t sin had
nought to impart but misery, they would abandon it for its _own sake_;
because happiness is the object of all men. They have, therefore, by
some means or other, been led to the strange infatuation, that sin
possesses some secret charm to communicate that happiness to the soul,
for which every bosom throbs. This fancied happiness, they vainly
imagine, they can obtain by wallowing in the dark waters of iniquity,
be happy _here_, then repent at last, and be happy _hereafter_. As
they pass along in their wretched career, expecting every moment to
grasp the fancied pleasure, yet the fond, anticipated phantom flies
from their embrace and leaves them in the ruin of their joy. Though
disappointed again and again, yet firmly believing that there is
happiness in sin, they again push on, and thus far attribute their
want of success to some miscalculation. Insensible of the nature of
sin, blinded and self-deceived, they go on in pursuit of pleasure,
while golden dreams of false felicity fire their imaginations, till at
last, age places them on the verge of the grave; their object no
nearer attained than it was the day they set out, while habit has
fixed them in a course, that has yielded them nothing but sorrow and
pain, and vanity and vexation of spirit. Stung with remorse, and
pierced through with many sorrows, they breathe a repentance, which,
the nature of their condition, forces upon them, are perhaps
pronounced _converted_, and they sink into the darkness of death!
Their names, covered with infamy, are soon blotted from the
remembrance of the living!

We observed, a moment ago, that the idea, of holding up a retribution
in the future world, weakens the force of virtue, and strengthens the
cause of vice. This has, perhaps, been abundantly shown in the
arguments already offered as being manifest in the daily conduct of
men; yet we will, in a word, bring the subject plainly before you. To
persuade a sinner that he is to be punished in the _future_ world for
his sins in _this_, is plainly saying that sin has many pleasures and
conveniences _here_, and so far as it failed of rendering him his due
desert, the balance is to be made up in another state of being.
Because the balance of punishment due him _there_, is to make up the
_deficiency_ of punishment, which sin did not pay him here. And
certainly, so far as sin did not pay him _here_, he must have been
happy in its commission. And the _expectation_, that he should be