SERMON XIV.

2 TIM. iii. 4.

LOVERS OF PLEASURES MORE THAN

T

LOVERS OF GOD.

O what period of time, and to what particular perfons, the facred writer here alludes, it is neither easy nor material to determine. But there is a question which it is very material, and I doubt but too eafy, for most of us to anfwer; whether the description in the text may not be justly applied to ourselves? In whatever sense we take the word PLEASURES, whether as denoting those which are in themselves criminal, or those which only become fo by excess and abufe; it is furely doing us no injury to say, that we "love them more than God."

Y 3

At

present

prefent I fhall confine myself to that fort of pleasures, which are ufually ftiled innocent; and in a certain degree, and under proper reftrictions, undoubtedly are fo; I mean the gayeties and amufements of life. If we are not lovers of thefe pleafures more than lovers. of God, if our piety is greater than our dif fipation, it must be great indeed. If we ferved our Maker with half that zeal, half that alacrity and perfeverance, with which we purfue our amufements, we should be the most pious nation this day upon earth. But how far this is from being the cafe, at least with refpect to a large proportion of almost every rank of men amongst us, is but too apparent. It is not the LIVING GOD, it is PLEASURE that they worship. To this they are idolaters; to this they facrifice their time, their talents, their fortunes, their health, and too often their innocence and peace of mind. In their hafte to enjoy this life, they forget that there is another; they live (as the Apoftle expreffes it) "without God in the world *, and their endless engagements not only exclude all love, but all thought, of him. HowEph. ii. 12.

ever carefully right principles of religion may, have been originally planted in their breasts, they have no room to grow up. They are choked with the pleasures of this world, and bring no fruit to perfection. Invention seems to have been tortured to find out new ways of confuming time, and of being uselessly employed. And there has appeared so wonderful an ingenuity in this refpect, that it feems almost impoffible for the wit of man to invent, or the life of man to admit, any further additions to this kind of luxury. There are thousands, even of thofe who would take it very ill to be called vicious, who yet from the time of their rising in the morning to the time of their going to rest at night, never once beftow a fingle thought upon eternity; nor, while they riot in the bleffings of Providence, vouchfafe to caft one. devout look up to the gracious author of them, in whom " they live and move and have their being *."

Many, I know, would perfuade them felves: and others, that there can be no harm where there is no actual vice; and that, provided

they step not over the bounds of virtue, they cannot be guilty of an excess in pleasure.

But is it true, in the first place, that the man of gayety never does step over the bounds. of virtue? Are all thofe things which go under the name of amufements as perfectly innocent as they are generally represented to be? Is there not one diverfion at least (as it is called) and one fo predominant in the higher ranks of life, that it has swallowed up almost every other, which is big with the most fatal mifchief? A diverfion, which, far different from the common run of amusements, has no foundation in our natural appetites; no charms to captivate the fancy, or the underftanding; nothing to make glad the heart of man, to give him a chearful countenance, and refresh him after the cares and fatigues of duty; but runs counter to reason, sense, and nature; defeats all the purposes of amusement; finks the fpirits inftead of raising them; fours the temper inftead of improving it and, when it is carried to its utmost lengths, takes fuch entire and abfolute poffeffion of the foul, as to fhut out every other concern both for God and Man; extinguishes

every generous fentiment; excites the most malignant paffions; provokes to the most profane expreffions; brings distress, fometimes ruin, upon its wretched votaries, their families, friends, and dependents; tempts them to use unfair, or mean, or oppreffive methods of retrieving their affairs; and fometimes to conclude the dismal scene by the laft fatal act of defperation. I do not say that gaming always produces thefe effects; or that it is to all perfons, in all circumstances, and in all its various degrees, equally pernicious and unlawful. But it has always a natural tendency to these effects, it always exposes ourselves and others to great danger, and can never be ranked among our innocent amusements. Yet as fuch it is every day more and more purfued; nay has even appropriated to itself the name of play; for what reason I know not, unless to play with our lives and fortunes, with happiness temporal and eternal, be the most delectable of all human enjoyments.

But putting this ftrange unaccountable paffion out of the queftion; do not even our most allowable diverfions fometimes end in