who had governed states and empires, who appeared to regulate the whole universe, and had filled in it the most distinguished places; who were the subjects of every conversation, and of the desires and hopes of men; who engrossed, almost alone, the whole attentions of the earth; what a frightful void will they, on the bed of death, find their whole life to be! Whilst the days of the pious and retired soul, regarded by them as obscure and indolent, shall appear full, complete, occupied, marked each by some victory of faith, and worthy of being celebrated by the eternal songs.
Meditate, my brethren, on these holy truths. Time is short; it is irreparable; it is the price of your eternal felicity; it is given to you only in order to render you worthy of that felicity. Calculate, therefore, what portion of it you should bestow on the world, pleasures, fortune, and on your salvation. My brethren, says the apostle, time is short; let us therefore use the world, as not abusing it; let us possess our riches, places, dignities, and titles, as though we possessed them not; let us enjoy the favour of our superiors, and the esteem of men, as though we enjoyed them not; they are only shadows which vanish and leave us for ever; and let us only reckon upon as real, in our whole life, the moments which we have employed for heaven.
SERMON VIII.
THE CERTAINTY OF A FUTURE STATE.
"And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." — Matt. xxv. 46.
Behold, to what at last shall be brought the desires, hopes, counsels, and enterprises of men. Behold, upon what at last, shall split the vain reflections of sages and freethinkers, the doubts and eternal uncertainties of unbelievers, the vast projects of conquerors, the monuments of human glory, the cares of ambition, the distinction of talents, the disquietudes of fortune, the prosperity of empires, and all the insignificant revolutions of the earth. Such shall be the awful conclusion which will unravel the mysteries of Providence on the divers lots of the children of Adam, and justify its conduct in the government of the universe. This fife is, therefore, but a rapid instant, and the commencement of an eternal futurity. Torments without end, or the delights of an immortal felicity, shall be our lot as well as that of all men.
Nevertheless, the view of this grand object, which formerly had been able to startle the ferocity of tyrants, to shake the fortitude of philosophers, to disturb the effeminacy and voluptuousness of Caesars, to soften the most barbarous nations, to form so many martyrs, to people the deserts, and to bring the whole universe submissive to the yoke of the cross; this image, so terrifying, is
