effect have all these mercies had upon us? Have they inspired us with greater confidence in the Lord, and less dependence upon ourselves? Have our hearts overflowed with gratitude, and have we exclaimed with the prophet, "Sing unto the Lord; praise ye the Lord; for He hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evil doers ?" Or, if these troubles have happened unto us since the "Word of the Lord came unto us," or since we have passed through some states of the regenerate life, have we followed the example of the prophet in his first difficulties and prior stages of purification, in which he exclaims, "Since I spake I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the Word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision daily: Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name. But His Word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay?"

If this be our state,-if we are in rebellion against the correcting hand of our heavenly Father, and call for vengeance on the instruments of His chastisements; and if we think of relinquishing a religious life, because we have experienced a few temporal difficulties or persecutions in consequence of our spiritual views; let us remember the Lord's threatening to the prophet on a like occasion: "Gird up thy loins and arise; speak unto them all that I command thee: Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them." If any of us be in this state, let us turn, and "give glory to the Lord our God, before He cause darkness, and before our feet stumble upon the dark mountains ;" and lest "while we look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death, and make gross darkness."

it

Before we close this subject there is one circumstance particularly worthy of attention, which is, that whilst the prophet's own countrymen-the princes of the nation which he was anxious to save from ruin the priests and elders of that church of which he was a member, and whose restoration he was endeavouring to effect;-when these were all conspiring the prophet's death; and even the king whom he was persuading to save his own life, was consenting to his death the only person who appears to have interested himself in his behalf was a stranger-Ebed-melech the Ethiopian,

one of the king's eunuchs-one who was not a Jew-not of the church, but of a different nation, religion, and complexion : He was the only person who, like our Lord's good Samaritan in the gospel, could be found to intercede for the persecuted prophet, and pour oil and balm into his wounds; and when he had obtained the king's permission to relieve him, studied how to draw him out of the dungeon with the greatest tenderness: "Put now (says the charitable Ethiopian to the almost exhausted prophet) put now these old cast clouts and old rotten rags under thine arm-holes :" Their softness will prevent the rough cords from bruising thy flesh, and we shall draw thee out with greater ease to thyself. "And Jeremiah did so!"-What a lesson to us, my brethren, in our acts of compassion and benevolence! It wants no comment.

Let us, then, consider well this history of Jeremiah, both literally and spiritually, that we may apply it to ourselves!— Born into an hereditary principle of self-love and the love of the world, thus prone to evil "as the sparks fly upwards," and alienated from the love of heaven and goodness, we have a laborious work to get through, before we can attain the end for which we were originally created; for our hereditary propensities occasion us to fall into actual evils, so that we are continually sinking deeper into the mire, or lower in the corporeal principle, until, by the Divine Mercy of the Lord, we are brought to a knowledge of our state, and directed, by the Divine Providence, to seek the way to the kingdom of heaven: This lost state of ourselves, and the only way of redemption, we are too often brought to a knowledge of, by means of troubles and afflictions, sickness or distress, because, alas! all gentler means fail of the proper effect. And even when we have attained this knowledge, a continuance of the same means is frequently necessary to preserve us from again falling: So that whilst we are really "seeking Zion with our faces thitherward," we find, by experience, that we must, "through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven." To assist us, however, in the way, the Lord has given us His Holy Word, and in that Word has given us examples of prophets, patriarchs, and apostles, yea of his own person also, whose footsteps we ought to follow, in order to effect our regeneration. Let us, then, like the prophet whose history we have just been considering, "both

hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." If our own evils have rendered "our affliction and our misery, the wormwood and the gall" necessary for us, let us acknowledge, with the prophet, "My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me: This I call to mind, therefore I have hope. It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. Though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life."

END OF SERMONS ON JEREMIAH.

Additional Discourses.

I.

TO YOUNG PERSONS.

Exodus, xvi. 36.

Now an Omer is the Tenth part of an Ephah.

MY YOUNG FRIENDS,

This discourse is specially addressed to you; and whatever gratification a preacher might receive from the sight of so numerous an assemblage of young persons as appears on this occasion, that gratification would be a mere selfish one, unless, by the Divine Mercy of the Lord, some mental instruction should be impressed upon your hearts, whereby your now assembling may tend to promote your eternal happiness. This, it is hoped, was the chief motive for requesting your attendance; for it is the duty of a preacher to stand, like Moses, in the gap betwixt you and your God! He is a medium only, to introduce you into the holy place. But as the present discourse completes the probationary number required by the Rules of our Church*, it was thought a duty incumbent to address one

*This may need explanation. At this time it was required by the Regulations of the church, that if any member should offer himself as a Candidate for the Ministerial Office, he should pass through a probationary course, both of reading and preaching, in the Society of which he might be a member. And in the printed "Rites and Ceremonies" of the Church, answering to the present Rules and Regulations of the Conference, it was specified, that no person should be ordained a Minister without proper testimonials as to life and character, and a recommendation from a Society or Congregation, before whom he should have "preached probationary, at least seven times." It was also required that the Candidate for Ordination should preach once or oftener before the Ordaining Ministers, and (if required) from a text to be appointed, in order to give a satisfactory proof of his knowledge of, as well as belief in, the genuine doctrines of the Word of God, as opened in the writings of His servant Emanuel Swedenborg. There was also a Rule to this effect;-that, except in cases of emergency,

of them principally to you; therefore as it may possibly be the last time that I shall have such an opportunity*, the cause must plead as an apology for detaining you rather longer than customary. And if this Holy Book-this Eternal Word of God, should be shewn to many of you in a different light from what you have hitherto beheld it-if you should be convinced, by the instance of the passage selected, that there cannot be a sentence in the whole Word of God, but what contains subjects of the utmost importance to your eternal happiness;—after such conviction, you will read it with much greater satisfaction than you have before felt, and of course you will want but little persuasion to the necessity of continually studying and meditating upon its contents.

For this purpose a text has been selected, which from its singularity, is likely to make an impression upon your memories, and which in its internal and spiritual signification, is of the first importance to your eternal felicity.

"Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah." This is the concluding verse of the 16th chapter of Exodus; in which chapter we are informed that the Israelites entered the wilderness of Sin, on their journey to the promised land; but that having eaten up all the provision which they brought with them out of Egypt, they began to murmur against Moses and Aaron, for want of bread and flesh, as they had before done for want of water. The Lord, therefore, by as great a miracle as that of bringing water out of the rock, supplied them with bread and flesh; for "the Lord spake unto Moses saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel; speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh; and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay

no person should be permitted to assist in any of the Ministerial Duties, except a Minister, or one intended or preparing for that Office. In compliance with the then Regulations of the Church, the writer preached the required number of probationary discourses before the Society that wished him to be their Minister; and this is the last of the Series-the last Discourse delivered prior to his Ordination. The one that here follows is the first preached after his ordination. * That is in case of his not being admitted to ordination.