To fuch poor therefore no confolation can well be given. But to those patient sufferers, who are truly God's fervants, I hope, we may speak a more comfortable language. Receive with meek refignation God's holy will. The times are hard no doubt they are. But it is God's will to make them fo; and it is impoffible for you to make them otherwise by oppofing his will. On the other hand, by refigning yourself to it, you may make them better. When you refign yourfelf to God's will, you make the act partly your own; and so far as you fuffer voluntarily, you make the suffering eafier. But when you oppofe God's will by repining at it, you add the uneasy fretfulness of your own temper to what you are obliged to fuffer. Be of good cheer, therefore. Make God your friend, and you are in hands that will never forfake you.. -Be quiet and peaceable-induftrious and frugal-trust in God, and endeavour to please him; and you may hope for his protecting care even in the time of dearth. He who provided a table in the wilderness - he who fed Jacob and his family in the day of famine — will, I truít, raise you up friends, who will fecure you at least from the diftrefs of want.

Let

Let us then all, my brethren, rich and poor, attend seriously to the admonition of the text. When God's judgments are abroad in the world, let us learn righteousness. These times of scarcity afford means of trial to us all. The rich, in whatever way God hath bleffed them, are called upon for their utmost charity and affistance to the poor. It is the office affigned them. In the very beautiful and expreffive language of the prophet, they fhould draw out their fouls to the hungry*.-The poor again are called on for quietness for pa

tience for gratitude to their friends-and above all, for truft in God.

Let us all then, in our respective stations, do our duty, and we shall at least alleviate the diftreffes of the times. We fhall have a friend, who can occafionally do wonders for his faithful fervants. He can prevent the barrel of meal from wasting, and the cruife of oil from failing t, till he fend in his goodness more plentiful times.

On the other hand, fevere as the present distress is, if we do not avert God's wrath, it may only yet be the beginning of forrows. This nation may,

like many others, be over-run with our enemies, however fecure we may think ourselves from the fituation of our country, and our triumphant fleets-Or the plague, as in inany other nations, at this time, may break out amongst us - Or the scarcity we now feel, may increase still farther to a famine. Events, which at first appear of little confequence, by degrees become evils of magnitude. The war, in which we are now engaged, was thought of little moment when it first broke out. We have had a train of naval victories fince that time, but we are still fo involved in this pernicious war, that we see not how it may end; and yet it may be fuddenly ended at once, by fome trivial unexpected event. With God it is nothing to fave with many, or with few.-In the fame way the present scarcity may be alleviated, and the poor supplied with food in a manner, which we do not now forefee. In the mean time, let us endeavour to please God, and avert his judgments by amending our lives. If we are good, I trust we shall see happier times: if we continue still farther to provoke God by our wicked lives, it may be feared (as our Saviour threatened the cripple at Bethesda) that a worfe thing may come upon us.

SERMON XII.

1 Cor. xiii. 13.

AND NOW ABIDETH FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY, THESE THREE; BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS CHARITY.

WE do not often, I believe, find in Scrip

ture one virtue fet above another.

The

authority of God, on which they all rest, in some degree equalifes them. It was under fome idea of this kind, that an inquiring lawyer asked our Saviour, which was the great commandment? Our Saviour mentioned the first: but immediately fubjoined, that the fecond was like unto it; and that equally on these two depended the law and the prophets. Yet, if he had meant to give the great commandment, at the head of the decalogue,

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decalogue, a distinguished place, it is only an exception we might expect.

Notwithstanding however this general idea of equality, we find, in the paffage I have just read, three Christian virtues compared, and one of them placed in a higher rank than the other two.

This is rather fingular, as it does not obviously appear, why charity should be placed before faith and hope. I fhall endeavour therefore to explain the difficulty. -I fhall first examine the three virtues of faith, hope, and charity apart. I shall, Secondly, endeavour to point out a reason for the apostle's giving a preference to the last and, thirdly, draw a conclufion from the whole.

With regard to faith, fome people include in it the whole range of duty both to God and man. And this is very true: for as all Chriftian virtues flow from it, they may all be faid to be included in it. In this fense, no doubt, every good Christian will fubfcribe to faith, as the fum of religion. But it certainly is not always taken in this enlarged fenfe. St. Paul may sometimes, in a concise argument, confider faith as another word for Chriftianity: but in various paffages, and particularly in the paflage

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