are names, which should never be mention- SER M. XVIII. ed, but with the utmost honour. It is faid in Scripture, Fools make a mock at fin *. They had better make a mock at peftilence, at war, or famine. With one who fhould chuse these public calamities for the subject of his fport, you would not be inclined to affociate. You would fly from him, as worse than a fool; as a man of diftempered mind, from whom ye might be in hazard of receiving a fudden blow. Yet certain it is, that, to the great fociety of mankind, fin is a greater calamity, than either peftilence, or famine, or war. These operate, only as occafional caufes of mifery. But the fins and vices of men, are perpetual fcourges of the world. Impiety and injuftice, fraud and falfehood, intemperance and profligacy, are daily producing mischief and disorder; bringing ruin on individuals; tearing families and communities in pieces; giving rise to a thousand tragical fcenes on this unhappy theatre. In proportion as manners are vicious, mankind are unhappy. The per XVIII. SERM. fection of virtue which reigns in the world above, is the chief fource of the perfect bleffedness which prevails there. When, therefore, we obferve any tendency to treat religion or morals with dif respect and levity, let us hold it to be a fure indication of a perverted understanding, or a depraved heart. In the feat of the scorner let us never fit. Let us account that wit contaminated, which attempts to fport itself on facred fubjects. When the fcoffer arises, let us maintain the honour of our God, and our Redeemer; and refolutely adhere to the caufe of virtue and goodness. The lips of the wife utter knowledge; but the mouth of the foolish is near to deftruction. bonoureth God, God will honour. Him that The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and be that keepeth the commandment, keepeth his own foul. SERMON XIX. On the CREATION of the WORLD. GENESIS, i. I. In the beginning God created the heaven, and SUCH the earth. XIX. H is the commencement of the hif- SER M. tory of mankind; an æra, to which we muft ever look back with folemn awe and veneration. Before the fun and the moon had begun their course; before the found of the human voice was heard, or the name of man was known; in the beginning God created the heaven, and the earth.-To a beginning of the world, we are led back by every thing that now exifts; by all history, all records, all monuments of antiquity. In SER M. tracing the tranfactions of past ages, we ar XIX. rive at a period, which clearly indicates the We afcend to and neceffary arts, without the knowledge of which, mankind could hardly fubfift. We difcern fociety and civilization arifing from rude beginnings, in every corner of the earth; and gradually advancing to the state in which we now find them: All which afford plain evidence, that there was a period, when mankind began to inhabit and cultivate the earth. What is very remarkable, the most authentic chronology and history of most nations, coincides with the account of Scripture; and makes the period during which the world has been inhabited by the race of men, not to extend beyond fix thousand years. To the ancient philofophers, creation from nothing appeared an unintelligible idea. They maintained the eternal existence of matter, which they fuppofed to be modelled by the fovereign mind of the univerfe, XIX. verfe, into the form which the earth now SER M. But though there was a period when this globe, with all that we see upon it, did not exift, we have no reason to think, that the wisdom and power of the Almighty were then without exercise or employment. Boundless is the extent of his dominion. Other globes and worlds, enlightened by other funs, may then have occupied, as they ftill appear to occupy, the immenfe regions of fpace. Numberless orders of beings, to us unknown, people the wide extent of the univerfe; and afford an endless variety of objects 1 |