A Sermon on Occafion of a public Fall. 351 guilty of adultery with their neighbours wiv es SERI/;. I call this villainy, after the prophet 7ere- XII miah *. He fays of eminent perfons for their tnv"4.r ftations, they have committed villainy in Ifrael, which he explains by adding, they have com- mitted adultery. What indeed can be more villainous than fuch a caufelefs injury to an unoffending neighbour in the tendereft part, and involving the unhappy partner of the crime in the molt horrid perfidioufnefs ? That luxury is the true character of our degenerate times, is too plain to be doubted - Delicacy and expenfivenefs in eating and drinking, in apparel, and in all the external fhow of life, are grown to an enormous height, which is a forerunner, if not reformed, of mifery, not only by the juft judgment of God, but by the natural tendency of things :' for it enervates the fpirits of men, expofes them to confuming diftempers, and is followed with a numerous train of other deftruaive evils - The Roman fatyrill obferves concerning that imperial city, the miftrefs of the world, that in his time, cruel luxury, more terrible than invading enemies, got poffefiion of her, and by her ruin revenged the conquered nations. * Jer. xxix. 23. This
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