the glory of God; if they have had nothing more in view than to erect to themselves a perishable edifice of grandeur on the earth, in vain fhall they have furnished a splendid career to the eyes of men; in the fight of God, it is a life loft: In vain fhall hiftory record us; we fhall be effaced from the book of life, and from the eternal histories; in vain fhall our actions be the admiration of ages to come; they fhall not be written on the immortal columns of the Heavenly Temple. In vain fhall we have acted a dignified part upon the stage of all earthly ages; in the eternal ages we shall be as thofe who never were: In vain shall our titles and dignities be preserved upon the marble and brass; as the fingers of men have written them, they fhall perish with them; and what the finger of God shall have written, 'will alone endure as long as himself. In vain fhall our life -be proposed as a model to the ambition of our descendants; its reality exifting only in the paffions of men, from the moment they fhall ceafe to have paffions, and the objects which inflame them fhall be annihilated, this life shall be nothing, and shall be replunged into non-entity, with the world which admired it.

For candidly, my brethren, can you really wifh, that in that awful and terrible day, when righteousness itself shall be judged, the Almighty fhould give you credit for all the pains, cares, and difgufts you have experienced and devoured, in order to raise yourselves in the world? That he fhould regard, as well employed, the time you have facrificed to the world, fortune, glory, and the elevation of your name and race, as if you were upon the earth only for yourselves? That he should place among the number of your works of falvation, those which have only had for principle ambition, pride, envy, and self-intereft; and that he should reckon your vices amongst your virtues.

And

And what will you be able to fay to him, on the bed of death, when he shall enter into judgment with you, and demand an account of the time, which he had only granted you, to be employed in glorifying and ferving him? Will you say to him: Lord, I have gained many victories; I have usefully and gloriously served my prince and country; I have established to myself a great name amongst men? alas! you have never been able to gain a victory over yourfelf: You have usefully served the kings of the earth, and you have neglected, with contempt, the fervice of the King of kings. You have established to yourself a great name amongst men; and your name is unknown amongst the chofen of God: Time loft for eternity. Will you fay to him: I have conducted the moft difficult negociations, I have concluded the most important treaties; I have managed the interests and fortunes of princes; I have been in the secrets, and in the councils of Kings? Alas! you have concluded treaties and alliances with men, and you have a thousand times violated the holy covenant you have entered into with God: You have managed the interefts of prinand you have never known how to manage the interefts of your falvation: You have entered into the fecrets of kings, and you have ever been ignorant of the fecrets of the kingdom of heaven: Time loft for eternity. Will you fay to him: My whole life has been only an inceffant toil, and a painful and continued occupation? alas! you have always toiled, and you have never been able to do any thing to fave your foul: Time loft for eternity. Will you say to him: I have established my children in the world: I have exalted my relations; I have been useful to my friends; I have augmented the patrimony of my ancestors? alas! you have bequeathed great establishments to your children, and you have not left them the fear of the Lord, by bringing them up, and establishing them in faith and in piety:

ces,

You

You have augmented the patrimony of your ancestors, and you have diffipated the gifts of grace, and the patrimony of Jefus Chrift: Time loft for eternity. Will you say to him: I have made the most profound studies; I have enriched the public with useful and curious works; I have perfected the fciences by new difcoveries; I improved my great talents, and rendered them ufeful to mankind? alas! The great talent confided to you, was that of faith and grace, of which you have made no ufe: You have rendered yourfelf learned in the fciences of men, and you have always been ignorant in the fcience of the Holy: Time loft for eternity. In a word, will you tell him: I have passed my life in fulfilling the duties, and good offices of my ftation: I have gained friends; I have rendered myself useful and agreeable to my mafters? alas! You have had friends to boast of on the earth, and you have acquired none to yourself in heaven: You have made every exertion to please men, and you have done nothing to please the Almighty: Time loft for eternity.

No, my brethren, what a frightful void, the greatest part of men, who had governed states and empires, who appeared to regulate the whole univerfe, and had filled in it the most diftinguished places; who were the fubjects of every converfation, and of the defires and hopes of men; who engroffed almoft alone, the whole attentions of the earth; what a frightful void, will they, on the bed of death, find their whole life to be? Whilft the days of the pious and ritired foul, regarded by them as obfcure and indolent, fhall appear full, complete, occupied, marked each by fome victory of faith, and worthy of being celebrated by the eternal fongs.

Meditate, my brethren, on these holy truths: Time is fhort; it is irreparable: It is the price of your eternal feli

city: It is given to you, only in order to render you worthy of that felicity: Calculate, therefore, what portion of it you fhould beftow on the world, pleasures, fortune, and on your falvation. My brethren, fays the Apostle, time is fhort: Let us therefore use the world, as not abufing it; let us poffefs our riches, places, dignities and titles, as though we poffeffed them not; let us enjoy the favour of our fuperiors, and the esteem of men, as though we enjoyed them not; they are only fhadows, which vanish, and leave us for ever; and let us only reckon upon as real in our whole life, the moments which we have employed for heaven.

SERMON

SERMON VIII.

THE CERTAINTY OF A FUTURE STATE.

MATT. xxv. 46.

And theje fhall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

BEHOLD,

EHOLD, to what at last shall be brought the defires, hopes, counfels, and enterprises of men: Behold, upon what at last shall split, the vain reflections of fages and freethinkers; the doubts and eternal uncertainties of unbelievers; the vaft projects of conquerors; the monuments of human glory; the cares of ambition; the distinction of talents; the difquietudes of fortune; the prosperity of empires, and all the infignificant revolutions of the earth. Such fhall be the awful conclufion, which will unravel the mysteries of Providence, on the diverfe lots of the children of Adam, and justify its conduct in the government of the universe. This life is, therefore, but a rapid instant, and the commencement of an eternal futurity. Torments, without end, or the delights of an immortal felicity, fhall be our lot, as well as that of all men.

Nevertheless, the view of this grand object, which formerly had been able to ftartle the ferocity of tyrants; to shake the fortitude of philofophers; to disturb the effeminacy and voluptuousness of Cæfars; to soften the most barbar