the fcorn and the reproaches of the world, which ye knew were to be the portion of all of you who engaged in preaching a mystery fo fpoken against by the world;-fo unpalatable to all its paffions and pleasures,—and fo irreconcilable to the pride of human reason.So that ye were, as one of ye expreffed, and all of ye experimentally found, though ye were made as the filth of the world, and the off-fcouring of all things, upon this account;-yet ye went on as zealously as ye fet out.-Ye were not offended, nor afhamed of the gospel of Chrift; wherefore fhould ye?-The impoftor and hypocrite might have been afhamed;-the guilty would have found caufe for it ;-ye had no caufe,-though ye had temptation.-Ye preached but what ye knew, and your honeft and up'right hearts gave evidence,-the ftrongeft,-to the truth of it ;-for ye left all, -ye fuffered all,-ye gave all that your fincerity had left you to give.-Ye gave your lives at last as pledges and confirmations of your faith and warmest affec tion for your Lord.-Holy and bleffed men!-ye gave all,-when, alas! our cold and frozen affection will part with nothing for his fake, not even with our vices and follies, which are worse than nothing; for they are vanity, and mifery, and death.— The state of chriftianity calls not now for fuch evidences, as the apoftles gave of their attachment to it.We have, literally speaking, neither houses nor lands, nor poffeffions to forfake;—we have neither wives or children, or brethren or fifters, to be torn from ;-no rational pleasure-or natural endearments to give up.-We have nothing to part with, but what is not our intereft to keep,-our lufts and paffions. -We have nothing to do for Chrift's fake but what is most for our own;that is, to be temperate, and chafte, and juft,-and peaceable,-and charitable, and kind to one another.-So that if man could fuppofe himself in a capacity even of capitulating with God, concerning the terms upon which he would fubmit to his government ;-and to chufe the laws he would be bound to obferve in teftimony of his faith;it were impoffible for him to make any propofals which, upon all acounts, fhould be more advantageous to his interefts-than thofe very conditions to which we are already obliged; that is, to deny ourselves ungodliness, to live foberly and righteously in this present life, and lay fuch reftraints upon our appetites as are for the honour of human nature, the improvement of our happiness, our health,-our peace,our reputation and fafety.-When one confiders this representation of the temporal inducements of christianity,-and compares it with the difficulties and difcouragements which they encountered who first made profeffion of a perfecuted and hated religion;-at the fame time that it raises the idea of the fortitude and fanctity of these holy men, of whom the world is not worthy,-it fadly diminishes that of ourselves,-which, though it has all the bleffings of this life apparently on its fide to fupport it, -yet can fcarce be kept alive;-and if we may form a judgment from the little ftock of religion which is left,—should GOD ever exact the fame trials,-unless we greatly alter for the better,-or there fhould prove fome fecret charm in perfecution, which we know not of.—It is much to be doubted, if the Son of man fhould make this proof,-of this generation,-whether there would be found faith upon the earth. As this argument may convince us, -fo let it fhame us into virtue,-that the admirable examples of those holy men may not be left us, or commemorated by us to no end;—but rather that they may answer the pious purpose of their inftitution,-to conform our lives to theirs, that with them we may be partakers of a glorious inheritance, through Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen. - SERMON Penances. XXXVII. 1 JOHN V. 3. And his commandments are not grievous. No, they are not grievous, my dear auditors.-Amongst the many prejudices which at one time or other have been conceived against our holy religion, there is scarce any one which has done more dishonour to christianity, or which has been more oppofite to the spirit of the gofpel, than this, in express contradiction to the words of the text, "That the commandments of GOD are grievous."-That the way which leads to life is not only ftrait, for that our Saviour tells us, and that with much tribulation we fhall feek it ;-but that christians are bound to make the worst of it, and tread it barefoot upon thorns |