follows them to every scene of dissipation, and penetrates into their most private recesses, poisons every enjoyment, and wounds them in the midst of their fancied pleasures.

But the evil does not stop there-endless are the miseries entailed upon their children, in consequence of these irregularities and dissentions in the parents; amidst the various scenes of pleasure and dissipation, the disorders arising from vanity on one side and debauchery on the other, what attention can possibly be given to the education of their children? they become a burden to them, an incumbrance, or reproach-left to the care, or rather to the neglect of those who are most improper to be trusted with their moral conduct, they are trained up to the indulgence of all the failings of human nature in its most corrupt state.

The little reason which their tender years afford, teaches them to run the race that is set before them; they naturally conclude the path which their parents pursue must be the road to happiness; their experience, therefore, directs their conduct, and their example justifies it. Happier is the lot of those who are even banished from their paternal home; if they are deprived of the early affections of their parents, at least they are not witnesses of their follies; and vice loses one of its strongest seductions when it wants the example of the experienced to recom mend it to imitation.

Thus we have seen, that by the indulgence of the irregular passions alone, the marriage state, which is calculated for every social happiness, and has in itself every requisite to perfect bliss, too often becomes a state of perpetual anxiety, and a source

of lasting misery; where the heart is not united with the hand, where the affections are not in unison with the passions, constant discord must be expected-repeated mortifications, daily and hourly trials of temper and patience. On the other hand, where there is a sympathy of affections and inclinations, where the love of virtue is mutually encouraged, and the indulgence of the corrupt inclinations meets with a proper check on both sides, all is harmony; the innocent pleasures are tasted with double relish, the little troubles and inconveniencies attendant upon every situation are lessened by participation; the fatigues and cares they meet with in the world are amply recompensed by the peace they find at home; when trouble is abroad, the soul will enjoy a calm within ;-thus sharing in the pains and pleasures of life, while they have courage to resist its temptations, well is

it with them, and happy shall they be the Lord shall so bless them, that they

shall see their children's children, and Israel.

peace upon

SERMON VIII.

ON THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT.

EXODUS, CHAP. xx. Ver. 15.
Thou shalt not steal.

THIS commandment, like some of the former, is expressed in concise terms, but its meaning is very comprehensive. It is not addressed to the professed robber alone, but it applies to the dishonest in every station; not only the midnight ruffian and the highway robber, but the designing man of whatever rank or condition, who takes advantage of the weakness or imprudence of another, to defraud