of weakness and of languor, nothing protects him; every consolation of the just soul, is distasteful to him; every thing which gives support to a faithful Christian, disgusts and overpowers him; whatever renders the yoke more easy to others, makes his more burdensome; and the succours of piety now become sources of fatigue, or of his crimes. Now, in this state, O my God! almost abandoned by Thy grace; tired of Thy yoke; disgusted with himself, as well as with virtue; weakened by diseases and their remedies, staggering at every step-a breath overturns him, he himself leans towards his fall, without any additional or foreign impression; and to see him fall, there is no necessity to see him attacked.

These are the reasons which prove the certainty of the loss of righteousness in a lukewarm and infidel life. But are so many proofs necessary, my dear hearer, when your own misfortunes have so sadly instructed you? Remember whence you are fallen, as the Holy Spirit of God formerly said to a lukewarm and infidel soul; Remount to the source of the disorders under which you still bend: You will find it in the negligence and infidelity of which we speak. The growth of passion too feebly checked; dangerous temptations too little avoided; practices of piety too frequently omitted or despised; convenience too sensually sought after; desires of pleasing too much listened to; dangerous writings too much sought after; the source is almost imperceptible, the torrent of iniquity proceeding from it, has completely inundated the capacity of your soul: it was only a spark which has lighted up this great conflagration; it was a morsel of leaven, which in the end, has fermented and corrupted the whole mass. You never believed it possible, that you could be what at present you are: What

ever was said to you on this subject, you heard as exaggerations of zeal and enthusiasm; you would then have come forward of your own accord, in order to clear yourself of certain steps, for which you now feel not the smallest remorse Remember whence you are fallen; consider the depth of the abyss into which you are plunged; it is relaxation and slight infidelities, which by degrees have conducted you to it. Once more remember it, and see if that can be denominated a sure or durable state, which has brought you to the precipice.

Such is the usual artifice of Satan; he never at first proposes guilt; that would frighten away his prey, and remove it beyond the reach of his artifices: Too well he knows the road by which the heart is most accessible; he knows that he must gradually confirm the timid conscience against the horror of guilt, and propose nothing at first but honest purposes, and certain limits in pleasure: It is not boldly, like the lion, he at first attacks; it is warily, like the serpent: He does not lead you straight to the gulf; he conducts you there by winding paths. No, my brethren, crimes are never the first essays of the heart. David was imprudent and slothful before he became an adulterer; Solomon had allowed himself to be seduced and enervated by the delights and magnificence of royalty, before he publicly appeared in the midst of lewd women; Judas had given up his heart to money, before he set a price upon his Master; Peter was presumptuous, before he renounced the truth. Vice has its progress, as well as virtue; as the day, says the prophet, instructs the day, thus the night gives melancholy lessons to the night; and there is not much interval between a state which suspends all the grace of protection, fortifies all the passions, renders useless all the succours of piety, and a state where it is entirely extinct.

What, then, my dear hearer, can confirm or comfort you in this life of negligence and infidelity? Is it that exemption from guilt you have hitherto preserved? But I have shown you, that it is either guilt itself, or that it will not fail soon to lead you to it: Is it the love of ease? But in that state you enjoy neither the pleasures of the world, nor the consolations of virtue: Is it the assurance that the Almighty requires no more of you? But how can the lukewarm and unfaithful Christian satisfy or please Him, when from his mouth he rejects him? Is it the irregularity in which the generality of men live, who carry it to an excess which you avoid? But their fate is perhaps less to be mourned, and less desperate than your own: They at least know their malady, while you regard your own as a state of perfect health. Is it the dread of being unable to support a more mortified, watchful, and Christian life? But since you have hitherto been able to support some remains of virtue and innocence, without the comforts and consolations of grace, and in spite of the weariness and disgust which your lukewarmness has spread through all your duties; what will it be when the Spirit of God shall soften your yoke, and when a more fervent and faithful life shall have restored to you all the grace and consolations of which your lukewarmness has deprived you? Piety is never sad or insupportable, but when it is cold and unfaithful.

Rise, then, says a prophet, wicked and slothful soul; break the fatal charm which lulls and chains thee to thine indolence. The Lord whom thou believest to serve, because thou dost not openly affront him, is not the God of the wicked, but of the faithful; He is not the rewarder of idleness and sloth, but of tears, watchings, and combats: He establisheth not in his abode, and in his Vol. I.

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everlasting city, the useless, but the vigilant and laborious servant; and His kingdom, says the Apostle, is not of flesh and blood, that is to say, of an unworthy effeminacy, and a life devoted to the appetites, but the strength and virtue of God; namely, a continued vigilance; a generous sacrifice of all our inclinations; a constant contempt for the things of this world; and a tender and ardent desire for those invisible blessings which fade not, nor ever pass away: Which may God, in his infinite mercy, grant to all assembled here. Amen.

SERMON VI.

ON EVIL-SPEAKING.

JOHN ii. 24.

But Jesus did not commit himself unto them; because He knew all men.

THESE were the same Pharisees, who a little before had been vilifying to the people the actions of Jesus Christ, and endeavouring to poison the purity and sanctity of his words, who now make a show of believing in Him, and classing themselves among his disciples. And such is the character of the evil-speaker; under the mark of esteem, and the flattering expressions of friendship, to conceal the gall and bitterness of slander.

Now, although this is perhaps the only vice which no circumstance can palliate, it is the one we are most ingenious in concealing from ourselves, and to which pie