hide ourselves until the indignation be overpast; to examine ourselves before the decree bring forth; to prepare ourselves to meet our God, to hear the rod, and who hath appointed it,' James iv. 9. 1 Pet. v. 6. Isa. xxvi. 20. Zeph. ii. 1, 2. Amos iv. 12. Micah vi. 9. to mourn in sackcloth and ashes; and while we feel present miseries, to remember those that are past, tremble for those that are yet to come, and endeavour by extraordinary efforts to avert the anger of heaven? The love of sensual pleasure turns away people's attention from all these maxims, and represents those who preach them as wild visionaries, or dry declaimers. The people of whom we speak, these pious people, these people who love their salvation, these people who pretend to the glory of being proposed for examples, can in times of the deepest distress, when the church is bathed in tears, while the arm of God is crushing our brethren and our allies, when the same terrible arm is lifted over us, when we are threatened with extreme miseries, when the scourges of God are at our gates, when there needs only the arrival of one ship, the blowing of one wind, the wafting of one blast, to convey pestilence and plague into our country; these people can

O God! 'open their eyes that they may see!' 2 Kings vi. 17.

In your system of morality, what becomes of Scripture exhortations to redeem the time, to know the time of our visitation, to do all that our hands find to do, because there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither we go? The love of pleasure inclines mortals, who may die in a few days, people who perhaps have only a few days to bid their last adieus, to embrace their families, to settle their temporal affairs, to examine the neglected parts of religion, to re-establish the injured reputation of a neighbour, in a word, to prepare themselves to appear before that terrible tribunal to which death cites them: the love of sensual pleasure inclines these poor creatures, who have so short a time to live, and so great a task to perform; the love of sensual pleasure inclines these people to waste a considerable part of this fleeting life in amusements, that obliterate both the shortness of life, and the necessity of death.

How often have we seen old age as greedy of pleasure as youth! how often have we seen people bowing under the weight of age, how often have we seen them, even when their trembling hands could scarcely hold the cards, or the dice, make their feeble efforts to game; and, when their decayed eyes were incapable of distinguishing the spots, assist nature by art, their natural sight with artificial glasses, and thus consecrate the remains, those precious remains, of life to gaming, which God had granted for repentance !

All these causes of the infancy and novitiate of Christians in regard to religion, unite in one, which in finishing this discourse, we cannot but lament, nor can we lament it too much. We do not understand our own religion: we are, most of us, incapable of pereeiving the admirable order, the beautiful symmetry, of its component parts. Why? It

is because we have so little zeal for our sal vation; it is because we form such languid desires to be saved.

Indeed I know, that, except some unnatural creatures, except some monsters, to whom this discourse is not addressed, every body professes to desire to be saved, yea, to prefer salvation to whatever is most pompous in the universe, and most pleasant in this life. But, when the attainment of it in God's way is in question, in the only way that agrees with the holiness of his nature to direct, and with our happiness to obey, what a number of people do we meet with, whose desires vanish? I desire to be saved, says each to himself; I desire to be saved, but not by such a religion as the gospel prescribes, such as Jesus Christ preached, such as the apostles and ministers of the gospel preach after him; but I desire to be saved by such a religion as I have conceived, such a one as gratifies my passions and caprices. I desire to be saved, but it is on condition, that, while I obey some of the precepts of Jesus Christ, he will dispense with my obedience of others. I desire to be saved: but not on condition of my correcting my prejudices, and submitting them to the precepts of Jesus Christ; but on condition that the precepts of Jesus Christ should yield to my prejudices. I desire to be saved: but on condition of retaining my prepossessions, the system that I have arranged, the way of life that I pursue, and intend to pursue till I die. To desire salvation in this manner is too common a disposition among Christians. But to desire salvation in saying to God, with a sincere desire of obeying his voice, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' Acts ix. 6.; Lord, what wilt thou have me to believe? Lord, what wilt thou have me to love? Lord, what inclinations wilt thou have me to oppose, to mortify, to sacrifice? To be willing to be saved in receiving, without exception, all the practical truths, which compose an essential part of that religion which God has given us: Ah! my brethren, how rare is this disposition among Christians!

Without this disposition, however, (and let us not be ingenious to deceive ourselves,) without this disposition there is no salvation. It implies a contradiction to say that God will save us in any other way for as it is contradictory to say that he will give to an equal number the qualities of an unequal number, or to bodies the properties of spirits, or to spirits the properties of bodies; so also is it a contradiction to say, that vice shall reap the rewards of virtue, that the highway to hell is the path to paradise.

So that nothing remains in concluding this discourse but to ask you, what are your intentions? What designs have ye formed? What projects do ye resolve to pursue? What are your aims? Have ye any thing more precious than your souls? Can ye conceive a nobler hope than that of being saved? Can ye propose a more advantageous end than your own salvation? Can ye persuade yourselves that there is a greater felicity than the fruition of God? Will ye destroy yourselves? Do ye renounce those delightful hopes that are set before you in the gospel? And shall

that day as a chimera. Where (said they) is the promise of the Lord's coming: for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation?' 2 Pet. iii. 4. &c. The words of my text are an answer to this objection; an idea which we will presently explain, but which ye must, at least in a vague manner, retain all along, if ye mean to follow us in this discourse, in which we would wish to include all the different views of the apostle. In order to which three things are necessary.

I. We will examine our text in itself, and endeavour to establish this proposition, That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

II. We will prove what we have advanced; that is, that St. Peter's design in these words was to answer the objections of libertines against the doctrine of the conflagration of the world; and we will show you that they completely answer the purpose.

III. We will draw from this doctrine, secured against the objections of libertines, such motives to piety as the apostle presents us with.

In considering these words in this point of light, we will apply them to your present circumstances. The renewal of the year, properly understood, is only the anniversary of the vanity of our life, and thence the calls to detach yourselves from the world. And what can be more proper to produce such a detachment than this reflection, that not only the years which we must pass on earth are consuming, but also that the years of the world's subsistence are already consumed in part, and that the time approaches, in which it must be delivered to the flames, and reduced to ashes?

Let us first consider the words of our text in themselves, and let us prove this proposition, 'one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.'

The notion which I have of God is my principle: the words of my text are the consequence. If I establish the principle, the consequence will be incontestable. 1. Eternity.2. Perfect knowledge, and, in some sort, the sight and presence of all that has been, of all that is, and of all that shall be.-3. Supreme happiness are three ideas which form my notion of the Deity: this is my principle. A thousand years' then 'are as one day, and one day as a thousand years with the Lord:' this is my consequence. Let us prove the truth of the principle, by justifying the notion which we form of the Deity.

1. God is an eternal being. This is not a chimera of my mind; it is a truth accompanied with all the evidence of which a proposition is capable. I exist, I speak, you hear me, at least you seem to hear me. These are facts, the certainty of which all the philosophers in the world can never destroy. I am not able to new-mould myself, nor can I help the perception of truths, the knowledge of which (if I may be allowed to say so) is as essential to me as my own existence. It does not depend on me not to regard Pyrrho and Academus, those famous defenders of doubt and uncertainty, as fools who extinguished the light of common sense, or rather as impostors, who

prononnced propositions with their months, the falsity of which it was impossible their minds should not perceive. I repeat it again, the most subtle objections of all the philosophers in the world united, can never diminish in me that impression which the perception of my own existence makes on my mind, nor hinder my evidence of the truth of these propositions; I exist, I speak, you hear me, at least (for with the people whom I oppose, one must weigh each expression, and, in some sort, each syllable) at least I have the same impressions as if there were beings before my eyes who heard me.*

If I am sure of my own existence, I am no less sure that I am not the author of it myself, and that I derive it from a superior Be ing. Were I altogether ignorant of the history of the world; if I had never heard that I was only of yesterday,' as the Psalmist speaks, Psal. xc. 4; if I knew not that my parents, who were born like me, are dead; were I not assured that I should soon die; if I knew nothing of all this, yet I should not doubt whether I owed my existence to a su perior Being. I can never convince myself that a creature so feeble as I am, a creature whose least desires meet with insurmounta ble obstacles, a creature who cannot add 'one cubit to his stature,' Matt. v. 27, a creature who cannot prolong his own life one single instant, one who is forced to yield, willing or unwilling, to a greater power which cries to him, 'Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return,' Gen. iii. 19; I can never convince myself that such a creature existed from all eternity, much less that he owes his existence only to himself, and to the eminence of his own perfections. It is then sure that I exist: it is also certain that I am not the author of my own existence.

This certainty is all I ask, I ask only these two propositions, I exist, I am not the author of my own existence, to convince me that there is an eternal Being. Yes, though a revelation emanating from the bosom of Omniscience had never given me this idea of the Divinity; though Moses had never pronounced this oracle, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting thou art God,' Psalm xc. 2; though the four and twenty elders, who surround the throne of God, had never rendered homage to his eternity, or, prostrating before him, inces santly cried, We give thee thanks, Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, Rev. xi. 17; though the eternal Being had never said of himself, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,' Rev. i. 8; yea, though the eternal Being had never convinced me of his grandeur, by the works of his hands, if I had been all alone in the nature of beings, I should have been forced to admit an eternal Being. And this proposition, 'There is an eternal Being,' naturally flows from those, I exist, and I am not the author of my own existence, for if I be not the author of my own existence, I owe it to another Being. That Being to whom I owe my existence, derives

* Des Cartes reasoned in the same manner, and made Ego cogo, erga sum, I think, therefore, I am, the first axiom of his system. J. S.

his from himself, or like me, owes it to another. If he exist of himself, behold the eternal Being whom I have been seeking; if he derive his existence from another, I reason about him as about the former. Thus I ascend, thus I am constrained to ascend, till I arrive at that Being who exists of himself, and who has always so existed.

Let such of you, my brethren, as cannot follow this reasoning, blame only themselves. Let not such people say, These are abstruse and metaphysical reflections, which should never be brought into these assemblies. It is not fair that the incapacity of a small number, an incapacity caused by their voluntary attachment to sensible things, and (so to speak) by their criminal interment in matter; it is not right that this should retard the edification of a whole people, and prevent the proposing of the first principles of natural religion. Eternity enters then into the idea of the creative Being; and this is what we proposed to prove.

2. Omniscience, intimate acquaintance, and, in a manner, the presence of all that is, of all that has been, of all that shall be,' is the second idea which we form of the Deity. The more we meditate on the essence and self-existence of the eternal Being, the more are we convinced that omniscience necessarily belongs to eternity; so that to have proved that God possesses the first of these attributes, is to have proved that he possesses the second. But, as I am certain, that a great number of my hearers would charge those reflections with obscurity, of which they are ignorant only through their own inattention, I will not undertake to prove, by a chain of propositions, that the eternal Being knows all things: that, as author of all, he knows the nature of all; that, knowing the nature of all, he knows what must result from all. It will be better to give you this subject ready digested in our Holy Scriptures, than to oblige you to collect it by your own meditation. Recall then on this article these expressions of the sacred writers: O Lord, thou knowest all things,' John xxi. 17.The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord search the heart and try the reins,' Jer. xvii. 9, 10.-Known unto him are all his works from the beginning,' Acts xv. 18. The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, Heb. iv. 12, &c. Some interpreters think, that by the word of God, we must understand here, not the gospel of Jesus Christ, as the phrase is generally understood, but his person. If this be St. Paul's idea, he uses, methinks, the same metaphysical reasoning which we have proposed: that is, that he who created all, knows all. Observe how this reasoning is followed and developed in the apostle's words. The Word of God, or, as it is in the Greek, the Logos, the Word of God is quick and powerful; that is to say, that as Jesus Christ, as

God, has a fund of life and existence, he has also freely and effectually communicated life and existence to others. In this sense it is elsewhere said, that by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers,' Col. i. 16. And in St. John's Gospel, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made,' John i. 1. 3. But this Word, quick and powerful, who has given being to all, perfectly knows all; sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.' Omniscience, intimate knowledge, and, as I said before, the presence of all that is, of all that was, of all that shall be, are as essential to God as eternity. This also, we hope, is sufficiently proved.

3. Supreme felicity is the third idea which we have formed of God; it flows immediately from the two first. Every intelligent being is capable of happiness, nor can he regard happiness with indifference; he is inclined by his very nature to render himself happy. He cannot love misery as misery; he never suffers a present misery but in hopes of a future pleasure; or else he supports a misery because it appears to him more tolerable than the means proposed to deliver him. Even those who have wilfully plunged themselves into the gulfs of hell, in a fit of black melancholy, would not have taken that dreadful step, had they not revolved this melancholy imagination in their distracted minds, that the assurance of being plunged into hell is less tolerable than hell itself. It implies a contradiction, that an intelligent being, capable of being happy or miserable, should be indifferent to his own happiness or misery. If any thing be wanting to the fe licity of God, the defect must not be attri buted to his will, the cause must be sought in his weakness, that is, in his want of power,

But who can conceive that a Being who existed from all eternity, who gave existence to all things, and who knows all things, has only a finite and limited power? I am well aware of the difficulty of following the attributes of the Deity, and that, in the greatest part of our reasonings on this grand subject, we suppose what ought to be proved. But as far as we are capable of penetrating this profound subject, we have grounds for reasoning in this manner: God has given being to all things, and he saw what must result from them; it depended then entirely on him to form the plan of the world or not to form it; to be, alone or to impart existence: it depended on him to form the plan of such a world as we see, or to form another plan. He has followed, in the choice which he has made, that which was most