of our Lord Jesus Christ; when we reflect, what judgments this species of profanation brought upon the Corinthian Church. And, as public feasts are too often scenes of voluptuousness and intoxication, where the sons of riot sometimes amuse themselves with ridiculing religion and its advocates; and instead of partaking of _such_ mirth, which is perhaps made up of the obscene jest, or the horrid oaths and imprecations, of the indecent and profane; let us fly from the place, as from the very confines of hell. And, be assured, that “only fools make a mock at sin;” and that, though God in general is patient, though provoked every day, yet he sometimes strikes offenders dead upon the spot, and calls them to his bar, just as the lie or the blasphemy was issuing from their mouth. {311} 2. Sensuality and security in sin, are the certain presages of impending ruin. When the wicked say in their hearts, “Tush, God careth not;” or the worldling counting his riches, and wrapping himself in false tranquillity, breaks out into that sordid soliloquy, “Soul take thine ease, thou hast much goods laid up in store; eat, drink, and be merry;” then the storm is at the blackest, and the angry cloud ready to burst. Transgressors take occasion to sin, because “vengeance against an evil act is not speedily executed;” and the people of the world often draw flattering inferences respecting one another from outward prosperity or inward gaiety; measuring their interest in the divine favor by the extent of their rent-roll; or, the degree of their happiness, by the height of their levity. But, alas! they consider not that the ox is fattened to the slaughter, and that “the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.” The world, like a true Delilah, makes a soft lap for her votaries to sleep on; but it is only to render them a more easy prey to the enemies that lie in wait, and consign them over to drudgery more servile than that of Sampson deprived of his sight, shorn of his locks, and grinding in a mill at Gaza. Besides, it is not considered, that God’s judgments, though long protracted, are sure; and are the more tremendous, for being delayed. They are often conducted, and operate, like the mine, which is sprung in the dark, and which never discovers its subterranean progress, until it involves all around it in darkness, uproar, and ruin. A sensualist is never nearer the verge of destruction than when he speaks peace to himself; and a “foolish virgin,” assuming the appearance of happiness, while a life of perpetual thoughtlessness and dissipation destroys time, and unfits for death and judgment, is only like the moth that is at last consumed in the flame that attracted it.