to the Lord the God of their fathers, and swore to him an eternal fidelity. You have listened to the words of the law with an edifying attention. But, oh! do you feel the goodness of your Saviour? Do you shed tears of contrition, gratitude and love? Yes; I will indulge the pleasing persuasion, that the ministers of the Lord, during the time of lent, have not laboured without effect; that the grace of Jesus worketh in you; that his words, even by our feeble agency, have penetrated into your souls, as the gentle dews that fall on a fertile soil; and that your inherent virtues will flourish anew; that every noxious weed will be rooted out; and that you will bring forth abundant fruits of holiness, and being in life and death united to Jesus, will rise with him to a glorious immortality.

SERMON XXI.

PALM SUNDA Y.

THE DIFFICULTIES OF REFORMATION

NOT INSURMOUNTABLE.

Tell ye the daughter of Sion; Behold thy King cometh to thee.-Matt. xxi. 5.

THAT Such of you, my brethren, as may have unhappily strayed from the paths of righteousness, might be induced to prepare themselves, against these solemn festival days, for meeting their gracious, meek and amiable Redeemer, the Prince of Peace, and God of all consolation, I have, in the two foregoing discourses, set before them the pressing motives to conversion; described to them the happiness by which their reconciliation with heaven must be infallibly attended; and shewn them the Father of mercies in all sweetness and benignity ready to receive thein in a fond embrace. But alas! to all our representations, arguments and intreaties on this head, many reply in the language of de

spondency, that they have not strength sufficient for breaking their criminal chains; and, under this destructive persuasion, are still disposed to abandon themselves to their criminal desires, and rest in the bosom of flagitiousness, till the justice of the Deity consign them over to miseries everlasting.

One of the most usual artifices of the tempter is, first, to betray men into sin, by inspiring them with a foolish confidence, and then to keep them enslaved to it by a criminal despair. "Why not gratify your present passion?" he whispers. to the soul. Why not taste that forbidden pleasure? You can afterward turn to repentance and obtain pardon." And men believe him they risk one crime and then another: and so multiply iniquities beyond all measure. But, at length, Religion raises her voice; conscience cries out; hell presents its terrors; and the criminal is seized with dreadful fear; is struck with horror at himself; and wishes to return to a union with his heavenly parent. "It is now too late," insinuates the seducer. "It cannot be. You are too far gone in guilt. To extricate yourself now is entirely out of your power.

But, my beloved friends, will you be made dupes to this last artifice, as you have been to the first? No surely. Let us oppose truth to

falsehood, and shew you what you can do by the power of divine grace. To be converted to the Lord it is necessary you should remove. the obstacles to the reformation of your lives, and employ the means of effecting it. You shall see then, that, be those obstacles what they may, it depends on you to surmount them: and secondly, that the means of conversion and persevering in good are at your own command, however difficult they may at present appear to you.

1. The obstacles to your conversion are created either by the world, or by your own passions. The influence of the example given by the world is exceedingly powerful, and you are weak and irresolute: its attractions are seducing, and your imagination is lively and easily inflamed. It is natural to you to take delight in holding intercourse with the world, and very difficult with such intercourse to save your soul. This I allow, Christian brother, and more than this, if you desire it. But what is the consequence? It is this: you must therefore endeavour to divorce yourself from the world. But you are held fast to it by bands, which your condition, your dependent state, your obligations, and even the order of Divine Providence will not allow you to break. Well then to effect your conversion, you must take a decided

VOL. II.

resolution to associate with it no more than shall be necessary, for the discharge of your obligations to it. For, be candid; and you will not hesitate to acknowledge, that the cause of your crimes. is not precisely the dominion of the world. Thanks be to Heaven, there are many, who in their intercourse with the world, comport themselves with that purity and that virtuous dignity, which become the disciples of Jesus Christ: there are many such amidst the splendours of earthly grandeur: there are many in whom we behold, amidst the circle of vanities and follies around them, the most engaging innocence, and most exalted virtue.

But your ruin is derived from your indiscreetly familiarizing yourself with it, and leaving your mind open to be filled with its pernicious sentiments and maxims. Your employments place you amidst the agitations and conflicts of human passions: you hold a situation, .which makes you a slave to customs and forms: you are obliged to be much in public, and in a multiplicity and variety of embarrassments and distractions. The same has been the condition of many, who are now exulting in the realms of bliss. But how did they conduct themselves in similar circumstances? They fulfilled their necessary engagements, and observed all the decencies of social life; but they did not, like