surance of the truth, reality, excellency, and importance of the things which he delivers. St. John calls it " an unction from the Holy One." It is generally the case, that wherever this is granted from above, there the gospel is preached with success. He who ministers is comfortable in his own soul, and the Lord makes the Word to be quick and powerful to the souls of others. This is what I wish to know, as abundantly as God shall please. It richly recompenses for all the reproach and contempt of the profane, as well as for all the discouragements arising from inward conflict and temptation, and the melancholy prospect of so much evil in the world, and so little prospect of doing good. Our situation is very different from that of players. They speak things pleasing and delightful to the corrupt taste of men. The whole nature of man as alienated from God, vicious and worldly, falls in with their lectures. And they are looked on as comforters, who furnish the pleasure which carnal minds delight in. Poisonous pleasure no doubt, and leading the soul that loves it to an eternal separation from God! But with us every thing is just the contrary. The truths we have to deliver are contrary to nature; not easily received as true; much less deeply relished, and delighted in, by those who hear us! We are censured as harsh, gloomy, and uncharitable. We often give offence, where what we mean is not only true, but dictated by charity itself. Can we persevere in a faithful and zealous course, amidst the scorn of many, and the indifference of still more; having, ourselves also, the same passions by nature as other men; unless possessed of a divine light and unction, emboldening, and drawing us forward, with the consciousness of divine approbation, and the sense of the love of God in Christ, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, given to us? You see the importance of the thing which I desire of you. I surely need not be ashamed to crave that of you, which so wise and holy a person as the Apostle begged of those Christians to whom he wrote. How much your own benefit, as well as ours, is concerned in it, I need not explain. And all this follows very naturally from the subject of the text. It can scarcely be too often repeated, that God alone does the work. It is his gospel, ministered by his Holy Spirit, which converts the soul. He alone gives the increase. Ministers are his instruments, by whom men believe, and all this is, " as the Lord gives to every man." By praying therefore for us, and that not formally, but in faith, and with perseverance, and affection, you honour the Lord, you evince your hearty belief that the doctrine of the text is true, and you put yourselves into the way of the Lord's blessing to your own souls. For you are not called on to teach us what, or how we are to preach, no more than we are called on to teach you how, or in what way you are to manage your temporal callings. Let every man learn to do his duty, in that state of life unto which it has pleased God to call him. But you are called on to pray for us, both for your own good and ours, and for the glory of God. And if you find no benefit from the Word, and are barren and unfruitful; before you undertake to lay the blame on us, it will be your wisdom to charge your consciences with the question, very seriously, whether you have, indeed, prayed for us at the throne of grace, from time to time. For whether you treat us with indifference and contempt, or idolize us superstitiously; either way, you affront God. You are not looking to him for that increase, which he only can give, and you do wrong to your own souls. Suffer, I beseech you, brethren, the word of exhortation, and may he " that giveth seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, endue his Ministers with righteousness, and make his chosen people joyful!" : What new topic of argument, or entreaty, or exhortation, or rebuke, can I, in the last place, take up to you, who hear as though you heard not; who are unaffected with what you hear from Sabbath to Sabbath; who wish every sermon, either to be very short, or, if longer, to be entertaining to your vicious inclinations. Your own consciences tell you, that you look for no such quickening influence from above, to attend the Word, as the text speaks of. Your hear a sermon like a story, or a political essay; with easy minds, and worldly affections; and neither see any thing of God in it, nor desire to see it. It is the will of God that men should look to him, even all the ends of the earth, that they may be saved. The Lord is very earnest in calling on men to take counsel together; to come near, and examine the evidences of divine truth, in the word of God; to take notice of the proofs of Christian doctrine; and to understand their own concernment in the subject; to listen to the divine message of reconciliation by Jesus Christ, proposed to their souls; and to remember that when we pray you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God, it is as though God did beseech you by us. The proofs of divine truth are not hard to be found. The very fulfilment of Scripture prophecies is so striking, so powerful, and so demonstrative, that it seems scarcely possible for a serious mind to stand against any one of them; much less against them all in conjunction. That one in the 45th chapter of Isaiah, on which I have had my eye, in what I have just been saying; namely, the calling of Cyrus by his name, a long time before he was born; and distinctly describing what he should do to the Jews, in delivering them from captivity, surely none but God could deliver. The same may be said of innumerable other prophecies. Well may the Lord say, "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth." The frauds and tricks of heathen oracles are very different from this plain dealing. But men like you, who will not examine, and read, and search, and inquire, cannot understand such things. With you a sneer, or sophism, of some infidel, stands for Gospel, and because you love not the holiness of divine truth, and because it condemns your way of life, you fly from God, and will not learn any thing that is good. Remember, however, the danger is all your own. If you be wrong and the whole course of things shows you are wrong-you perish everlastingly. What do I exhort you to? Not to take things merely on our words; but to search the Scriptures, and their proofs; to commune with your own hearts; and seriously to consider, what will bring a man peace at the last. SERMON XXIV. PARABLE OF THE RICH MAN, WHOSE GROUND BROUGHT FORTH PLENTIFULLY, CONSIDERED. Luke xii, 16-22. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. THAT men should learn to set their affections on things above, and not on things on the earth, is the evident and obvious use of this plain parable. May the Spirit of Christ who spoke it, be with you and me in considering it: may he enliven and quicken our souls with true views of the heavenly riches, and take off that deceitful glare of beauty and pleasure, which sin has cast upon earthly riches, that we may choose our portion with our Maker and Saviour in heaven, and walk with him here by faith, in the strong hope of eternal glory, with the world and its |