lessly distressed. It is vastly important they should know, that their spirits are so intimately connected with their instruments, that both are out of sorts together. It is a corruptible body, and a spiritual soul is often sore let and hindered by it. Nevertheless, let us remember, whether sick or well, comfortable or not, God's promise is immutable. "All things shall work together for good to them that love him." If you would be thoroughly happy, you must have no will of your own; you must be absorbed in God. This is the highest exercise of grace and the most perfect bliss. Nothing is more important and conducive to holiness than order. Man is a disorderly creature, and loves to be abroad; but he must be confined, and kept to rule. So vastly important is order, that the want of it in a man's family is by the Apostle made an exclusion from the ministry. 1 Tim. iii. I dislike the distinction of secret and revealed, as applied to the difficulties in theology; it is presumptuous. What do we, what can we know of things hidden from us? They belong not to us. (Deut. xxix. 29.) It is a useless distinction; for we are certain no secret will in God can contradict his revealed will to man. Secret articles, in human treaties, are disgraceful and fraudulent; there are no such articles in the treaty of peace between God and man. We cut, and not untie the knot by having recourse to these subtleties. The Bible is the poor man's book; and poor men are plain men, and have no idea of the quibblings of controversialists. Afflictions are God's whetstones; they put a new edge on old principles. It is much harder work to go to hell than to go to heaven; if, at least, there be any light and conscience. "The way of trangres sors is hard." Many a man, like Colonel Gardiner, wishes himself a dog, and gnaws his tongue for anguish, though he repent not; but, as the dying bear, hugs the lance that pierceth him, and pulls it closer while he roars out for misery. The godly have their troubles, but they are far less in their endurance. There is one ἀντιλαμβαν νόμενος bearing part of the burden, and the greater part too. If God willeth not the death of a sinner, how is it that the majority are not, will not be, saved. Does God want power to execute his own will? This is a specious objection, but admits of an answer. We must not expect God to work contradictions, incongruities, or out of prescribed means. He does not deal with moral agents as with material or brutish natures. Man is not to be governed by force or instinct, but by motive; he is a responsible and a reasonable creature. It is common to confound an abstract attribute with its proper exercise on moral agents. The difficulties on this subject are certainly great; yet if we conceive a man as a mere machine, in motion while impelled, we put him out of his place, out of the scale of his being. We must attend to the varieties of being, and the laws suitable to their government, and not expect the salvation of man by the destruction of his character. The state of the world does not prove the weakness of God, but the desperate wickedness of a fallen creature; which most awfully, yet successfully, resists all the power which an omnipotent Being can congruously throw into his own remedy. Ah! is not sin an infinite evil! Let man learn from this awful fact, not to impute weakness or malignity to his Maker, but to flee with holy violence to God's remedy, and in God's way, from the tremendous influence of this horrid pest. "Hide thyself till the tyranny be overpast." It is easier to preach against sin than of love and holiness; and it is not difficult to assign a cause. We know more of our disease than of our remedy. Sober men are apt to grow dull. Men of quick affections become extravagant. A spiritual sobriety is a rare attainment, but it is a divine character; it is the exercise of the truest devotion. I don't like the word predestinate; it is heathenish. The heathens taught an irresistible destiny, a something uncontrollable even by the Supreme. He, as well as in-, ferior deities and mortals, could not resist or reverse the thread of the fated and fabled sisters. The word προορίζω is to mark out before hand, or to pre-appoint; this God does "after the counsel of his own will," (Eph. i. 11.) freely, "according to the good pleasure of his will" (v. 5.); not from any influence ab extra; nor capriciously, or without the soundest reasons, though these reasons may often be hidden from man. "Clouds and darkness may surround him, yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne." Psalm xcvii. 2. Anacreon describes the state of his heart, and compares his affections there to a nest of birds. The infant brood are fledged, and each one builds a nest and has a progeny of his own, and they in succession multiply, and so on ad infinitum. How just a picture of a sinful heart! Sin is infinitely prolific, and one sin gives birth to another, yea twenty more, and so they eat a man up, till there is not one vestige left of original righteousness. A dupe -a slave-a captive-a common sewer-these are his proper names. I long to know more of the remedy. I know much of my dis ease, but am but little acquainted with the cure. It is very hard to live on an idea, and that too while reality is ever before us. Moses lived on an idea -the idea of him who was invisible -present, or a substance by faith. It is faith which makes that real to an enlightened mind, that appears imaginary to a carnal heart. Great men are in great danger. Who will deal faithfully with them? or venture to tell them of a palpable fault? They are left to find it out themselves. There is one advantage in littleness. Men easily come to the point in such cases. Whatever we delay, having the power to do, and it being proper to do, we never really mean to do at all. Procrastination is trifling with God, and trusting to ourselves. What folly is it deliberately to do that which can be undone only by tears of anguish, and must be undone, or we are ruined. Promptitude in duty is a mark of sincerity. "I made haste," Ps.cxix. 60. A guilty conscience craves delay, and delay aggravates our guilt. Handling takes off the bloom. So contact with the world destroys our simplicity, our tenderness-the freshness of our love. a To desire to know is not a prying curiosity; for a knowledge of God is connected with our loving and honouring him. Ignorance is painful feeling, a part of our punishment; to know as we are known, our reward in heaven. O glorious change, to see face to face! Faith lost in vision! It is impossible to say, how much evil is compatible with true grace; an immensity, or who could hope? I could not love God, if he were not an holy being; it is his holiness which inspires me with satisfaction and confidence in him. CLERICUS OXONIENSIS. SUBSTANCE OF A FAREWELL SERMON. Ps. cxxii. 7.-Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. THIS Psalm beautifully describes the holy delight and joy of the Israelites, when they went up in companies to keep the feasts at Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the metropolis of their country, the residence of the kings of Judah, and the place where their temple stood. In obedience to the divine injunction, the Jews resorted to Jerusalem three times a year, to worship God. In the temple at Jerusalem, God had recorded his holy name; and there, in a more especial manner, he inet and blessed his waiting people. When the Jewish constitution was, at length, succeeded by the Gospel, or Christian dispensation, Jerusalem, the "holy city," was rased to the ground; the temple, their "holy and beautiful house," was "burnt up;" and the nation was scattered over the globe. But though the antient Israel of God is scattered, the God of Israel is still worshipped; worshipped under a more clear, glorious, and extensive dispensation. The knowledge of the true God is no longer confined to the land of Canaan, or communicated through types, visions, and shadows; but to them who are in "the ends of the earth" has he manifested his great name, his justice, mercy, holiness, love, power, and goodness, in the glorious person of our Lord Jesus Christ. By the promulgation of "the everlasting Gospel," light has arisen on "the people which sat in darkness." The Almighty has in this world, though a world of apostacy and rebellion, a spiritual Jerusalem, a spiritual temple, a spiritual Israel, who, "worship the Father in spirit and in truth;" and who are, through divine grace, training up in "the church militant" be low, for the glorious perfect church The joy which the ancient Jews PEACE.-As peace is essential to the happiness and prosperity of an individual, a family, or a society, so it is especially necessary to promote the happiness and prosperity of the church of Christ. Peace, by being delivered from her enemies. -The church of Christ on earth is emphatically styled the church militant, denoting her perpetual warfare with her spiritual enemies. Between Christand Belial there can be no union, no communion, no peace. Satan is represented as a "roaring lion," walking "about seeking whom he may devour." In the book of Revelation, he is pointed out as a great dragon, pursuing and attempting to destroy the woman, who there represents the church of the living God. Influenced by the powerful, active, artful, and malignant adversary, as well as by their own native enmity to the Gospel of grace, the men of this world have ever hated and persecuted the church, by calumny, fire, and sword. But the Most High, who has power over the fallen angel, over the thrones, dominions, and principalities of Satan, and who restraineth the wrath of man, and confounds his wicked devices, has preserved and will preserve 1 his church from destruction. He joy will reign through the body of appoints "salvation for walls and Christ. bulwarks;" which the machinations and confederate powers of earth and hell can never demolish. Trusting in the faithfulness and power of Jehovah, the church, even in her most pressing dangers, sings and exults-" God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Internal peace. This, under the blessing of God, will be a strong fortification against the enemy, as well as a source of happiness and joy to the church. "Peace be within thy walls." The internal commotions, tumults, and civil wars of a state, not only destroy its peace, but also lay it open to ravaging incursions, and destruction by foreign enemies. "If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand." Thus, when the members of Christ are disjointed; when the professed followers of the meek and lowly Jesus "bite and devour one another;" when they are separated by " divisions," "envyings," " jealousies,” and " stripes;" when their mutual love is exchanged for mutual hatred, and their mutual edification for mutual destruction; the peace of the church is destroyed, the cause of God suffers, and the enemy beholds, triumphs, and blasphemes. How lamentable a sight to saints and angels; and how joyful to devils, if devils can have joy, to behold so unnatural a conduct! Surely the command of the "Prince of Peace" is at all times seasonable and urgent: "Have peace one with another:" and of the Apostle, "Live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you." But when the members mutually sympathize; when they study to promote their mutual good, happiness, and peace; when in "Christian love," humility, sincerity, and honour, they prefer "one another," veace and The peace of God. This will be the best security and promoter of internal peace. The body of true believers is called "the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood," and which he has redeemed from death and hell. The living, or faithful members of the church militant, are "reconciled to God by the death of his Son." They are washed from their sins. They are "justified by faith," and "have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Arrayed in the spotless, glorious robe of the Redeemer's " everlasting righteousness," they stand acquitted at the tribunal of God. They are also sanctified by the Holy Ghost. They are, as the Apostle styles them, "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people." Formerly they were " enemies to God by wicked works;" but now they are his reconciled friends: formerly, they were rebels against the divine government; but now they are willing subjects of the King of Kings: formerly they "were the children of wrath;" but now they are the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty, and the happy objects of his tender care and everlasting love. In this happy, blessed state they enjoy peace of mind, peace of conscience, "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding." In proportion to the love and peace of God which each individual member enjoys in his own soul, will peace, love, and joy pervade, compact, and strengthen the whole body of the church. Now this blessed state of the church of God will promote her PROSPERITY. - " Prosperity within thy palaces." The church may be said to prosper when her tent is enlarged; when her members are multiplied; and when they are "walking in the fear of God," and have ८८ joy in the Holy Ghost:" in a word, when the whole structure is adorned with "the beauty of holiness;" when the church militant below resembles the church triumphant above, in harmonious love, peace, stability, and magnificence, "the ignorance of foolish men" is " put to silence;" the enemies of Zion must behold and admire her glory, if not allured by her loveliness to unite with her joyful members; when "the Lord daily" adds "to the church" such as are saved; when the church, like a great light set on a lofty hill, shines and darts her glorious rays into the gloomy regions of darkness, illuminating the benighted heathen, and transforming the infatuated worshipper of "dumb idols," into a worshipper of the living and true God, the church of the Most High prospers, and the Most High is acknowledged, worshipped, and glorified among the nations of the earth. This subject condemns the principles and practice of those whose exertion is not so much to extend the saving knowledge of Christ, to enlarge his spiritual kingdom, to diffuse the sweet savour of his name, and to promote the love and practice of universal holiness, as to increase and strengthen the number and interest of a party; and, with unhallowed triumph, to exult in the success of artful proselyting. This, my brethren, whatever be the pretence, is not doing the work of God with a single eye to his glory, and with the laudable, philanthropic anxiety of saving immortal souls. ১ destroy them, and which neither feared nor knew the God of Israel? So is the city of God, in this wilderness, surrounded, hated, and persecuted by a troublesome, contentious, ungodly world. Pressing and binding is the command, and gracious is the promise; " Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee." It is the duty, the privilege of every Christian to pray and labour, that "the glorious Gospel of the blessed God may extend over the globe; that "the earth may be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea;" that the shining light of divine truth may arise upon those who now sit " in darkness, in the region and shadow of death;" and that the kings and nations of the earth may fall down and worship at the feet of the Lord Christ. It is with joy and gratitude to the great Head of the church, that we mark the growing prosperity of that part of the Lord's vineyard, the established church in these realms. At no period since the glorious reformation from popery, has her prosperity been so obvious as it is at the present day. Within her pale, the Lord is graciously raising up, year after year, pious, disinterested, faithful, laborious ministers; and the Christian simplicity, sincerity, and meekness of her faithful members, adorn her goodly edifice. Her cords indeed are lengthened, and her tent is enlarged. Her labour of love is not confined to this happy land. To distant heathen nations she sends her willing labourers, who count not their lives dear to themselves, but encounter difficulties and perils, and fall victims to inhospitable climes, that they may preach to the poor, benighted idolaters, "the unsearchable riches of Christ." To prosecute this godlike work of imparting to the ignorant, infatuated worshippers of stocks and stones, the saving T 1 |