SERMON I. ON SALVATION. JOHN vii. 6. My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. THE reproach which is directed by Jefus Christ, against his relations according to the flesh, who preffed him to fhew himself to the world and to go up to Jerufalem, in order to acquire those honours which were due to his great talents, may, with propriety, be directed against the greatest part of this audience. The time which they give to their fortune, to their advancement, to their pleasures, is always ready; it is always time to labour towards the acquirement of wealth and glory, and to fatisfy their paffions: That is the time of man: But the time of Jesus Christ, that is to say, the time of working out their falvation, is never ready; they delay, they put it off; they always expect its arrival, and it never arrives. The flightest worldly interefts agitate them, and make them undertake every thing: For what is the world itself, whofe deceitful ways they follow, but an eternal agitation, where the paffions fet every thing in motion; where tranquility is the only pleasure unknown; where cares are hoVOL. I. nourable; nourable; where those who are at reft, think themselves unhappy; where all is toil and affliction of fpirit; in a word, where all are in motion, and all are deceived? Surely, my brethren, when we see men so occupied, fo interested, so patient in their purfuits, we would fuppose them labouring for everlasting ages, and for riches which ought to secure their happiness: How can we comprehend, that fo much toil and agitation has nothing in view but a fortune, whose duration scarcely equals that of the labours which have gained it; and that a life so rapid, is spent with fo much fatigue, in the fearch of wealth which must perish along with it! Nevertheless, a mistake, which the flighteft investigation is fufficient to expose, is become the error of by far the majority. In vain does religion call us to more necessary and more important cares; in vain it announces to us, that to labour for what must pass away, is only amaffing, at a great expence, heaps of fand, which tumble upon our heads, as fast as we raise them up; that the highest pitch of elevation to which we can attain here below, is always that which verges upon our death, and is the gate of eternity; and that nothing is worthy of man, but what will endure as long as man. The cares of the paffions are always weighty and important: The steps alone which we take for heaven, are weak and languid: Salvation alone, we confider as an amufement: We toil for frivolous riches, as if we laboured for eternal poffeffions; we labour for eternal poffeffions, as if we toiled for frivolous riches. Yes, my brethren, our cares for this world are always animated; obftacles, fatigues, difappointments, nothing can repulse us; Our cares for this world are always prudent; dangers, fnares, perplexities, competitions, nothing can make us miftake our aim; whereas our cares for falvation bear bear a very different character; nothing can be more languid, or less interefting to us, although obstacles and difgufts there, are so much to be dreaded; nothing can be more inconfiderate; although the multiplicity of ways, and the number of rocks for us to split upon, render mistakes in it fo familiar and common. We must labour, therefore, towards its accomplishment, with fervour and prudence; with fervour, in order not to be repulfed; with prudence, in order not to be mistaken. PART. I.-Undoubtedly nothing in this life ought to interest us more than the care of our eternal falvation; befides, that this is the grand affair upon which our ALL depends, we even have not, properly speaking, any other upon the earth; and the infinite and diverfe occupations attached to our places, to our rank, to our fituations in life, ought to be only different modes of labouring towards our falvation. Nevertheless, this care fo glorious, to which every thing we do, and whatever we are, relate, is of all others the most despised; this chief care, which fhould be at the head of our other pursuits, gives place to them all in the detail of our actions; this care fo amiable, and to which the promises of faith, and the confolations of grace, attach fo many comforts, is of all others become for us, the most disgusting, and the most melancholy. And, behold, my brethren, from whence fprings this want of fervour in the business of our eternal falvation; we pursue it without esteem, without preference, and without inclination. Let us investigate and illuftrate these ideas. It is a very deplorable error, that mankind has attached the most pompous names to all the enterprises of the paf fions; and that the cares for our falvation have not, in the opinions of men, been capable of meriting the fame.honour, and the same efteem. Military toils are regarded by us as the path of reputation and glory; the intrigues and the commotions which contribute to our advancement in the world, are looked upon as the fecrets of a profound wifdom; schemes and negociations which arm mankind against each other, and which frequently make the ambition of an individual the fource of public calamities, pafs for extent of genius, and fuperiority of talents; the art of raising from an obfcure patrimony, a monstrous and overgrown fortune, at the expence often of juftice and probity, is the science of business, and individual good management. In a word, the world has found out the fecret of setting off by honourable titles, all the different cares which are connected with the things of this earth. The actions of faith alone, which fhall endure eternally; which shall form the history of the age to come, and shall be engraven during all eternity upon the immortal columns of the heavenly Jerufalem, are accounted idle and obfcure occupations; the lot of weak and limited fouls, and have nothing which exalt them in the eyes of men. Such, my brethren, is the first cause of our indifference towards the business of our falvation: We do not fufficiently esteem that holy undertaking, to labour at it with fervour. Now, I do not think it neceffary to ftop here, and combat an illufion, which fo flagrantly violates right reason. For what is it that can render a work glorious to the perfon who undertakes it? Is it the duration and the immortality which it promises in the memory of men? Alas! all the monuments of pride will perish with the world which has reared them up; whatever we do for the earth, will experience the fame destiny which it will one day undergo: Victories and conquefts, the most fplendid enterprifes, and |