have there been more numerous and just invectives, than against avarice. Yet let us not suppose, that the disease is incurable. Reason and religion furnish efficacious medicines for the cure of all mental disorders. There will be no occasion for hellebore, if we will but observe, from the misery of others, who are the slaves of pelf, the folly of avarice. To be misers, is to be our own enemies. What! shall I possess honey, and lock it up from my own use, more effectually than if it were enclosed in adamantine vessels, and guarded with flaming swords? Let us duly consider, that we cannot serve God and Mammon at the same time, and let us not hesitate one moment in deserting Mammon, for the service of him who giveth riches, which cannot make to themselves wings; riches eternal, incorruptible in the heavens.

Why, O man, shouldst thou be cruel to thyself? Are not the evils of life sufficient, but thou must debar thyself its goods, the moderate and reasonable enjoyments of life, through a greedy desire of heaping up riches, which thou canst never want, and will not live long enough to expend. The shortness of life ought to be more frequently in our minds, than the eager pursuits and intemperate pleasures of life allow. It would teach a lesson of wisdom more valuable than the speculative doctrines of the best philosophy. It would teach that great truth unknown to the professed votaries of pleasure or avarice, that to use the world so as not to abuse it, either by covetousness or excess, is to secure as much happiness as this world is able to bestow.

But, after all, this world is not able to bestow a great deal without mixture. There is, indeed, honey in it; but there is also gall in great abundance. The happiest among us have a share of bitterness with

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our sweetness, and many have a greater portion of the unpalatable ingredient.

But as the bee extracts honey from noxious plants, so is good to be derived from this evil. Feeling, as every partaker of human nature must feel, the unsatisfactory nature of all sublunary pleasure, we learn to look for it above the moon. If we found nothing but honey in this world, I fear that some of the wisest among us would be contented with filling ourselves with it, and would not suffer the repast to be interrupted by thoughts of a better state. Adversity teaches us to think of him who can show us the light of his countenance, and brighten the most gloomy scene; to think of him who can lead us to waters of comfort, and feed us with manna in the wilderness.

Hast thou then found the honey of God's grace? rejoice, and thy joy shall no man take from thee. Eat, indulge thy desire, and fear not. Thou canst never be injured by excess. Grow in grace, by

accustoming thyself to whatever is pious and praiseworthy. The sweetness of a virtuous conduct, of a conscience void of offence, shall be honey to thy palate, health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

After all the various labours and cares of man in the pursuit of pleasure and a chief good, which in this Discourse I have figuratively called honey, in imitation of the text, it is certain that this happiness will be best secured by a truly virtuous and religious life. The favour of God is undoubtedly the chief good of man. Obtain this, and every thing that is desirable will follow. No longer roam with wearied wing from flower to flower in the fading gardens of this world, for that which is to constitute the true sweetness of life. Soar on the wings of faith and innocence to heaven; for there, and there only, canst

thou find that honey with which thy soul shall be satisfied. No satiety, no sickness, shall be the consequence of feeding on the heavenly sweets; but thou shalt enjoy perpetual health, and prolong thy life to eternity. Butter and honey shalt thou eat, if thy palate is qualified to relish them; and thou shalt hunger no more, neither thirst any more for viler food. He who feeds all his children with food convenient for them, shall conduct thee to a land flowing with milk and honey, even the heavenly Canaan.

SERMON XXI.

HAPPINESS TO BE FOUND RATHER IN THE ENJOYMENT OF HEALTH AND INNOCENCE, THAN IN THE SUCCESSFUL PURSUITS OF AVARICE AND AMBITION.

JEREMIAH, xlv. 5.-And seeketh thou great things for thyself? seek them not. For, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord: but thy life will I give unto thee, for a prey, in all places whither thou goest.

PLINY, the natural philosopher, who abounds in fabulous accounts, relates, that a certain bird, in plucking up the roots of a plant on which it feeds, pulls with such violence as to leave her neck behind her. Incredible as the story is, it is emblematic of the worldly man; who, in his eager attachment to some transient gratification or attainment, endangers his happiness, his health, his life, and his very soul. For the sake of the enjoyment of life, to lose the objects for which life was bestowed, is a miserable folly; to prevent which, every effort of reason and religion should be exerted. The thoughtless mul

titude, who hasten on in the precipitate career of ambition, should be warned to reflect on the end of their pursuits, and to consider whither they are going, before they are lost in the wilderness of error.

The advice contained in the text, was addressed to Baruch; but, as the Scripture was given for the direction of all men at all times, I shall consider it less as a particular, than as a general, prohibition, intended for universal use, though to be understood under those limitations which reason evidently prescribes.

And seeketh thou great things for thyself? seek them not. For, behold, I will bring evil on all flesh, saith the Lord: but thy life will I give thee, for a prey, in all places whither thou goest.

This passage may, perhaps, be thus interpreted in a liberal paraphrase.

Seek

Art thou the slave of an excessive and selfish ambition? Art thou seeking great things, merely to gratify thy pride and thy voluptuousness? them not. For riches and grandeur cannot remove natural evil; those sufferings, which I, for wise purposes, have deemed to be the lot of human nature. But I give thee existence. Be it thine to seek to render it happy by obedience to my laws, by a life of reason and virtue, by fixing thine heart on solid and substantial joys, rather than on the fleeting objects of vice and vanity.

I wish to understand by great things, in the text, those which are falsely called great by the world; preeminent stations, distinguished titles, affluent fortunes, splendid mansions, equipages, and retinue. It never could be the intention of the Deity, to prohibit the aspiration of man after great excellence in moral and intellectual attainments. It is impossible to be too good and too wise; for however, in

the carelessness of common converse, those expressions may be used, it is certain, that the excess intended to be signified by them, destroys the very nature and existence of the qualities, thus carried to a pitch of extravagance.

But yet, the aspirant after wisdom and goodness may deceive himself in the ardent pursuit even of excellent objects, if he is actuated by wrong motives, and aims at ends which religion cannot approve. Thus benevolence, adopted only as an atonement for sin, and practised as a commutation for all other duties, ceases to be laudable in the eye of Heaven, whatever great things it may effect by means of opulence, or however it may be applauded by human creatures. Having self only in view, it is no longer benevolence in the true sense. Thus learning. and science, whatever advances they may make, or however they may be admired, if they are sought only to gratify pride, to raise a reputation, as means of ambition and avarice, or used in undermining the fabric of Christianity, and shaking the foundations of truth, become the more obnoxious to divine displeasure, in proportion to the great things, the high advances, which, by indefatigable industry, they are able to accomplish.

There is a kind of philosophy, which, endeavouring to account for every thing, puzzles itself in the mazes of its own ingenuity; and lapses into atheism, or that state of doubt and unbelief, which terminates in confusion and misery. It seeks great things in its own estimation, a perfect knowledge of the fitness of things; an emancipation from prejudice, and a right to arraign the ways of Providence at the bar of human reason. It inflates the heart with pride, and yet leaves it, after all, less illumined, and less tranquil, than the mind of the ignorant, yet humble