portant duty, falling into licentious connexions, have intermitted, and, at laft, laid it afide.

This vice deftroys domeftic peace and tranquil lity. The man addicted to it, grows fractious, peevith and fretful. He falls out with his best friends, haftily condemns their innocent, and even their moft prudent behavior, is deaf to reafon, fpurns restraint and refents advice. He confiders as enemies those who feek his welfare, and mistakes their kind offices as tokens of hatred.

'He makes all around him unhappy, and thofe the moft fo, who ftand in the neareft relation. When he is abfent, how anxious are they, left he fall into temptation and a fnare? What pain they feel, when he foams out his own thame? How they with to conceal from the world the infamy which he betrays, and at which he cannot blufh? When he returns from abroad, how fearful are they, left he come charged with paffion to be let out on his household?

This fin brings family diftrefs. It begets negli gence, interrupts bufinefs, flackens induftry, obftructs education, and fpreads difcouragement and languor. While the intemperate houfeholder is indulging himfelf abroad, his family at home are miferable for want of the comforts, which his labor fhould provide, and his frugality fhould preferve; and his children are running wild for want of parental wisdom and virtue to guide and restrain them.

8. The fcripture abounds in the moft folemn warnings against this fin.

"Woe to them," fays the prophet, "who are mighty to drink wine-the harp and the viol, the tabret and the pipe are in their feafts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, nor confider the operation of his hands." Our Savior cautions us, that we be not at any time overcharged with surfeiting and drunkennefs, left the day of the Lord

come upon us unawares." St. Paul fays to the Romans, "Let us walk honeftly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, but put ye on the Lord | Jefus Chrift." He fays to the Theffalonians, “ Ye are children of light and of the day; we are not of the night nor of darkness; therefore let us not fleep as do others, but let us watch and be fober. For they that fleep, fleep in the night; and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night; but let us who are of the day, be fober." "The time paft of our life," fays St. Peter, "may fuffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in excess of wine, revellings, banquettings and abominable idolatries-I befeech you, that ye ab ftain from fleshly lufts, which war against the foul."

They, who are "drunk with wine," cannot " be filled with the Spirit." Drunkenness and revellings are works of the flesh; these are contrary to the Spirit, whofe fruits are moderation and temperance. They who "walk in the Spirit," will "not fulfil the lufts of the flesh." And they who "walk in ungodly lafts, being fenfual, have not the Spirit." This fin is of a hardening nature, and recovery from it peculiarly doubtful, because it is more opposite, than most others, to that work of the Spirit, by which finners are awakened to conviction, and renewed to repentance. And it is an obfervable, but melancholy truth, that few, once enflaved to it, return to a life of fobriety. If now and then, awakened to a fenfe of danger, they re folve to escape from the fnare, they are again entangled therein and overcome.

Finally Confider, that this fin must be renounced, or the end of it will be death. "Noth ing can enter into heaven, that defiles or works abomination." "Be not deceived-drunkards fhall not inherit the kingdom of God." "The end of all things is at hand; be fober, watch unto prayer, and let your moderation be known unto all men."

"Blessed is that fervant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, fhall find watching. But if the evil fervant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and fhall begin to eat and drink with the drunken, his Lord fhall come, when he looketh not for him, and shall cut him afunder and appoint him his portion with hypocrites."

I have stated the nature and represented the danger of intemperance. Hear and take warning.

Abftain from the appearance of evil; avoid the company of the diffolute; be on your guard in times and places of temptation; refift the beginnings, and fhun the occafions of fo dangerous a vice. Be diligent in the duties of your calling, and daily commit yourselves to divine protection.

Let the profeffors of religion decline those liberties which might difhonor their character, wound religion, or embolden the licentious.

To conclude: Think not that drunkenness is the only fin that endangers mens' fouls: Know that no unrighteous man, in whatever respect he is fuch, can inherit the kingdom of God.

When you look on a drunkard, you view him with a kind of horror. You wonder that he can purfue, without remorse, a course fo deftructive of health, fubftance and character, and fo fatal to his foul; and that neither the warnings of others, nor his own experience, nor the admonitions of fcripture can have any effect to make him wife. But turn a thought on yourself. Is there no iniquity in you? Confider, that every allowed and cuftomary fin excludes from heaven. Perhaps you are not intemperate: But if you are unjust, envious, malicious, uncharitable, impatient, difcontented, or in any respect vicious, you are as really unfit for heaven, as the drunkard. And you can no more be faved without repentance, than he. And repentance in you must be the fame thing as in him. It must be a change of heart from the love

of fin to the love of righteoufnels. It must be a renovation in the Spirit of the mind, a renouncing of the old man, and an affuming of the new.

Think not yourfelf unconcerned in a difcourfe of this kind, because you never was a drunkard; but remember, that the fame gofpel, which ex. cludes the drunkard, excludes every habitual fin. ner from the kingdom of heaven. While you wish your intemperate neighbor would apply this dif courfe, apply it yourself. While you with he would amend his ways, amend your own. Keep yourself from your iniquity, and lay afide the fin which eafily befets you. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteonfuefs of men.

SERMON XL:

EPHESIANS v. 18.

Be filled with the Spirit.

INTEMPERANCE, though general

ly condemned among the Heathens, was allowed in fome of their feftival folemnities. Left the new converts in Ephesus should retain a usage, which had been deemed a part of religion, the Apoftle gives them this caution, "Be not drunk with wine wherein is excefs."-In oppofition to being filled with wine, he exhorts them to be "filled with the Spirit."

We will inquire,

What is intended by the Spirit. What is impli ed in being filled with the Spirit. And,

By what means we may obtain this privilege. 1. What is intended by the Spirit, is our firft inquiry.

The word Spirit is in fcripture used in various fenfes for a human foul-an angel-the Deity. But when it is used indefinitely, as in the text, we are in most instances to understand by it that di vine person who by way of eminence is called the holy Spirit, and who is reprefented as dwelling in the hearts of good men, to excite in them pure af fections and allift them in religious duties,

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