Слике страница
PDF
ePub

nals; and how few can plead Not guilty? Thofe fins of uncleannefs, that used to carry fhame along with them as well as guilt, now appear without mask or vizard: and more people blush to be thought innocent of these enormities, than to confefs themselves guilty. They ride in gilt coaches, fparkle in pomp and equipage; and the foft name of a Mifs feems to compound for the unlawfulness of the practice. And this wretched disorder takes in almoft our whole fpecies; it reaches all countries, and rages under every elevation fo that were the tranfgreffion of no other divine law damnable, this alone would verify those words of our Saviour, Few are chofen.

For

Not

Befides, it is an article of faith, that neither the envious, the detractors, the drunkards, shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. How few, in proportion to the number of Chriftians, ftand clear of thefe vices? In a word, if we ftate the number of the damned by that of the tranfgreffors of God's laws, it may truly be faid, Few are chofen. I do not fay, all finners mifcarry. God forbid ! if this were true, few indeed would be faved. one, perchance, of a million, are found fo happy, as to carry their baptifmal innocence from the font to the coffin. But however, it is a received maxim, Qualis vita, finis ita, As we live, we die. Thofe, who run through a course of fin, (and this is the cafe of thousands) who by cuftom turn lewdness into a habit, and almoft into nature, go out of the world in this defperate condition, and die as impenitent as they lived. For the laft fcene of our lives is commonly but a copy of the reft: our lives, in fine, and our deaths, are generally of a piece.

Yet, O heavens! tho' we ftand on the brink of two eternities, the one of mifery, the other of happiness; tho' it be ten to one we shall fall into

that,

hat, and for ever lofe this; how unconcerned do we ftand? one would think we neither hoped to enjoy the one, nor feared to fuffer the other. Had our bleffed Saviour revealed as diftinctly, that all, as that few, fhall be faved, could men live with more carelesness, or in a greater fecurity? In this cafe, I fuppofe men might eafe themfelves of anxious thoughts; they might lay hold of the prefent, live faft, enjoy a mahometical elizium here, and be fecure of a Chriftian paradife hereafter. Is not this a genuine draught of our prefent conduct? Is not our time employed in the concerns of the prefent? Scarce a thought takes a profpect of eternity.

Some pretend, they are fo taken up with the care of a family, that their thoughts have no leifure to range beyond their prefent concerns. But alas! dear Chriftians; is it not your prefent concern to make fome provifion for eternity? to fecure that, which, with all your care, will not amount to an abfolute certainty? What can you remember, if you forget an eternity? and if you believe a ftate of damnation, is it poffible not to think of it, not to tremble?

Others very coldly tell us, they live like others; but this excufe is as unreasonable as their conduct. Who would think men fhould carry folly to fuch an excess, as to justify their practice by the very course of their miscarriage? You live like the greatest part of mankind; you fquare your life by their practice: they damn themselves, and you will leap down the precipice for company. The beaten road leads to perdition; and whofoever herds with the crowd, meets his ruin. Univerfality indeed is a good rule in matters of faith, but not of manners: if you follow the cry and the track of mankind, you must expect to be misled. It fares not in our journey to eternity as in other voy

M 4

ages,

ages, where the high-way leads us to our defired home, and where, if perchance we are out, the inhabitants may fet us right the broadness and plainnefs of the way is a demonstration it is the wrong; and when the vulgar perfuade us to go on, we must conclude it is time to retire. Of a hundred, who enter into a pest-house, if you saw ninety return with the plague-fores upon them, would you take a walk in this infected hospital? yet others did. Why therefore do you steer by example in one cafe, and not in the other? Is the body more valuable than the foul? a fleeting life than an eternal? or is death a greater evil than damnation?

Our Saviour fays, Few are faved, and the reafon is, because few live up to the rules of Chriftianity; because they take the broad way, indulge their paffions, and loose the reins to appetite; and yet you fleep fecure without concern, without fear, as if the road, that leads others to hell, would convey you to heaven, or, as if the number of the damn'd would leffen the misfortune of damnation! Suffer not yourself to be borne away by the torrent: follow reafon, not example; live according to the gofpel, not to custom; and perfuade yourself you must comply with those duties, which few perform, to enjoy those pleasures in heaven that few poffefs.

Good God! to recover of a disease, I baulk appetite, check my inclinations, and dismiss my favourite fatisfactions; I difoblige my taste with bitter pills, and unpalatable potions. But is it a queftion to fave my foul; I ftand unconcerned, I refuse to move a finger; as if heaven were below my care, or damnation either unavoidable or impoffible. And yet I believe that few, perchance not one of ten, arrive to blifs, and nine of ten are plunged into fire and brimftone, that burn without intermiffion, and without end. The very apprehenfion

apprehenfion of only drawing a tooth, or lopping off a member, chills my blood, and cafts me into an agony; yet the danger of being for ever fevered from God, and herded with devils, raifes not one hair of my head, forces out not one figh, nor scarce one Lord have mercy on me. Where is my wit? where is my prudence?

O my God, foften my hard heart with the fear of thy justice, and raise in my foul a firm refolution to break through all thofe impediments that ftand between me and my duty. Wealth, grandeur, and pleasure, are vanity of vanities, empty names, vain titles, infignificant nothings; below regard, unworthy of any thought but of contempt. My business is to fave my foul, and my care fhall be to place it in as great fecurity as the dangerous world will permit. It is better to be faved with the few, than to be damned eternally with the crowd.

II. EPISTLE to the Corinthians, Chap. xi. Verse

19. For ye fuffer fools gladly, feeing ye your felves are wife.

20. For ye fuffer if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man fmite you on the face.

21. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak: bowbeit, wherein foever any is bold, (I speak foolishly) I am bold alfo.

22. Are they Hebrews? fo am I are they Ifraelites? fo am I are they the feed of Abraham? fo am I:

23. Are they minifters of Christ? fool) I am more in labours more

(I Speak as a abundant, in Stripes

Stripes above measure, in prifons more frequent, in deaths oft.

24. Of the Jews five times received I forty ftripes fave one.

25. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was 1 ftoned, thrice I fuffered shipwreck : a night and a day I have been in the deep.

26. In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

27. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in faftings often, in cold and nakedness.

28. Befides thofe things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 29. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?

30. If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.

31. The God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.

32. In Damafcus, the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damafcenes with a garifon, defirous to apprehend me :

33. And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and efcaped his hands.

H

The MORAL REFLECTION.

ERE we read a panegyrick of St. Paul, and, what is ftrange, the apostle pens the elogium himself; he who protefted more than once, that he undervalued the esteem of men, that he neither courted their praise, nor feared their blame; he, who almost in every page of his epiftles,

« ПретходнаНастави »