II.

DEARLY BELOVED IN THE LORD,

WHEN our blessed Lord, the Saviour of the world, called sinners to repentance, he exhorted them in these compassionate and encouraging words, "Come "unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I "will refresh you." * What was the weight, from the pressure of which they were to be relieved? It was the consciousness of guilt disquieting their souls with the anguish of remorse, and alarming them with dreadful apprehensions of future punishment. Ask those, who under grace are beginning to turn from a course of iniquity to the ways of righteousness. of righteousness. Taught as they have been by woful experience, they will confess that the burden of sin is, more than all others, painful, grievous, intolerable.

You that come hither from other places, have heard it said from the Holy Scriptures; you that constantly attend this church have heard your own minister preach on the text of Scripture, and by convincing arguments prove to you, there can be no peace to the wicked.

Of you that are now met for the holy purposes of this day's solemnity, it is presumed the greater part are as yet strangers, not indeed to sorrow for acts of levity and of indiscretion, but to the pangs of conscience on recollecting crimes committed with premeditation and

evil design. May you long continue to be laudable for what is good; and, as you advance from one to another period of life, may you "grow in grace *," and in the knowledge of Christ's religion; cultivating and practising "whatsoever things are true t," according to reason and revelation; "whatsoever things are honest," in the judgment of upright men, and in the sight of God; "whatsoever things are just," on principles of equity; "whatsoever things are pure," in their own nature, and in their consequences; "whatsoever things are

lovely," for their kindness in conduct and manner; "whatsoever things are of good report," among the wise and pious. "On these things think." Important, requisite, and indispensable it is, that you should think of them frequently, should attend to them seriously. For you must be told with a warning voice, that, as you pass on from year to year, you will, from within and from without, from your own hearts, from the influence of bad example, and from the language of corrupt persons; you will, from these sources, be liable and exposed to temptation, which would entice you to offend against what you know to be commanded on the one hand, and forbidden on the other, by our Lord himself and by His Apostles. Resist those temptations, as you value the peace of your souls.

As we are all born under the consequences of Adam's transgression, we all inherit a nature prone to sin. The manifold trials of our faith and virtue, which, in our course through life, we must expect to encounter, do not come on us with but one assault. In various ways they meet us, through the whole duration of our capacity for thought, judgment, and action. They adapt their force, and change their kind, according to the + Phil. iv. 8.

* 2 St. Peter, iii. 18.

diversity of our age, of our temper, of our employment, of our place, of our condition. So that every person living need be cautioned against "the sin which doth "most easily beset him *;" against the sin into which, without continual circumspection and vigilance, he will probably fall.

To you, the candidates for confirmation, who either will be soon left to the guidance of your own discretion; or who already, but not long since, have entered on that perilous state, it should be said, you will now find the conflict between passion and reason to be strong and dangerous. In your want of experience, it cannot be unseasonable to premonish you of the ridiculous absurdities, the fatal errors, the censurable follies, the pernicious habits, the destructive pursuits, against which you should be on your guard. Beware, then, of selfconceit and vanity; beware of singularity in opinion, and affectation in manners; beware of indolence and idleness; beware of thoughtless extravagance; beware of improper indulgence, beware of intemperate gratifications; beware of vicious allurements; beware of ruinous pleasures! For of this be assured, the sad effects of imprudent and of libertine conduct will be felt through a period much longer than you can now imagine!

"The days of our age are threescore years and ten." + You will not have reached the midway of that term, before you will lament to hear of the gross immoralities practised by such as are indifferent to religion; the sins committed by others, who are senseless blasphemers; the crimes perpetrated by those who are utterly abandoned to wickedness. "Having their understanding "judicially darkened ‡," and having lost all sense of

moral and religious feeling, they consider not that "for all these things God will bring them into judg"ment." Their flagitious deeds will not finally escape the punishment deserved. For, what say the Scriptures? "The wrath of God is revealed from "heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness "of ment;" and He will render "tribulation and "anguish to every soul of man that doeth evil." Awful is the conclusion of the first Psalm: "The "way of the ungodly shall perish." Beautiful and memorable are the four introductory verses: "Blessed "is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the "ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners; and hath "not sat in the seat of the scornful: but his delight "is in the law of the Lord; and in His law will he "exercise himself day and night. And he shall be "like a tree planted by the water-side, that will bring "forth its fruit in due season." That, through the pardoning mercy and gracious favour of God, such blessedness may be your portion; attend frequently to the reading and hearing of the Holy Scriptures, particularly those which more expressly contain the words of eternal life, and teach us what we "must do to be "saved:" observe the appointed ordinances of religion, more especially partaking of the Lord's Supper; and be constant in that which forms a great part of our duty, the exercise of prayer.

In exhorting you to prayer, it is proposed to recommend private, domestic, and public prayer. No individual should omit to thank God, at the return of each morning, for preservation through the night; at the return of each evening, for the temporal and spiritual benefits conferred on him through the day past. No

* Ecclesiastes, xi. 9.

+ Rom. i. 18. - ii. 6. 9.