Now the scoffer is actuated by an equal degree of folly. He derides men for living according to the most general rule of nature; namely, that of self-love and self-preservation. He sneers at them for endeavouring to obtain the favour of God, the peace of conscience, and security of future and eternal welfare. He laughs at them, because they will not thrust their heads into the fire, and leap the precipice into the gulf of woe.

He scoffs at the religious, because they act for the great ends of their being. God made all things for an end, and man for the noblest; the enjoyment of himself for ever. Now the exercises of religion are the way to this end. And to deride men for this, is to laugh at them for acting pertinently and nobly.

The scoffer laughs at the religious for aiming at the perfection of their nature. God made man perfect, but we have corrupted ourselves. We have destroyed our Maker's image, and deformed our natures. Now the design of religion is, to repair our ruins, and to renew our original integrity and perfection; to restore light to the mind, and virtue to the will, and order to the affections; to heal, and cleanse, and beautify the soul.

The scoffer derides the religious for acting even upon his own principles. He says there is a God, and laughs at those that worship him. He believes that God is infinitely wise and good; and yet ridicules men for confiding in his wisdom, and trusting

to his power and goodness. He says, that Christ is the Saviour; and derides those that are willing to be saved by him that the Holy Ghost is the Sanctifier; and laughs at that holiness he teacheth and produceth. He will tell you, he believes there is a heaven of eternal happiness; and scorns those that seek it that there is a hell of endless woe and torment; and makes sport. of all endeavours to avoid it.

Let us then, my brethren, be in earnest in religion; endeavouring to understand what we profess; to believe what we understand; and to prac tise what we believe: and then we shall feel such a sense of religion on our souls, as will beget the highest reverence to it. For it is ignorance, infidelity, and an evil life, that are the great causes of men's contempt for religion.

Let us take care that we place not religion in uncertain opinions and vain trifles and at the same time let us take heed of speaking thing appertaining to religion.

lightly of any Sacred things

are never to be mentioned but with seriousness and reverence. If we trifle with them in our conversation, this too familiar use of them will bring us to habitual distaste for them; which in time will grow into contempt.

Thus have I shown the sin and danger of scoffing at religion. And one would think there should be no need of a discourse of this description among a Christian people, who have felt so many judg

ments, and enjoy so many mercies; who have the Gospel preached to them with so much power and plainness, and have made so long and so zealous a profession of it. But is there not a cause for it? If there be none; I require your pardon for troubling you so long to no purpose: but if there be; I pray God that we may all lay it to heart, earnestly beseeching him to awaken those that are guilty of this impiety, to see their sin and their danger, before it be too late; and to divert from them, and others, the judgments that such bold wickedness most justly deserves; that he would make us all zealous in the things that refer to his glory and the honour of his religion; and assist us by his grace, in all our holy endeavours to promote those inestimable interests; begging all in the name and mediation of Christ our Lord, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and adoration, henceforth and for ever.

SERMON XXVI.

FROM HOPKINS *.

PROVERBS XIV. 9.

Fools make a mock at sin.

GENERALLY speaking, we are to expect but little or

no connexion in the Book of Proverbs. Other parts of Scripture are like a rich mine, where the precious metal runs in a continued vein. But this is like a heap of pearls; which, though they are loose and unstrung, are not therefore the less valuable.

There are two things in sin, impiety and folly : and lawfully may we scorn the one, whilst we cannot but hate and detest the other. And a due admixture of scorn and indignation is not only well calculated to enkindle our zeal for God, but may often be a requisite temper for him who is to reprove

* Ezekiel Hopkins, Bishop of Londonderry, was born about 1633, and died at the age of 57.

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confident and audacious sinners. But to laugh at the wickedness of others, and to make their guilt and shame our mirth and recreation, is as unchristian as it is inhuman: for we may as well laugh at their damnation, as at that which will lead them to

it.

How glorious was man among created beings, before sin debased and sullied him-the friend of God, the Lord of the creation-till sin despoiled him of his excellence, and made him who was almost equal to the angels, worse even than the very beasts that perish. Canst thou, then, laugh and make a mock at that which has ruined and undone thyself as well as others. Thy nature is deformed as much as theirs. When we look abroad into the world, and observe the abominable wickedness that is every where committed, what else do we behold in it but the woeful effects of our own corrupt nature? We here discover what we are ourselves for, as in water, face answereth to face, so doth the heart of man to man. More reason,

therefore, have we to lament the sins of others than to make our sport of them; since we ourselves, without the restraining grace of God, are but too prone to imitate and perhaps exceed them.

Consider, then, how impious, how desperately wicked are they who tempt others to sin, that they may raise a scene of mirth out of the ruins of their souls; or who sin themselves, and purchase the damnation of their own souls, merely that they may