believe will need no evidence, it is too evidently feen in the open liberties taken every day, in defiance (not to fay of religion, but) of decency and common good manners ;-fo that it is no uncommon thing to behold vices which heretofore were committed only in dark corners, now openly fhew their face in broad day, and oft-times with fuch an air of triumph, as if the party thought he was doing himself honcur, -or that he thought the deluding an unhappy creature, and the keeping her in a state of guilt, was as necessary a piece of grandeur as the keeping an equipage, and did him as much credit as any other appendage of his fortune.

If we pafs on from the vices to the indecorums of the age (which is a fofter name for vices), you will scarce fee any thing, in what is called higher life, but what befpeaks a general relaxation of all order and difcipline, in which our opinions as well as manners feem to be set loofe from all restraints;-and in truth, from all ferious reflections too:- and one may venture to fay, that gaming

and extravagance, to the utter ruin of the greatest eftates,-minds diffipated with diverfions, and heads giddy with a perpetual rotation of them, are the moft general characters to be met with; and though one would expect, that at leaft the more folemn feasons of the year, fet apart for the contemplation of Christ's fufferings, fhould give some check and interruption to them, yet what appearance is there ever amongst us, that it is fo;-what one alteration does it make in the course of things? Is not the doctrine of mortification infulted by the fame luxury of entertainments at our tables ?-is not the fame order of diverfions perpetually returning, and fcarce any thing elfe thought of?-does not the fame levity in dress, as well as difcourfe, fhew itself in perfons of all ages? I fay of all ages, for it is no fmall aggravation of the corruption of our morals, that age, which by its authority was once able to frown youth into fobriety and better manners, and keep them within bounds, feems but too often to lead the way, and by

their unfeasonable example give a countenance to follies and weakness, which youth is but too apt to run into without fuch a recommendation.-Surely age, which is but one remove from death, fhould have nothing about it, but what looks like a decent preparation for it. In purer times it was the cafe, -but now,-grey hairs themselves scarce ever appear, but in the high mode and flaunting garb of youth, with heads as full of pleasure, and clothes as ridiculoufly, and as much in the fashion, as the person who wears them is usually grown out of it:-upon which article give me leave to make a fhort reflection; which is this, that whenever the eldest equal the youngest in the vanity of their drefs, there is no reason to but that they equal

be given for it,

them, if not furpass them, in the vanity of their defires.

But this by the bye.

Though in truth the obfervation falls in with the main intention of this difcourse, which is not framed to flatter our follies, or touch them with a light

hand, but plainly to point them out; that by recalling to your mind, what manner of perfons we really are, I might better lead you to the apostle's inference, of what manner of perfons ye ought to be, in all holy converfation and godliness; looking for, and haftening unto, the coming of the day of GOD.

The apostle, in the concluding verfe of this argument, exho:ts, that they who look for fuch things be diligent, that they be found of him in peace, without spot, and blamelefs;-and one may conclude with him, that if the hopes or fears, either the reason or the paffions of men are to be wrought upon at all, it must be from the force and influence of this awakening confideration in the text:-" That all these things fhall be diffolved:"-that this vain and perishable fcene muft change, that we who now tread the ftage, must fhortly be fummoned away;-that we are creatures but of a day, haftening unto the place from whence we shall return no more ;-that whilst we are here,

-our conduct and behaviour is minute

ly obferved; that there is a Being about our paths and about our beds, whofe omniscient eye fpies out all our ways, and takes a faithful record of all the paffages of our lives;-that thefe volumes shall be produced and opened, and men fhall be judged out of the things that are written in them ;—that without refpect of perfons, we shall be made accountable for our thoughts, our words and actions, to this greatest and best of Beings, before whofe judgmentseat we must finally appear, and receive the things done in the body, whether they are good, or whether they are bad.

That to add to the terror of it,-this day of the Lord will come upon us like a thief in the night;-of that hour no one knoweth ;-that we are not fure of its being fufpended one day or one hour; or, what is the fame cafe,-that we are standing upon the edge of a precipice, with nothing but the fingle thread of human life to hold us up; and that if we fall unprepared in this thoughtless ftate, we are loft, and muft perish for

Evermore.