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arguments by which they are supported are formidable in themselves: but whether men believe the principles or not, it is a certain truth, that the general practice doth unhappily correfpond with them. One thing is obvious, that few confider a reformation of manners as any means of national prosperity; whereas, had we a just impreffion of our dependence upon God, that would readily occur to us, not only as one, but as the beft, nay the only effectual means, for fecuring the fafety, and advancing the real honour and interest of our country.

To all these I must add the Luxury and Senfuality which have been growing upon us for feveral years paft, and have now fpread their roots and branches fo wide, that they may truly be faid to fill the whole land. Pleasure is at length become a laborious study; and with many, I am afraid, it is their only ftudy: for it leaves them no room to purfue any other. What new fcenes of amufement are daily invented? How artfully are they ranged, fo as to ftand clear of each other, without

leaving

leaving any vacant fpace between them? It is trifling to plead, that they are not criminal in their own nature, and may therefore be confiftent with the fervice of God: I must call this a mean, difingenuous evafion, till they who plead it fhall be pleafed to inform us, what portions of time are left unoccupied, wherein they can find leisure to ferve God if they would. The truth is, the prefent fyftem of pleafure and fashionable politeness, appears ab folutely incompatible with piety and devotion; an artful contrivance to banish reflection altogether, and to put it out of the power of finful dying creatures to think of God and an eternal world. This unhappy distemper of the times in which we live, doth at present carry in its face some of the most alarming fymptoms of danger, Instead of yielding to the most probable means of cure, it rather becomes more ftubborn and infectious. Might it not have been expected, that the diftrefs which hath prevailed in our nation for fome months past, would at least have checked the growth of luxury? yet it feems to

have produced the very opposite effect *. While the poor are ftarving, while many who are willing to labour can find no employment, and not a few have abandoned their native country to feek that fuftenance in foreign parts which they could not earn at home; ftill is pleasure purfued with increafing ardour, and no price is deemed extravagant that can purchase an addition to it. In fhort, men appear to be striving against God with their eyes open, and to have ftudied the defign of his Providence on purpose to defeat it; for fuch an exact plan of contradiction discovers art and contrivance, and could hardly have been ftumbled upon by mere accident.

Judge then, upon the whole, whether there be not caufe more than fufficient, to figh and to cry for the abominations that are done in the miaft of our land.—It still remains, in the

Third

* Preached in January 1773, when, in the city of Edinburgh, diftrefs and diffipation were both in the ex

treme.

Third place, That I lay before you a few of the genuine fymptoms, and proper effects, of the gracious temper I mean to recommend.—And,

ift, We can never be affured, that our grief for the fins of others is pure, and of the right kind, unless our hearts be duly affected with grief and forrow for our own tranfgreffions. It is this that diftinguishéth the true mourners in Zion from cenforious and ill-natured hypocrites, who are quick in difcerning the fmallest mote in their brother's eye, while they pay no attention at all to the great beam in their own. Godly forrow is just and impartial; it always begins at home, and makes few vifits abroad, till domeftic fins are firft bewailed. Many, like the lapwing, are continually fluttering about, and, with artful screams, lament the vices of all around them, merely to draw off their attention from their own cage of unclean birds. Such pretended mourners are hateful to God; and every counterfeit tear becomes a drop of oil, which fhall only ferve to inflame the everlasting burnings: whereas

VOL. II.

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the

the true mourner is more fevere against himself than against any other perfon in the world, the vileft not excepted; yea, he never fees nor hears of the wickedness of others, but confcience immediately stirs withing him, and he is ready to fay with Pharaoh's butler, "I remember my own "fault this day." He confiders the worst of men as exhibiting a true picture of his own natural condition; and humbly acknowledgeth, that it was God only who made him to differ, and that he hath nothing but what he received from his bountiful hand.

2dly, Our grief is of the right kind, when it leads us to pray for tranfgreffors: and when it hath not this effect, we have not only cause to fufpect, but may conclude, without hesitation, that it is fpurious and counterfeit. If, instead of the closet, it carry us abroad into company, to divulge our neighbours faults, under the pretext of bewailing them; in that cafe we may af fure ourselves, that our hearts are ftrangers to that godly forrow whereof my text speaks. The true mourner defires, above all things,

the

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