Without entering into an extended detail of different actions, and their respective consequences, we may just glance at a few particulars, in which the consequences of our conduct may be considered, both as they may terminate in ourselves, and as they may involve others.

1. The consequences of our conduct require consideration as they may affect ourselves. For example,

1) The exercise and cultivation of the gracious dispositions of your minds towards God, will always be followed by great personal advantages. Here true happiness is enjoyed delivered from annoying evil passions, "the peace of God keeps the heart and mind through Jesus Christ;" while love and praise assimilate us to the divine likeness, which is the very essence of bliss, differing only in degree from that enjoyed above. These are the divine harbingers of eternal peace and tranquillity: "Great peace have they who love thy law, and nothing shall offend them." The hallowing of God's sabbaths and institutions carries a blessing into every day of the week; and, while harmony and sweetest concord prevail within, the noise of the world is heard as remote commotions of the elements. The believer's heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord." "Though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waves thereof roar and be troubled; though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof; there is a peaceful river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God."

On the contrary, "there is no peace to the wicked;" the indulgence of carnal and ungodly dispositions is followed by loss and disadvantage; by bitter reflection, and forebodings of future consequences of a more serious nature.

The breach of God's sabbaths and venerable institutions brings a curse with it; and the highest prosperity of the world cannot secure the trangressor from a thousand disquietudes. A dreadful sound may invade one ear, while the charms of music salute the other; while Belshazzar

revelled in luxury, a hand writing upon the wall made all his joints to tremble. And whether these consequences are immediate or remote, they are equally certain and dreadful.

In each case the dispositions of the mind lead to their proper respective issues to the individuals possessing them, by a sovereign appointment that cannot err, or be controlled.

2) The habitual exercise of temperance and self-denial cannot fail to produce the happiest consequences to ourselves. "This is but putting a wholesome restraint on the very worst principles of our nature." It is the knowledge of our best interest, and the means of securing it : it is the holy determination of our will to the will of God, instead of the will of the flesh it is to sow to the Spirit, to live independent of a never-satisfied appetite. Besides peace of mind, this is generally followed by health of body, which it is one of the surest means of promoting. This is also the way to that noble independence to which those who waste their substance in "riotous living" must be utter strangers; while this temperance of body contributes its full share to the vigour of the mind. The apostle Paul was a noble example of Christian temperance (1 Cor. ix. 27), which there can be no doubt contributed to spread a lustre over his whole character.

But self-gratifications and acts of intemperance, lust, or intoxication, these very rapidly bring poverty, sorrow, and disease. It would seem almost an offence to name such things, considering the persons I am addressing; but those who know the depths of Satan, the deceitfulness of sin, and the frailties of our nature, will not think cautions unnecessary. Therefore, I say, "flee youthful lusts," carnal and fleshly appetites, "which war against the soul." Beware of small indulgences; the most shameful excesses have commenced in what we call innocent indulgences; particularly many a preacher has become a drunkard by kind

friends administering ardent spirits after preaching: this is, to say the best of it, a cruel piece of kindness. Other very kind friends will give an invitation, and will importune to something beyond temperance: thus the Lord's people become tempters of one another. These baits are too often successful to the ruin of the preacher and the scandal of the cause. Now, my dear friends, take care of these tempters and these tempting things; put your eyes and your palates under a very strong law: weak laws manifest weak governors. It is a common saying that “ sons love good eating and drinking." I had rather it were said, Parsons are the most temperate of all mankind. And how favourable this is to studies upon divine things, you know very well. Now what I wish of you is this: Consider consequences.

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3) In considering the personal happiness which springs from a well-regulated course of conduct, I cannot omit the habit of industry; no man is so happy as the truly industrious minister. I think acquisition has an irresistible charm to an ingenious mind; here its luxury is found, and here its truest treasure. But to secure this end, too much time must not be given to sleep, to talkative impertinent friends, to visiting, to politics. Inroads made upon your time will be like the Amalekites; they will consume even the property you have with much care collected together.

An idle minister not only robs himself of one great source of delight, but on every emergency he must be ever scraping together what others have written and said; and will secure no other reputation than that of a retailer of scraps, ill assorted and worse put together.

The Turks say "that a busy man may be troubled with one devil, but the idle is tormented with a thousand." "The most sluggish of creatures, called the potto or sloth, is also the most horrible for its ugliness; to show the deformity of idleness, and, if possible, to frighten us from it." Idleness has no memorial; every thing perishes with him

except the rags he leaves to his heirs. Some of our greatest writers would have left no vestige of their greatness if they had not been aroused from their habitual idleness by a very powerful motive; for they never wrote a line until they were starved to it; and, strange as it may appear, there are preachers who would never compose a sermon if their belly did not crave it of them. Such people are driven to duty like lazy school-boys, but the industrious man is always ready for his work. Now, my brethren, as to industry and idleness, consider consequences.

"Be wise, then, Christian, while you may,

For swiftly time is flying;
The idle man that sleeps to-day,

To-morrow will be dying."

Think of the imperishable name that industrious ministers have obtained, such as Owen, Manton, Howe, Tillotson, Gill, Pool, Doddridge, Henry, &c. If the works of these men had never seen the light, yet they had been happy in their labours, for "labor ipse voluptas."

2. We should consider consequences, because most of our acts involve others, as well as ourselves. This consideration is more particularly applicable to public men ; every act of a king, of a privy counsellor, a senator, a judge, a general, a physician, or a minister of God's word, has a good or bad effect on others: on the pilot depends the safety of the passengers, on the captain their comforts, on the minister, under Christ, devolves the care of immortal souls: good or bad doctrines, good or bad examples, lively or frigid services, his knowledge or ignorance, his love or indifference, his wisdom or his folly, passes over to the people, or is ingrafted on the congregation by an almost necessary consequence. I do not say that a minister forms the character of the people altogether, but he bears an important part towards it. Hence the apostle Paul says, in a style and manner of unusual solemnity, even for him : "Take heed, therefore (ye under shepherds of Christ), to

yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he has purchased with his own blood."

I now beg leave to refer to such a general state of your thoughts as I conceive will be the best security for the correctness of your public acts, as ministers of the gospel. A correct course of thought will produce a correct course of conduct; if, therefore, you would have any actions. worth a memorial beyond the moment that produced them, consider the consequences of your thoughts, and that "a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things." This is the irreversible order of things, and Solomon says, "out of the heart are the issues of life," the issues of wisdom, and the streams of usefulness. It is a difficult thing to get people to begin here. It is too generally the fashion to commence with the regulation of their acts; and though some respect may here be had to the word and will of God, and the opinions of the pious, yet it is like an attempt to cast something into the stream to make it pure, when the purity of the fountain should be the first object of regard. Our Saviour says, Make the tree good, and then its fruit will be good also.” From this source "all that makes a figure on the great theatre of the world, the employments of the busy, the enterprises of the ambitious, and the exploits of the warlike, the virtues which form the happiness and the crimes which occasion the misery of mankind, originate in that silent and secret recess of thought which is hidden from every human eye.”—Dr. Blair.

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Now, my brethren, see that your thoughts are deeply impregnated with the love of Christ and of precious souls. Of this love it may truly be said, à cœlo descendit. Universal benevolence is very expressive of the word love, though it falls short; it is correct in this, that it expresses an act of the will strongly bent upon a good design. This