Gospel affords to the Distressed.

V.

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disciples, not in words and professions only, SERMON but in heart and in truth; taking upon us his yoke, as is added in the words immediately following the text and learning of him who is meek and lowly in heart. Let those who labour under the sense of remembered follies and crimes, come unto Christ with penitent dispositions, and they shall obtain pardon. Let those who labour under the suffering of present, or the apprehension of future sorrows, come unto Christ, and they shall receive consolation. All who are in any sense heavy laden, coming unto him, shall find rest to their souls.

BEFORE Concluding this discourse, there is another set of men not yet mentioned, to whom I must also address the exhortation in the text; those I mean who, labouring under none of the distressful burdens of life, are surfeited of its pleasures; who labour under the burden only of languid ease, and the load of insipid prospe rity. You drag, my friends, but a miserable existence. Oppressed by no sorrow, you feel vacuity and dissatisfaction within

H 3

; you

are

the waters which are now offered to you, drink. Hear, and your souls shall Retreat from the corrupting vanities of world to Christ, to religion, and to vi New sources of enjoyment shall ther opened to you. A world A world yet untried display itself to your view. You sha formed to a relish for the quiet and i cent pleasures of piety and devotion friendship and good affections; of u knowledge, and virtuous activity; of society and seasonable retirement; pleas of which at present you have no co tion; but which, upon trial, you shall superior to the trifling or tubulent an ments, in which you have hitherto p your days. The true satisfaction of human mind is only to be found in rel and goodness; in a purified heart a virtuous life. All other plans of happ are fallacious, and pregnant with disapp

On LUXURY and LICENTIOUSNESS.

ISAIAH, V. 12.

The harp, and the viol, the tabret and and wine, are in their feasts; but they gard not the work of the Lord, nei consider the operation of his hands.

IT appears from many passages in

writings of this prophet, that in days great corruption of manners had gun to take place among the people Israel, Originally a sober and a relig nation, accustomed to a simple and toral life, after they had enlarged territories by conquest, and acqu wealth by commerce, they gradually

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times much the same; and revolutions from primitive simplicity to the refinements of criminal luxury have been often exhibited on the stage of the world. The reproof directed in the text to the Jews of that antient age will be found equally applicable to the manners of many in modern times. In discoursing from it, I shall first consider the character of those who are described in the text, and shew the guilt that is involved in it. I shall next consider the duties which persons of that character are supposed to have neglected; to regard the work of the Lord, and to consider the operation of his hands.

I. WHEN We take into view the character pointed at in the text, it is evident.