us to guard them with a watch- SERM. unto vail on THE Tempter, no doubt, will make us large Offers, and, where nothing lefs will allure us, all the Glories of the World fhall be at our Service, if we will fall down and worship him.-But it is obvious what wretched Gainers we fhall be by taking fuch a rash Step: And befides, what is all, that the Devil has to give (were every earthly Good really in his Poffeffion, as he falfely pretends) when compared with those heavenly Bleffings, which God has promifed, and will infallibly bestow on fuch, as commit their Souls to him in well-doing? What therefore shall it profit a Man to gain the whole World, and lofe his own Soul? Shall the Benefit received bear any Proportion to the Damage fuftained? That all fublunary Treasures are a poor Price for our Souls, will easily appear from weighing the Profit against the Lofs. VIII. THE SERM. THE one has been already feen,---and as for the other, what mighty Advantage can the entire Poffeffion of the whole World be to us? Can it adminifter more than Neceffaries and Conveniencies to the Body, and will not a Competency do this as well? Is the greatest Abundance able to gratify our extravagant Appetites, or will it not rather excite them? Do not Mens Defires increase with their Acquifitions, and is not the Whole as incapable of giving them Content, as the Part they are already Mafters of? GRANTING however, that the World could fatisfy the moft greedy, yet what Comparifon is there between the Indulgence of our Fancies and the Forfeiture of our Souls? If we ruin them for ever to obtain the finful Pleasures of a Moment,---if for the Sake of Things, we want not, and fhall not enjoy, we plunge ourselves into infinite Mifery, can fuch a Conduct be justified to common Prudence? NOR would our Folly be at all the more excufable, were we to purchase by the Sale of our Souls the most rapturous Delights during our prefent Being. But this is widely SERM. differing from our Cafe: For when any of VIII. us have gotten the largest Share of external Goods, it is very doubtful whether they will prove good, or we fhall be a Jot the happier for them. Though they will moft certainly make us much more unhappy than we should have been without them, if either by raifing Envy in others, they expofe us to thofe Storms, which would have blown over us in a lower State, or by promoting Luxury in ourselves, they bring on us and our Pofterity fuch racking Difeafes, as leave us far more wretched, than Poverty would have done. CAN the Gain then tempt Men to run themselves into everlasting Perdition, for the Sake of uncertain Goods, and those too of a very uncertain Continuance, fince they are not fecure of poffeffing them for an Hour, nor can have any Affurance of their Stay with them? But if they do not leave their Owners, and flee away like an Eagle towards Heaven, ftill is it not poffible that the Owners may be taken from them, that as foon as we have made ample Provifion for many Years Indulgence, we may be fnatched away like the rich Man in the Gospel, SERM. Gofpel, upon the very Brink of Enjoyment, VIII. and hurried into a wretched Eternity, there to languish away thofe Years in Anguish, which we thought to have spent in Senfuality? Or, though we fhould be permitted to continue here and enjoy ourselves to the utmost Stretch of our loose Defires, though we be fuffered to grow as old in Vice as the antediluvian Sinners, does not this after all pafs away like a Tale that is told? And what fucceeds, but infinite Detriment and eternity of Shame, Regret and Mifery? So that the longest Life of finful Gratification is a very poor exchange for a State of endless and inconceivable Wretchednefs, and to part with our Souls for the Enjoyment of the World and all its Glories, were our Time here to be lengthened out to a thousand Ages, would ftill be an Act of the most blind and defperate Sottishness: Because, to lofe our Souls, is to be eternally miferable without Relief, eternally tortured without any Intervals of Eafe or Reft. To what an inconceivable Degree then muft our Imprudence be aggravated, if we part with our Souls for fuch uncertain, interrupted, and precarious Bleffings? To throw throw ourselves into never ceafing Torments SERM. for the Fruition of an unfatisfactory and a VIII. tranfitory World, argues us in fhort to be entire Strangers to Reason, and utter Enemies to our own Interest. To draw at length to a Conclufion. If the whole World will not countervail the lofs of our Souls, let us not idly difpofe of them for a much less valuable Confideration, let us not wantonly and in Sport throw them away, without any Profpect of the leaft advantagious Return, and yet this is the daily Trade of Thoufands; witnefs only the great Crimes of common Swearing and intemperate Drinking, which notoriously reign among all Ranks and Degrees, and as they are the Shame, fo, it is to be feared, they will become the Ruin of a moft abandoned People. The Unprofitableness of the former of these evil Practices a Word or two will make fufficiently apparent. It is abfolutely void of all Temptation, it indulges neither the Appetites of the Senfual, nor gratifies the Inclinations. of the Covetous, it is the mere overflowing of an unfanctified Spirit, which dares to vilify and provoke its Maker, in down-right Gaiety and Infolence. The Offender can get nothing by all his vain and profane Oaths |