ing that which he has to do on earth, and prosecute it with unremitted and cheerful ardor, that the night of death may fall on none-O gracious Lord! On none ere he have fitted himself for an entrance into eternal life!

Newyear's day.

SERMON XXII.

Of the Detriment and Danger of too frequent Dissipation and Diversions.

O GOD, thou hast created us for pleasure and for happiness. But thou requirest that we seek our pleasure and our happiness on the way of duty and of obedience to thy commands. Thou requirest that as rational creatures we should not suffer ourselves to be dazzled by every false glare of pleasure and happiness; and that as christians. who are called to immortality, we should not look merely to the present, but principally to the future. Thy bounti ful goodness has opened to us various sources of delight, and made us susceptible of manifold agreeable sensations; but they are not all of equal value, and the immoderate use of them may frequently convert them unto sources of trouble and misery to us. Oh that we were so wise as constantly to make the best choice between the satisfactions and pleasures that offer themselves to us, and in the enjoyment of them never transgressed the rules of moderation! Do thou enlighten our feeble intellect, O Lord our God, that we may learn justly to understand and appreciate the value of things. Assist us to conquer our vehement propensity to sensual objects. Let us never forget how short and uncertain our life is, and how much depends on the proper or perverse employment of it. Teach us to provide with unabated zeal for the perfection and happiness of

our immortal spirit, and grant that we may all so manage our business and pleasures, our labors and recreations, as is most conformable to thy will and to the great purposes to which we are ordained in the present and in the future world. Bless to that end the doctrines that are presently to be delivered to us. Grant that we may listen to them with attention and a thirst of salvation, lay them up in a good heart, and be actually improved by them. Hear us for the sake of Jesus Christ, our mediator and redeemer, in whose name we invoke thee farther, saying: Our father, &c.

I. THESSALONIANS, iv, 11.

Study to be quiet; and to do your own business.

THE design of my present discourse is to caution you against the detriment and danger of too close a pursuit of dissipation and diversions. May you attend to my warning voice with the same good and sincere dispositions as those which actuate the heart from whence it proceeds! Think not that the restraints under which we are laid in many respects by our station and calling, render us envious of the greater freedom which you enjoy; or that we exhort you to a temperate use of certain kinds of recreations and pleasures, because we must either partake in them with you but seldom, or wholly forego them. Were we disposed to lead a soft, effeminate, sensual life, and to be more solicitous about our pleasures than our duty, we should be no more deficient in op

portunities than you; and we might perhaps do it without any striking violation of public decorum.-No, my beloved flock, neither envy, jealousy, nor compulsion, have any share in the remonstrances I shall make you. It is conviction, real conviction, grounded on reflection and observation; it is a sincere and earnest desire of promoting your happiness, that urges me to entertain you at this time with such matters as are much more important than they appear to be, and which are therefore but too seldom weighed as their importance demands, Vouchafe me then an attentive hearing. Let not custom or prevailing fashion let not your propensities and appetites but let truth and the fear of God pronounce upon the weight of my reasons and remonstrances; and if you find them just and cogent, then follow what your conscience and the love you owe yourselves shall dictate. The detriment and danger of too close a pursuit of dissipation and diversions shall therefore be the subject of this morning's discourse. We

will divide it into three parts. In the first we will accurately define the subject of which we are speaking; in the second, shew the detriment and danger of misusing it; and, in the third, subjoin some rules of wise and christian conduct. Considerations which will at once instruct us in the import and reasons of the apostolical precept, "Study to be quiet, and to mind your own business."

By dissipations we here understand all kinds of employments and pleasures which draw off our attention from the duties imposed on us by our station and calling, and direct it to such things as make us forget what is unpleasant or arduous in these duties, either by procuring us a silent and placid repose, or by awakening in us more agreeable sensations and ideas. Such dissipations or recreations are more or less necessary to us all. Our powers are limited.

They would be exhausted by too vigorous and too continued exertions. Nothing in particular, more wearies the attention of our minds than when we direct it to one and the same object for a considerable length of time. Nothing more fatigues our body than when it pursues too long one sort of motion, or of mechanical labor. Relaxation of a longer or a shorter space from our ordinary affairs is therefore requisite, if we would preserve our mind or our body or rather both together, from sinking under the burden. This is not all. We thus prevent not only various, and otherwise unavoidable evils, but we procure ourselves the most important advantage.Nothing is more adapted to give new vigor to our minds and bodies than the enjoyment of an innocent and moderate pleasure. It has the same effect upon us as the refreshing dew upon a flower almost withered by the heat of the day. It inspires us with new life, new spirits and alacrity to prosecute the duties of our calling, from the point we had stopt at; and we are thus enabled without much pains to conquer difficulties, which otherwise would have conquered us, if we had combated them with too obstinate an assiduity. Useful and necessary, however, as these dissipations and recreations are, yet they may easily transgress the bounds of moderation; and since this but too frequently happens, our pains will certainly not be superfluous if we search for some rules whereby to judge of our behavior in this regard.

I need not previously remind you, that all dissipations and pleasures, wherein such things are spoken or transacted as in and of themselves are bad and contrary to good manners, are absolutely to be avoided. To seek recreation in companies where slander and detraction exhale without restraint their pestilential breath, where ambiguous expressions and indecent mirth supply the place of cheerfulness and wit,