abstract his mind from the proper duties of life, so that misfortune
and defeat find their way into his plans, which might otherwise by
calm deliberation have succeeded, and disappointment and misery,
satiety and disgust, and all the evils that are the offspring of his
iniquity, commingling in a thousand ways, render his existence
wretched. Relying upon dishonesty for support, he becomes but a
midnight beggar. His slumbers are haunted by frightful dreams; and
fear of detection, prisons and dungeons are torturing his imagination
and incessantly sporting with his broken peace. He is a stranger to
those solid joys arising from the practice of virtue, is doomed to
encounter all the miseries that attend his ill-chosen career, and to
drink every drug of wormwood and gall that heaven has mingled in the
cup of dishonor. He lives a nuisance and pest to society, and dies
covered with infamy.

In all this we shall see the truth of our text exemplified, that God
rules in the kingdom of men, and brings punishment, not only upon a
haughty monarch seated on the throne of nations, but upon every
transgressor however obscure may be his condition in the walks of
private life. The sovereign decree of his empire is--"THOUGH HAND JOIN
IN HAND, YET SHALL THE WICKED NOT GO UNPUNISHED."

But we take our leave of flagitious crimes and proceed to notice men
in the common walks of life. Every man who makes riches, or public
honors the chief end of all his pursuits, and gives all his attention
to the attainment of his object, and over-reaches in bargains whenever
an opportunity offers, or sets various prices on his merchandise,
according to the person with whom he deals--such a man will never feel
himself filled with riches, nor satisfied with honors. The reasons are
obvious. He commences his career under the impression that happiness,