased the anger of God by their submission, and merited to return again into the land of their Fathers.

Let us be resigned to the will of God, and endeavour to sanctify our souls by the means

which he ordains, as the best suited to our exigencies, the best calculated to preserve us from ruin. Do you know, my brethren, that you could withstand the dangers which attend on human prosperity? God knows, and he has not chosen to expose you to them. Seek them not: but in every affliction, remember that our present tribulation, which is momentary and light, worketh for us above measure an eternal weight of glory. (2 Cor. iv. 17.)

SERMON XIII.

FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY.

ON THE DANGER OF BAD COMPANY.

When the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared also the tares. (Matt. xiii. 26.)

THIS parable was spoken by our Saviour, to a great concourse of people, who had assembled to receive instruction; and so great was the multitude gathered together, that he went into a ship, as the Evangelist informs us, while the multitude stood on the shore: and he spoke to them many things in parables. (3.) Our Lord has himself given us an interpretation of this parable. He tells his disciples that he who sows the good seed, is himself, the son of man, the field is the world; the good seed are the virtuous, the children of the kingdom; and the tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy, that sowed the tares, is the devil; the