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bring them to light. Hunger makes the infant cry, crying is exercise and makes him struggle and grow. When he grows up to play, the sting of a nettle or a bee gives him pain, and makes him fear; fear teaches him caution, an hour's sickness gives him a lesson on the worth of health, and leads him to plan and to execute means to preserve it. As dangers multiply, his powers of preventing, resisting, and subduing them break forth. Not content with remedying past ills, he foresees future; there is no end of his invention, and there would be, if his life were not cut short, no end of the execution of his designs. All the great, all the useful, and all the ornamental works of art in the world were once nothing but ideas without substance in the minds of men, and who would have thought that the soul of one single Adam, our first father, could have contained the seeds of such an amazing quantity of fruit! What a soul must that man have who formed, perhaps lying in pain on his pillow, the collecting of materials, adjusting apartments, and providing funds for the support of a spacious hospital! How many fine operations must his mind perform! Fancy, pity, judgment cool and sedate, love to his fellow creatures. quick and alive, and many more such efforts must go to make up the generous present to his country. The same may be said of all the works of mankind, and probably, could we trace them, we should find them the offspring of pain and sorTow.. Man considered in this light seems a noble creature; it is a pity he should die to rise no more. But, passing this, we know God intends us to live in a future world, and we know that the school of affliction in this life is a necessary preparation for that, and hence it is that Scripture considers the man, who hath well understood the exercise of religious tempers, as a man ready to die. "Be ye ready; they that were ready went in with the bridegroom."

Let us finish. Christians, of all men, should be the least prone to discontent. A Christian, who hath God for his portion, and who, dissatisfied with that, renders himself unhappy about the little things of this life, behaves as if he could not enjoy the day for want of a

glowworm, or the ocean for want of one little drop more. How old are you, and how many years more have you to live, that you should be so anxious about this little remaining time? What could prosperity do for some of you? Behold, the day cometh, in which you must die, and then every thing will be indifferent to you except the favour and friendship of your God. "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth, therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty." If he maketh sore, yet he bindeth up, though he woundeth, yet his hands make whole. "He shall deliver thee in six troubles, yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in, in his season. Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good."

Thank God, says one (and let me not forget you), thank God," the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places;" I am very content, and very happy; I thrive and prosper in the world, and I live cheerfully on what Providence hath bestowed. But doth your pleasure proceed from your prosperity only, or doth it proceed from a conviction of that goodness of heart, which prosperity produces in you? Examine: doth not your prosperity and pleasure resemble that of a fat ox in pasture? and is there much more difference between you and him, than that of shape and make? You eat and drink, and sleep in the lap of plenty; but do you feel like a man and a Christian for the lean people over the hedge? Alas! without virtues that do good to your fellow-creatures, you are only fatting for slaughter, and your hungry relations will be glad when you die, that they may step into your lot, and cry, "The lines are fallen unto us in pleasant places, and we now have the goodly heritage." Where do you stand, when you make use of the text; amidst your corn, your flock of sheep, or your bountiful feasts at home? Alas! poor man, what a child art thou in understanding! You resemble a lord of a great estate got down into a gloomy hole, where some of his tenants' cattle drink, enchanted with a few white thorns and willows growing on the ragged edges of the

pit, having forgotten all the other parts of his estate, and shouting about this one pit, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." What would you think of such a man? You would think him distracted, and seeing his distraction endanger his health and life, your humanity would forget his rank, and you would hazard yourself to get him out. This nobleman is your picture. You are of high birth, you were made in the image of God. You rank with men, above all other animals, and only a little lower than the angels. You have a large inheritance, an "inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." How is it, that you have so forgot yourself as to sink your soul into a little earthly good, and, so to speak, to incorporate yourself with your flock of sheep, as silly and senseless as they? You, lost sheep! Do you mean to bury yourself alive in such a dirty pen? What if your justly offended Creator should say, "Your fathers tempted, proved me, and saw my work." Forty years long have I been grieved with you, and said, He is a man, who errs in his heart, he hath not known my ways. "I swear, he shall never enter into my rest!" Would to God, you might recover yourself before this decree goes forth! Would to God, you might say, "The Lord shall be the portion of mine inheritance, I will bless him for giving me counsel. I will set him always before me. I will kneel down before the Lord, my maker, for he is my God, and I am one of the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. To day I will hear his voice. He will show me the path of life; in his presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore." 99 Then I may say without hesitation what I could never utter before without exposing my folly, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, have a goodly heritage." God grant you this grace! To him be honour and glory forever. Amen.

DISCOURSE IV.

THE SCRIPTURE A GOOD BOOK, WRITTEN BY DIVINE INSPIRATION.

[AT SAWSTON]

LUKE xxi. 14, 15.

Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

WISDOM is something to say, and mouth is ability to speak it; wisdom is the testimony or evidence to be given by the apostles, when they should be brought before, kings and rulers for Christ's name sake, and mouth is courage to deliver this testimony; wisdom is the Gospel to be taught in synagogues, and confessed in prisons, and mouth is the gift of tongues, and all other means necessary to publish it through the whole world. This was the wise and generous intention of Christ, and into his views his apostles most heartily entered, and, immediately after Pentecost, when "Jesus was received up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of God," they went forth, and preached every where.

Here is an ugly word in the text, adversaries, enemies, and it is not in my power to conceal what I blush to declare, that is, that there always have been, and yet are a great number of foolish and wicked people, who are enemies to the redemption of mankind. Had you never seen one of these enemies, one ignorant man who hated instruction, one wicked woman who hated reformation, one disobedient child who hated religion; had you never seen a despiser of those that are good; yet it would

not be in my power to conceal what the text says, and what follows; "Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." The Gospel, however, suffers nothing by the enmity of such men; for the bare sight of the characters of those, who crucified Christ, persecuted his apostles, and opposed the kind intentions of our heavenly Father to us in giving us the Gospel, is a recommendation of the Gospel. The Jews killed the Lord Jesus; but they had long before habituated themselves to shed the blood of their own prophets; they persecuted the apostles; but they were "contrary to all men :" they forbade the salvation of the Gentiles; but they "displeased God," and “wrath came upon them to the uttermost." And now-adays, what kind of men are they, who "resist the truth?" Are they not "men of corrupt minds, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, fierce, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, whose folly is manifest unto all men ?" What sort of a gospel must come from heaven to please men of this kind? One must have a gospel according to cruelty, another a gospel according to pride, a third a gospel according to divers lusts; but a gospel according to truth and holiness must be disagreeable to them, for the same reason that a bill for the payment of his debts is disagreeable to a dishonest man.

The Lord Jesus promises in the text to make the mouth and wisdom of his apostles irresistible, and I have the proof of the accomplishment of his promise here in my hand. You know this little book. It contains the four Gospels, or rather one Gospel related by four credible witnesses, the wisdom of God imparted by his Spirit to the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; and in spite of all the interest the wicked have had to destroy this book, and all the power they have employed to rob the world of this treasure of wisdom and knowledge, here it is, undamaged at the distance of seventeen hundred years after it was written. Kings may set themselves up for gods upon earth, "rulers may take counsel together

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