most inimitably expreffed by the royal Pfalmist in the 73d Pfalm, where you see all the different turns and workings. of his mind laid open without disguise, and all the various ideas and fentiments that fucceffively took poffeffion of his foul in the progrefs of his enquiry, defcribed in the most natural and affecting manner.. "Truly, fays he (with that piety which conftantly inspires him) God is loving to Ifrael; even unto fuch as are of a clean heart; neverthelefs my feet were almoft gone; my treadings had well nigh flipped. And why? I was grieved at the wicked; I do alfo fee the ungodly in fuch profperity. For they are in no peril of death, but are lufty and strong. They come in no misfortune like other folk; neither are they plagued like other men. And this is the caufe, that they are fo holden with pride, and overwhelmed with cruelty. Their eyes fwell with fatness, and they do even what they luft. They corrupt other, and speak of wicked blafphemy;. their talking is against the Moft High. Tufh, fay they, how fhould God perceive it; is there knowledge in the Moft High? Lo, thefe are the ungodly. Thefe profper in the world, and these have riches in poffeffion. And I faid, then I have cleanfed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency?"

But

Sentiments fuch as these are, I believe, what many good men have found occafionally rifing in their minds, on obferving the profperity of the worthlefs part of mankind. But never were they before fo beautifully and fo feelingly expreffed as in this paffage. Thefe complaints, however, foon pafs away with men of pious difpofitions, and end in meek fubmiffion to the will of Heaven. not fo with the wicked and profane. By them the for-bearance of Heaven towards finners is fometimes perverted to the very worst purposes, and máde use of as an argument to encourage and confirm them in the career of vice. This effect is well and accurately described in the book of Ecclefiaftes. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the fons of men are fully fet in them to do evil*."

* Eccles. viii. II.

It was to obviate thefe fatal confequences, as well as to give fupport and confolation to the good, that our Lord delivered this parable of the tares and the wheat, which will enable us to folve the arduous question above-mentioned, arifing from the impunity and profperity of the wicked, and to vindicate in this inftance the ways of God

to man.

But before I begin to ftate and explain the reafons of that forbearance and lenity towards finners, which is fo much objected to in the divine adminiftration of the world, I must take notice of one very material circumstance in the cafe, which is, that the evil complained of is greatly magnified, and reprefented to be much more generally prevalent than it really is. The fact is, that although punishment does not always overtake the wicked in this life, yet it falls upon them more frequently and heavily than we are aware of. They are often punished when we do not observe it; but they are also fometimes punished in the most public and confpicuous manner.

The very firft offence committed by man after the creation of the world was, as we know to our coft, followed by immediate and exemplary punishment. The next great criminal, Cain, was rendered a fugitive and a vagabond upon earth, and held up as an object of execration and abhorrence to mankind. When the whole earth was funk in wickedness, it was overwhelmed by a deluge. The abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah were avenged by fire from heaven. The tyrant Pharaoh and his hoft were drowned in the Red Sea. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their rebellious companions, were buried alive in the bowels of the earth. It was for their portentous wickednefs and favage practices that the Canaanite nations were exterminated by the Ifraelites; and it was for their idolatries, their licentioufnefs, and their rebellions against God, that the Ifraelites themselves were repeatedly driven into exile, reduced to flavery, and at length their city, their temple, and their whole civil polity utterly deftroyed, and themselves scattered and dispersed over every part of the known world, and every where treated with derifion and

contempt. It will be faid, perhaps, that these were the confequences of the peculiar theocratic form of their gov ernment, under which the rewards and the punishments were temporal and immediate, and that they are not to be expected in the present state of human affairs. Still how. ever they are proofs, and tremendous proofs, that God is not an inattentive and unconcerned fpectator of human wickednefs. But let us come to our own times, and to the fates and fortunes of individuals under qur own.obfervation. Do we not continually fee that they who indulge their paffions without control, and give an unbounded loose to every corrupt propensity of their hearts, are fooner or later the victims of their own intemperance and licentioufnefs? Do they not madly facrifice to the love of pleasure, and frequently within a very fhort space of time, their health, their fortune, their characters, their peace of mind, and that too completely and effectually, and beyond all hopes of recovery? The inftances of this are many and dreadful, without taking into the account fuch flagrant crimes as deliver men over into the hands of public juftice. Now what is all this but the fentence of God speedily executed against evil.works? It may be alledged, that these are only the natural confequences of wrong con duct, and not the immediate judicial inflictions of Heaven. But who is it that has made thefe evils the natural confequences of vice? Who but the great Author of nature? He hath purposely formed his world and his creature man in fuch a manner, that these penalties fhall follow clofe upon wickedness, as a prefent mark of his abhorrence and deteftation of it; and they fall on many offenders, both so speedily and so heavily, that till fecond thoughts correct the first impreffion, it feems almoft an impeachment of his goodness that he inflicts them,

Still it must be confeffed that wickednefs is fometimes triumphant; and fo alfo does folly fometimes meet with success in the world; but it is true notwithstanding, that it labors under great disadvantages, and immoral conduct under ftill greater. The natural tendency of fin is to mifery. Accidents may now and then prevent this, but not generally; art and cunning may evade it, but not nearly fo often as men imagine.

But fuppofing the guilty to escape for a time all fufferings, and in confequence of it, to please themselves highly with the prudence of their choice; yet ftill punishment, though flow, may overtake them at laft. The blindness of fuch men to confequences is quite aftonishing. One man evades the penalties of human laws in a few inftances, and therefore concludes he fhall never be overtaken by them. Another preserves his reputation for a time, and thence imagines it to be perfectly fecure. A third finds his health hold out a few years, and therefore has not the leaft fufpicion that what he is always undermining must fall at last.

Now each of these may, if he pleases, applaud his own wisdom; but every one else must fee his extreme ftupidity and folly. In fact, whoever commits fin has fwallowed poifon, which from that moment begins to operate; at firft perhaps by a pleafing intoxication, afterward by flow and uncertain degrees, but ftill the disease is within, and is mortal; and fince it may every instant break out with fatal violence, it is a melancholy thing to fee the person infected filled with a mad joy, which must end in heaviness and death.

Vice, especially of fome forts, affects to wear a fmiling countenance, and the days that are spent in it pass along for a time pleasantly enough; but little do the poor wretches that are deluded by it reflect what bitterness they are treasuring up for the rest of life, and how foon they may come to taste it in fuch confequences, as even the completeft reformation, and the ftricteft care afterwards, will very imperfectly either prevent or cure.

After all, however, it must be acknowledged, that there are numbers of worthlefs and profligate men, who go on for a confiderable length of time, perhaps even to the end of their days, in a full tide of worldly profperity, bleffed with every thing that is thought moft valuable in this life, wealth, power, rank, health and strength, and enjoying all these advantages without interruption and alloy, "coming in no misfortune like other folk, and not plagued or afflicted like other men."

Thefe, it must be confeffed, are ftrong fymptoms of happiness, if we are to judge from appearance only. But does not every one know that happiness depends infinitely lefs upon external circumftances than on the internal comfort, content, and fatisfaction of the mind? May I not appeal to every one here present, whether fome of the acuteft fufferings, and the moft exquisite joys he has experienced, are not thofe which are confined to his own breast, which he enjoys in fecrecy and in filence, `in his retired and private moments, unobferved by the world, and independent on all exterior show? "The heart only (fays the wife man most truly) knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with its joy*.". This then is the ftandard by which you must measure human happiness. You must not too haftily conclude that profperity is felicity. In order to know whether thefe men are truly what they feem to be, you must follow them into their retirements, into their clofets, and to their couches; and if you could then fee the interior of their hearts, you would probably find them objects rather of pity than of envy. Whatever they may pretend, or whatever air of cheerfulness they may affume, it is utterly impoffible that they, whofe fole object is to gratify their paffions without the leaft regard to the feelings of others; who are corrupting all around them by their converfation and their example, or fpreading ruin, mifery, and defolation over the world by their inordinate ambition; who not only live in a conftant violation of the commands of their Maker, but perhaps even deny his existence, renounce his authority, and treat every thing serious and religious with derifion and contempt: it is, I fay, utterly impoffible that thefe men, whatever external magnificence or gaiety may furround them, can enjoy that peace and comfort and content of mind, which alone conftitutes real and fubftantial happiness, and without which every thing else is infipid and unfatisfactory. A fecret confcioufnefs that they are acting wrong, that they are degrading and debafing their nature, and wafting their time in mean, unworthy, and mischievous purfuits; frequent pangs of remorse

* Prov. xiv. 10.