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SERMONS. 
 
 DR. DODDRIDGE. 
 
SERMONS, 
 
 VARIOUS SUBJECTS. 
 
 PHILIP DODDRIDGE, D. D. 
 
 IN FOUR VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 
 ^sitf, 
 
 
 LONDON: 
 PUBLISHED BY J. HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1826. 
 
<2t. aim C. JKHiUtiuff^am, €tiisitotcli. 
 
V/ ty yy ^ ^ .> ^t. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VOL. JV. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Aaron's submission. 
 
 Page 
 
 Leviticus, X. 3. — And Aaron held his peace 1 
 
 SERMON ir. 
 
 THE SEPULCHUE IN THE GARDEN. 
 
 John, xi.x. 41. — There teas a garden, ami in the 
 garden a sepulchre 24 
 
 SERMON HI. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT UNDER THE HAND OF 
 GOD. 
 
 Psalm xxxlx. 9- — I ^'(^s dumb, I opened not mi^ 
 mouth, because thou didst it 4G 
 
 SERMON iV. 
 
 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED THE 
 PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Isaiah, xUx. 4. — Then I said, I have laboured in vain, 
 I have spent my strength for naught (i9 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 OF SEEING HIM THAT IS INVISIBLE. 
 
 Page 
 
 Hebrews, xi. 27. — He endured, as seeing him zoho is 
 invisible 99 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 OF SEEING HIM THAT IS INVISIBLE. 
 
 Hebrews, xi. 27. — He endured, as seeing him that is 
 invisible 1 26 
 
 SERMON VH. 
 
 David's reflection on the vanity of the 
 creature. 
 
 Psalm cxix. 96. — I have seen an end of all perfection, 
 hut thy commandment is exceeding broad 152 
 
 SERMON Vni. 
 
 David's reflection on the extent of god's 
 commandments. 
 
 Psalm cxix. 96. — I have seen an end of allpeifection, 
 but thy commandment is exceeding broad 184 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 Christ's invitation to thirsty souls. 
 
 John, vii. 37. — In the last day, that great day of 
 the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any 
 man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink .... 227 
 
CONTENTS. Vli 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR ANIMATED AND 
 
 CROWNED. 
 
 Page 
 
 Revelation, ii. 10. — Be thou faithful unto death, and 
 - / will give thee a crozcn of life 273 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 Aaron's submission. 
 
 Leviticus, x. 3. 
 And Aaron held his peace. 
 
 Obedience to God's commanding will, and serm. 
 submission to his disposing will, are un- v,^^^ 
 doubtedly the two great branches which 
 comprehend the whole of practical religion. 
 The former I have frequently urged, and the 
 latter I shall now^ recommend to your consi- 
 deration and regard from this most memorable 
 instance which we have here before us in 
 Aaron, the high priest of the Lord ; whose 
 two sons, Nadab and Abihu, had just been 
 struck dead by the Lord for presuming to 
 present strange fire before him contrary to 
 a command which he had lately given. On 
 this occasion God sends a very solemn mes- 
 sage to Aaron ; I will be sanctified in them 
 that come nigh me ; and before all the people 
 will I be glorified: and, when he received it, 
 
 VOL. IV. B 
 
I 
 
 2 Aaron's submission. 
 
 SERM. we are told that Aaron held his peace. In 
 ^ handling the subject, I shall, 
 
 I. Consider how much excuse Aaron might 
 have had for complaint in his present cir- 
 cumstances : 
 
 II. How much greater reason he had for 
 the silent submission which he here expressed; 
 and then, 
 
 III. What improvement we may make of 
 the whole. 
 
 If there be any of you, my friends, on 
 whom God has in a remarkable manner laid 
 his afflicting rod, you have reason to attend 
 . with peculiar care. If your health has been 
 impaired, if your schemes have been disap- 
 pointed, if your family has been invaded by 
 death, and those who were dear to you are 
 now sleeping in the dust, be it known unto 
 you that this example and this charge are 
 especially for you ; more peculiarly for you 
 parents, from whom God has taken away de- 
 sirable childi'en by a sudden stroke, whether 
 sooner or later, if any such hear me on this 
 day. But give me leave to add that you are 
 all concerned in the subject which is before 
 us. Before the return, perhaps, of another 
 sabbath, the most vigorous constitution may 
 
Aaron's submission. S 
 
 be weakened, the most prosperous condition serm. 
 be embarrassed, the most pleasant family ^^^.^.^^ 
 be invaded by death. It may be, some of 
 those children and friends, who are now with 
 you in this place of worship, may be laid 
 low in the dust of death ; and that those, 
 who think themselves least interested in such 
 a discourse, may be the first called out to act 
 upon it : and, possibly, this unconcern may 
 render it needful that God should punish 
 them with such a stroke. Hearken then, I 
 entreat you, to this example of Aaron, that if 
 you are tried and exercised in any degree as 
 he was, you may learn like him to hold your 
 peace, 
 
 I. Give me leave to show how much Aaron 
 might have said to excuse some complaint in 
 the present case. His tenderness coilld pro- 
 bably have furnished a great deal more than 
 I can point out to you : nevertheless it is 
 obvious to remark some circumstances which 
 might have been urged as a plea, at least to 
 extenuate, if not to justify, some expostula- 
 tions with God, and some complaints against 
 him. And I verily believe that when I have 
 mentioned what easily occurs to my thoughts 
 
 B 2 
 
4 Aaron's submission. 
 
 SERM. upon the occasion, you must, many of you, 
 y^^^..^^^ own that your own sorrows are very httle and 
 small, when compared with this under which 
 he was silent, whereas you are complaining. 
 He lost in one day his two eldest sons, when 
 grown up to years of maturity, when lately 
 entered on the honour and service of the 
 priest's office ; and he lost them by a sudden 
 stroke of Divine vengeance in the very act of 
 their transgression against God. Let any 
 parent in the assembly imagine this case to 
 be his own ; and then let him say whether he 
 would not have been tempted to some extrava- 
 gancy, and, perhaps, to have said with Jonas, 
 ■ Jonas iv. Sureli) I do well to be angry'^. 
 
 1. Aaron had lost both his eldest sons in 
 one day. 
 
 The death of one child goes very near to 
 the heart of a tender parent ; and if we meet 
 with one whom God has broken with breach 
 upon breach, we think that case especially 
 pitiable. To bury one child in this year, and 
 another in the next, is melancholy; but to 
 bury them both in the same month, in the 
 same week, is an uncommon calamity. Oh ! 
 how deep then must this two-edged sword 
 pierce into the soul of Aaron, when both his 
 children, his eldest children, the beginning 
 
xxvii. 41. 
 
 AARON S SUBINIISSION. 5 
 
 of his strength, the heirs of his honour and serm. 
 his family, were cut off together in the same v^^^^ 
 hour, in the same moment. His soul seems 
 to have been like the vessel of Saint Paul, 
 falling, as it were, into a place where tuo 
 seas meet^. 'Acts 
 
 2. It must be an aggravation of his sorrow 
 that they were both come to years of ma- 
 turity. 
 
 Alas ! might he have said, if their cradle 
 had been turned into their grave, it had been 
 much more tolerable. Had these beautiful 
 flowers been cut down in the bud, and 
 withered before they opened^, I had not^Jobxiv 
 been so sensible of my loss : but to have 
 had all- the tender care of rearing them, and 
 to see them now come up to years of man- 
 hood (for they must have been at least 
 twenty-five before they could have been ad- 
 mitted even to the lowest service of common 
 Levites according to the divine law*;) now, 
 might he have said, now, when these years 
 are approaching when I might have expected 
 that they would have repaid my former ten- 
 derness ; I am now in the decline of life 
 (for he was then ninety years old), and I 
 thought that these would have been the 
 
 2. 
 
 ^Niimb. 
 viii. 21. 
 
6 Aaron's submission. 
 
 SERM. props of my age : but God has struck them 
 ,^^-J.>^ both away. Who can wonder then if I feel ? 
 who can blame me if I complain ? 
 
 3. It was a further afflicting circumstance 
 that they had just entered upon the honour 
 and service of the priestly office. Aaron and 
 his sons were those whom God had chosen 
 to draw nigh to him, and minister to him in 
 his sanctuary. It was but a few days before 
 their death that he had seen them solemnly 
 presented before the Lord, sprinkled with the 
 blood of sacrifice, clothed in the sacred vest- 
 ments, and anointed with the holy oil. Per- 
 haps he was then ready to think, Here is a 
 blessed covenant of priesthood now established 
 with my family; which is big with number- 
 less benefits and favours. These children of 
 mine, who stand so near to the Lord, will 
 glorify him, and will be honoured by him. I 
 shall see religion flourishing eminently in their 
 souls : I shall often hear the praises of God 
 sound upon their tongues ; and, when I am 
 called to the grave, they shall not only close 
 my eyes, but shall stand up in my place. Na- 
 dab shall be the high priest when Aaron is no 
 more. He shall approach even to the most 
 holy place : shall have the nearest views of 
 
AARON S SUBMISSION. 7 
 
 God, and the nearest intercourse with him, serm. 
 that any mortal upon earth can be favoured v.^.^^^^^ 
 with : or, if Nadab should die before me, 
 Abihu, his brother, will surely succeed to his 
 place and to mine. Thus does God delight 
 to honour my family ; and surely it is a 
 pledge of further continued favours, that 
 shall descend even to the meanest and re- 
 motest branch of it, which shall be blessed 
 for the priest's sake. Fond, though probable 
 hopes ! What a dreadful surprise must it be 
 to see them brought out dead in their priest's 
 coats ; as we are expressly told that their 
 kinsmen went near, and carried them in their 
 coats out of the camp^. Undoubtedly, the'Lcvii. x. 
 higher the hopes of this pious father had 
 been raised, the higher would his sorrows 
 arise upon so mournful an occasion. 
 
 4. It must be a still greater aggravation 
 of his anguish to think that he lost them by 
 a sudden stroke of Divine vengeance. 
 
 The more there is of Divine displeasure in 
 any event, the deeper will it wound the heart 
 of every saint. What then must Aaron feel 
 on this sad occasion ! Had they both fallen 
 in battle, or had they both died together of 
 some malignant and fatal distemper, it had 
 
8 Aaron's submission. 
 
 SERM. been a bitter cup, which, in that case, God 
 
 ^^.'^.^ might have put into his hand : but, oh ! to 
 
 lose them by fire from the Lord, which came 
 
 out against them, and devoured them, how 
 
 much more dreadful a fate ! When Miriam, 
 
 'Numb. Moses' sister, was smitten with leprosy^, 
 
 ^'^' ^^* how did Moses compassionate her case, and 
 
 how earnestly did he plead to God for her 
 
 recovery ! How much more terrible then was 
 
 it to Aaron to have his sons not struck with 
 
 common lightning, but with fire immediately 
 
 proceeding from God. He might have been 
 
 ready to say. Had an enemy done it, I coidd 
 
 inore easily have borne it : but that God, 
 
 whose priest I am, should immediately arm 
 
 himself against me and my family : that my 
 
 own children, instead of presenting offerings, 
 
 should themselves be sacrificed before him, 
 
 how can I endure it ? And, to add no more, 
 
 5. It must above all things aggravate his 
 
 sorrow to think that they were cut off in the 
 
 very act of sin, so that no space was given 
 
 them to repent. Their crime was offering 
 
 strange fire before the Lord (that is common 
 
 fire, which is called strange, because it was 
 
 difierent from what God had appointed ; for 
 
 we are expressly told that the fire of the Lord 
 
Aaron's submission. 9 
 
 fell on the first sacrifices which were offered serm. 
 to him in the sanctuary''. This fire it was ^^^^^^^^ 
 the priest's duty to keep continually burning; '^^^^'^•^'** 
 and with this fire incense was to be offered. 
 This he had not commanded ; that is, this he 
 had expressly forbidden^ : and from the pro- "Exodus 
 hibition which immediately follows, verse 9, ^^^' ^' 
 in which they are charged not to drink wine 
 while they were ministering before God, it 
 seems highly probable that these young 
 priests had indulged themselves in drinking 
 too freely, a scandalous fault in any, but 
 much more in a priest : and so they boldly 
 rushed into the presence of God when the 
 hour of evening sacrifice was come, and they 
 were to burn incense on the golden altar. 
 They rushed in, thoughtless and fearless, as 
 a horse rusheth into the battle : but, like him, 
 they were struck with immediate death. The 
 terrors of the Divine majesty were displayed ; 
 and his glittering sword entered into their 
 hearts in the same moment that it dazzled 
 their eyes ; so that they were taken off in 
 the very act of sin ; without time or oppor- 
 tunity, for aught that appears to us, of asking 
 God's pardon for their offence. Behold his 
 awful severity! behold in what burning and 
 
10 Aaron's submission. 
 
 bloody characters he wrote that important 
 admonition, I will be sanctified in all them 
 that draw nigh unto me; and before all the 
 people will I be glorified. But, oh ! my friends, 
 how could the heart of a parent support such 
 a stroke ? Alas! might he have been ready to 
 say, had God ordered them to die by the 
 sword of human justice, and allowed a few 
 days or hours between the sentence and the 
 execution, though it might have appeared 
 more infamous, yet it had been, on the whole, 
 less dreadful : or, had he struck them with a 
 burning fever or some other distemper, that 
 should have brought them to the grave by 
 slower degrees, the poor creatures might 
 have had time to humble themselves before 
 God, and to repent of their guilt. Then their 
 souls might have been in a better posture for 
 their appearance in his tremendous presence. 
 But, oh ! to be taken away with all their sins 
 and follies on their heads ; taken away even 
 in the midst of debauchery and impiety, O 
 my son Nadab ! my son Abihu ! Would to 
 God I had died for you^ O my children, my 
 children! Nature, no doubt, would have 
 taught Aaron such language as this : nay, 
 perhaps, it would have taught him much 
 
Aaron's submission. 11 
 
 worse than this : perhaps it might have in- serm. 
 chned him to say, Was the offence so great v^^^ 
 as to deserve such a punishment ? Might not 
 their youth have pleaded for them ? Might 
 not the disorder which their spirits were in 
 have been admitted as some excuse, especi- 
 ally when it was no gross wickedness in 
 itself which they committed ? Had it been 
 murder or rapine, it had been worthy of that 
 avenging stroke : but when it was only an 
 inadvertency, perhaps an instance of forget- 
 fulness ; at least, when it was only varying in 
 one ceremony of worship, and taking one 
 kind of fire instead of another, where there is 
 no discernible difference between them, could 
 this merit such terrible wrath ? Thus might 
 Satan and our own corrupt hearts have 
 taught us to speak ; but Aaron was better 
 taught. Far from opening his mouth to 
 charge God with injustice, he uttered not a 
 word of complaint ; but, as the Psalmist ex- 
 presses it, he said, I will take heed to my 
 mouth, that I sin not with my tongue^; and « Psalm 
 was dumb with silence. He held his peace, 
 though his sorrow was undoubtedly stirred ; 
 and we meet with a calm of soul where we 
 might have expected the fiercest tempest : 
 
I. 
 
 12 Aaron's submission. 
 
 SERM. Aaron held his peace. Give me leave now to 
 show to you, 
 
 II. How much greater reasons Aaron had 
 for that silent submission, which he here ex- 
 pressed, than for this complaint which might 
 have seemed so natural on this mournful 
 occasion : and here we may observe that 
 some of these reasons were peculiar to Aaron, 
 and others common to all good men. I shall 
 only touch on the former, that I may a little 
 more largely consider the latter. 
 
 1. There were some reasons of submission 
 peculiar to the circumstances and the condi- 
 tion of Aaron. He was the high priest; and, 
 as it is afterwards urged, the anointing oil 
 was yet fresh upon him, and the days of his 
 consecration were not entirely finished : for 
 this cause he was not allowed so much as to 
 appear in mourning, or to use any of the 
 common expressions of sorrow, which, in 
 other circumstances, had been highly decent. 
 He was now considered as in an extraordinary 
 manner the minister of God ; and his concern 
 with his Heavenly Master was greater than 
 that which he could have with any, even the 
 dearest of his earthly relations. We may 
 
I. 
 
 Aaron's submission. IS 
 
 further add, that the hand of God was so serm. 
 evidently exerted in the present case, that to 
 have mourned and repined would have been 
 a direct insult upon the Divine Being. There 
 were no second causes intervening, on which 
 part of the blame might, with some appear- 
 ance of decency, be laid. It was immediately 
 the Lord, and an immediate message was 
 sent to him from God, to silence any expos- 
 tulation on this head. This is that which the 
 Lord has spoken. Sec. But give me leave to 
 wave these things, that I may a little more 
 distinctly consider, 
 
 2. Those reasons for submission, which 
 were in some considerable degree common to 
 Aaron and to all good men. 
 
 And they are such as these. It was the 
 act of a Sovereign Being that could not be 
 controlled : of a just and wise Being, who 
 does nothing which is either unrighteous or 
 foolish : the act of a God who had approved 
 himself gracious to him in many former in- 
 stances ; who had still continued to him 
 many remaining comforts : and he might rea- 
 sonably hope that even this affliction should 
 on the whole be overruled to his advantage. 
 I must only briefly touch on these things, 
 
14 Aaron's submission. 
 
 SERM. which would otherwise be a sufficient foun- 
 
 ^^^s^.^^ dation for a considerable series of discourses. 
 
 1. Aaron knew that he had to do with a 
 
 Sovereign Being, whose determinations could 
 
 not be controlled. 
 
 The God, by whose hand his sons died, 
 was he that does Zi)hat he pleaseth in the armies 
 Psa. c\v. of heaven^ ; and, among the inhabitants of 
 the lower world, none can stay his hand, or 
 call him to an account for any of his pro- 
 ceedings. He takes away, and who can hinder 
 him? or who can say unto him, what doest 
 thou ? All the rage that Aaron could have 
 entertained or expressed would only have 
 tormented and exposed himself; and, as Sir 
 William Temple* finely expresses it upon 
 another occasion, all his complaints and his 
 expostulations had only been like arrows 
 shot up into the air at no mark, and for 
 no end, but to fall down on his own head, 
 and wound himself, instead of recovering 
 or avenging his children. And this is a 
 thought of some weight, though not of the 
 greatest sweetness. It should universally 
 teach us patience to bear the yoke which 
 
 * Temp. Misc. vol. i. 
 
Aaron's submission. 15 
 
 we cannot shake off: since the more we serm. 
 struggle, the more we shall gall our necks v^.^^^^ 
 with it. Therefore a heathen* says, O God, 
 lead me whither thou wilt, and I will patiently 
 follow thee ; and I know that, whether I will 
 or not, I must follow thee of force. 
 
 2. Aaron knew that God was too wise and 
 too righteous a Being to do any thing which 
 was unjust or unreasonable. Much might 
 have been said against this dispensation : 
 but, when it evidently appeared to have been 
 the hand of God, more might be said to prove 
 his general wisdom and equity than would 
 have been sufficient to counterbalance the 
 contrary reasons. The weakest and the worst 
 of men would not be unjust, were it not from 
 some view of advantage, by such conduct, to 
 themselves : but the blessed God can have 
 no such view of self-advantage. It can be 
 no profit to him that he should oppress ^ 'Job x. 3. 
 seeing that the infinite perfections of his na- 
 ture set him above any dependence upon his 
 creatures, or any of their circumstances ; 
 and consequently prove that it is impossible 
 for him to be the better for any injury 
 * Epict. Eiich. cap. 78. 
 
16 AARON^S SUBMISSION. 
 
 SERM. which he can inflict. Besides, it is most 
 
 v^.^;^ evident that afflictions, brought upon guilty 
 
 creatures, have justice in them, and that a 
 
 living man cannot complain, a man for the 
 
 'Lam. iii. punisliment of his sins^. Alas ! might Aaron 
 
 39 
 
 say» iTiy children are dead : but why am I 
 alive? Have not I provoked God as well as 
 they ? It is but a few months ago since I 
 foolishly complied with the wicked solicita- 
 tion of the people, and made for them a 
 golden idol. O my soul ! humbly submit to 
 this afflictive stroke ; and wonder that it did 
 not come in a more terrible form even than 
 this. And thus did we accustom ourselves to 
 think in general of the wisdom and the jus- 
 tice of the Divine Being, and, in particular, 
 of our own offences against him, we should 
 learn to justify God and to condemn our- 
 selves ; and never to murmur and repine under 
 his rod : but rather to say w ith Micah, I will 
 hear the indignation of the Lord, because I 
 "Micah have sinned against him"^. 
 
 3. Aaron might further consider that the 
 approved goodness of the Divine Being would 
 have rendered any complaint very indecent. 
 
 He knew, in general, that God was good 
 
Aaron's submission. 17 
 
 to all^ and that his tender mercies were over all serm. 
 
 his works. He particularly knew that he was v J.^^ 
 
 good to him. Oh ! might he have said, did 
 not God give to me my life ; and has he not 
 preserved me thus long ? Has he not led me 
 on thus far in my journey, so that I have 
 wanted no good thing? Was it not he who 
 gave to me these children, whom he has now 
 removed; and who gave to me those whom 
 he has suifered still to continue with me ? 
 For, surely, might he say, I must acknow- 
 ledge that in judgment he has remembered 
 mercy. Eleazar and Ithamar might have 
 been left to sin, and to die with Nadab and 
 Abihu : but that they and I are yet alive ; 
 that we are honoured with the priesthood ; 
 that we enjoy so many peculiar favours, as 
 well as the common happiness and dignity^ 
 which we possess as Israelites, is owing to 
 the rich and abundant goodness of God. 
 And shall we receive good at the hand of the 
 Lord, and shall we not receive evil also^ ?^Johu.io. 
 Thus, Christians ! should you be looking round 
 upon repeated, upon continuing mercies, to 
 silence your complaints under afflictive pro- 
 ^ idences. God can take away no more than 
 he has given : but he has given a thousand 
 
 VOL. IV. c 
 
I. 
 
 18 Aaron's SUBMISSION. 
 
 SERM. times more than he will ever take away. 
 There is reason to hope that Aaron had now 
 some view of better blessings above, which 
 could never be lost. At least, it is certain 
 that the Christian may justly indulge in such 
 a view : but that leads me to add, that 
 
 4. Aaron might further reflect, on this 
 occasion, that God could turn even this evil 
 into good, and transform this heavy calamity 
 into a mercy. 
 
 In many instances we know that it has 
 been so ; that out of the eater has come forth 
 meat, and out of the strojig sweetness ; and 
 why might it not be so in the present in- 
 stance ? I am afflicted, might Aaron say, but 
 God is glorified ; and, if he be mi/ Father 
 and my God, his glory ought to weigh much 
 more with me than my own sorrow. I am 
 afflicted : but Israel may be edified, and 
 taught to fear the great and terrible name of 
 the Lord God. Not only those who were 
 witnesses of that sad stroke, but those also 
 in distant nations and distant countries, who 
 shall hear of it, may be taught to approach 
 God with greater solemnity ; and more dili- 
 gently and cautiously to adhere to the insti- 
 tutions of his worship. And may not I learn 
 
Aaron's submission. 1.9 
 
 the same lesson ? Will not this be an instruc- serm. 
 tion to me, while I live, when I tread his ^^^!^.^ 
 courts, when I approach his altar, when I 
 enter into that which is within the veil, to 
 avoid whatever would provoke his tremen- 
 dous wrath ? and may not it likewise be the 
 means of teaching me the vanity of this 
 world, and of its dearest possessions ? Perhaps 
 I have been too proud and too fond of my 
 children : God, by this stroke, may moderate 
 my expectations from them, and my depend- 
 ence upon them. Perhaps it may be the 
 blessed means of bringing my soul nearer to 
 God ; of improving me in my meetness for 
 that tabernacle above, of which this is no 
 more than a shadow : for though my house 
 be not inviolable with God, yet hath he made 
 zdth me an everlasting covenant; and this is 
 all my salvation and all my desire^. And if" 5j Samuel 
 the blessings of this be promoted, and, in ^''"'* ' 
 consequence of it, my eternal happiness, wel- 
 come the will of God ! welcome the death of 
 my children, which may improve me for it ! 
 welcome my own death, when it shall bring 
 me to it ! And thus surely may the Christian 
 say, especially when he knows that all his 
 afflictions come through a Redeemer's hand, 
 
 c 2 
 
20 AARON S SUBMISSION. 
 
 and when the scriptures teach him to con- 
 sider them as evidences of the Divine love ; 
 for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth ; and 
 ' Heb. xii. scourgeth every son whom he receiveth^ . For- 
 bearing, however, to enlarge, I shall con- 
 clude all, 
 
 III. With some brief inferences from what 
 I have been delivering : and here, 
 
 1. See the force of the Divine grace to 
 support the saint under his sorrows. 
 
 It taught Aaron to bear that heavy over- 
 whelming affliction in the manner which we 
 have now seen. Let us observe it; let us 
 adore it ; and let us depend upon it, and not 
 be anxiously afraid of suftering, since it is 
 possible, nay, it is what we may reasonably 
 hope that as our day is, so shall our strength 
 be. Perhaps had one told Aaron some time 
 before that he should have met with such a 
 trial, he would not have been able to believe 
 that he could hold his peace under it. Thus 
 can God carry us through hardships, of which 
 we now hardly dare to think. 
 
 2. Let us humble ourselves before God, 
 in that we have murmured and repined 
 under afflictions, by no means comparable 
 with those which were the lot of Aaron. 
 
AARON S SUBMISSION. 21 
 
 Let us produce the greatest sorrows of serm. 
 our lives ; and set them against the calamity v,^^^^^ 
 which we have been contemplating, and how 
 small will they appear ! One of you, perhaps, 
 has been disappointed in his worldly circum- 
 stances: another has been afflicted with bodily 
 illness: another has been censured unjustly; 
 perhaps reviled and persecuted by his ene- 
 mies, or treated unkindly by those who should 
 have been his friends : another has lost some 
 dear relative, perhaps a child, by a distemper 
 or an accident : why, these are hard trials ; 
 but what are they to Aaron's affliction ? Yet 
 Aaron held his peace ; when we, perhaps, 
 have been ready to murmur and to charge 
 God foolishly ; and yet Aaron never enjoyed 
 those peculiar advantages which are indulged 
 to us. Aaron never received so clear a dis- 
 pensation of the covenant of grace ; or saw so 
 bright a prospect of heavenly glory. Aaron 
 beheld not an Incarnate Redeemer appearing 
 as the great high priest and steward over the 
 household of God ; and bearing the bitterest 
 sufferings for his people : bearing them with 
 a resignation even superior to that of Aaron 
 himself; saying, with a filial submission, 
 Father, not as 1 zcill, but as thou wilt. The 
 
I. 
 
 22 Aaron's submission. 
 
 SERM. cup which my Father has given me, shall I not 
 drink it ? Oh ! what just matter of humiha- 
 tion is it that when our advantages have 
 been so much greater, our behaviour should 
 often be so much less exemplary than that of 
 this high priest of Israel ! 
 
 3. Let us lay up the instruction of this 
 pattern for our own future imitation. 
 
 Perhaps we are, some of us, even now 
 under God's chastising rod ; and, for the rest, 
 we know not how soon the bitter cup may 
 pass over to us. It is our duty, even while 
 we are rejoicing, to remember the days of 
 darkness, and to prepare for them. Let us 
 learn, before affliction comes, to be silent, 
 and submissively to bow before our Heavenly 
 Father ; and even to kiss the hand that smites 
 us. Happy souls, that bear afflictions thus ! 
 What a sweetness mingles itself with these 
 bitter ingredients, while they yield the peace- 
 able fruits of righteousness ; and what a rich 
 revenue of glory will be produced by them 
 on another day, so that the soul shall have 
 infinite reason to say. Lord, it is good for me 
 that I have been afflicted, that I might learn 
 thy statutes. If you. Christians ! desire to 
 behave thus, let it be your care to establish 
 
AARON S SUBMISSION. 23 
 
 in your minds a firm persuasion, not only of serm. 
 the justice, but of the goodness of God ; a v.^„^0-^ 
 sense of the evil of your own sins ; and yet 
 some comfortable evidence of your interest 
 in God through a Redeemer. Be often sur- 
 veying the examples of submission which are 
 recorded in the book of God ; and, when the 
 trial comes, watch over the first risings of 
 pride and of passion : fly to the throne of 
 grace, and pour out your sorrows before God ; 
 that you may not utter any unbecoming 
 accusation against him. Renew your appli- 
 cation to the Spirit of grace for those sancti- 
 fying and supporting influences which are 
 the life and strength of your souls ; and en- 
 deavour to look through this cloud of tears 
 and the mist of sorrows to that blessed world 
 which is within the veil, where all tears shall 
 he wiped away from our eyes, and where 
 sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Amen. 
 
24 THE SEPULCHRE 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 THE SEPULCHRE IN THE GARDEN. 
 
 John, xix. 41. 
 There was a garden, and in the garden a sepulchre. 
 
 SERM. The instances of mortality are so deplorably 
 ^^J^;^^ multiplied around us, and we lose so many 
 of our friends, that as among us it is hard to 
 find room for new graves, so is it also difficult 
 to find a variety of subjects for our discourses 
 at their funerals, when the choice is not deter- 
 mined by the deceased or by their friends. I 
 would desire at all times to search for matter 
 not of curiosity, but of use ; and, especially at 
 such solemn seasons as these, for something 
 that may instruct ; something that may com- 
 fort; something that may, if possible, turn the 
 death of those whom we lament into some 
 occasion of good to those who survive ; which 
 to such benevolent spirits, as were many of 
 
II. 
 
 IN THE GARDEN. 25 
 
 those who leave us, would be, if known, serm. 
 matter of additional joy, even in the re- 
 gions of glory. And while my meditations 
 have, as it were, been expatiating upon a 
 variety of subjects, I have turned aside into 
 this garden, and there espied a sepulchre ; 
 and I would now point it out to you as an 
 object at once remarkable and useful : useful 
 it may be, if God will fix our meditations pro- 
 perly upon it, and will influence our hearts by 
 his Holy Spirit ; else a sepulchre in a garden, 
 the sepulchre of a friend, the sepulchre of a 
 Saviour, will be viewed by us in vain. 
 
 You may easily know, from the situation 
 of the text, that it refers to the tomb in which 
 Christ was laid. When he had said. It is 
 finished; and had, as we must all shortly do, 
 bowed the head, and given up the ghost, we 
 find that, though his most intimate friends 
 had forsaken him and fled in the terror 
 which seized them on his being first appre- 
 hended, they recovered their spirits in some 
 measure ; and were not guilty of so much 
 baseness as to leave his body to be taken 
 down with infamy from the cross, and thrown 
 into any hole which might be made in Gol- 
 gotha to receive it. This was probably the case 
 
26 THE SEPULCHRE 
 
 SERM. with regard to those who were crucified with 
 ^^^^^^ him ; and it might have been his, if Provi- 
 dence had not raised up those who were both 
 able and wilhng to give to him not only a 
 decent, but an honourable funeral. Joseph of 
 Arimathea, and Nicodemus, an honourable 
 senator, had the courage to profess a regard 
 for him ; and they easily obtained that per- 
 mission from Pilate which possibly might 
 have been refused to persons of inferior sta- 
 tion, to take him down from the cross, and to 
 inter him : and, accordingly, the former of 
 them took care to convey him to his own 
 sepulchre, agreeably to what has generally 
 been taken to be the sense of that prophecy 
 of Isaiah, that he should make his grave 
 with the 7'ich in his death. Concerning this 
 place of burial, we are told that it was near 
 the ground where he was crucified ; that it 
 was a Jiew sepulchre, wherein no man was ever 
 laid before ; and that it was in a garden. 
 It is the last of these circumstances alone 
 which I shall point out as the subject of our 
 present meditations : There was a garden, and 
 in the garden a sepulchre. 
 
 It evidently appears, by some remains of 
 antif|uity which are come down to us, that it 
 
XXI. 26. 
 
 IN THE GARDEN. 2? 
 
 was formerly usual to bury in fields or gar- serm. 
 dens. I will not take up such solemn mo- ^^^^'-.^ 
 ments as these with illustrations of such a 
 point, which may be evident enough from 
 the text itself; but I will only remind you of 
 one remarkable instance of this, which we 
 have in the history of Anion king of Judah ; 
 in which it is said theit he was buried in his 
 sepulchre in the garden of Uzza^. This Uzza ' 2 Kings 
 w^as his ancestor at the distance of six gene- 
 rations, and it is probable that most of the 
 intermediate kings had been buried in the 
 same place. Indeed it was natural to expect 
 to find sepulchres chiefly built by the rich 
 and great, as well as the most beautiful gar- 
 dens in their possession; and it is the con- 
 nexion of these two which appears to me par- 
 ticularly remarkable. My business this even- 
 ing will be, 
 
 I. To inquire what might be the moral 
 and religious reason which induced Joseph 
 and others to build a sepulchre in a garden : 
 and then, 
 
 II. I will lead you to some further im- 
 provement with respect to the particular se- 
 pulchre, which is here the subject of our 
 notice. 
 
II. 
 
 28 THE SEPULCHRE 
 
 SERM. I. I will inquire in general what might be 
 J the moral and religious reasons of building 
 sepulchres in a garden. I will not now speak 
 either of natural or of ceremonial reasons. 
 There might be a natural reason which might 
 lead them to think it proper to inter their 
 dead in places exposed to the open air, rather 
 than in the midst of their cities ; lest fumes 
 arising from a great number of corpses might, 
 especially in such hot countries, be infectious 
 and dangerous to the living ; and, indeed, in 
 very populous places this consideration de- 
 serves more attention than is often given to 
 it. Yet it might seem less weighty in the 
 case of those who could afford to embalm 
 their friends in such a manner as to prevent 
 putrefaction ; and, no doubt, for some con- 
 siderable time to make the corpse smell like 
 a heap of perfume rather than to be disa- 
 greeable to the senses. 
 
 Ceremonial reasons might, perhaps, be 
 thought of among the Jews, as, according 
 to the tenour of the Mosaic law, no part of 
 a human body could, after death, be touched 
 without pollution. On this account it would 
 have been most improper and intolerable 
 to bury in or near to the temple ; and it 
 
II. 
 
 44. 
 
 IN' THE GARDEN. 2.9 
 
 might have exposed the worshippers to great serm. 
 danger of contracting ceremonial uncleanness, 
 if burying places had lain in the necessary 
 passage to their place of worship : a circum- 
 stance which, you know, our Lord particularly 
 mentions, when he compares the Pharisees 
 to graves which appear not, and which meji 
 zoalk over, and are not aware^ ; i. e. contract 'Luke xi. 
 a pollution where they did not expect it. 
 This might be a reason for making sepulchres 
 in gardens : and it is highly probable that a 
 nation, with whom architecture had attained 
 to so great a height as it had among the 
 Jews, might bestow many ornaments upon 
 these mansions of the dead. Our Lord, in- 
 deed, seems to refer to this practice when 
 he speaks of building the sepidchres of the 
 prophets : and the author of the Maccabees 
 mentions a magnificent tomb erected for 
 one of the heroes of that family, the form of 
 which is said to be still extant upon some 
 of the Jewish coins. These edifices, intended 
 more immediately to receive the dead, and 
 to screen their remains from the danger of 
 being dispersed in a manner disrespectful to 
 them, and disagreeable and inconvenient to 
 the living, became in part decorations of their 
 
30 THE SEPULCHRE 
 
 SERM. gardens. But I conclude that it was not chiefl}' 
 v^^^',,^^in this view that they were intended: very 
 probably they might have respect to moral 
 and religious purposes ; and into these it is 
 my present business to inquire. Now they 
 might be designed to remind spectators in 
 general of their mortality, in the midst of 
 all their pleasures ; and particularly to lead 
 the proprietors of the gardens, in which they 
 were, to recollect the memory of their de- 
 ceased friends, and to think seriously of their 
 own approaching dissolution. 
 
 1. They might be intended in general to 
 remind any spectators of their mortality, and 
 to mingle the thoughts of it with all the 
 entertainments which a garden could afford. 
 Human nature is so formed as almost irre- 
 sistibly to be delighted with the ornaments 
 and furniture of a well adjusted garden. The 
 products of vegetable nature, such is the 
 apparent goodness of the God of it, give us 
 a necessary and a very innocent and reason- 
 able delight : and, therefore, when man was 
 first created, we are told that the Lord God 
 planted a garden, and there he put the man 
 3Gen. ii. ii)hom he had formed^. That, indeed, was a 
 garden in which there was no sepulchre ; no 
 
IN THE GARDEN. 31 
 
 death, but that which lay hid under the fair serm. 
 
 .11. 
 form of the fruit of the forbidden tree, which v^^^ 
 
 for ever cut otf the human race from the tree 
 of Hfe, and turned earth into a Golgotha. 
 The art of making gardens, in succeeding 
 ages, seems to have been a series of efforts, 
 feeble indeed in comparison, and ineffectual, 
 to restore at least a little image of paradise : 
 and it is reported that many of the gardens 
 of the eastern and southern parts of the 
 world, which abound with numberless aro- 
 matic flowers and plants unknown to us, as 
 well as with fruits of peculiar excellency, are, 
 as may well be expected, exceedingly sumptu- 
 ous : and these are the places in which per- 
 sons, of distinguished circumstances in life, 
 often pitched their pavilions in the summer 
 time, and held their festivals ; as we find 
 Ahasuerus^ in particular did, who made a ^ Esther i. 
 feast for seven days m the garden of the ' . 
 king's palace, where there were white, green, 
 and blue hangings, fastened with cords of 
 fine linen and purple, to silver rings and pil- 
 lars of marble ; and where the beds, i. e. the 
 couches on which they lay at the banquet, 
 were of gold and silver, upon a pa^ ement of 
 red, and blue, and white, and black marble ; 
 
32 THE SEPULCHRE 
 
 SERM. and they drank royal wine in abundance in 
 v^-v^-^y vessels of gold ; and that this was according 
 to the state of the king, who then vainly 
 assumed the name of the king of kings. But 
 persons of inferior rank had their feasts, as 
 well as their walks, in their gardens. Now it 
 seems that sepulchres were raised amidst these 
 scenes of delight, that their masters might be 
 reminded of death, and so taught moderation 
 and temperance in their pleasures; as it is 
 said that in the Egyptian feasts a human 
 skull was served up in the first place for the 
 very same purpose. Thus there broke forth, 
 as it were, a voice from their sepulchres, 
 which said to them, in the midst of all their 
 delights. Time is short ; it ixmains, therefore, 
 that those who rejoice he as though they rejoiced 
 not ; and those who use the world and its pos- 
 sessions as not abusing it, for the fashion of this 
 
 iCoT. v\\. world passeth away^. Here, ye living, after 
 ' ^ ' your feasts, and your cups, and your garlands, 
 after all your sweet and pleasant hours spent 
 amid these delights, you must lie down here 
 among us : after all the odours which are 
 breathing around you, after all the beautiful 
 objects W-hich are now regaling your eyes, and 
 the notes of music which are swelling on your 
 
IN THE GARDEN. 33^ 
 
 ear from the choristers of heaven that sing serivt 
 among the branches of these trees, to which v^^^^,^ 
 you may perhaps add from human voices or 
 instruments, to these dark and silent retreats 
 must you come : Your pomp must he brought 
 down to the grave, and the sound of your viols : 
 the worm must be spread under you, and the 
 worm shall cover you^. Perhaps for purposes " isa. xiv. 
 hke these there was a sepulchre in the garden ; 
 that the instruction of the house of mourning 
 might mingle itself even with its highest fes- 
 tivities ; and that the living might lay it to heart; 
 and happy they who wisely attended to it ! 
 
 Indeed, as Mr. Hervey has finely shown in 
 his excellent ' Contemplations on a Flower 
 Garden,' the natural ornaments of the gar- 
 den themselves are so many lessons of mor- 
 tality, if properly viewed. The fading glories 
 of the lily, the tulip, and the rose, notwith- 
 standing whatever there was of majesty and 
 beauty, of elegancy and fragrancy in them, 
 too plainly delineate the frailty of human 
 nature in all its lustre and glory. For as for 
 7nan his days are as grass, and as thefiower of 
 the field so he flourisheth : the grass withers, 
 and the flower fades, and thus man comes up 
 like a flower, and is cut down. The voice of 
 
 VOL. IV. D 
 
II. 
 
 34 THE SEPULCHRE / 
 
 SCRM. God gave it in charge to the prophet to cry, 
 , to make an important and instructive procla- 
 mation in his name; and when he said, What 
 shall I cry? this was the Divine oracle, All 
 flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof, its 
 pecuhar charms and glories, but as the flower 
 of the field ; yet frailer than the grass ; the 
 grass withers, and the flower fades. But the 
 hand of the gardener, as if it envied us that 
 instruction, soon removes the withered ruins, 
 the bare stalks : the sepulchre conveys a 
 more substantial and durable instruction ; 
 and it might not be merely an accidental 
 result of its being planted in a garden. 
 
 2. The sepulchre might be intended to lead 
 the family, to whom the garden belonged, 
 to recollect the memory of their departed 
 friends ; and any peculiar instructive circum- 
 stances which might be connected with their 
 descent into it. 
 
 It is natural for those, who have a garden 
 at command, sometimes to take a lonely walk 
 in it. The moments of solitude are pleas- 
 ing, if a bad conscience do not make them 
 uneasy ; and for the eye in such moments to 
 glance on the family sepulchre might be a 
 circumstance full of peculiar instruction. It 
 
IN THE GARDEN. 35 
 
 would call up the memory of those interred serm. 
 there ; and what man of common wisdom or ^^^^J^^^ 
 humanity would wish to forget his dead 
 relatives and friends ? Thus might a lonely 
 spectator sometimes reflect : " There lie my 
 dear parents and my remoter ancestors; some 
 of them, perhaps, remarkable for worthy 
 characters and actions. Let me remember, 
 with emulation, there lie the dear and vener- 
 able heads which were once filled with so many 
 kind cares for my happiness ; there the hands 
 which reared me up in life with so great ten- 
 derness and solicitude, and placed so much of 
 their own delight in their endeavours to secure 
 mine. There,^' perhaps, might he say, " are 
 my dear children interred, who, by what 
 looks like an irregularity in nature (but in 
 Providence there are no irregularities) are 
 gone down to the grave before me : there are 
 my blasted hopes, which so fondly flattered 
 me that I should have sheltered my gray 
 hairs under their spreading branches^ and 
 that they would have brought me a new 
 race to dandle upon my knees : there, the 
 dear infant, that just looked and smiled upon 
 me, and then vanished from my sight; there, 
 the children, that grew up to take a faster 
 
 u 2 
 
II. 
 
 36 THE SEPULCHRE 
 
 SERM. hold of mj heart, to shoot their spreading 
 roots deeper into it, that it might be torn with 
 so much the greater anguish when they were 
 rooted up : and there those who were ripened 
 into friends ; sons, who were as plants grown 
 up in their youth ; daughters, who were as 
 corner stones elegantly polished by the united 
 hands of nature and art, and, perhaps, of 
 grace too, into the similitude of a palace ; 
 but, alas ! polished for the tomb/' 
 
 " There,'* might another, or, perhaps, the 
 same person add, " there lie my dear brethren 
 and sisters. We were educated together, and 
 our hearts were cemented in the bonds of 
 early friendship : love gave us one interest 
 and one soul ; but now that sepulchre is all 
 their inheritance : they were cut off in the 
 prime of life ; their family, their neighbours, 
 their various friends were deprived of the 
 comfort expected from them in the residue of 
 their years. Their early virtues and their early 
 services withered almost in the bud. There, 
 perhaps, is lodged a friend to whom my 
 heart and my house were open ; and to 
 whom, in token of our peculiar affection, I 
 have assigned a place after death among my 
 nearest relatives.'' Such thoughts as these 
 might, perhaps, often arise, and in some 
 
IN THE GARDEN. 3? 
 
 cases a thought more piercing than any of serm. 
 these ; when God had separated those whom ..^^.^^^ 
 the most intimate relations in hfe had joined 
 in the highest endearments which human 
 nature can .admit : but it is a case on which 
 I fear to insist. The imagination is too pain- 
 ful to myself to permit of my presenting it 
 more distinctly to those whose bosoms are 
 bleeding, as it were, with a new wound ; and 
 who have, perhaps, more to feel than they 
 yet know how to conceive : when hearts have 
 been in every respect one, excepting that 
 they were lodged in two breasts. 
 
 Yet there are moments in which it gives a 
 kind of mournful pleasure to converse with 
 the dead ; to recollect their characters, their 
 circumstances, the various instances which 
 they had experienced of the vanity of life in 
 its best estate, and the proofs which they 
 became of that vanity. Who, indeed, would 
 wish to forget his deceased relations, and to 
 purchase, at the price of so much insensibility 
 and ingratitude, a relief from the pain which 
 the recollection, the instructive though mourn- 
 ful recollection of them, may sometimes give 
 to him ? 
 
 3. The sepulchre in the garden might far- 
 
38 THE SEPULCHRE 
 
 SERM. ther be intended to remind the proprietor 
 .^^-^l^y how soon he must himself be lodged in it, 
 and resign all the rest of his possessions. 
 
 We read, in some instances, of persons 
 building sepulchres for themselves. It is 
 true, indeed, that none can promise them- 
 selves that they shall certainly be lodged in 
 those which they have prepared. God threat- 
 ' isa. xxii. ened Shebna'^, when he had been hewing out 
 a sepulchre on high, and graving a habitation 
 for himself in a rock, that he should be vio- 
 lently tossed like a ball into a large country, 
 and there die in infamy. And it is observable 
 that, if tradition is to be credited, Joseph of 
 Arimathea, who had hewn this out as his 
 own, died in a very distant region, far from 
 Jerusalem : some say, here in Britain, though 
 I see no evidence of such a fact : but if he 
 were afterwards a preacher of the gospel, it is 
 highly probable that he might die somewhere 
 in his travels to dispense it. There was, how- 
 ever, on the whole a probabilit}^ that when a 
 man built for himself a sepulchre, he might 
 be interred in it : and it was something very 
 instructive to have his own sepulchre before 
 his eyes ; to think, " Here the grave is ready 
 for me : ready made to receive me ; and, in 
 
IN THE GARDEN. 39 
 
 a little while, I must lie in one of these niches, serm. 
 hewn out to receive the corpses of those who v^-^^J^ 
 are now living. My garden, however plea- 
 sant ; my house, however magnificent ; my 
 estate, how ever considerable, must be left ; 
 left for this tomb, where I must lie insensible 
 as the stones which compose it, as the rock 
 out of which it is hewn. Here I must mingle 
 with the dead : here I must he gathered to my 
 ■people ; yea, hither, perhaps, may I take my 
 flight from the midst of my pleasures, as Eglon 
 in his summer parlour . And, oh ! how profitable 
 might the reflection be if, from the insensible 
 state of the body, contemplation rose to the 
 state of the spirit, which was to be separated 
 from it : and, indeed, it was chiefly to intro- 
 duce and enforce this reflection that I pro- 
 posed the subject. I shall, therefore, close 
 my meditations upon it, 
 
 II. By leading you to some particular im- 
 provement of these things as they concern 
 yourselves. And here let me desire you to 
 apply to your own souls two reflections on 
 this sepulchre in the garden, and on him 
 whose sepulchre it was, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who was for a little while interred in il. 
 
II. 
 
 40 THE SEPULCHRE 
 
 SERM. 1. Let me call your meditations to this as 
 - a sepulchre in a garden, in the view and the 
 connexion which I have been representing. 
 Let me press you to think on death amidst 
 all your pleasures and pursuits : to reflect on 
 the death of your friends ; and to prepare 
 for your own. 
 
 Let me call the meditations then of every 
 one of you to the tomb. Though you may 
 be young, though your friends may be nu- 
 merous, though your circumstances may be 
 easy, though your constitutions may be vigor- 
 ous, I call you to the only certain object in 
 this world which lies before you : bow down 
 your thoughts to it, for God only knows how 
 soon your persons may be so bowed down. 
 In this flowery and cheerful time of the year, 
 when all the country is as a garden, remember 
 that many are dying in it ; many funerals are 
 carried out now, as well as at other seasons. 
 Many who once were highest in the enjoy- 
 ments of life are mouldering in the dust. 
 Surely a human sepulchre is an instructive 
 sight ; and if it boasts any peculiar ornament 
 it only illustrates the vanity of those stones 
 which have adorned it. Alas ! what a change 
 does it make in the strength and the beauty of 
 
IN THE GARDEN. 41 
 
 human nature ! How is all the pride of human serm. 
 glorj changed in it, changed into a spectacle v^,^^^ 
 of horror, which it is well that the sepulchre 
 consumes! Let us learn humility; let us 
 learn to be more and more detached from 
 this world, which we are so soon to leave ; 
 from these ornaments and possessions which 
 we are so soon to resign ; and let not our 
 hearts be engrossed by the tenderest affec- 
 tions, founded on a union which must so soon 
 be dissolved. 
 
 But is this all that we are to learn ? It is, 
 indeed, what a sepulchre most directly and 
 immediately teaches : but it is natural to 
 think that the whole man is not lodged in 
 this sepulchre. Here is the body, if it be 
 yet a body, if it be yet distinguishable from 
 that common dust into which it is mouldering 
 so fast ; but, oh ! where is the soul ? No 
 sepulchre can receive that. No, that is fled ; 
 fled far beyond the boundaries of this world ; 
 and my soul must soon fly ; and, oh ! whither 
 must it fly? Who will receive it? what will 
 become of it ? According to that prophetic 
 warning of the prophet, so easily accommo- 
 dated to the present case. What will yon do 
 in the day of your visitation, zvhen God shall 
 
42 THE SEPULCHRE 
 
 SERM. visit you, and yoii shall die ; in the day of your 
 ^^.^-^^^^ desolation, when it cometh ? that day of entire 
 desolation, as to this world, when not one 
 single earthly possession, not one single sub- 
 lunary enjoyment shall remain? To whom will 
 ye then flee for help, and where will you leave 
 your glory? a reflection this which, if rightly 
 entertained, would not spoil the pleasures of 
 the most agreeable scenes of life ; but would 
 render them more exalted, as well as more 
 safe. 
 
 Oh ! it is necessary to think of this immedi- 
 ately ; and to enter deeply into the reflection, 
 Whither will my spirit go ? Will it then be 
 in the garden of God ? Will it be with Christ 
 in that paradise into which death and sorrow 
 shall enter no more ? where all the pious 
 dead live, and rejoice in having lost their 
 earthly all, in having shaken off those bodies 
 which were themselves as sepulchres, in which 
 their noblest powers were so limited and con- 
 fined that they might almost be said to be 
 buried. Have I that glorious hope ?'^ and if 
 I have not, how little do all my possessions 
 here avail ! how little my gardens of mortal 
 delights, be they ever so spacious, ever so 
 artfully laid out, ever so pleasantly planted ! 
 
II. 
 
 IN THE GARDEN. 45 
 
 What do they signify, when I must die, and serm. 
 leave them in their full bloom ; and the frail- . 
 est flower may outlive its master, and be 
 cropped to dress his corpse ! Oh, sirs ! what 
 shall I say, while yet my precarious breath 
 and yours is in our nostrils ? what shall I say 
 to awaken you to a becoming concern about 
 that great interest, in comparison of which 
 every thing else is infinitely vainer than the 
 most trifling flower that adorns a garden, 
 when compared with the brightest gem which 
 enriches a royal diadem ? But, oh ! the dura- 
 tion and worth of souls, when compared with 
 earthly possessions, are not to be illustrated by 
 comparisons like these. To impress you, if 
 possible, with some sense of their importance^ 
 and farther to teach you the improvement of 
 my subject, let me, 
 
 2. Lead your thoughts to the sepulchre of 
 Christ ; for it is to that, you know, that our 
 text refers. How shall we bear to think or 
 speak of death, of our own, or of our friends, 
 if we do not connect the thought of Christ's 
 with it? Let us then, while we have sepulchres 
 and cells, while we have death and eternity 
 in our view, seriously think, and think with 
 a secret ecstasy of thought, that there is a 
 
II. 
 
 44 THE SEPULCHRE 
 
 SEMI. Saviour, if we have but hearts to lay hold 
 y upon him ; if we can but be wise enough by 
 the Divine grace to make him our own ! There 
 is a Saviour, who passed through a sepulchre 
 himself, to accomplish our salvation ; whose 
 heart was so set upon our rescue and deliver- 
 ance that he died to secure them; died, pouring 
 out his soul in blood ; and lay in a grave, in 
 this new sepulchre, in which neve?' man before 
 him lay ; and, by lying in it, has, as it were, 
 left a perfume behind him that abates its 
 horrors to his faithful followers. 
 
 Come, see the place where the Lord lay, that 
 you may the less fear to lie in it. That you 
 may have the less reason to fear, if you sin- 
 cerely embrace him; that you may the less 
 regret them who sleep in him, he is not indeed 
 among the dead : he is no longer here in the 
 sepulchre. Delightful thought, that he is not ! 
 He has risen, and left it ; no more to dwell 
 in such abasement. He has shaken oft' the 
 dust of it for ever : as he says, I am he that 
 lives, though I was dead ; and behold, I am 
 alive for evermore : and, he adds, I have the 
 keys of death and the unseen world. And, as 
 he unlocks the gates of the invisible world to 
 admit the spirits of his people to immediate 
 
IN THE GARDEN. 45 
 
 glory, so he will, ere long, unlock the sepulchre serm. 
 too, and raise his people to everlasting life k^^^^^^^ 
 and triumph. Then, when these gardens 
 and sepulchres of earth are blended together 
 in undistinguished ruin, and all vanish into 
 smoke as useless things ; then shall Jesus 
 conduct all his people to eat of the fruit of 
 the tree of life, that grows in the midst of 
 the paradise of God, and to reign in life 
 there where there shall be no more death. 
 
 Let this blessed hope and prospect engage 
 us all to commit our souls to Christ ; and, 
 while we sincerely desire and labour to be 
 truly and eminently holy, let us rest on his 
 righteousness, and blood, and grace, that we 
 may have our share in his present care, and 
 in the final triumphs which he has prepared 
 for his people. 
 
 These hopes will support us amidst all 
 these mournful scenes; will disarm the deaths 
 of our friends, as well as our own ; and will 
 bear us cheerfully by their sepulchres to our 
 own ; though, instead of passing through a 
 garden of delight, our way to it should be 
 long and tedious, through a barren, and a 
 gloomy, and a thorny wilderness. 
 
46 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT UNDER THE 
 HAND OF GOD. 
 
 [A Funeral Sermon.] 
 
 Psalm xxxix. 9. 
 / icas dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it. 
 
 SERM. I BELIEVE that there are few of us who have 
 .^^^-^ not frequently heard this Psahn read upon 
 funeral occasions ; and we must, no doubt, 
 approve the propriety of the choice, as it 
 contains some very weighty reflections on 
 the mortality of human nature, expressed 
 with great solemnity, and intermingled with 
 proper devotional addresses to that great 
 and awful Being who has in righteous judg- 
 ment passed that sentence on sinful man, by 
 which we and our friends are brought down 
 to the dust : for it is he, as the Psalmist 
 w^ell expresses it (verse 5), who has made 
 our days as a hand's breadth, and our age as 
 nothing before him ; so that every man, in his 
 
UNDER THE HAND OF GOD. 4T 
 
 best state, is altogether vanity. When the serm. 
 mind is agitated witli strong affections, it is ..^^^^ 
 difficult to restrain the tongue from some 
 undue Uberty of speech : at least, there may 
 be an inward language, audible to the ear of 
 God, which may be displeasing to him, if 
 there be not a care to impose silence upon 
 every repining thought, as well as to keep the 
 mouth as with a hriclle. But it is the design 
 of the providence of God, in conjunction with 
 his ordinances, this day to teach us, what- 
 ever our trials may be, how dear soever the 
 enjoyments which we may lose, and how 
 heavy soever the burthen which we may 
 bear, to be dumb with silence, after the ex- 
 ample of the pious Psalmist, and not to open 
 our mouths, because whatever it is that has 
 fallen upon us, has come from the hand of 
 God. 
 
 That we may make the more convenient 
 approach to the instruction which these words 
 suggest, and may be more properly and more 
 powerfully impressed with it, I shall endea- 
 vour, by the Divine assistance, 
 
 I. Briefly to consider the circumstances of 
 the Psalmist at the time to which they refer: 
 
48 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT 
 
 SERM. II. To represent his behaviour as here ex- 
 
 III. -, 
 
 ,^^^ . pressed : 
 
 III. To show how reasonable it is that we 
 should behave in like manner under our af- 
 flictions, whatever they may be ; and, 
 
 IV. To hint some things as to the peculiar 
 reasonableness of such a behaviour, when 
 God has been pleased to take away from us 
 our Christian friends. 
 
 I. I am to consider the circumstances of 
 the Psalmist at the time to which these words 
 refer. 
 
 And we may, in the general, be assured 
 that they were very afflicting and calami- 
 tous. He was plainly under the stroke of God ; 
 and it was so heavy that he was ready to 
 sink under it : JRemove, he says, thi/ stroke 
 away from me, for I am consumed with the 
 blow of thine hand. It extorted strong cries 
 from him, and caused him to pour forth a 
 flood of tears : Hear my prayer, O Lord ! 
 give ear unto my cry ; hold not thy peace at 
 my tears. 
 
 What the particular affliction was does 
 not, I think, so plainly appear. What he 
 
UNDER THE HAND OF GOD. 4.9 
 
 says of the -beauty of a man consuming like a serm. 
 moth under the Divine correction, with the con- .^-^-^ 
 eluding prayer, that he might he spared a little 
 to j^ecover his strength, has led many to con- 
 clude that he had been under some painful 
 and threatening illness: and if it were so, his 
 case was the more deplorable ; as it is plain 
 that, instead of being surrounded with those 
 kind and tender friends, whose fidelity and 
 love are at such a time so peculiarly sweet and 
 seasonable, he had some enemies about him, 
 who were lying in wait for every opportunity 
 of exposing and disgracing him; in reference 
 to whom he declares, in the first verse, his 
 determination to keep his mouth as with a 
 bridle, even while the wicked was before him. 
 It was a painful aggravation of all this distress 
 that he was conscious to himself of many 
 wanderings from God, which might give the 
 enemy an occasion of speaking reproachfully 
 of him. This is intimated in the eighth verse, 
 Deliver me from all my transgressions : make 
 me not the reproach of the foolish, that is, of 
 the wicked ; for, how wise soever sinners 
 may esteem themselves and each other, you 
 must be sensible tXvdt foolish is the epithet by 
 which they are often spoken of in the word 
 
 VOL. IV, E 
 
III. 
 
 50 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT 
 
 SERM. of God ; so often, indeed, that the word fool 
 has very seldom any other signification. This 
 was the condition of David in the text : he 
 was deeply afflicted, perhaps, with bodily 
 disorder ; at least, we are sure that his mind 
 was under a deep sense of sin ; and he was 
 surrounded with enemies, who watched over 
 him for evil, and would have been glad to 
 have found any occasion of reflecting upon 
 him, or of reflecting on religion in general 
 upon his account. 
 
 II. Let us now consider his temper and 
 behaviour as expressed in the words of the 
 text; / was dinnb, I opened not my mouth, 
 because thou didst it : in which you will ob- 
 serve that he maintained a profound silence 
 of soul, from a religious sense of the concern 
 of Divine Providence in his affliction. 
 
 1. He maintained a profound silence of 
 soul. 
 
 This is very emphatically expressed by the 
 phrase of being dumb, and not opening his 
 7nouth ; or, as it is in a preceding verse, by 
 being dumb with silence, which implies as 
 entire a silence as if he had been dumb. It 
 is a Hebrew manner of speaking, hke that of 
 
UNDER THE HAND OF GOD. 51 
 
 rejoicing with joy\ for rejoicing greatly; or serm. 
 wondering with admiration^, for being greatly v^-v-^y 
 astonished. Yea, it has been observed that ' ^^^"' "• 
 
 10. 
 
 even dumb men sometimes have a manner of 'Rev.wii. 
 uttering their breath, which, though inarticu- 
 late, is noisy ; and therefore such an expres- 
 sion has its apparent weight and propriet}^, 
 and may well express the great care which he 
 took to avoid, not only murmuring speeches, 
 but all secret discontent of soul ; and every 
 thing of that kind, though it should be whis- 
 pered so softly, or disguised so artfully, that 
 the ear of God alone should hear it. You 
 will easily perceive that this dumbness was 
 very consistent with pouring out the voice of 
 prayer to God : that was his refuge, as you 
 see in the twelfth verse ; Hear 7ny jjrai/er, 
 O Lord; and by that excellent petition in 
 the fourth verse ; Lord, make me to know my 
 end, and the measure of my days, what it is, 
 that I may know how frail I am : but it is 
 opposed to any thing which might have been 
 said with the tongue, or even conceived by 
 the heart, expressive of any repining, of any 
 rebellion, or any impatience of soul, upon 
 account of this afflictive dispensation. 
 
 E 2 
 
III. 
 
 52 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT 
 
 SERM. 2. This profound silence proceeded from a 
 religious sense of the concern of Divine Pro- 
 vidence in his affliction : for thou didst it. 
 
 I say, in his affliction : for, so far as his 
 own transgressions and sins w^ere concerned, 
 you may be sure that he, like every good 
 man, would be ready to acquit a holy God, 
 and take all the shame to himself: for God 
 is not tempted with evil, neither tempteth he 
 any ; but every man is tempted when he is 
 
 3 James i. drowfi aside by his own lusts and enticed^. 
 But it relates to his affliction, whatever it 
 was : and here he speaks as one who was 
 
 ^Ruthi. sensible that the Almighty had afflicted him'^, 
 as pious Naomi expresses it ; and that there 
 was no penal evil in our cities or dwellings 
 which the Lord has not done. Lord, if I 
 have been afflicted in my person, thou hast 
 done it : diseases, which waste our strength, 
 and cause our beauty to consume away like a 
 moth fretting a garment, are thy servants ; 
 and they execute thy will by methods fre- 
 quently inexplicable by us. These are the 
 scourges and chastisements which thy pater- 
 nal wisdom has provided, to scourge the 
 follies of the children of men, of thine own 
 children. If I have been reviled, thouph, so 
 
 13. 
 
 21. 
 
UNDER THE HAND OF GOD. 53 
 
 far as it was sin in my enemies, the guilt is serm. 
 theirs, yet am I sensible that there was the ^.-^ 
 hand of thy Providence in permitting their 
 hearts to be full of rancour against me ; and 
 in supplying them with the occasion and the 
 encouragement, in consequence of which they 
 have ventured to open their mouths so wide 
 against m^ while I have been cautiously 
 keeping silence Math regard to them, as well 
 as to thee. In this sense God said to Shimei, 
 Curse David. I own his hand, and submit 
 to his justice. I was dumb : I opened not my 
 ?fwuth, because thou didst it. 
 
 This was David's circumstance and con- 
 duct ; and this the consideration whence it 
 proceeded. Permit me now to proceed to 
 what I chiefly intended, 
 
 III. To show how reasonable it is that we 
 should behave thus under our afflictions, 
 whatever they may be. 
 
 Now here I shall not confine myself to Da- 
 vid's case, nor entirely to his views. I shall 
 now speak of ourselves, as enlightened by the 
 knowledge of the gospel, as under a clearer 
 dispensation than that which David enjoyed. 
 I shall consider and speak of our case as being 
 
III. 
 
 54 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT 
 
 SERM. planted in the house of our God, and watered 
 with his ordinances ; yea, as they who are 
 this day, many of us, invited to his table. 
 And here let the Christian reflect. Lord ! 
 thou canst do no wrong : and I am sure that 
 I have great reason to be silent when I con- 
 sider what thou hast done for me, in compa- 
 rison with what thou mightest have done to 
 me and with me ; especially when I consider 
 further what thou art doing, and what thou 
 wilt hereafter do. 
 
 1. Let the Christian reflect that God can 
 do no wrong to him, or to any of his crea- 
 tures. 
 
 Let him not only consider the sovereignty 
 of the Almighty ^s dominion, which is such that 
 no creature can pretend to contend with him, 
 but also the essential rectitude of his nature, 
 which is such that none can have any right 
 inwardly to censure, or to complain of what 
 he does. " O my soul ! he has done it, who 
 holds the reins of universal empire. He, who 
 does what he pleases in the armies of heaven, 
 and amongst the inhabitants of earth. He has 
 done it, who spake the creating word, and it 
 was done ; he who is the potter, and every 
 creature, on earth and in heaven, but as clay 
 
UNDER THE HAND OF GOD. 55 
 
 in his hand, to be moulded according to his serm. 
 own will. And shall the thing formed say v^-^^ 
 to him that formed it, why hast thou made me 
 thus? Well may it be said in that connexion, 
 Nay, O imm! who art thou that repliest against 
 God? Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds 
 of the earth ; but woe unto him that strives with 
 his Maker ^ r This is a silencing thought : 5 isa. xiv. 
 nor does it impose merely such a silence as 
 proceeds from the dread of superior power, 
 or the despair of being able to make any 
 thing out by resisting it ; but with the 
 conviction of such sovereign authority and 
 dominion is necessarily connected that also 
 of infinite perfection. It cannot be good 
 to the Almighty that he should oppress. 
 Nothing can tempt Omnipotence in any in- 
 stance to do evil. The infinite understand- 
 ing of God must ever see what is right ; 
 his all perfect mind, seeing it, must approve 
 it ; and, approving it, must do it, being 
 infinitely above all temptation to deviate 
 from it. There is always reason to say. 
 Good is the word of the Lord that he has 
 spoken, for this very reason, because it is his 
 word ; because it is spoken by him. " O 
 my perverse heart ! what wouldst thou say ? 
 Wouldst thou dare to flv in the face of God 
 
111. 
 
 56 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT , 
 
 SERM. himself? Wouldst thou dare to charge him 
 with tyrannical administration? Wouldst thou 
 dare to say, Lord, thou art now beginning to 
 act unworthy of thyself: thou governest other 
 beings wisely and well ; but thou neglectest 
 me, and availest thyself of thine irresistible 
 power to overbear my rights, and to oppress 
 me in judgment ! God forbid ! who would 
 not rather say. Let my tongue cleave to the 
 roof of my mouth, before I utter such a word; 
 yea, let my mind lose all its rational faculties 
 rather than harbour such a thought !" 
 
 2. Let the Christian further recollect what 
 God has done for him, as a reason why he 
 should be silent under what God now does 
 to him. 
 
 Were he only to consider himself as the 
 creature of God, without attending to what is 
 peculiar to him as being a Christian, he might 
 see enough to silence his complaints. " Has 
 not the blessed God given to me my being ? 
 such a being ! with such noble powers and 
 endowments as I possess ! Has he not set me 
 here at the head of this visible creation ? in 
 this spacious and magnificent palace, which 
 he has raised for the human family, and fur- 
 nished and adorned in this commodious, 
 grand, and beautiful manner? Has he not 
 
. UNDER THE HAND OF GOD. 57 
 
 been the guardian of my infancy, and my serm. 
 childhood ? and in riper years my guide and ...^^^^ 
 my benefactor in numberless instances ? Has 
 he not given to me all that I have ; every 
 comfort in life, personal or relative ? When I 
 look round about me upon all that I can 
 call my treasure, my possession, does not 
 every thing bear his name, as it were, in- 
 scribed upon it as the donor? The gift of 
 God. May I not be reminded of his bounty 
 by all that I possess ; yea, by all that I lose, 
 and all that I suffer ? This member, which is 
 the seat of pain or disease, did he not form 
 it ? and has he not given to me the easy and 
 comfortable use of it during these many years, 
 though he now lays his hand upon it ? This 
 friend, who is now laid in the grave, was she 
 not a creature of his, whom he formed and 
 gave to me; and in whom, perhaps, he blessed 
 me for many years ? and is such a friend and 
 benefactor to be quarrelled with, because he 
 sometimes resumes a little of what he has 
 given r 
 
 But this is not all. I am speaking to you 
 now as Christians : and then consider how 
 the account rises. " Has not God blessed 
 me with the knowledge of his gospel, and of 
 
III. 
 
 58 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT 
 
 SERM. his Son ? Has he not sent to me the tidings 
 _y of grace and salvation by him ? and has he 
 not by his Holy Spirit made him dear and 
 precious to my heart ; and given to me some 
 cheerful and comfortable hope of an interest 
 in him as my Redeemer and my Saviour? 
 And can there be matter of complaint against 
 him when I consider this ? Has not his arm 
 brought salvation to my view ? A salvation 
 which he himself wrought out in so wonder- 
 ful a manner ? And ought not that conside- 
 ration to reconcile me to every thing else 
 which comes from so good a hand ? to all his 
 other doings ? 
 
 3. Let the Christian recollect what God 
 might have done with him, and to him, as a 
 further reason for being silent under the 
 afflicting of the Divine hand. 
 
 " The hand of God has now touched me 
 and pained me. True ! but it has not de- 
 stroyed me. He has not, as Job expresses 
 it, let loose his hand against me, and cut me off: 
 and might he not have done that ? He has 
 taken away this and that comfort. True ! 
 but might he not have taken away all ; and 
 have stripped me quite naked and bare? yea, 
 might he not have taken away my soul ? 
 
UNDER THE HAND OF GOD. 59 
 
 have destroyed my very existence ? or, what serm. 
 would have been ten thousand times worse, ^ ^ 
 have supported it only to make it miserable ? 
 God has chastised me zmth rods : but what are 
 those scorpions with which he might have 
 scourged me, and have been righteous in 
 doing it ! Hast thou not, O my soul ! by 
 numberless provocations, most righteously 
 exposed thyself to his everlasting vengeance? 
 What if thou hadst, even now, been in the 
 abodes of the damned, surrounded with eter- 
 nal darkness and despair ! would he have 
 been unjust in speaking, and unrighteous in 
 judging thus ? Be silent then, O my heart ! 
 before him ; and let not God hear the light- 
 est murmur : but rather let me fall down 
 upon my knees, and adore his sovereign 
 goodness that he has yet spared me ; and, 
 much more, that he gives me any hope that 
 he will save me/^ 
 
 4. Let the Christian consider what God is 
 now doing in a wider extent of the prospect 
 than can arise merely from the view of any 
 present affliction. 
 
 Thou, Lord, hast done this. Thou hast 
 afflicted my body ; thou hast disappointed 
 my prospects ; thou hast blasted my hopes ; 
 
60 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT 
 
 SERM. thou hast slain my friends. But this is not 
 
 III. 
 ^^^ all that thou art now doing: thou still con- 
 
 tinuest thy goodness to me ; thou causest thy 
 sun to arise, and thy rain to descend upon rne ; 
 thou feedest and clothest me daily ; thou 
 sparest to me many dear and valuable friends, 
 whom it were base and barbarous ingratitude 
 to slight because some are taken away. Thou 
 art still continuing to me the liberty of access 
 to the throne of grace ; encouraging and in- 
 viting me, if I have not this or that remain- 
 ing comfort in the creature, to come to thee ; 
 to tell thee my sorrows and my complaints ; 
 to seek in thee what I have lost elsewhere, 
 and more than I have lost. Yea, thou art 
 continuing to me the liberty of thine house, 
 and the privileges of thine ordinances. I am 
 not banished from the solemn assembly by the 
 violence of my enemies, who would gladly 
 long ere this have introduced universal con- 
 fusion and desolation, and have burnt up all 
 the synagogues of God in the land. I am not 
 his prisoner at home, as many of my Chris- 
 tian brethren are, in this land of liberty. 
 Blessed be his name ! I can come up to his 
 house, as it? is this day. Yea, he spreads his 
 own table for me. As if all the blessings of 
 
UNDER THE HAND OF GOD. ^1 
 
 mine were not, as indeed they are not, sufli- serm. 
 cient, he sets before me the body and blood k^^^ 
 of his own Son ; gives him to me as the bread 
 of life that comes down from heaven. It is the 
 blessing of this day and of this hour. And 
 is this a day and hour in which to be com- 
 plaining of him ? as if it were not enough 
 that I am here, unless it were with such and 
 such a fellow creature ; possessed of so much 
 silver and gold ; arrayed in such or such 
 apparel; with such and such degrees of health 
 and strength and spirits ! Oh ! surely it may 
 be enough that I am here as a member of 
 Christ, as a child of God ! especially when 
 with that is connected this further thought, 
 as an heir of glory. ^' Which leads me to add, 
 
 5. Let the Christian further consider what 
 God will further and hereafter do for him, 
 and it must surely silence him under what- 
 ever God has now done. 
 
 And if you ask, what? Let the Jewish 
 Psalmist answer in these emphatical words. 
 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and 
 afterwards ixceive me to glort/^. " Has God'Ps.ixxiii. 
 
 24, 
 
 forsaken me, that I should murmur and 
 complain ? Is he now doing the last office of 
 kindness and love that he ever intends ? No ; 
 
6*2 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT 
 
 SERM. he will never leave me nor forsake me. This 
 .^^J^' is still his language, Fear not, for I am with 
 thee: he not dismayed, for I am thy God. 
 He will choose my inheritance for me. He 
 will watch over ?ne for good, and cause all 
 things to work together for my truest advan- 
 tage. He will subdue my iniquity ; he will 
 strengthen my graces ; and, having begun 
 the good work in me, he will carry it on till 
 the day of the Lord. In a little while, per- 
 haps, a very little, he will do what to an eye 
 of sense indeed looks like a dreadful work, 
 but to faith wears a most cheerful aspect. 
 He will, by his Providence, say to me, as to 
 Moses, Go up and die. But that act of his, 
 which consigns this mortal sinful body to 
 dust and worms, will be the most gracious 
 act that he ever exerted since he regenerated 
 my soul by the power of his Spirit. Then 
 farewell to all my pains and my fears, my 
 disappointments and my sorrows at once. 
 Farewell, for a little while, to all my sur- 
 viving friends ; and welcome more perfect 
 and glorious friends. Welcome the dear de- 
 ceased Christians, over whom I have so often 
 wept. Welcome, above all, the bosom of 
 my Saviour, in which I also shall rest with 
 
UNDER THE HAND OF GOD. 6S 
 
 them. O abyss of joy and delight ! and yet seiim. 
 not all that I hope. The resurrection of the ^^^^^ 
 body shall complete the plan of my perfect 
 happiness, with all the chosen in the ever- 
 lasting enjoyment of God, of Christ, of one ^ 
 another, in forms of devotion and glory ; of 
 glory and felicity which ei/e has not seen, nor 
 ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart 
 of man. And shall not all be taken well from 
 a hand which will do all this ? a hand which, 
 even while it afBicts, has this great end of all 
 in view, that the light afflictions, which are 
 hut for a moment, may work out a far more 
 exceeding and an eternal weight of glory." 
 
 Whatever it may please God to work, there 
 is something not only quieting but elevating 
 in these considerations : something which may 
 not only silence a Christian's complaint, but 
 engage him to break out into a song of praise. 
 But I would, 
 
 IV. Conclude with some hints as to the 
 peculiar reasonableness of such a behaviour, 
 when God is pleased to remove our Christian 
 friends from us. 
 
 We are sure that it is what God has done ; 
 as he is the Sovereign Lord of life and death, 
 
in. 
 
 64 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT 
 
 SERM. who, when he pleaseth, tuiiis man to destruc- 
 , tion^ who presides over all the minutest events, 
 even the fall of a sparrow, and therefore much 
 more over what is comparatively so much 
 more important, as the removal of human 
 spirits from one world to another; for he 
 regards it as an important event, and plainly 
 shows it when he " says, by the Psalmist, 
 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death 
 of his saints. Let it, therefore, be considered 
 that God has a peculiar right to dispose of 
 them ; that he does it for their infinite ad- 
 vantage ; and that he consults the good of 
 his surviving people in these dispensations of 
 providence. Let this engage us to be dumb, 
 and not to open our mouths for the purposes 
 of complaint. 
 
 1. Let it be considered that God has a 
 peculiar right to dispose of them as his own 
 children and people. 
 
 And may he not do what he will with 
 those who are so peculiarly his own ? He 
 chose them, and set them apart for himself: 
 he not only at first formed their spirit within 
 them, but new formed it by his special rege- 
 nerating grace ; so that they were his by a 
 double birth, by a double creation. He piir- 
 
UNDER THE HAND OF GOD. 65 
 
 chased them to himself bt/ the blood of his serm. 
 Son ; and they were his by solemn engage- v^~^^ 
 ments ; they solemnly committed themselves 
 to him under that character, as their cove- 
 nant God and father ; and he received them, 
 and owned them in a correspondent relation. 
 They resigned themselves to his disposal ; 
 and he undertook to dispose of them for the 
 best. And shall any one reply against this ? 
 I may allude to those words of the apostle; 
 If it be but a mans covenant^ no man disan- 
 nulleth it^, and makes it of none effect : and ' Gai. Hi. 
 
 15 
 
 shall we act as if we desired to take our 
 friends and relatives out of the hand of that 
 God who has confirmed his covenant with 
 them, and they theirs with him ? 
 
 2. Let it further be considered in this view, 
 that God disposes of his people infinitely to 
 their advantage, when he takes them out of 
 our world by death. 
 
 Is it not indeed so ? That voice which was 
 heard from heaven, did it proclaim a false- 
 hood ? or was there any room to suspect it 
 of doing so, when it said. Blessed «re the dead 
 that die in the Lord: yea, says the Spirit, for 
 they rest from their labours, and their works 
 
 VOL. IV. F 
 
66 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT 
 
 SERM. follow tlmn^ ? Are they not, even now, while 
 v^.^1,^ absent from the body, present with the Lord ? 
 »Rev. XIV. Departing from us, did they not go to Christ? 
 and is not that situation far better ? Do we 
 not assuredly believe that the prayer of Christ 
 with respect to them is answered, that they 
 are with him where he is, and behold his glory? 
 and do we think there is any thing that 
 those eyes of theirs, which are now sealed in 
 death, did behold while they were here upon 
 earth, that is equal to, that is comparable 
 with the glory of Christ? Surely then, with 
 regard to them, there can be no ground for 
 complaint ; but rather cause to praise God. 
 And let it be further remembered here, 
 
 3. That God consults the good of the sur- 
 vivors in these dispensations of his provi- 
 dence. 
 
 If it be a general truth that he chastens 
 us for our profit, that we may be parta- 
 kers of his holiness, there is reason to be 
 certain that this chastening, which I am 
 sure is none of the least painful, has the 
 same object and end. He intends by it to 
 teach us the uncertainty of creature com- 
 forts ; to call our hearts to himself; and 
 
UNDER THE HAND OF GOD. 67 
 
 to that heavenly world to which our pious serm. 
 friends are removed, and which is in some ^,,-t^ 
 degree enriched by their removal to it. He 
 intends to quicken us to prepare for a change, 
 which we must so soon expect; and to en- 
 gage us to be with greater diligence followers 
 of them who, through faith and patience, do 
 now inherit the promises. Such as these are 
 the purposes of God in these dispensations ; 
 and, if these purposes are answered, not only 
 our departed friends, but we likewise, shall 
 be gainers by their remove : for no conside- 
 ration of secular convenience, no charms of 
 creature converse, can equal the value of 
 those spiritual improvements ; of such an 
 advance in the Divine life, and in a meetness 
 for glory. 
 
 It is matter of joy that so many of us are 
 now going to the table of the Lord. There, 
 sirs, you may be assisted in forming your 
 spirits to the temper, which I have recom- 
 mended, by directing your eyes to a suffering 
 Saviour, who was brought as a lamb to the 
 slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is 
 dumb, so he opened not his mouth. The more 
 we view his example, the more we live upon 
 his atonement and his righteousness, the 
 
 F 2 
 
III. 
 
 68 THE CHRISTIAN SILENT, ETC. 
 
 SERM. greater peace and serenity shall we find in 
 our own minds ; and, of consequence, the 
 better shall we be prepared for every trial to 
 which God may call us out ; and the more 
 cheerful evidence shall we have that God is 
 through him our covenant God and Father. 
 Now, surely, if we consider him often in that 
 view, our mourning will be changed into 
 praise ; and thus, upon the whole, shall we 
 learn, by eating this bread, and by drink- 
 ing this cup, to say with a more cheerful 
 submission, as our Lord did just before the 
 sufferings which we are going to celebrate. 
 The cup which my Heavenly Father has given 
 sne, shall I not drink it ? 
 
69 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Isaiah, xlix. 4. 
 
 Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength 
 for naught. 
 
 Were these words to be considered merely serm. 
 as a complaint of the prophet Isaiah^s, they v^,.^ 
 would surely be very remarkable ; and we 
 might hear them at once with surprise and 
 with grief. Sad indeed, that a messenger 
 from God, a prophet, who spoke by his im- 
 mediate inspiration, should speak in vain, 
 though God had called hi?u from the womb, 
 and made mention of his name from the bowels 
 of his mother ; though he had made his mouth 
 like a sharp sword ; though he had hid him in 
 the hollow of his hand ; though he had made 
 him like a polished shaft which he had hidden 
 in his quiver. That all his sublime strains of 
 eloquence should in a great measure be lost ; 
 
70 THE LHTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. and that the seals which God set to his mis- 
 ._^,^-v^ sion, by verifying so many remarkable pre- 
 dictions, and especially that which related 
 to the destruction of Sennacherib and the 
 recovery of Hezekiah, should be disregarded 
 by a mad and impious multitude, who would 
 break through every restraint to rush on to 
 the indulgence of their lusts, stopping their 
 ears to the voice of the charmer, who charmed 
 with such celestial wisdom. 
 
 But, my brethren, it is not only, or chiefly, 
 in his own person that Isaiah speaks : the 
 Spirit of the Lord spoke by him, and the 
 Divine word was on his tongue. He speaks, 
 indeed, in the name of the great Messiah, as 
 is very apparent from many passages of the 
 prophecy, and especially verse 7 — 10; so that 
 the text leads us to reflect on the unsuccessful 
 course of our Lord^s ministry ; to which some 
 have thought that our prophet also refers 
 when he speaks of spreading out his hands 
 all the day long unto a rebellious people. 
 
 And we well know that the prediction was 
 fulfilled when our blessed Redeemer came 
 and sojourned for a while in human flesh. 
 When he became subject to all the innocent 
 infirmities of our nature, that he might speak 
 
IV. 
 
 THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 71 
 
 to US in our own language, and with all the serm. 
 advantage which mingled majesty and love 
 could give, there was still room for him, as 
 well as his servant, to say. Who hath believed 
 our report? Accordingly he does actually 
 complain, I have spoken to you in my Fathers 
 name, and ye believe not : ye will not come to 
 me, that ye might have life : I would have 
 gathered you, and ye would not. He endured 
 the contradiction of sinners against himself ; 
 and was set up, as holy Simeon foretold that 
 he should he, for a sign to be spoken against. 
 This is a subject well worthy of a more 
 accurate survey than we have, perhaps, ever 
 given to it. It is pregnant with instruction 
 to ministers and to private Christians ; and 
 that must be a cold heart indeed which con- 
 tinues untouched with what is to be adduced 
 from it. I will, 
 
 I. Consider what circumstances may ren- 
 der it surprising that the ministry of Christ 
 in the days of his flesh should have been 
 unsuccessful : I will, 
 
 II. Mention some other circumstances by 
 which so strange an event may in some mea- 
 sure be accounted for ; and then I will, 
 
 III. Direct you to the improvement of 
 the survey. 
 
IV. 
 
 72 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. Animate us, O God ! with thy blessed 
 / Spirit, that the complaint of our Divine 
 Master may not on this day be that of the 
 unworthiest of his servants ; the complaint of 
 having laboured in vain, and spent his strength 
 for naught, and stt^etched out his hands all the 
 day long to a disohedient and gainsaying people. 
 Blessed Jesus ! indemnify thyself, as it were, 
 for thine own disappointed attempts, when 
 addressing thyself to the obstinate Jews, with 
 some abundant fruits among sinners of the 
 Gentiles, by going forth conquering and to 
 conquer ! 
 
 I. Let us consider some circumstances 
 which may well render it surprising that the 
 ministry of our blessed Redeemer should 
 have been so unsuccessful in the days of his 
 flesh. 
 
 Now here let us consider who he was ; 
 how he was introduced into his public work; 
 the strain of his doctrine ; the lustre of his 
 example ; the pomp of his miracles ; and the 
 beneficent design in w^hich all centred : and 
 we shall see in every one of these particulars, 
 and much more in all of them together, a just 
 cause of astonishment at the circumstances of 
 which we are now to enter on the dc^tail. 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 73 
 
 1. Let US consider who our blessed Lord 
 was ; and it will certainly raise our expecta- v 
 tions high as to the probable success of his 
 ministry. 
 
 He was* a person of the most illustrious 
 and unequalled dignity. Had God sent down 
 an angel into human flesh, and commissioned 
 him to have made his appearance under the 
 character of a public teacher, we should 
 naturally have expected some great thing 
 from his ministrations : but behold a greater', 
 not only than Moses or Solomon, but than 
 Gabriel or Raphael, is here; the Lord of 
 angels ; the Son of God ; the heir of all 
 things; by whom all things were made, whe- 
 ther visible or invisible, not excepting thrones 
 and dominions, principalities and powers. He 
 came, who knew what was in man ; who could 
 not but know our nature ; because, though 
 he condescended himself to wear~it, he had 
 originally constituted it. On which account 
 he might be called the root, as well as the 
 offspring, not only of David but of Adam too. 
 It is the incarnate wisdom of God ; his Word, 
 who in the begimiing was with God, arid himself' 
 was God : and can he be unsuccessful ? Can- 
 not he that made the heart cause the sword 
 
 SERM. 
 IV. 
 
IV, 
 
 74 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. of conviction to come nigh unto it? Surely, 
 he could : and it is absolutely necessary that, 
 to vindicate the credibility of the fact in any 
 view, we should here lay it down as a prin- 
 ciple, that our Lord waved that omnipotent 
 energy which he. had over men's minds, as 
 he did that which he had over their bodies, 
 when he permitted the violence of his enemies 
 in the garden to have a short triumph over 
 him : yet, allowing this, we may assure our- 
 selves that the most prudent methods would 
 be taken by him m wliom were hid all the 
 treasures of nisdom and knowledge: and it 
 will remain just matter of everlasting asto- 
 nishment that he, armed as he was with 
 almighty power, should, for wise and bene- 
 volent reasons, permit himself to be, humanly 
 speaking, frustrated in his attempts; so that 
 he, who fainteth not, neither is weary, and who 
 in his utmost effort hideth a part of his power, 
 should speak as in the language of a feeble 
 mortal, and say, I have laboured in vain, I 
 have spent my strength for naught. 
 
 2. Our wonder will increase when we con- 
 sider how our Lord was introduced. 
 
 It became the majesty of God, when he sent 
 into the world so great and illustrious a person 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 75 
 
 as his only begotten Son, to raise a previous serm. 
 expectation of him : and accordingly he did ^.^-^I^ 
 raise such an expectation, that he was called, 
 by those who knew something of the design, 
 though they knew not him in whom it termi- 
 nated, the £pxoju,fv(^, the person that was to 
 come, or, as some would render it, the comer. 
 Thus, when Philip would tell Nathanael that 
 he had discovered the Messiah, he makes 
 use of this periphrasis to describe him, We 
 have found him of whom Moses in the law, and 
 the prophets did speak : and as his general 
 character, so his person was marked out, not 
 only by his miraculous conception, but by 
 the circumstances of his birth, proclaimed, 
 as you well know, to the shepherds by an 
 angel, and celebrated by the songs of a whole 
 celestial choir. The prophecy of Simeon and 
 Anna, upon his presentation in the temple, 
 had some considerable efficacy in exciting 
 expectation ; and the testimony of John the 
 Baptist yet much more ; of John, who was 
 so extremely popular, that to him all Jeru- 
 salem, and Judea, and Galilee flocked, not 
 excepting th?^ generation of vipers, the Phari- 
 sees and Sadducees ; not excepting even the 
 publicans and soldiers. This illustrious pro- 
 
76 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATlENDED 
 
 SERM. phet, of whom many doubted whether he 
 ^^^^^^ were not the Messiah himself, laid down all 
 his honours at the feet of Jesus ; testified of 
 him as the Lamh of God that takes away the 
 sins of the worlds and as so much his own 
 superior in dignity that he readily confessed 
 that he was not worthy to stoop down and 
 unloose the latchet of his shoes. One would 
 naturally have imagined that such circum- 
 stances of high introduction, humble as the 
 form was in which the Messiah came, should 
 have entitled him to more than mortal and 
 human honours ; and should have secured for 
 the message which he had to deliver the most 
 attentive and obedient regard ; especially 
 when we consider the visible descent of the 
 Spirit upon him, and the voice which came 
 from heaven, declaring. This is my beloved 
 So7i, in whom I am well pleased: circum- 
 stances which, though John only might see 
 and hear, yet we know that he expressly 
 testified ; though he found so few ready in 
 that most important respect to receive his 
 testimony. 
 
 3. The strain of our blessed Lord^s preach- 
 ing increases our wonder in the degree in 
 which the purposes of it were frustrated. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 77 
 
 When he first opened his commission in serm. 
 the synagogue of Nazareth, we are told that ^ 
 the people, who, knowing the meanness of 
 his education, might be the most likely to be 
 prejudiced against him, wondered at the gra- 
 cious words which proceeded out of his mouth. 
 And when the officers of the sanhedrim were 
 sent to seize him, they returned quite ashamed 
 and melted at his discourse; and cried out, as 
 in an ecstasy, in the presence of his inveterate 
 enemies, whom they knew to be thirsting for 
 his blood, and these too the principal magis- 
 trates of their nation. Never man spake like 
 this man. Nothing so plain, nothing so ten- 
 der, nothing so awakening as the speaking 
 of this Divine man ; witness that awful de- 
 nunciation, I say unto you, except ye repent, 
 ye shall all likewise perish : the kingdom of 
 God shall he taken from you, and given to a 
 nation bringing forth the fruits thereof: wit- 
 ness those gentle invitations. Come unto me, 
 all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest. If any man thirst, let him 
 come unto me and drink. Sec. But all this 
 familiarity, this tenderness, this solemnity, 
 were in vain; and our Lord had reason to 
 compare his own case, as well as that of the 
 
IV. 
 
 78 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. prophets, to that of children expostulating 
 / with their perverse companions, TVe have 
 piped unto you, and ye have not danced ; we 
 have mourned unto you, and ye have not la* 
 mented: and this was the more aggravated, 
 considering, 
 
 4. The lustre of his example. 
 
 If they who sit in Moses' chair say and do 
 not, there is little reason to wonder that they 
 are disregarded ; and that while the hearer 
 is saying in his own heart, Thou that teachest 
 another, teachest thou not thyself also? he 
 slights the message, even while he is in his 
 own conscience convinced that it is both right 
 and important : in that circumstance to neg- 
 lect it is great folly ; but it is a folly not dis- 
 armed of every excuse. But what, O blessed 
 Jesus ! what had thy hearers to plead for 
 their neglect, when thy whole conduct was 
 one continual illustration of thy precepts? 
 when thy whole life was showing how practi- 
 cable, and how lovely they were ? He could 
 look round about on an assembly of his most 
 inveterate enemies, and challenge them all to 
 allege any thing which he had ever said or 
 done that was amiss ; nnhich of you convinceth 
 me of sin ? He could look up to his Heavenly 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 79 
 
 Father, and appeal to his omniscience that serm. 
 he did always the things which pleased him. ^^,^J^ 
 Such a high priest did, indeed, become us, 
 holy, harmless, widefiled, and separate from 
 sinners : so that had his words been destitute 
 of every other charm but truth, the venera- 
 tion which the character of the preacher ex- 
 cited might reasonably have added an irre- 
 sistible weight to them ; especially when you 
 consider them as enforced, 
 
 5. By the pomp of his miracles. 
 
 Imagine, my brethren, that you had seen 
 the blessed Redeemer performing only one of 
 them ; saying to the impotent man, Aiise, 
 take up thy bed, and walk ; or to the blind 
 man. Go, z^ash in the pool of Siloam, a7id 
 thou shalt receive thy sight ; or to the ruler^s 
 daughter, when she lay a cold corpse. Dam- 
 sel, I say unto thee, arise; or to Lazarus, 
 when he had been four days dead, Lazarus, 
 come forth : would you not have imagined 
 that the Divine effect of these majestic words 
 should have inclined every hearer to have 
 attended with the most submissive regard to 
 every other word that should proceed from 
 his lips? and yet these miracles were not 
 singular in their instance or in their kind. 
 To these we are to add the storm silenced, 
 
IV. 
 
 80 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. the devils cast out, the leprosy cleansed, the 
 deaf ear unstopped, the maimed hand and 
 foot restored, and one or another of these 
 works daily performed ; multitudes of sick and 
 infirm people brought also from all parts to 
 the places where he preached ; yea, himself 
 going to preach the gospel in almost all parts 
 of the country, undertaking three circuits 
 within the compass of little more than two 
 years, that he might carry the miracles of 
 love and the word of salvation to their own 
 doors, if they were too indolent to tra\ el to 
 Nazareth, Capernaum, or Bethsaida, to hear 
 it ; and to obtain healing for all their com- 
 plaints. 
 
 6. The benevolent design, in which all 
 centred, must also be the subject of our 
 attention. 
 
 The kindness of our Lord's miracles was an 
 evidence of this. Though the blasting of the 
 figtree, and the permitting the legion of devils 
 to drown the swine (which, by the way, was 
 not the act of Christ, but of the great enemy 
 of God and man) might easily have shown 
 that he could have wrought wonders of terror, 
 we never find that Jesus in any one instance 
 occasioned either the death or the pain and 
 calamity of any one person, though the wick- 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 81 
 
 edness of some of his enemies might not only serm. 
 have justified such a conduct ; but, perhaps, v^l^^ 
 on the whole, have made it a work of mercy. 
 Accordingly we find that his apostles, in a 
 few instances, exerted their miraculous power 
 for such awful purposes : but the Lord him- 
 self performed only miracles of compassion 
 and goodness, and scattered everywhere bless- 
 ings far more valuable than silver and gold ; 
 blessings, to obtain which many who have 
 now the greatest abundance of wealth M^ould 
 be glad to part with their stores, and would 
 esteem themselves great gainers by the pur- 
 chase. And this beneficence, which showed 
 itself in his miracles, was manifest also in his 
 preaching. So he expressly tells us that the 
 Son of man came to seek and to save that 
 which was lost ; and, in this view of his mis- 
 sion, came not to he ministered unto^ hut to 
 minister, and to give his life a ransom for 
 many. He came to recover fallen creatures 
 to the enjoyment of God and of themselves ; 
 to call them from attending to the dying 
 trifles of mortality, that he might fix their 
 eyes, their hopes, their pursuits upon a crown 
 of eternal glory ; and might brin^ that crown 
 within their reach. He came, that they, 
 
 VOL. IV. G 
 
IV 
 
 82 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. who were destined like sheep to the slaughter, 
 might have life ; that they might have it more 
 abundantly ; that they might reign in hfe 
 with him, triumphant over all their enemies, 
 even over death, the last of them ; and, 
 when all his kindest attempts were fruitless, 
 he wept over them, to think how happy 
 they might have been, and how miserable 
 they had made themselves : O Jenisale7n ! 
 how often zoould I have gathered thee! If 
 thou hadst known the things which belong to 
 thy peace! Who can imagine what would 
 then have been in the blessed consequences ? 
 But how strange is it that there should be 
 any room for these tears ! how astonishing 
 that such efforts for their salvation and hap- 
 piness should have been thus ungratefully 
 rejected, thus obstinately overborne ? such 
 a salvation ! from such a Saviour ! 
 
 Recall it, sirs, again to your mind ; and, if 
 your prospect were to be bounded only to 
 this part of the view, how different an effect 
 should have been expected ! such a person 
 coming to them ; so introduced ; addressing 
 them in such a manner; enforcing his divinely 
 eloquent discourses with the lustre of such an 
 example, with the glory of such miracles ; in 
 pursuance of a design in which their own. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 83 
 
 their only, their eternal happiness was con- serm. 
 cerned. As a foreign writer expresses it, > 
 " So much care, so much love, so much ear- 
 nestness, so many conclusive discourses, so 
 many demonstrative proofs, so many exact 
 characters, so many shining miracles, so much 
 condescension, so much grandeur, so much 
 humility, so much glory, so many different 
 forms assumed, so many compassionate 
 schemes pursued ; what did it produce ? 
 One would have imagined that every sceptic 
 should have been convinced ; that every liber- 
 tine should have been reclaimed : one would 
 have imagined that the synagogue and the 
 sanhedrim should have prostrated themselves 
 together at his feet ; that all the different 
 sects should have united ; that the proud 
 Pharisee should have been humbled ; that 
 the unbelieving Sadducees should have been 
 convinced ; that the Essenes should have left 
 their deserts and retreats, to have mingled 
 themselves with the crowd of his disciples ; 
 and that the Herodians should have imme- 
 diately renounced all their hopes of favour 
 from that royal family, to which they were 
 attached, to throw themselves at the feet 
 of this king of Israel ; yea, that those of 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. the heathen who had dwelt amonir them, 
 
 IV. 
 
 .^^J^^ the Greeks or the Romans, the Scythians 
 and Barbarians, if such there had been, 
 should have yielded to evidence like this : 
 and that to exalt God's holy child Jesus, 
 whom he hath anointed, both Herod and 
 Pontius Pilate, with the people of Israel, 
 should have been gathered together. But, 
 
 astonishing thought ! of a truth they were 
 gathered together for a contrary purpose : 
 and not content with rejecting him, not con- 
 tent with deriding him, they united their 
 efforts to destroy him : they prepared no 
 crown for him but a crown of thorns : they 
 raised him to no exaltation but that of the 
 cross. So apparentlj^, so dreadfully were the 
 w^ords of the prophet fulfilled, I have laboured 
 in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, 
 that if we ask our blessed Lord what are the 
 rewards of his labours, he may point to the 
 marks of his sufferings, and may say, Behold 
 my hands and my feet ; these marks I carry 
 back to heaven for all the kindness which 
 
 1 have shown to men upon earth.'' 
 
 II. Let us now turn our minds to the 
 contemplation of some circumstances by 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 85 
 
 wliich SO strange an event may be accounted SERm. 
 
 r IV. 
 
 And here I have a number of thouirhts 
 breaking in upon me, which, if I should allow 
 myself to expatiate on them, would furnish 
 out several discourses ; but I will only sug- 
 gest these three considerations : the hearers 
 of Christ were under many strong prejudices 
 common to fallen creatures ; and under some 
 which were peculiar to their state as Jews ; 
 and God determined for wise, and, on the 
 whole, benevolent reasons, to leave them to 
 themselves, and not to interpose with that 
 extraordinary energy of grace, to which even 
 such prejudices must certainly have yielded. 
 
 1. The Jews were under many prejudices 
 as men : they were then in a very dissolute 
 state, as we learn by the sacred historians 
 and by the testimony of Josephus ; who says 
 of this and the next generation of them, that 
 they had attained to such abandoned heights 
 of immorality and impiety, that he believed 
 that, if the Romans had not come to destroy 
 them, God would either have rained down 
 fire and brimstone upon them ; or the earth 
 would have opened, and swallowed them up 
 alive. Now, gracious as these words were 
 
IV. 
 
 86 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. that proceeded out of the mouth of our 
 blessed Redeemer, thej were not calculated 
 to soothe men in their sins. No ; he insisted 
 on the necessity of repenting, and of bring- 
 ing forth works meet for repentance: he beat 
 down the empty hopes on which they had 
 built, saying within themselves that they had 
 Abraham for their father; and plainly told 
 them that if they did the works of the devil, 
 they proved themselves his children. He 
 pronounced his blessing on the poor in spirit, 
 on the pure in heart ; and thus shocked their 
 pride, and their avarice, and their sensuality : 
 he preached the cutting off a right hand, and 
 the plucking out a right eye, if they were 
 the causes of offence ; and his hearers replied. 
 It is a hard saying, who can hear it? He 
 preached the love of God and their neigh- 
 bour : but they had not the love of God in 
 them, and they were hateful to, and hating 
 one another ; foolish and abominable, and to 
 every good work reprobate : and, therefore, 
 free as that pardon was which he offered to 
 them for all their past sins, as he would not 
 himself become the minister of sin, these ser- 
 vants, these slaves of it, would not be recon- 
 ciled to his doctrine. And hence, I doubt 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 8? 
 
 not, hence the numberless instances in which serm. 
 he is rejected even at this day. Could we ^^^^ 
 find out a scheme of accommodating matters 
 between Christ and Belial, between righte- 
 ousness and unrighteousness, between light 
 and darkness ; could we produce an authen- 
 tic indulgence under the hands of our Master 
 to any one favourite lust and iniquity, I 
 doubt not but we should find multitudes re- 
 conciling themselves to his pretensions, who 
 now are leaders in opposition to him ; and 
 who seek to strengthen their own misgiving 
 hearts by the numbers which they join with 
 them in the confederacy. But, besides this, 
 2. There were many strong prejudices pe- 
 culiar to their state as Jew^s. I speak not 
 merely of those which arose from the original 
 constitution of their religion ; but from the 
 state unto which the teachers of it had 
 brought it. The infallibility of their teachers 
 was generally believed ; and the high esteem 
 in which the Scribes and Pharisees were held, 
 joined to the severity with which our Lord 
 reproved and exposed them, and the con- 
 tempt with which they publicly treated his 
 pretensions to be the Messiah, had, no doubt, 
 a very fatal efficacy upon the minds of the 
 people; as the notion of the perpetuity of 
 
IV. 
 
 88 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. the Jewish law, joined with some intimations 
 which Christ gave of the abohtion of it, would 
 excite a further prejudice against him. But, 
 perhaps, the greatest of all to be mentioned 
 under this head, was that which was taken 
 from those accounts of the Messiah which they 
 had made the most familiar to their minds. 
 Had they indeed impartially considered the 
 scriptures, they would have found, as our 
 Lord himself argues, that Christ was first to 
 suffer, and so to enter upon his glory ; but 
 their sinful prejudices, which I mentioned 
 before, fixed their eyes only upon those cha- 
 racters which suited their own carnal desires. 
 The covetous Jews, for instance, would re- 
 member that oracle. The silver is miiie^ the 
 gold is ?Jiiiie ; the kings of Tarshish and the 
 isles shall bring presents : and, when they 
 heard Christ warning men 7iot to lay up trea- 
 sures upon earth, they would say. This can- 
 not be the Christ, since he does not enrich 
 his disciples. The fierce and the proud Jew, 
 who longed to see Rome subdued, as Jerusa- 
 lem had been, would remember that oracle, 
 I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, 
 and the titmost parts of the earth for thy pos- 
 session. He shall rule from sea to sea ; all that 
 dwell on earth shall how dozon before him: and, 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 89 
 
 when Jesus preached the blessedness of them serivi. 
 
 IV. 
 
 who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, v,^,^^^ 
 this Jew would say, This tame son of peace 
 cannot be the Messiah. The luxurious Jew, 
 who interpreted literally the feast of fat things, 
 full of marrow, and wine on the lees well re- 
 fined ; the perfume of the myrrh, and the aloes, 
 and the cassia, out of the ivory palaces, with 
 which he zms to he made glad, would not 
 know the humble pilgrim of Nazareth, who 
 had not where to lay his head ; and who, when 
 he made a miraculous feast for his followers, 
 gave them barley bread, and multiplied a 
 few small fishes : and, when the reproach of 
 the cross came to be added to all the rest, 
 we shall the less wonder if it were to the Jews 
 a stumhling block, as well as to the Greeks 
 foolishness. But we are to add that, 
 
 3. God had determined for wise, and, on 
 the whole, benevolent reasons, to leave them 
 to themselves ; and not to interpose with that 
 extraordinary energy of his grace to which 
 even such prejudices must certainly have 
 yielded. Now here I might mention a variety 
 of particulars at which I must only hint, or I 
 shall leave myself no time for the improve- 
 ment, on which I heive my heart much set. 
 
90 THE LIITLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. I must, therefore, leave it to your own reflec- 
 
 IV. . . . 
 
 .^-^^ tions to consider how justly God punished 
 
 their obstinate infidelity, in the midst of so 
 many means of conviction and reformation, 
 by giving them up to the obstinacy of their 
 own hearts, and by withholding those more 
 extraordinary communications of his Spirit, of 
 which they had rendered themselves so very 
 unworthy. It was, no doubt, intended for 
 our admonition ; that, seeing in their infi- 
 delity and consequent ruin such an awful 
 instance of human depravity and of Divine 
 severity, we might fear to imitate them in 
 their obstinacy, lest we should share also 
 in their misery : and finally, I might show at 
 large that this was wisely adjusted in order 
 to confirm our faith. I may say, in allu- 
 sion to what our Lord said concerning the 
 legion of angels, think you not that he could 
 have darted a beam of conviction into their 
 hearts, which should have caused them to go 
 backward, and fall to the ground? in another 
 sense, to have prostrated themselves before 
 him in the humblest submission, and most 
 joyful acceptance of the message of his grace? 
 Could he not have transformed Annas and 
 Caiaphas into believers and apostles, whose 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. Ql 
 
 fervent zeal in his service should have exceed- serm. 
 ed that of Peter or of Paul ? yea, could he not ^^,^, 
 have reformed the notions of the whcle Jew- 
 ish people, and have taught them to welcome 
 him, under the form of a spiritual Messiah, 
 with a thousand times greater joy than they 
 would have welcomed one coming in his 
 own name, and professing to answer all their 
 carnal ideas and wishes ? But how then 
 should the scripture have been fulfilled^ that he 
 should he despised and rejected? even this 
 very scripture, that he should labour in vain. 
 Sec. ? Where had then been the accomplish- 
 ment of all the prophecies relating to the 
 infidelity and the consequent rejection of the 
 Jews ? Where that confirmation of our faith 
 which arises from that extraordinary confu- 
 sion in which, at present, they are scattered 
 among all the nations, and yet preserved as a 
 distinct people, persevering in a resolute at- 
 tachment to the ceremonial of their religion, 
 when they have lost all regard to the funda- 
 mental and most important moral precepts of 
 it ; attesting, to their own condemnation, the 
 truth of the Old Testament, by which we de- 
 monstrate against them that the Messiah is 
 come ; and that Jesus whom we preach to you 
 
IV. 
 
 92 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. is he : and, leaving evident room for the ac- 
 complishment of the prophecies of their con- 
 version and restoration in the latter day ? It 
 became the Divine majesty and goodness to 
 appoint such a series of events ; and, not, in- 
 deed, to necessitate the obstinacy and infi- 
 delity of the Jews, God forbid that we should 
 utter a blasphemy like that ! but to permit 
 them to prevail, as the result of their own 
 folly and wickedness, which he did not, by 
 the last and greatest of miracles, interpose to 
 overrule. I think that this may be enough to 
 account for so strange a fact as the continued 
 infidelity of the Jewish nation ; and, therefore, 
 I wave what I might easily offer further, to 
 abate our wonder, from the part which man- 
 kind have acted under different dispensations 
 before our Lord appeared ; and from the un- 
 accountable prejudices and perverseness with 
 which men have conducted themselves ever 
 since in cases where religion and immortality 
 have been concerned. I will not, therefore, 
 insist upon the monstrous corruption of Chris- 
 tianity and common sense by popery, which 
 would somewhat illustrate this subject ; nor 
 upon the practical disregard which is still 
 shown to Christ by those who most solemnly 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 93 
 
 profess to own his authority ; any further than serm . 
 as the latter of these topics may be of use ^^^-v^ 
 in the improvement to which I now proceed ; 
 regretting that I have so few moments to 
 pursue a subject which would be so fruitful 
 in profitable reflections. 
 
 1. Let not ministers wonder if their labour 
 be in vain when they hear their Divine Mas- 
 ter uttering such a complaint as this. It is 
 difficult to bring our lips to submit to that 
 bitter cup which in this respect is often put 
 into our hands. We are ready sometimes to 
 grow impatient, and enter into a detail of 
 our disappointments for the salvation of our 
 hearers. " So many studious hours, so many 
 fervent prayers, so many animated addresses 
 on the sabbath day, and on w eek days ; such 
 artifice to catch you in the net of the gospel ; 
 such awful admonitions, such tender insinua- 
 tions, such melting invitations in public and 
 in private ; our thoughts, our wishes, our 
 tears employed in vain ; and there is none 
 that repents of his wickedness^ and says, what 
 have I done ? there is none that understandeth, 
 there is none that seeketh after God ; there is 
 none that cries out. What shall I do to be 
 saved ? Our lives are worn out ; our constitu- 
 
IV. 
 
 94 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. tions are broken ; we have spent the prime of 
 , our days to very little purpose. The summer 
 is passed, the harvest is ended, and we are 
 not saved : the bellows are burnt, and the 
 lead is consumed in the fire ; but this repro- 
 bate silver is not melted down. We look up 
 and say, How long, O Lord, holy and true ! 
 we are ready to look round, and to cry 
 out, Hear now, ye rebels, must we hrhig water 
 out of the rock ? But peace, O my soul, peace ! 
 did not Jesus say, I have laboured in vain? 
 And is the disciple above his Master? O my 
 soul ! thou dost desire to see multitudes con- 
 verted at once ; to see a people born in a 
 day : but when thou considerest his disap- 
 pointed labours, his despised love, his words, 
 his tears poured out like water upon the earth; 
 be contented to labour all the day, though 
 thou catch nothing ; and be thankful, be 
 joyful, if now and then God is giving to thee 
 a soul ; though it be but one in this month or 
 this year, and another in the next. Though 
 I have spent my strength for naught and in 
 vain, surely my judgment is with the Lord, and 
 my work with my God, 
 
 2. Let us be humbled that Christ has had 
 so much reason to complain with respect to 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 95 
 
 US, that the labour which he has bestowed serm. 
 upon us has been in vain. v^-v^ 
 
 We blame those obstinate Jews, who re- 
 jected the Son of God ; and certainly we have 
 reason to blame them : but I sometimes fear 
 that it is, as they blamed their fathers for 
 killing the former prophets, while they were 
 filling the measure of their iniquity ; as if they 
 had built the tombs of the prophets, whom 
 their fathers had slain, rather to perpetuate 
 the memory of the execution which had 
 been done upon them, than to honour their 
 characters. Thus do many of us, I fear, say 
 that zve would not have been partakers with the 
 Jews in the contempt with which they treated 
 Christ, and the slight which they put upon 
 his ministry. Oh, sirs ! Christ is still speak- 
 ing to us by his servants, concerning whom 
 he has said. He that despiseth you despiseth 
 me ; and how is he regarded ? Were our 
 Lord Jesus Christ to appear among you in 
 person, might he not say to some of you, 
 " Sinner ! thou knowest that I haye long 
 warned thee of such and such evils. I have 
 reproved thy covetousness, and thy passion, 
 and thy pride, and thy drunkenness, and thy 
 lying, and thy lewdness : but I have laboured 
 
IV. 
 
 90 THE LITTLE SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED 
 
 SERM. in vain; I have spent my strength for naught: 
 , still you go on to profane my sabbath, and to 
 break my precepts, as if you had heard no- 
 thing of me." He might say to others of 
 you ; " Sinners, I have invited you long to 
 apply to me for pardon and life, to seek justi- 
 fication by my righteousness, and sanctifica- 
 tion by my grace ; but I have laboured in 
 vain, I have spent my strength for 7iaught : 
 you still continue to neglect me." He might 
 say to others; " Sirs, I have long invited you 
 to my table : I have spread it in your sight, 
 and have said, Eat, eat, O my friends, and 
 drink abundantly; but I have laboured ill vain: 
 you neglect it from month to month, and 
 you are ending the year with that neglect for 
 which your heart smote you in the beginning 
 of it/' To a fourth sort he might say, " I 
 have pressed upon you the care of the souls 
 of others ; I have urged you to set up the 
 exercise of religion in your families, to take 
 care for the instruction of your children, that 
 they might be brought up in the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord ; but I have laboured 
 in vain : you think this little trouble too much 
 for my service, after all that I have done for 
 the salvation of your souls/' O sirs ! let us 
 
IV 
 
 THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 97 
 
 not deceive ourselves with vain words : we serm. 
 are the disobedient and gainsaying people, to ^ 
 whom, in one respect or another, Christ is 
 stretching out his hand in vain. Let us 
 humble ourselves at his feet. Let us set our 
 souls to greater attention for the future, and 
 say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears. 
 
 3. Let us rejoice that the labour of Christ 
 shall not be finally in vain ; but that he shall 
 see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. 
 
 That, you know, is express matter of pro- 
 phecy ; and, blessed be God ! it is in part 
 fulfilled before your eyes. The words of 
 Christ to his apostles were fulfilled : they did 
 greater works than he ; they were far more 
 successful than he in his personal labours, 
 when the gospel was opened in all its extent, 
 and preached by the Holy Ghost sent down 
 from heaven. Even among the Jews, bad 
 as they were, there remained a remnant ac- 
 cording to the election of grace ; and, adored 
 be that grace ! there is a remnant among us. 
 The plan of Christ shall not be finally disap- 
 pointed ; and I trust that we shall, many of 
 us, find that his gospel is the power of God to 
 our own salvation. Cannot many of us say, 
 " The obstinacy of our hearts has been sub- 
 
 VOL. IV. H 
 
IV. 
 
 98 THE LITTLE SUCCESS, ETC. 
 
 SERM. dued V Cannot many of us look to him with 
 that solemn appeal, Lord, thou knowest all 
 tJihigs ; thou knowest that I love thee ? This, 
 wherever we see it, is the harvest sprung up 
 from that seed which he sowed in the days 
 of his flesh. We shall be unto him for an 
 everlasting name, that shall never he cut off. 
 He will acknowledge us in the great day as 
 the blessed fruits of his toil and of his blood. 
 " Oh ! that we may all be in that blessed 
 number. Let men censure and despise us 
 at pleasure : let those, that reject and deride 
 our Lord, despise and deride us : we will 
 share his infamy, we will share his disap- 
 pointment with patient fortitude ; we shall 
 share his glory in due time : and now we will 
 go on resolutely and cheerfully under the 
 united consolation of these two important 
 thoughts, that his labour is not vain in us ; 
 and that our labour shall not be in vain in 
 the Lord." 
 
99 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 OF SEEING HIM THAT IS INVISIBLE. 
 
 Hebrews, xi. 27. 
 He endured, as seeing him who is invisible. 
 
 The apostle is here speaking of Moses, of serm. 
 whom God himself testified that he was a >,^^..^^ 
 servant faithful in all his house. With the 
 utmost reason does he afford him a large 
 and conspicuous place among those worthies, 
 who through faith obtained a good repor^t : 
 and happy indeed had Israel been if, through 
 all its generations, it had copied the charac- 
 ter of that legislator, of whose name they 
 were so ready to boast. That effect of his 
 faith, which is celebrated in the words of the 
 text, was, that he forsook Egypt, not fearing 
 the wrath of the king. It is evident, from 
 the first hearing of these words, that this 
 cannot relate to his leaving Egypt, when he 
 fled into the land of Midian, because we are 
 expressly told that, Pharaoh seeking to slay 
 
 H 2 
 
V. 
 
 100 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. him, he fled from his face. It is, therefore, 
 , much more reasonable to explain it of his 
 leaving Egypt the last time, when he faced 
 the haughty monarch, so highly exasperated, 
 with such calm courage, when in proud rage 
 threatening him with death if he saw his face 
 any more : or, perhaps, it may particularly 
 refer to his intrepidity at the Red Sea, when 
 all the army of Israel, harassed as they were, 
 were struck into consternation ; and though 
 he had reason especially to fear that Pharaoh 
 would wreak all his malice and fury upon 
 him, to whom the tyrant imagined the revolt 
 of all the people to be owing, yet, though pent 
 up as well as the rest by the sea before, and 
 the mountains on each side, while the cruel 
 enemy wa« pressing upon his rear, Moses, 
 supported by this Divine principle of faith in 
 the Almighty, speaks as if he had winds, and 
 sea, and mountains at his command, and 
 says to the trembling Israelites, Stand still, 
 and see the salvation of God. 
 
 The apostle goes on to show on what prin- 
 ciple it was that this servant of God braved 
 all these dangers with such heroic courage 
 and resolution : he endured, as seeing him 
 that is invisible : he had a firm belief in the 
 being and providence, the power and good- 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 101 
 
 ness of the blessed God ; and this rendered serm. 
 him superior to any terror of man. The eye ^^-.^ 
 of the mind discovered to him the invisible 
 God ; and, in his presence, while acting by 
 his command, he did not dare to fear. 
 
 It will not be my business at present more 
 particularly to survey the important fact to 
 which the apostle refers ; or to show to you 
 how evidently Moses appears to have been 
 animated by a high degree of faith in it ; 
 you cannot read the history, without seeing 
 it in each of his words and actions : but I 
 shall make four observations on the words of 
 the text, and shall then conclude with the 
 improvement of them. 
 
 I. I shall observe that the blessed God is 
 an invisible Being ; 
 
 II. That nevertheless there is a way by 
 which he may be seen : 
 
 III. That the generality of mankind do 
 not obtain this sight : 
 
 IV. That where the sight of God is ob- 
 tained, it will prove a principle of the most 
 heroic and exalted goodness. Oh that we 
 may, by blessed experience, find that it is so ! 
 Oh that we may this day gain, and every 
 day retain, such thoughts of God as shall 
 produce such happy consequences! 
 
102 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. I. We observe that the blessed God is the 
 .^^.^X^ great invisible Being. Seeing Mm who is in- 
 visible. This word implies the invisibility of 
 God, and that he is of all invisible beings the 
 most illustrious; so that he bears it as a kind 
 of appropriate title, that he is the invisible ; a 
 title by which he may be known and distin- 
 guished from all other beings whatsoever. 
 
 1. He is invisible : our reason proves that 
 he is so, and the word of God expressly tes- 
 tifies it. 
 
 Our reason proves that God is invisible ; 
 for we know by reason that nothing but what 
 is material can be the object of our senses, 
 and that God is immaterial, and therefore 
 invisible. What is purely spiritual and im- 
 material cannot be the object of any of our 
 senses. Our sensations are certain impres- 
 sions made upon the corporeal part of our 
 own frame ; and we know that it is only mat- 
 ter which can in a proper manner strike upon 
 matter ; and that which renders any body 
 visible is either its sending out rays of light 
 from itself, or reflecting them when received 
 from some other body. Now, though the rays 
 of light are the purest material substance 
 which we know, yet it is plain, by many phi- 
 losophical experiments, that they are mate- 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 103 
 
 rial, and are the subject of several operations, serm, 
 particularly by the means of glasses, whereby v,,.^-^^^ 
 they may be divided, or united, or com- 
 pounded in such a manner as is impossible 
 for an immaterial substance to be. On the 
 other hand, we certainly know that the blessed 
 God is an immaterial being. He is a spirit ; 
 and this by the light of nature evidently ap- 
 pears, not only from the natural arguments 
 which prove the immateriality of the soul, and 
 which prove it impossible that thought should 
 arise from matter, whereas God is the great 
 principle and origin of thought, but likewise 
 from the immensity of the Divine Being, and 
 from the distinction between the Creator and 
 the creatures : for if the blessed God was ma- 
 terial, he would fill space, and then it would 
 be impossible that any other body should be 
 there; and, consequently, that unless stones, 
 and trees, and birds, and beasts were to be 
 conceived as so many parts of the Deity, the 
 Deity would necessarily be excluded from all 
 places where bodies are : nor could bodies in 
 that case be created by him ; not only as by 
 that creation he would exclude himself, but 
 also as he, being himself infinite, and all 
 addition to what is infinite, in the very first 
 
104 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. notion of it, beino- absurd, it would, in the 
 
 V , . . . 
 
 v^.^X^ nature of things, be impossible that there 
 
 should be any other body in the universe. 
 
 But these are more abstruse and scholastic 
 ideas, on which, though I have just touched 
 upon them, you well know that it is not my 
 way largely to insist. It is sufficient for us, 
 knowing the Bible to be a Divine revelation, 
 to know that it asserts the invisibility of the 
 blessed God. Thus you know that it is said 
 by our Lord himself. No man hath seen God 
 at any time : and by the apostle, that he is 
 called the King eternal, immortal, and invi- 
 sible; and elsewhere, ZlIw only has immortality, 
 dwelling in the light which no man can approach 
 
 ' \ Tim. \. unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see^. 
 ' And the only begotten of the Father is said 
 
 ' Col. i. 15. to be the image of the invisible God^ ; and 
 this was the doctrine of the Old Testament 
 as well as of the New. It is true, indeed, 
 that we often read of God's rendering himself 
 visible to particular persons, and even to the 
 whole nation of the Jews ; but then, with 
 relation to this, it is said that they saw no 
 manner of similitude ; and they were forbidden 
 to make any visible thing as the symbol and 
 representation of God: and, what is yet more 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 105 
 
 convincing, we there read of the Divine om- serm. 
 nipresence, of his filHng not only heaven, but s.^^^ 
 earth with his presence. Now it is certain 
 that the world is not filled with any visible 
 form of the Deity ; and therefore it is plain 
 that what was seen was only some material 
 appearance, by which God gave those who 
 beheld it a token of his more extraordinary 
 presence ; and that it was not considered by 
 them as the very essence and substance of 
 God : from whence it will further appear that 
 all those expressions which relate to the eye, 
 the hands, the feet, the ear of the Lord, Sec. 
 are to be understood entirely in a figurative 
 sense, as expressive of his power, his know- 
 ledge, and the like. 
 
 2. I might further observe here that God 
 is spoken of as the invisible Being by way of 
 eminence ; not that he alone is in his own 
 nature invisible : it is certain that there are 
 many invisible spirits besides the blessed 
 God. Angels are so, who wait upon the 
 saints from time to time, ministering to the 
 heirs of salvation. Human souls are invisible 
 too. They go off at death, and remove to some 
 different kind of world, yet no eye is so saga- 
 
V. 
 
 105 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. cious as to discern them in their passage, 
 even where a dying person is ever so carefully 
 observed. Nay, indeed, there are many 
 smaller and rarer bodies, which are invisible 
 to our eyes ; not to mention many minute 
 things, both of the animal and vegetable 
 kind, which the microscope makes visible, 
 whereas they were before unseen. It is cer- 
 tain that the air is invisible ; which, never- 
 theless, is plainly a body, producing some- 
 times such astonishing effects as no engine, 
 which man can form, can by any means 
 equal ; and being, indeed, the great instru- 
 ment of the more forcible impulses given 
 by the discharge of all kinds of firearms. 
 There are milhons of invisible beings of 
 one kind and another surrounding us ; yet 
 God is said to be by way of eminence He 
 that is invisible ; and this for two evident 
 reasons, that there is nothing material and 
 visible, which makes a part of his being, 
 whereas, for any thing that we certainly 
 know, though angels and human souls are 
 invisible to us, yet there may always be 
 some finer kind of substance in which they 
 may inseparably dwell, and by which they 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 107 
 
 may be made visible to each other. This serm. 
 was plainly the doctrine of the Platonic v^.^-^ 
 philosophers ; and, though I cannot assert it, 
 there is nothing absurd and impossible in it : 
 and I confess that I rather imagine it, as we 
 are sure that Jesus Christ dwells in a human 
 body ; which body is, no doubt, visible to 
 the blessed inhabitants of the heavenly world. 
 And then God is called the invisible Being, 
 because he is infinitely the greatest and most 
 glorious of them all ; and that Being with 
 whom we are infinitely more concerned than 
 with any or with all the rest. TVho among 
 the sons of the mighty can he likened unto the 
 Lord? who is like to him among the gods, 
 the God with whom we have to do^? And, ^psaim 
 indeed, I might show at large that our inter- 
 course with, and concern in other beings is 
 chiefly as they are referred to him, and as they 
 may be the means of leading us nearer to 
 him, and of aiding our converse with him. 
 
 II. Nevertheless there is a way by which 
 this invisible God may be seen. 
 
 So we are told concerning Moses, he en- 
 dured, as seeing him zcho is invisible : he acted 
 as one that saw God. Now there are in the 
 
 Ixxxvi. 8. 
 xxxviii. 6. 
 
108 or SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. word of God two respects in which God may 
 v^..^,!^^ be said to be seen by his creatures ; in the 
 one of which it is the privilege, in the other 
 the character of good men to see him ; their 
 pecuhar privilege, their appropriated charac- 
 ter. We will bestow a word or two upon 
 each of these modes of seeing God. 
 
 1. To see God sometimes signifies to enjoy 
 him, and in that respect it is the good man's 
 happiness, and the highest happiness which 
 the creature can obtain ; as what can sound 
 so much like happiness as the enjoying of the 
 Creator, the great, blessed, eternal God ? 
 Now this is promised to every true Christian : 
 oh that we might each of us attain it ! pro- 
 mised by God himself: Blessed are the pure 
 
 * Matt. V. in heart, for they shall see God'^ : and Job 
 had a joyful prospect of it, Whom my eyes 
 s Job xix. shall see, and not another for me^. 
 
 2. It sometimes signifies to have a realizing 
 apprehension of the Divine presence by faith ; 
 and in this sense it is the character of a good 
 man, and of Moses in the text. So Job, 
 when God answered him out of the whirl- 
 wind, though there was no corporeal appear- 
 ance, and represented the Divine perfections 
 and glory in such a manner that he was 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 109 
 
 powerfully impressed with them, cries out, I serm. 
 have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; v^^[l^^ 
 hut now mine eye seeth thee^. And so Hagar, *Job xiii. 
 when affected with a discovery of the Di- 
 vine providential care, called the name of 
 the place Beer-lahai-roi ; for here, says she, 
 I have looked after him that seeth me, or, I 
 have, as it were, fixed the eye of my soul 
 upon him ; and David expresses the same 
 idea sometimes by having his eyes ever to- 
 wards the Lord, and sometimes hy setting the 
 Lord always before him^ : and happy are the'Psa. x.w. 
 souls that can appeal to Him who sees their '^' ^'^^' ^' 
 hearts, that this is their temper and their 
 care. But is this happiness universal ? Would 
 to God that it were ! The contrary is too 
 plainly implied in the words of the text ; and 
 leads us to observe, 
 
 III. That the generality of men do not 
 obtain and preserve this sight. For you see 
 that this is spoken of as an extraordinary 
 thing in Moses, and productive of a very 
 extraordinary character in him, that he saw 
 him who is invisible. Now this seems a matter 
 worthy of great notice ; that when such a 
 God is always and necessarily present with 
 
110 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. men, giving them so many tokens of his per- 
 
 v^^-J!^^ fections, and so many proofs and instances 
 of his kindness, and his care of them, they 
 should be so httle sensible of it. Give me 
 leave, therefore, a little to prove this ; that 
 the mind, being more convinced of the 
 fact, may be the more impressed with it. 
 Now this appears if we consider how many 
 there are that take no notice at all of him, 
 and how many are not afraid to provoke him 
 to his face. 
 
 1. There are many in the world that take 
 no notice of God at all. Therefore they are 
 
 *Ep!i. ii. said to he without God in the world^ : and, as 
 another sacred author speaks, God is not in 
 
 ^Fs^.x. 4. all their thoughts^ : yea, they do, as it were, 
 say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire 
 
 •jobxxi. not the knowledge of thy ways^. No; they 
 act as if they thought it beneath them to take 
 any notice of God, and to hold any converse 
 with him. The wicked, through the pride of 
 his countenance, as it is said in the preceding 
 text, will not seek after God. And let me 
 beseech you to ask your own consciences 
 whether this may not be said of some of you. 
 I am afraid that it may. Now can it be 
 imagined that a man sees God, that he has 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. Ill 
 
 any affecting sight of him, when he will not serm. 
 take any notice of him ; will not hold any v,.,,^-^Jl^ 
 converse with him ; w ill not speak a word to 
 him ; will not ask a favour from his hand, 
 or thank him for what he receives from his 
 bounty ; but, when some serious and solemn 
 thought of God is, perhaps, suggested to his 
 mind, will turn away from it, and that even 
 when he is, perhaps, in the very house of 
 God ? Does that man see God, who sets 
 himself to sleep when he should be present- 
 ing his petitions to him, and hearing his 
 w^ord ; or who is, perhaps, whispering and 
 laughing when he should be singing his 
 praise? Why, this is just such conduct as 
 might be expected from a man who imagined 
 that he was in a place where God was not ; 
 or where God could not see and observe his 
 conduct. Oh ! it is too plain, from men^s 
 omission of Divine worship, from their trifling 
 in it, that they see not God, nor take an^^ 
 notice of him. 
 
 2. There are many who are not afraid to 
 provoke God to his face ; and surely these 
 do not see him. When I speak of provoking 
 God to his face, I use a phrase which the 
 scripture teaches us : I have spread out my 
 
112 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. hands all the day unto a rebellions people^ 
 \^„^^S^^ ^'hich walketh in a way that is 7iot good, after 
 their own thoughts ; a people that protoketh 
 'Isaiah me to anger continually to my face^. And 
 many such there are whose Hfe is one con- 
 tinued provocation of the Majesty of heaven, 
 as if they would make the experiment how 
 much he would bear. They know his laws, 
 and they pass for nothing with them ; they 
 would not commit this or that wickedness 
 before man, before a judge ; nay, perhaps, 
 they would not commit it before a child ; 
 but they will commit it before the blessed 
 God: and can we imagine that they see him? 
 that they have then a proper and steady per- 
 suasion that God, with all his power and all 
 his holiness, is there ? What ! do they think 
 themselves his superiors ? Do they suppose 
 that they can overbear his omnipotence ? 
 One would imagine that they thought so ; 
 as the apostle expresses it when he says. Do 
 we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we 
 ^ I Cor. \. stronger than he^? Observe how this mad- 
 ness is represented by Eliphaz, when he 
 speaks of the proud haughty sinner : He 
 stretcheth out his hand against God, and 
 strengtheneth himself against the Almighty : 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 113 
 
 tie runs upon him, even on his neck, upon the serm. 
 thick bosses of his buckler'^. The Almighty ^^^^ 
 is represented Hke an armed warrior ; and * ^°^ ^^' 
 
 : . . . 25, 26. 
 
 the sinner is represented as running against 
 him. Do these wretches, think you, see 
 God ? Do they know what an enemy they 
 charge and challenge ? Oh ! if they did, they 
 would fall down before him in tears and in 
 trembling, and sue to him for their lives. Ac- 
 cordingly, if God gives a poor creature, as it 
 were, but one glance of himself; if he flashes 
 but one ray, as it were, from his majestic 
 countenance upon him, his heart presently 
 sinks ; his hands fall down disabled ; and he 
 cries out like one who is undone. And if 
 God pleases to shine forth in the mild beams 
 of his love and mercy, and by his Holy Spirit 
 to clear up the sight of this poor, rash, rebel- 
 lious creature, his heart is subdued ; he loves 
 the God whom he was before making war 
 against ; and would, as it were, not only put 
 off his armour of rebellion, but all his most 
 boasted ornaments, that he might reflect a 
 few of those rays, and wear a little of that 
 resemblance which appears so beautiful and 
 so delightful ; and this I am to show in the 
 next place : 
 
 VOL. IV. I 
 
1 14 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. IV. That where a sight of God is niain- 
 ^^^!!^y tained in the soul, it will prove a principle 
 of the most heroic and exalted goodness. 
 
 This is, if I may so speak, that which made 
 a Moses. This is that which fired his zeal, 
 and strengthened his patience, and fitted him 
 for all that he did and bore in God's service. 
 He saw him that is invisible ; and I would fain 
 make you sensible of this : that to see this 
 invisible God would be attended with noble 
 consequences. Particularly it would preserve 
 us from sin, it would animate our devotions, 
 it would dispose us to all kind actions to our 
 fellow creatures, and would arm the mind 
 with courage to endure the greatest diflfi- 
 culties and hardships. 
 
 1. A believing sight of God, for of that 
 we now speak, would have a most powerful 
 tendency to preserve us from sin. 
 
 We live in a world of temptations, and 
 our natures are frail and feeble : this consi- 
 deration is therefore important. So you 
 know that it wrought upon Joseph, when his 
 mistress solicited him with her unlawful love : 
 How, says he, shall I do this great wickedness, 
 5 Genesis and shi against God^ ? How secret soever the 
 scene of the iniquity might be, he knew that 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 115 
 
 God could not be excluded from it; and in 
 his sight he could not bear to act in such an 
 indecent, unjust, ungrateful manner. One 
 realizing view of the blessed God would dis- 
 arm ten thousand temptations. Those things 
 that look great, as in his absence, would vanish 
 into nothing in his presence ; and it is worthy 
 of our notice that this is a universal preser- 
 vative. It relates not only to this or to that 
 particular sin, but to all : yea, it extends to 
 the first motion and tendency towards sin in 
 the soul ; for it is natural to reflect, " What 
 if my external behaviour be irreproachable, 
 yet if my heart be polluted with sinful de- 
 sires, and affections, and purposes, will not 
 the heart-searching God be offended at it? 
 Can it be concealed from him ? or, if he 
 sees it, will he be reconciled to it ? nay, will 
 he not rather look upon it as a peculiar in- 
 dignity offered to his blessed self that, when 
 I am careful of my character as to others, 
 and unwilling to offend them, I should make 
 nothing at all of his favour ; that I should 
 make so bold with him V This thought would 
 have a great influence ; and then it would be 
 the more efficacious, as it is of so noble a 
 nature, and would teach us to be subject, not 
 
 1 2 
 
116 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. only for wrath, hut, as it were, for comcknce 
 ^^.S-^^y sake ; out of conscientious reverence for so 
 great and illustrious a Being, and out of gra- 
 titude too, when we consider his paternal 
 kindness and goodness. Oh that you would 
 be persuaded to try in the ensuing week what 
 the believing view of God would do towards 
 keeping you from sin ! and I believe that it 
 would prove one of the most innocent weeks 
 in your life ; and, I may add, one of the most 
 devout and useful too : for, 
 
 2. This believing sight of God will surely 
 animate our devotion. 
 
 The Jewish ritual was exceedingly splendid, 
 and there was a great deal in it which struck 
 the senses in a very powerful manner. The 
 Christian worship is, especially among us, 
 conducted with the greatest simplicity; there 
 is very little in it to strike the eye or the ear ; 
 but if we look through these forms to an in- 
 visible God, it will strike the heart. When 
 we see him, as it were, with all his infinite 
 perfections and glories about him, clothing 
 himself with light as with a garinent, arrayed 
 with honour and majesty, we shall, like Moses, 
 when he saw the back parts of the King of 
 Israel, hasten, and bow ourselves down with 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 117 
 
 our faces towards the earth. Tlie beheving serm. 
 sight of God will put huniilit}^ into our con- v^-vX^ 
 fessions, ardent desire into our petitions, and 
 affectionate gratitude into our praises. It 
 will fill us with humility, abasement, and 
 love. I have taken upon me to speak unto the 
 Lord, says the father of the faithful, who am 
 but dust and ashes^. My eye sees thee, says '^Genesis 
 Job, therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust 
 and ashes'^. " Lord ! what am I amidst thy Uob xiii. 
 works ? what am I in thy presence ? Does 
 the Lord look upon me ? May I be allowed 
 to utter one word before thee ? May I be 
 allowed to do it ; and shall I neglect to da 
 it ? Shall I live without speaking to this great 
 and glorious God, who is ever with me ? or 
 shall I speak in a hypocritical, in a formal, 
 and in a cold manner ? Oh that I could pour 
 out all my soul in every word which I utter ! 
 Oh that I could unite all its powers in one 
 fervent act ! Oh that I had capacity to praise 
 thee as thou art praised in heaven ! to love 
 thee with as great ardour and as strong- 
 emotion as the brightest seraph does there ! 
 Gladly would I vie with them, O holy, holy, 
 holy Lord God, in celebrating thy magnifi- 
 cent and glorious name !" 
 
118 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 3. The believing sight of God will quicken 
 us to benevolent affections. 
 
 When we view God, we view him not only 
 as light, but as love ; as the Father of the 
 universe, dispensing blessings on every side 
 of him. And we know that it is his will that 
 his rational creatures should love one another, 
 and make each other as happy as they can ; 
 therefore, both in obedience to his will, and 
 in imitation of his example, when we thus 
 look upon him, we shall find our souls in- 
 flamed with a desire to do good. He that 
 loves 7iot his brother, whom he hath seen, how 
 shall he love God, whom he hath not seen ? It 
 is natural for the soul to say, " Do I stand 
 here in the presence of this good God, and 
 does he even now look into my heart? Oh, 
 let him see, as it were, his own image re- 
 flected from thence ! let him behold a crea- 
 ture who, according to his narrow capacity, 
 would fain pursue the end which his Creator 
 and great Benefactor pursues \" 
 
 Methinks it would be an agreeable illus- 
 tration of this to think of a Christian viewing, 
 as it were, on the one hand, his Heavenly 
 Father, and on the other his necessitous 
 brother, and saying with himself, " Whence 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 119 
 
 came it to pass that there should be such an serm. 
 object, an indigent man, an indigent Chris- v^-v^ 
 tian in the presence of an Almighty God ? Is 
 not the residue of the Spirit and the fulness 
 of power and glory with him ? Could he not 
 have provided effectually for the supply of 
 all his creatures, and have taken care that 
 there should be no painful necessity? Why 
 then is this permitted, but that there might 
 be the exercise of graces proper to these dif- 
 ferent states ? that my poor brother might 
 exercise humble submission and holy de- 
 pendence ; and that I, enriched as I am by 
 ni}^ Father's bounty, might apply some of it 
 to this good purpose, and so have the plea- 
 sure of relieving/' As we sometimes give 
 our children a little stock in their hands, to 
 see how they will use it, and are pleased with 
 what they do in the way of charity ; a heart, 
 that sees how God opens his hand, and satis- 
 fies the desire of every living thing, will find 
 an incentive to beneficence and usefulness in 
 every thing which he sees about him. The 
 birds of the air teach it ; the beasts of the 
 field proclaim it; the trees of the forest, 
 the grain, and the very flowers of the earth, 
 at the same time that they declare the pre- 
 
120 OF SEriNG HI3I 
 
 SERM. sencfe of God, declare his bounty, and call 
 ,^„.^^, upon us to he merciful and liberal as our 
 Heavenly Father is. And nothing will ap- 
 pear the object of so noble an ambition as 
 to be approved by this benevolent Being. 
 Though it is beneath a Christian to do his 
 alms to be seen of men, we are allowed, we 
 are required to maintain a regard to that 
 God who sees in secret, and whom we in 
 secret may see. 
 
 4. This believing sight of God will arm 
 the mind to a courageous endurance of the 
 greatest difficulties and hardships which we 
 can meet in the way of our duty. 
 
 Various instances of this occur in scripture; 
 and it is reasonable to believe that it should 
 produce such an effect. David met Goliath 
 as in the name and presence of God, and 
 defied the danger at which an army trembled. 
 The three worthies considered themselves as 
 in the presence of God, and were not careful 
 to answer that tyrant who threatened them 
 with a fiery furnace, heated before their eyes. 
 Yea, our Lord is represented as saying, I have 
 set my face like a flint ; he is near. And par- 
 don me that to this illustrious instance I add 
 one with which I have been much affected. 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 121 
 
 though it be not recorded in the canonical serm. 
 scriptures; I mean the account of the martyr- k^^-J^^.^ 
 dom of those heroic children in the Macca- 
 bees, to whom the apostle refers when he 
 says that they were tortured, not accepting 
 deliverance, that they might obtain a better 
 resurrection. We are told in the most ancient 
 account of that fact, that when the tyrant 
 had seized the first of the seven sons, and cut 
 out his tongue, and cut off his hands and his 
 feet, his mother and brethren exhorted him 
 and each other to die courageously, saying. 
 The Lord God looks upon us, and in truth has 
 comfort in us, as Moses in his song declared, 
 saying, he shall be comfor^ted concerning his 
 servants^. The sentiment is sublime; though, "2 Mace 
 perhaps, the application of the text was not 
 made with critical exactness: The eye of God, 
 ever present and now near us, beholds no 
 spectacle with more delight than his servants 
 voluntarily suffering for the truth. Let us 
 exhibit to him that grateful spectacle ! 
 
 And what can be more reasonable ? Does 
 the sight and presence of a general inspire 
 his soldiers with courage ; and shall not the 
 presence of God inspire me with heroic sen- 
 timents? Shall God see me turn my back 
 
122 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. Upon the enemy ? Dare we retreat when 
 ^^,r^^-^^ God looks on ? Let me be faithful to death, 
 since he is present who can give to me a 
 crown of life ! To this view the subject 
 directly leads ; and it may evidently be 
 applied to any thing of hazard in circum- 
 stances not altogether so desperate, as was 
 the case with Moses before Pharaoh, and at 
 the Red Sea. 
 
 I should now proceed to the improvement, 
 for which I am sorry that I have left myself 
 so little time. 
 
 1. Let us now direct the eye of our minds 
 to that invisible God in whose presence we 
 are, and of whose glory we have been hear- 
 ing. Let us not leave the place without 
 acting upon this admonition which we have 
 received. " Blessed God ! we know that 
 thou art near, not far from any one of us, 
 since in thee we live, move, and exist. Especi- 
 ally art thou here in the assembly of thy 
 saints. We bow our souls before thee ; we 
 consider thine incomparable majesty and 
 glory ; we rejoice in thy presence, that thou 
 canst not be separated from us. We pray 
 that we may never forget thee ; that thou 
 wilt remind us at all times of thy blessed 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. VIS 
 
 self; and wilt put suitable apprehensions serm. 
 and affections into our hearts according to ^^.^^I^y 
 the different circumstances in which we are. 
 Oh ! direct the eyes of our minds to thee, the 
 great Father of light ; and direct our hearts 
 unto the love of God, and the patient waiting 
 for Jesus Christ ! 
 
 2. Let us lament it that there are so few 
 in the world who see God. 
 
 Whence can this come to pass, when the 
 world itself is not more apparent than the 
 being and glory of the great Creator? The 
 invisible things of God are clearly seen^, being 'Rom. i. 
 understood by the things which are made, 
 even his eternal power and godhead. The hea- 
 vens declare his glory ^ and the firmament showeth 
 his handy work. Day unto day uttereth speech^ 
 and night unto flight showeth knowledge^.' v&a.xh. 
 What, shall we then say that men overlook 
 him who is near to us, him who is within us ? 
 What ! but that a fatal blindness has spread 
 over the human race, over all souls that are 
 not enlightened by the influence of Divine 
 grace. They grope as in noonday, as the 
 sacred writer expresses it. Not to see God ! 
 Oh ! how much better were it not to see the 
 
124 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. sun ! how much better to have been as an 
 .^.^^-.^^^ untimely birth, as infants which never saw 
 hght ! 
 
 But he must be seen at last ; seen then. 
 Ziehen the spirit returns to God who gave it. 
 I shall behold him, hut tiot now ; I shall behold 
 him, but not near. Unhappy creatures ! who 
 will not now direct your eyes to the invisible 
 God, you shall behold him at last to your 
 everlasting confusion ; shall at once see the 
 glory of his majesty, and feel the weight of 
 his avenging hand. 
 
 3. Let us labour to retain a more constant 
 sight of God for the time to come than we 
 have ever yet had. 
 
 Surely the tendency that it has to promote 
 those blessed ends which we have mentioned 
 must be instead of ten thousand arguments 
 to engage us to it ; and yet we sadly neglect 
 it. Let us, by the grace of God, endeavour 
 to correct this great evil ; and, for this pur- 
 pose, if my time would allow me, I would 
 give you some important advices ; that 
 you should endeavour to obtain a firm and 
 rational persuasion of the existence, provi- 
 dence, and presence of God ; that you should 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 125 
 
 view him in the hght in which the gospel of serm. 
 his Son has placed him ; that you should k^-^^ 
 labour to secure an interest in him through 
 Christ; that you should guard against all 
 undue attachment to things which are visible ; 
 that you should frequently and solemnly be 
 thinking of the invisible world ; that you 
 should set yourselves often to think of him, 
 and speak to him ; and that you should make 
 it a most earnest request that he would raise 
 you to himself by his Holy Spirit; and so 
 make it more easy and habitual to your souls 
 to think of him, to speak to him, and to live 
 with him. 
 
126 
 
 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 OF SEEING HIM THAT IS INVISIBLE. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Hebrews, xi. 27. 
 He endured, as seeing him that is invisible. 
 
 SERM. When I entered upon this subject, I fully 
 .^^^^^^ designed to have finished it on one Lord^s 
 Day : but when I came to reflect upon it, 
 I found such a variety of matter opening 
 upon me that I could not abide by that pur- 
 pose ; and, particularly, when I came to the 
 application, it seemed that many thoughts 
 were suggested which it might be very useful 
 to insist upon more copiously : and, accord- 
 ingly, I beg leave to resume them. I have 
 told you already that God is a great invisible 
 Being ; that, nevertheless, though invisible, 
 there is a way by which he may be seen, yet 
 that many do not obtain the sight of him ; but, 
 that where it is obtained, it is a principle of 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 127 
 
 universal and exalted goodness. We then pro- serm. 
 ceeded to the improvement ; and, after hav- v.^^.^^ 
 ing exhorted you to adore the invisible God 
 as if actually present, and to implore him to 
 fix a sense of himself, of his perfections and 
 glories upon your minds, we were forced 
 upon two other reflections : How lamentable 
 a thing it is that the blessed God be no more 
 seen, and how solicitous we should be for the 
 future to retain more frequent and affectionate 
 thoughts of God. These two topics I shall 
 resume to-day, and shall treat them, not as 
 particulars in the order in which they stood 
 before, but as general heads ; and shall, 
 
 I. Endeavour to show how lamentable a 
 thing it is that God is not more seen : 
 
 II. Propose and illustrate at large such 
 advices as have the happiest tendency to- 
 ward maintaining such a sight. Oh that 
 God may make the remonstrances under the 
 former head of use to awaken some, and the 
 directions under the latter a means of guiding 
 many, very many, to a better and happier 
 temper ! Oh that, teaching others, I may 
 teach myself also, as knowing how far I am 
 from having already attained^ or heing already 
 perfect ! 
 
128 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. I. I would endeavour to show how lament- 
 
 K^^^'-^^ able a thing it is that the blessed God should 
 be seen not more by the generality of mail' 
 kind. 
 
 There are those w ho see him that is invisi" 
 hie ; but, alas ! how few are they ! By far 
 the greater part of mankind see him not, and 
 desire not to see him. The language of their 
 actions is such that, l:)y it, they say unto God, 
 Depart from us, for we desire not the know- 
 ledge of thy ways, nor the enjoyment of thy 
 love. How deplorable will this appear if we 
 consider what advantages there are for see- 
 ing God, and what evils are incurred by not 
 seeing and regarding him. 
 
 1. Let us seriously consider what advan- 
 tages men have for seeing God. Well does 
 the apostle observe, in an assembly of philo- 
 sophers, that the blessed God is not far from 
 any one of ns ; for in him we live, and move, 
 
 'Actswii and have our heing^. Well does he assert, in 
 his entrance on the epistle to the Romans, 
 that the invisible things of God from the crea- 
 
 »Roni. i. tion of the world were clearly seen^, &c. The 
 sacred lesson is, in a literal sense, written 
 with the sunbeams ; for the heavens declare 
 
 ' Psa. \ix.the glory of God"\ The most barbarous na- 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 129 
 
 tions, unskilled as they are in all other cha- serm. 
 racters, may read this. As their line is gone \^^^^ 
 out through all the earth, and their words unto 
 the end of the world', and we alone, of all 
 the visible creation of God, are capable of 
 attending to this intellectual language. — 
 Lamentable is it, then, that the heathens 
 should not see and know him. But let us 
 reflect on the advantages which we enjoy in 
 consequence of Divine Revelation. God has 
 given to us his statutes, and speaketh to us 
 hy his Son : he has shown to us his agency 
 and care in the most extraordinary instances. 
 One would think that as soon as a man has 
 once read over his Bible, its histories and 
 institutions, its promises and threatenings, he 
 should immediately see God : especially 
 should see him, if he looked with any at- 
 tention upon the reflection of his beautiful 
 image from the face of Christ. Yet men 
 have not only their Bibles in their hands, but 
 they have them explained. They come and 
 hear God adored in prayer, and in singing ; 
 hear his perfections celebrated ; are express- 
 ly instructed in his nature, and in their duty 
 to him ; are called to turn away their eyes 
 fiom vanity, and to fix them on God ; and 
 
 VOL. IV. K 
 
VI. 
 
 130 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. yet they will not see him, though they have 
 . line upon line, and precept upon precept, on 
 every Sabbath, and almost on every day. O 
 fools, and slow of heart to believe, and to un- 
 derstand! Such an unnatural aversion, from 
 the sight and converse of the great Father 
 of spirits, have they contracted in this fallen 
 and degenerate state. 
 
 2. Consider what loss and damage men sus- 
 tain by this species of blindness, and it will 
 fully prove how lamentable a case it is. They 
 lose the present satisfaction and happy influ- 
 ence of seeing God, and they make provision 
 for a terrible interview. The present pleasure 
 and advantage must necessarily be lost, and do 
 you think even this a little thing ? David did 
 not, when he preferred it to all the joys of har- 
 vest : Many say, who will show us any good ? 
 but thou (that is, by the light of thy coun- 
 tenance) hast put gladness into my heart. 
 This is a joy of a singular nature : let a man 
 see it, though it be in a dungeon, and though 
 he were set fast in the stocks, like Paul and 
 Silas, he will sing praises to God. How can 
 he be seen if a man will not look upon him ? 
 and this is the unhappy case, we have many 
 worshippers of God, in our several assemblies,- 
 
VI. 
 
 THAT IS INVISIBLE. 131 
 
 but we have comparatively few who hold any serm. 
 acquaintance and converse with him. The v 
 generality might write upon their altars, An 
 inscription to the unknown God. And hence it 
 comes to pass that they are so weary of Di- 
 vine service, that they that come to it with so 
 much regret, and leave it with so much joy, 
 and are ready to hurry out of the place, be- 
 fore it be fairly concluded, I fear in every 
 sense unblessed. It is because they see not 
 God here, and then we have little reason to 
 think that they see him any where else. 
 The good man sets the Lord always before 
 him ; and this gives comfort to his most soli- 
 tary moments : he can say, like his Master, 
 when he seems to be left alone, I am not 
 alone, for my Father is with me. A sweet 
 relish does this give to many a wakeful hour 
 of the night, when a man can say, I remem- 
 ber thee on tny bed, and meditate on thee in 
 the night watches. But all this is lost for 
 want of seeing God ; and the mind is filled 
 by night and by day with low thoughts, with 
 mean pursuits, and very often with torment- 
 ing passions, which make a man as miserable 
 as his heart can endure to be. Methinks it 
 is a pitiable thing to reflect how vain and 
 
 K 2 
 
132 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. how wretched the generahty of men are, 
 ^..^v-^ when a noble, subhme, and rational happi- 
 ness is so near. Poor creatures ! they are 
 like blind men feeling out their way in sad 
 uncertainty ; and, it may be, falling into a 
 pit, or from a precipice at noonday, as the 
 sacred writers elegantly represent this infa- 
 tuation. They, alas ! lose all the happy 
 consequences of seeing God, I mean its ten- 
 dency to regulate and reform the mind, its 
 tendency to animate and encourage it. — 
 Temptations encounter them, and, not seeing 
 God, they are vanquished by them : their 
 heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of 
 sin, their conscience is debauched, so that 
 perhaps they are grown past feeling, and in- 
 capable of being convinced that their ways 
 are evil ; and this appears to me the most 
 wretched state in which the human mind can 
 possibly be. A soul in this state has rea- 
 son to apprehend that it will be very soon in 
 that other state, which I am next to mention : 
 where it will find that by living without God 
 in this world, it has been laying a foun- 
 dation for a terrible interview with him in 
 another. 
 
 O sinner ! the blessed God will not be al- 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 133 
 
 ways unseen, he will wait a certain limited serm. 
 time ; and then he will awaken his terrors, v^^^ 
 and thou shalt see and hear whether thou 
 wilt or not. Remember those words. These 
 things thou didst, and I kept silence; but I 
 mil reprove thee, and will set thy sins in order 
 before thee. Consider this, ye that forget 
 God * / Death will come and hurry you into ' Psai. i. 
 the presence of God. There you shall be '^ ' 
 more sensible that he is near to you, than 
 you can now be of any thing which you see. 
 And in the great judgment day, you shall 
 see the Lord Jesus Christ coming, in the 
 name and authority and glory of his Father, 
 and then you will be convicted by him. 
 Sinner ! thou art charged on the testimony 
 of God himself, who saw and knew thine 
 heart ; thou art charged with this great and 
 horrible crime, that thou didst live without 
 him in the world ; that thou wouldst take no 
 notice of him, nay, that thou didst in many 
 instances make as it were an impious attack 
 upon him, that is, on his laws and govern- 
 ment ; and for this thou art now accursed 
 by him, and as such art sentenced to depart 
 for ever from him, and from the blessed 
 
134 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. society of those who, having seen him by 
 ^^.^,^ faith or reason, shall see his face for ever, 
 and for ever rejoice in the reviving beanas of 
 his love. 
 
 O ! how deplorable is it to look upon the 
 ruins of so many souls, so many thousands 
 and millions lost and undone beyond all reco- 
 very (who, if the constitution of their natures 
 alone were considered, might have known God 
 now, and have enjoyed him for ever). Ought 
 it not to affect our hearts ? Ought it not to 
 engage us to do what we can in our respec- 
 tive stations, to promote a sense of God in 
 the world, and to promote such a behaviour 
 among men as may become those that see 
 him ? and ought it not to suggest to us many 
 a warm and ardent prayer, that God would 
 display his presence and glory before the 
 eyes of poor sinners, now utterly insensible 
 of it? 
 
 And now, what is the result of this repre- 
 sentation ? Are you, are you all, impressed 
 with this matter ? Is there any soul in this 
 assembly that is secretly saying, I desire not 
 to see him that is invisible. This intercourse 
 with God by faith, of which I have been 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 135 
 
 hearing, I am willing that it should remain a serm. 
 secret to me. Let me see corn, and wine, v^„^-v^ 
 and oil, let me see the grain spring in my 
 field, my harvest flourishing, my trade in- 
 creasing and thriving, my family healthful 
 and cheerful about me, that part of the land 
 in which I dwell safe from invading enemies, 
 and my habitation from devouring flames, 
 and I am not much concerned whether I see 
 God or not. I can be content to live, in that 
 respect, as I have done. Is this the language 
 of you all ? or are there any of you that can 
 say, like Philip to Christ, Show us the Fa- 
 ther and it suffices us ? O that I knew where 
 I might find him ! O that I knew how I 
 might attain to a more settled view of him ; 
 that I might so see him as to feel more of 
 his presence, and to live more with him, so 
 as to be restrained from sin and quickened 
 to devotion, so as to be enlarged in benevo- 
 lence, and inspired with courage and intrepi- 
 dity of soul in the way of my duty : in a word, 
 that I might so see him as to anticipate more 
 every day the interview which I expect with 
 him in the heavenly world. If these be your 
 sentiments, then I hope you will hear me 
 
136 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. with attention while I go over what I in- 
 tended, and prepared for such as you, which 
 
 VI. 
 
 IS, 
 
 II. To propose and illustrate at large such 
 advices as may, by the Divine blessing, have 
 the happiest tendency toward maintaining 
 such a sight. 
 
 I mentioned them briefly in the conclu- 
 sion of the former sermon ; but I am sure 
 that they will bear being dilated upon; for 
 I will venture to say that they are lessons 
 which we must learn, or we shall make very 
 little proficiency in the Christian life, in any 
 view of it. 
 
 1. Endeavour to get a firm and rational 
 persuasion of the existence, providence, and 
 presence of God. You all allow the thing 
 at first hearing ; but have you a firm persua- 
 sion of it on your own minds ? Do you con- 
 sider how evident, how apparent, how cer- 
 tain it is ? Look about you, look within you, 
 and reflect seriously. Could these things be 
 without a God ? Could I be without him ? 
 Did I call myself into being ? Did another 
 creature create me ? If he were the means 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 137 
 
 of producing me, how came he by that serm. 
 power ? How was he himself produced by ^^^^-J.^ 
 another, and another? Still you will come 
 to him who was the son of him, who was 
 the son of God. How were the sun and 
 moon formed, and the host of heaven ? Who 
 gave to them all their lustre ? who fixed them 
 in their orbs ? who moves them with that 
 swiftness and steadiness, so that all the pro- 
 cess and order of them is the same from 
 generation to generation ? Look upon the 
 tokens of his goodne&s, as well as of his power, 
 in the formation of your body and your 
 mind. Thou hast possessed my reins. Thou 
 enterest as it were into the most vital parts 
 of my frame, and there thou dwellest and 
 actest continually ; and there, thou. Lord, 
 art doing, I know not particularly and as- 
 suredly what. But that which because I 
 know not, it is plain that I do not myself; 
 and yet that which if it be not done, I must 
 die in a moment, and this poor body sink 
 and drop under its own weight. Lopk about 
 into the world : wherever you direct your eyes, 
 you may trace the footste|)s of Deity, and 
 you must say, I am sure that God has been 
 here, by the blessings which he has scattered, 
 
138 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. and left behind him ; or rather, I am sure that 
 ,,,^^,.^J,^ he is here, by the blessings which at every 
 moment he is dealing out. How does the 
 grass grow, the fruit ripen, the animals live ? 
 It is because God gives grass for the cattle, 
 and corn and herb for the service of man. It 
 is because God feeds the fowls of the air, and 
 they fly by his power. 
 
 I will not, then, set it down among possi- 
 bilities, among probabilities, that there may 
 probably or possibly be a God, but among 
 the greatest certainties, of which the mind 
 of man is capable ; as a thing of which I 
 have as much evidence, as that there is any 
 visible being at all, as great as that I have 
 myself the power of thought. 
 
 2. Endeavour to view the blessed God, in 
 the light in which the gospel of his Son has 
 placed him. It is so noble and so amiable 
 a view, that if you accustom yourselves to 
 it, you will delight to dwell upon it, and to 
 review it again and again. It represents 
 God, not as slighting this world of ours, 
 even when it had offended him, not as im- 
 mediately destroying it, or as marking its 
 inhabitants for a day of slaughter, as trai- 
 tors, and maintained at the expense of the 
 
THAT IS IN\'I,S1BLE. 139 
 
 king till their execution clay is come ; but serm. 
 as entertaining thoughts of love and mercy ^^.^^^ 
 toward poor sinful man, as caring for us with 
 a great care, and employing his counsels, 
 even long before^we were born, for our de- 
 liverance, and for our salvation. It repre- 
 sents him as busying himself so much (if I 
 may use the expression) about us and our 
 concerns, as to send his own Son, to inform 
 us who he himself is, and what he would 
 have us to be ; what he expects from us on 
 the one hand, and what we may expect from 
 him on the other. Yea, as sending his Son 
 in a mortal body, that he might converse 
 with us for a long time, and might sow the 
 seeds of true religion in our world ; seeds 
 which were to last as long as this world it- 
 self: and that he might at length die for us 
 too, and redeem us to God, by pouring forth 
 his own blood, and that he might leave a 
 gospel behind him, written by the inspira- 
 tion of his Spirit, which, under Divine bless- 
 ing and grace, might be the food and com- 
 fort of souls from one generation to another: 
 that gospel which he brought down from 
 heaven. O ! did those poor blind heathens 
 reverence and adore a senseless image of 
 
vr. 
 
 140 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. Deity, because they supposed it of heavenly 
 original, the image that fell down from Jupi- 
 ter out of heaven ! What reason have we to 
 value Christ and his gospel, as of celestial 
 original indeed ; and to love that God who 
 sent us such a present, a blessing so much 
 more valuable than the sun in the firma- 
 ment ! And how delightful should it be to 
 us, to look to the blessed God in this, as the 
 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christy 
 and, in and through him, as the Father of 
 mercies, and the God of all consolation I 
 
 3. Labour to secure an interest in God 
 through Christ, and then it will be pleasant 
 to maintain a sight of him. The great rea- 
 son why men look at God no more, is be- 
 cause they dread the sight of him, their con- 
 sciences telling them that he is their enemy, 
 or at least that he may be so, that it is at 
 best a very dubious case whether they have 
 any interest in him or not. Labour, there- 
 fore, I beseech you to make it out to your 
 own souls, as a plain and evident thing, that 
 you have a covenant interest in God. And 
 how can this be done but by solemnly lay- 
 ing hold of his covenant in Christ, and by 
 setting your seal to it ? Wilt thou not, says 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 141 
 
 God, from this time, cry unto me, My Fa- serm 
 ther, thou art the guide of my youth ? And ^.^^ 
 surely it is a pleasant thing for a dutiful and 
 affectionate child to look upon his Father. 
 View him not merely as reconcilable ; as one 
 who may, perhaps, lay aside his wrath, and 
 become your friend ; but as one who is ac- 
 tually reconciled. Go to him, therefore, 
 this day and say, " Lord, I have been a rebel, 
 and I have deserved to die for my rebellion. 
 I deserve that he, who made me, should not 
 have mercy on me ; and that he, who formed 
 me, should show me no favour. But I have 
 heard that thou art a merciful God. I have 
 been told that thou didst condescend to say, 
 and even to swear, that thoii desirest not the 
 death of a sinner. I have been told that 
 thou didst send thine own dear and gracious 
 Son into this world of ours, to call back poor 
 lost creatures to thee, and to purchase par- 
 don for them, and to declare it to them ; 
 yea, that thou hast assured us by him that 
 he who believes shall have eternal life. Now, 
 Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. I 
 have been told that thou hast been pleased 
 to make a covenant, a, new and better cove- 
 nant, with poor sinners, of which he is the 
 
VI. 
 
 142 .OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. Surety. I desire to enter myself into this 
 covenant ; I am heartily willing to be saved 
 by thee in thine own way, and therefore I 
 beseech thee that thou w^ouldst save me. I 
 beseech thee that thou w^ouldst become my 
 God and Father in Christ, and I present my- 
 self to thee m token of this desire, and would 
 gladly, whenever thou shalt give me an op- 
 portunity, do it at thy table. Yea, I desire 
 daily to repeat it as my own act and deed, 
 to give myself to thee, and to receive thee, 
 through Christ, into my soul as my portion, 
 and hope, and God.'' When you are con- 
 scious of this temper you will view God not 
 only with pleasure, but I had almost said, in 
 allusion to the common form of our express- 
 ing ourselves, with pride (but that were im- 
 proper) with humble joy and triumph ; as 
 the Psalmist, behold this God is our God! 
 O how I delight to fix my eyes upon him, 
 and survey him in this view ! This God, with 
 all his infinite wisdom and almighty power, 
 and immense inexhaustible treasure of good- 
 ness, and mercy, and faithfulness, and love, 
 is mine, and mine for ever. Shall one man 
 view his estate, and another his honour with 
 satisfaction? and another perhaps his per- 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 143 
 
 son, and another even his dress, and in- serm. 
 wardlj congratulate himself that he is so v^^-,^ 
 rich, and so powerful, and so beautiful, and 
 so fine ? And shall not I with infinitely 
 greater satisfaction view my God, and con- 
 gratulate my own soul that I am so happy as 
 to possess him, and to stand in such a rela- 
 tion to him ? I would do it every day and 
 every hour. 
 
 4. If you desire to maintain such views of 
 him, wlio is invisible, then guard against an 
 undue attachment to all things that are seen, 
 to this world and its interests. 
 
 These things do, as it were, stand in the 
 way of God ; they make such a crowd about 
 us, that we cannot see him. It alienates the 
 heart from his love and service, so says the 
 apostle in those remarkable words, 1 John, 
 ii. 15, Love not the world 7ior the things of 
 the world; for if any man love the world, the 
 love of the Father is not in him. If you are 
 much attached to worldly interests, you will 
 venture to displease God for the sake of 
 them, and then, when you have displeased 
 him, you will not care to see him with those 
 marks of displeasure which his awful counte- 
 nance will wear. As our Lord says, No man 
 
144 OF SEEING HiM 
 
 SERM. can serve two masters ; tiou cannot serve God 
 
 VI 
 
 .^^-J^^ and Mammon ; and the soul that serves not 
 God with some degree of zeal, as well as of 
 fidelity, loves not to see him, and thus the 
 world concludes. Whereas the heart, in 
 which God has dwelt, and .which has been 
 used to live in the sight of him, when flesh 
 and heart fail, has something for the strength 
 of its heart, and its portion for ever. What 
 then will you say, must we needs go out of 
 the world, and betake ourselves to the life of 
 hermits, that we may preserve religion in our 
 hearts ? By no means. We may do it with 
 much greater honour to religion by abiding 
 in the converse of the world, even though 
 we had it in our power to quit it, which 
 many of us have not. We may show more 
 of the force of it, and we may spread more 
 of the spirit of it, by a social and conversa- 
 ble life. But then let us take heed that 
 business and conversation do not possess our 
 minds so much, as to leave in them no room 
 for God. Let us take care that we be often 
 looking at the blessed God while we are 
 conversing in the world : and let us guard 
 against a fond affection for any thing in this 
 world, which would give us a disrelish of 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 145 
 
 devotion and the exercises of it. The great- serm. 
 est and noblest exercise is, not to fly from v^-^^ 
 the world, but to meet and conquer it ; nor 
 can it be better expressed than by the apos- 
 tle, that those zoho rejoice should he as though 
 they rejoiced not. 
 
 5. If we would maintain habitual inter- 
 course with God, let us think frequently and 
 solemnly of the invisible world to which we 
 are going. This advice stands in connexion 
 with the former, both giving and receiving 
 strength, and therefore they are joined by 
 the apostle. Look not at the things which are 
 seen, but at those things which are unseen. 
 How happy would it be for us in this respect 
 if we could look at the things which are un- 
 seen ! Is there not a world of spirits, of a 
 nature quite different from, and vastly supe- 
 rior to this world of bodies, in which we 
 dwell ? Expatiate, my thoughts, in this im- 
 mense region. And what inhabitants dost 
 thou see here ? I see on the one hand the 
 Paradise of God, where Jehovah dwells : on 
 the other, millions of bright and happy crea- 
 tures who, during the many thousand years 
 for which they have existed (and God only 
 knows how many thousand), have never 
 
 VOL. IV. L 
 
VI. 
 
 146 OF SEEINQ HIM 
 
 SERM. known a sentiment of guilt, or a perception 
 , of misery ? Is there not such a species of 
 beings ? I certainly know from the word of 
 God that there is, and that among them 
 there are human spirits, who once dwelt in 
 such bodies as mine, and having broken their 
 way through the entanglements, temptations, 
 and dangers of life, are received by the an- 
 gels as their brethren and friends, and dwell 
 with them, sharing, in some considerable 
 degree, in their business and their pleasures. 
 And is there not another kind of a region, 
 of darkness and despair, where the fallen 
 spirits dwell ? The angels that kept not their 
 Jirst state, but sinned, and upon that were 
 cast down from heaven ! And are there not, 
 likewise, among them vast numbers that 
 once dwelt upon earth, who saw the sun, and 
 tasted, but abused the bounty of their Crea- 
 tor ? Thousands, ten thousands, no doubt, 
 who heard his word, but trifled with the 
 grace of his gospel, during the certain time 
 which God had allotted to them for their trial, 
 and who are cut off, and are under condem- 
 nation, to whom nothing i^emains hut a cer- 
 tain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery 
 indignation. And are these scenes which 
 
VI. 
 
 THAT IS INVISIBLE. 147 
 
 have no connexion with my concerns? I sec serm, 
 one and another of mj fellow creatures, drop 
 the body and disappear. The invisible 
 spirit flies off, and the poor abandoned car- 
 cass is laid in the dust, that it may not 
 affect the living, and thus it becomes invi- 
 sible too, as to any certain remainder which 
 can be traced of it ; and must not I shortly 
 take my turn ? I am even now surrounded 
 by these invisible beings ; the angels wait to 
 guard me, and are the instruments of a gra- 
 cious Providence for my preservation ; the 
 devils are near too, and wait opportunities of 
 mischief; and ere long I shall see myself in 
 the hands of the one or of the other, and 
 know that they are bearing me on my way 
 to heaven or to hell, as my final, as my ever- 
 lasting abode. When this thought enters 
 deep into the mind it will be natural to look 
 to an invisible God, the great Lord of both 
 these worlds, and of all their various inhabi- 
 tants : it is natural to commit a soul, an im- 
 mortal soul (the importance of which will 
 then be felt), to his powerful and faithful 
 care. 
 
 6. That we should often 'be setting our- 
 
 L 2 
 
148 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. selves to think expressly of God, and to speak 
 K^^^J-.^ directly to him. 
 
 Visible objects have a great advantage 
 over us. We must, therefore, have our pro- 
 per seasons of retirement, our proper times 
 for calling our thoughts from the world, for 
 charging them to have done with it, that we 
 may converse with God and Divine things ; 
 that we should summon up our souls to the 
 
 5 Psalm work, as David, Bless the Lord, O my soitP, 
 ' ' &c. ; so should we say. View the Lord, O 
 my soul, contemplate him and his glories. 
 O think what a mysterious, what a marvel- 
 lous, what an amiable being he is ! Look 
 through the whole creation, and see what 
 deserves thy esteem, thy love, and thy trust, 
 in comparison with him : he is accessible 
 through Christ, he hears prayers, he listens 
 to the cry of his servants and his people. 
 Resolve, therefore, that thou wilt converse 
 with him : address him, therefore, by daily 
 prayer, and particularly in secret. Enter 
 into thy closet, it will assist thy conceptions 
 of him, it will remind thee of his existence, 
 and of thy business with him there ; and see 
 to it that this part of duty do not degenerate 
 
THAT IS INVISIBLE. 149 
 
 into a form, that the soul be right with God serm. 
 while it is performed ; and I do not doubt .^^^^ 
 but it will have a most happy influence ; 
 and will bring the mind to such a temper 
 and disposition that you may often be able 
 to direct the eye of the soul to God in the 
 intervals of such solemnities; as a pious na- 
 tive of France expresses it, that when he 
 passed through the streets of Paris, where 
 one may well imagine there would be diver- 
 sions enough, his soul was no more moved 
 than if he were in a desert. 
 
 7. Let us cry earnestly to the gi^eat Fa- 
 ther of spirits to direct our fallen and dege- 
 nerate minds to himself, if we desire to main- 
 tain our frequent views of him. 
 
 We might, says that excellent person, to 
 whom I have just referred, as soon bring clown 
 fire from heaven, or draw the stars from their 
 orbits, as kindle devotion in our own cold 
 dead hearts without a Divine agency and 
 operation. The Lord opened the eyes of 
 Hagar, and she saw the relief which he had 
 prepared for her in the wilderness. He must 
 open our eyes, or we shall not see him. Cry 
 therefore to him with all your souls, and if 
 you feel your hearts raised to him, look upon 
 
150 OF SEEING HIM 
 
 SERM. it as a token for good, as an assurance not 
 v^.^^ only of his providential but gracious presence. 
 " O thou King eternal, immortal, and invisible! 
 thou art ever with me, and yet I see thee not : 
 ever near to me, and yet I do not perceive 
 thee : and important as thy presence is, I am 
 often insensible of it : and shall it be always 
 thus ? Lord ! I cannot bear it. I am per- 
 suaded that I see ; and, blessed be thy name, 
 I feel it, that it were better to die than to 
 live as at a distance from thee : better to 
 have no being at all than to lose God among 
 his creatures, though it were the most ex- 
 cellent of them : and, therefore, O Lord, I 
 earnestly entreat this favour of thee, not that 
 thou wouldst make me rich and great, that 
 thou wouldst prosper me in my worldly af- 
 fairs, though I desire such prosperity as thou 
 shalt see best, but that the eye of my soul 
 may be directed to thee. I would say as 
 thy servant Moses, O Lord! I beseech thee 
 
 * Exod. shozo me thy glory ^, in a spiritual sense ! 
 (jrive me such a view or thee as may nx my 
 roving mind upon thee more than ever ! Let 
 me see thee so as to rejoice, if it be thy 
 blessed will ; but if not, let me see thee so 
 as to fear thee, and to love thee, and to 
 
THAT IS INVISIHLE. Ijl 
 
 conduct myself in a manner that may be serm. 
 
 VI 
 
 agreeable to thee : that in whatever dark- ^^-^^^ 
 ness I now walk, I may at last come to see 
 light in thy light, so to behold thy face 
 in righteousness, as to be satisfied with thy 
 complete likeness ; and, when my foolish 
 heart would lose sight of thee in the midst 
 of these surrounding vanities, let me rather 
 be made to feel thine hand smiting me than 
 to live in a forgetfulness of thy presence \" 
 
 Is there a heart in this assembly that can 
 say amen to these petitions ? If there be, I 
 will be humbly bold to say it is a heart that 
 has already seen God, a heart that, persist- 
 ing in these sentiments, will see and enjoy 
 him for ever. 
 
152 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 David's reflection on the vanity of 
 the creature. 
 
 Psalm cxix. 96. 
 
 / have seen an end of all perfection, hut thy commandment is 
 exceeding broad. 
 
 SERM. It is the great and glorious design of the 
 ^^,-^^ gospel to abstract our affections from this 
 present vain and transitory world, and to 
 teach us to settle them on the solid and per- 
 manent blessings of that which is to come. 
 A kind and amiable design indeed : a design 
 which Christ, the wisdom of God, judged of 
 so great importance to human happiness, 
 that we are told that he came from heaven, 
 and gave himself for us, that he might deliver 
 us from this present evil world, according to 
 
 ' Gal. i. the will of God and our Father ^. It is a 
 grievous and lamentable thing to reflect 
 upon, that immortal spirits should so gene- 
 rally have been held in a mean subjection to 
 
 4. 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE. 153 
 
 the world : but it was the will of God to serm. 
 free some of them from it, and many impor- ^^-^-^ 
 tant steps were taken towards this great 
 design before the appearance of the Son of 
 God in human flesh : one of which was to 
 represent the case of the world in a moving 
 manner, in the oracles of the Old Testa- 
 ment, that so the heart struck by that, 
 might give up its expectations of happiness 
 in the creature, and seek it in God, in whom 
 alone it can be found. And as examples 
 and instances strike yet more strongly than 
 any deduction of abstruse argument, it 
 shows us some of those who, by reason of 
 their situation in the world, might have ex- 
 pected the greatest things of it, bearing their 
 testimony to the empty and unsatisfying 
 nature of all its enjoyments, and to the dis- 
 appointment of their fondest hopes and ex- 
 pectations of it. It is no inconsiderable pas- 
 sage to this purpose which I have now been 
 reading, where David makes this reflection 
 after a long course of observation and expe- 
 rience : I have seen an end of all perfection, 
 but thy commandment is exceeding broad. 
 For the sense of which words I might con- 
 sider what he means by perfection ; what by 
 
VII. 
 
 154 DAVID^S REFLECTION ON THE 
 
 SERM. seeing an end of it ; what by the command- 
 ment of God ; and what bi/ its being eciceed- 
 ing broad. For stating which particulars I 
 shall only give you the following general 
 remarks, in as few words as possible. I 
 apprehend that by perfection, David means 
 what the world generally thinks most per- 
 fect and excellent ; by seeing the end of it, 
 he intended to tell us that he has observed 
 it to be very narrow and limited, mixed with 
 a great many defects, so as, indeed, not to 
 deserve the name of perfection : by the coiti- 
 mandment of God, he means the law, or word 
 of God in general, or that revelation which 
 he has made of himself ; and by the breadth 
 of the commandment, the perfection of it, 
 and its tendency to conduct men to that 
 complete happiness which worldly enjoy- 
 ments can never give. The sense therefore 
 may be expressed in such a paraphrase as 
 this : " Lord ! when I seriously pause and re- 
 flect upon what has occurred to my observation 
 in this long and various scene of life, through 
 which I am passing, I discover a great and 
 instructive variety. There was a time when 
 my hopes and expectations were raised high ; 
 Ifen thousand flattering objects presented 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE. 155 
 
 themselves to my warm imagination ; my serm. 
 heart was fired with sprightly passions, and I v^,-^-^ 
 promised myself a kind of paradise here: but 
 my enjoyments fell far short of these antici- 
 pations ; the sweets were soon exhausted, the 
 flowers withered, and the blossoms untimely 
 drooped : yet, though earth is vain, blessed 
 be God ! all is not vain. The revelation 
 which God has made of himself opens a fair 
 and an ample prospect which fills the soul 
 with pleasure, and with hope ; with a plea- 
 sure, with a sweetness, and a hope that 
 brightens by experience. It discovers some- 
 thing for which it was worth while to have 
 had a rational and immortal nature, an ob- 
 ject adequate to the sublimity of faculties, 
 like those which God has bestowed upon 
 me : here I may expatiate, and not find my- 
 self cramped and fettered as before ; no en- 
 cumberance, no disgrace, no gloomy prog- 
 nostication of approaching decay: but a hap- 
 piness presents itself extensive as my wish, 
 sublime as a spiritual, and durable as an 
 immortal nature. I have seen an end of all 
 perfection, hut thy commandment is exceeding 
 broad." Agreeably to this paraphrase (the 
 
156 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. justest and most natural which I can think 
 
 VII 
 
 ,^-.^,^of), we will more particularly consider, 
 
 I. The reflections made by David on the 
 vanity which he had experienced in the 
 creature. 
 
 II. The honourable testimony which he 
 here bears to true religion, and to the word 
 of God, as his great support. 
 
 We will illustrate and improve each of 
 these remarks ; but I apprehend that the 
 illustration and improvement of the former 
 will afford us abundant employment for the 
 discourses of this day. 
 
 I. We are to consider the reflections made 
 by David on the vanity which he had ex- 
 perienced in the creature : / have seen an 
 end of all perfection. 
 
 I see nothing in this Psalm which forbids 
 our referring it to the latter part of David's 
 life : at least I may confidently say this, 
 and all that know any thing of his history 
 will consent to this truth at first hearina:, 
 without waiting for a more particular and 
 laboured proof of it, that if his youthful days 
 gave him some intimations of this, his more 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE. 157 
 
 experienced life made it abundantly appa- serm. 
 rent, both with regard to the personal, and ^^^-i^ 
 the relative possessions and enjoyments of 
 life. AVe will illustrate the matter with re- 
 spect to each of them ; and then we will 
 conclude with the improvement which is to 
 close the discourses of this day. 
 
 1. David had experienced the vanity of 
 creature good, with respect to the personal 
 possessions, ornaments, and enjoyments of 
 human life. When we come to take a sur- 
 vey of his character and circumstances, we 
 shall find that this remark is just with 
 respect to strength, beauty, genius, wealth, 
 applause, and power. He had weighed all 
 these in the balance, had seen and known 
 what there was in them to make a man 
 happy ; and the result of all is, that he 
 writes Tekel upon them, and soon saw the 
 end of all this perfection. He had seen 
 the vanity of strength. David seems to 
 have been furnished with a very uncommon 
 degree of it. He gave early proof not only 
 of an heroic spirit, but of vigorous and well 
 braced nerves, strengthened no doubt by 
 the labours and fatigues to which, from his 
 youth, and almost from his infancy, he was 
 
158 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. exposed. When he was but a stripUiia:, he 
 
 VII . . , 
 
 ^^^-Ly tells us that, while he was feeding his father's 
 
 sheep, a lion and a bear, no doubt at dif- 
 ferent times, invaded the flock, and bore 
 away, each of them, one of the lambs of it. 
 And he boldly pursued these voracious 
 savages, and not only rescued the prey from 
 them, but smote the lion and the bear (that 
 is, he slew them) ; and when, animated by 
 the remembrance of these victories, he ven- 
 tured to encounter the Philistine giant, 
 though Saul's armour w^as too unwieldly for 
 him, and proved an encumberance rather 
 than a suitable defence, yet we find that he 
 was able not only to discharge a stone with 
 force enough to penetrate the skull of Goliath 
 (the thickness of which was no doubt pro- 
 portionable to his extraordinary height and 
 bulk), but also to brandish his sword, pon- 
 derous as it was, and to make use of it as 
 the instrument of cutting off the head of its 
 owner. Yet he had no doubt seen, yea, and 
 at length undoubtedly felt how precarious 
 and transitory a perfection this was. He 
 saw many examples about him of human 
 nature cut off in its prime and v igour ; saw, 
 as Job expresses it, o?ie dying in the perfec- 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE. 159 
 
 tionofhis strength (for so the original phrase serm. 
 is), heiiig whollij at ease, and in pleasure ^, as v^^^.^^ 
 well as another in the bitterness of his soul;^^^^''^^^- 
 yea, we know that David himself experienced 
 it. The assault of disease reduced him so 
 low, that he says, in one Psalm, Have mercy 
 upon me, O Lord, for I am weak ^ : and, in ^ psai. vi. 
 another. Mi/ knees are weak through fasting, 
 and my flesh faileth of fatness *. And pro- •♦ Psa. cix. 
 bably it is he that, in a third, says,~ He has 
 weakened my strength in the way^; he has'Psa. cii. 
 shortened my days. And though God heard 
 his prayer in that illness, and spared him 
 that he might recover strength, before he wetit 
 hence and was seen no more ; yet he found it 
 at length gradually wasting, and irrecover- 
 ably impaired : so that when he came forth 
 in the advance of life to war, and would 
 have shaken himself as at other times, he 
 fought against the Philistine, and waxed 
 faint; and Ishbi-benob thought to have 
 slain him, and probably would have done 
 it had not Abishai succoured him ; and his 
 soldiers, sensible that he was no longer able 
 to bear such fatigue, and to encounter such 
 danger, solemnly swore that he should go 
 out to battle no more, lest he should quench 
 
160 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. the light of Israel. The tenderness which 
 .^-^-^ his people thus expressed for him must, no 
 doubt, have been gratifying, but the occasion 
 of it was mortifying ; and he would much 
 more feel the vanity and frailty of nature 
 when it was so exhausted in him that they 
 covered him with clothes on his bed, and 
 he got no heat, even he whose heart had 
 beat so high, and whose breast had burnt 
 with a flame which had so long animated 
 the armies of Israel, and like lightning had 
 consumed those of the enemy. 
 
 2. Experience had taught David how lit- 
 tle beauty could do to make the possessor 
 happy. There had, perhaps, seldom been 
 seen (at least for his stature) a more lovely 
 form amongst all the thousands of Israel. 
 The very first thing we read of him, even 
 before he is named, is, that he was ruddy, 
 and of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to 
 look upon. There was something so engaging 
 in his behaviour, that at the very first sight 
 the soul of Jonathan was knit to him, so that 
 he loved David, even as his own soul. And 
 Michal, SauFs daughter, also loved him, and 
 thought herself no doubt exceedingly happy 
 in so amiable a person ; and it is observable, 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE. l6l 
 
 that as he could not be ahogether unconscious SF.R^r. 
 
 of his own form, though he was too wise ^ .^ 
 
 to value himself highly upon it, he takes 
 notice of this effect of that illness which he 
 describes in the 39th Psalm, TJhe?i thou whli 
 rebukes dost correct man for his iniquity, thou, 
 malcest his heautif to consume away like a moth ; 
 and as that loses all its golden and silver 
 array, and is beaten to pieces by every storm, 
 so does all the goodliness of a human form 
 moulder at the touch of a disease. Many a 
 beautiful countenance he had no doubt in his 
 time seen pale in death : many he also had 
 lived to see worn out with age; and Abishag, 
 the Shunamite, when she ministered to the 
 bed-ridden king, would not be able to trace 
 in his countenance those charms which had 
 made so deep an impression on the heart of 
 Michal. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is 
 vain, was a reflection which Solomon might, 
 in past time, have learnt from the sight of his 
 father, as well as from that of thousands of 
 olher objects : but I hasten to a much more 
 important illustration, And, 
 
 3. David had also seen the limits of that 
 perfection which arises from a large and ex- 
 tensive genius, and great abilities of mind ; 
 
 VOL. IV. M 
 
162 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERiNi. for Avhich, as it is very evident, he was re- 
 ^^^^,^ markable. The grace and beauty of his 
 mind were far more valuable than those of 
 his body : he discovered a great genius in a 
 variety of instances, in war and government, 
 in music and poetry ; and, so far as we can 
 judge, this continued with him to the last, 
 for we have some most sublime and excel- 
 lent discourses which he made just before he 
 quitted the stage ; and his last words have a 
 flame and tenderness of poetry in them 
 which would have been sufficient to have 
 established his character as a poet, if they 
 had been the onl}^ writings of his wMch had 
 reached us : j^et his sweetest music could 
 not charm away his cares, or lay his sorrows 
 asleep. Difficulties arose against which his 
 prudence could not provide expedients, 
 and which his courage could not ward off, 
 as we shall afterwards see in a long detail. 
 And if he ever turned himself from political 
 and military studies to those of a philoso- 
 phical nature, he would there, no doubt, find 
 himself often entangled : uncertainty would 
 arise instead of knowledge, and his sagacity 
 would only serve him to discover difficulties, 
 of which the less thinking and penetrating 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE. iGS 
 
 pari:, of the world were not aware. For this serm. 
 is the reflection which Solomon made, whose v^lj^^^ 
 peaceful reign, joined with his yet superior 
 genius, gave him an opportunity of pursuing 
 science to its remotest recesses. / beheld 
 (says he) all the zoork of God, that a man 
 cannot find out the work that is done under 
 the sun ; because though a man labour to seek 
 it out, yet he shall not find it : yea farther, 
 though a wise man think to know it, yet shall 
 he not be able to find it. He therefore ad- 
 monishes his son, that of making many books 
 there is no end, and that much study is a weari- 
 ness to the flesh, which, in many instances, Is 
 not repaid by any improvement which the 
 spirit makes. And though David's parts 
 wore so well, it is very probable that he had 
 seen many instances in which the child out- 
 lived the man till itself died away in the 
 idiot : for such is often the end of that glory 
 which seems most appropriate to the mind 
 of man ; and which bears itself so high, be- 
 cause the treasure of a kingdom cannot pur- 
 chase any portion of it. 
 
 4. David had seen the vanity of great 
 treasures. He had seen it, indeed, while he 
 was possessing himself of them : for you 
 
 M 2 
 
164 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. know that he was the least of his brethren, 
 ^^-^^^-i^ the youngest child of a numerous family, 
 where, perhaps, the eldest was but slen- 
 derly provided for ; and the vast treasures, 
 which he amassed, were chiefly the spoils 
 of plundered provinces, taken in a just and 
 honourable war, especially from the Syrians, 
 who had their shields of gold, and seem to 
 have been before the wealthiest people of the 
 world : but when he seized these shields, he 
 saw, as it were, vanity written upon them, as 
 they were unable to defend their former own- 
 ers, and seemed only to add grief and misery 
 to their defeat. He was not, indeed, that 
 sordid wretch, to whom God, having given 
 abundance, gave not a heart to eat thereof: 
 he lived in a series of generous expense, and 
 royal magnificence, as evidently appears by 
 his buildings, and his court: but still his 
 treasures grew instead of diminishing, and 
 they amounted to an incredible sum ; so that 
 those given by him and his people towards 
 building the temple are computed at eight 
 hundred millions sterling. Three thousand 
 talents of gold, and seven thousand of silver, 
 being not his whole treasure, but only that 
 part of it which he devoted to this one 
 
Vll. 
 
 VANITY OF THE CREATURE. l65 
 
 pious purpose: but behold the vanity of this! serm. 
 though the rich manswealth be his strong tozc'er, 
 and a Iiighjiall in his own conceit. David, 
 who had, no doubt, read of Job's afflictions, 
 was made in an astonishing manner to share 
 them, for one day stripped him of all. I mean 
 the day of Absalom's rebellion ; when he was 
 driven out from Jerusalem, where all these 
 treasures were amassed ; and when he passed 
 up Mount Olivet barefoot, and with his head 
 covered. The ao-ed king; was obli2:ed to 
 w^ander again in that same wilderness where, 
 amongst other places, he had sheltered him- 
 self in the vigour of youth from the persecu- 
 tion of Saul ; but O ! with how different a 
 sense of distress, when after all his royal gran- 
 deur, he was sensibly obliged to that generous 
 friend who would bring to him and his at- 
 tendants, beds, and basons, and earthen ves- 
 sels, and beans, and lentils, and butter, and 
 sheep, and cheese : what a present for him ! 
 who had numbered such immense quantities 
 of gold, and silver, and brass, and such a 
 multitude of precious stones also. At length 
 Providence turns the scales in his favour : 
 he returns to his treasure again ; but, alas ! 
 
166 
 
 DAVID S REFLECTION ON THE 
 
 SERM. this treasure will not bring back his beloved 
 
 VII. 
 
 Absalom from the grave, nor cure the wound 
 which his death had made in the heart of 
 the affectionate parent, who would have 
 given his own life for his preservation. Then, 
 as on other occasions, also, 
 
 5. David experienced the vanity of human 
 applause. He might, perhaps, relish it in his 
 vouth : his heart was fortified with a wasdom 
 far superior to his years, if the songs of the 
 daughters of Israel, and the shouts of its 
 warriors did not secretly delight him, when 
 it was the voice of both, as he returned from 
 the slaughter of Goliath, that Saul had slain 
 his thousands, and David his ten thousands. 
 But, alas ! soon did he learn that for this also 
 a man is envied of his neighbour : the sound 
 w^as soon o^'cr, and all the honours, shall I 
 say, or the labours of that triumphant day, 
 for no small part of labour and fatigue does 
 the victor himself undergo in the cavtdcade 
 of a triun:iph. But the consequence long 
 continued : the javelin, with which his prince 
 attempted again and again to have nailed 
 him to the wall ; the anguish of parting with 
 his beloved wife, when the endearments of 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATUIIE. l67 
 
 their marriage were so new ; the anxiety si:iiM. 
 with which he wandered in a wilderness, and ^.^^^-L. 
 fled for his hfe, as a partridge on the moun- 
 tains pursued by the fowlers. All these sad 
 scenes, and thousands more no doubt, made 
 him to wish that he had never heard this 
 applause, which might once sound so sweet 
 in his ears. At length he ascends the 
 throne : he triumphs over his enemies : the 
 tributary princes, round about him, send 
 their ambassadors, and, no doubt, with them, 
 their compliments in the highest strain of 
 eastern hyperboles ; and where they had so 
 great a subject, we may well suppose that 
 they rose high. But, alas ! how soon is all this 
 incense vanished in the air, or gathered into 
 a cloud, dark and tempestuous. His govern- 
 ment is aspersed with secret slanders by those 
 who endeavoured to subvert it; and at length 
 his enemies succeed in spreading so general 
 a discontent, that he is expelled from his 
 capital city; and then, in that sad procession, 
 every base scoundrel dares to insult over 
 him. Shimei's foul mouth pours forth its 
 venom : and he, who had so generously spared 
 the life of Saul, when he had it again and 
 again in his power, is loaded with infamy. 
 
168 DAVID^S REFLECTION ON THE 
 
 SERM. as a bloody traitor : Come out, thou hloodij 
 ,^_^^ man, and tho7i man of Belial^: but O, might 
 ' 2 Sam. David say, " O that this were the worst of 
 
 XVI. 5 — 8. _ -^ 
 
 my trials \" Alas ! there was a scene in 
 which he gave too just an occasion to the 
 enemies to blaspheme : that opprobrious lan- 
 guage, which would otherwise have fallen 
 like foul water from the down of a swan, 
 without leaving a trace behind it, came into 
 his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones 
 (for so he complains, after his sin, in the 
 matter of Uriah), thou hast known my shame 
 and my dishonour, and reproach has broken 
 my heart. And where did he seek his com- 
 fort then ? Was it in looking at the royal 
 throne on which he sat? I am to add fur- 
 ther, 
 
 6. That David most remarkably saw the 
 vanity of power, even when exalted to royalty. 
 He had, indeed, the fate of cities and of na- 
 tions dependent on his smile or his frown : 
 He measured zmth a line to cast down, and to 
 build np, to slay or to save alive. But that 
 power, how weak did it prove ! how soon 
 was he disarmed of it by a sudden revolu- 
 tion, when forced to flee for his life, and to 
 pass over Jordan by night ! Described there- 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE. I6.O 
 
 fore by his enemies, to he weary and weak skrivi. 
 handed, so as easily to he smitten hy a handful .^^^.^ 
 of men : and, indeed, he was so ; and had 
 not God turned the counsel of Ahithophel 
 into foohshness, he must without a miracle 
 have perished by it. But I say no more of 
 this at present, because when I come to con- 
 sider him in relative life, I shall speak of 
 him as a king, and shall expose to your view 
 some of the many thorns which lined the 
 crown of gold which Isra-el set upon his head. 
 At present I speak only of the uncertainty of 
 that power itself which would have rendered 
 it a most imperfect good, had the actual 
 enjoyment been ever so delightful. Accord- 
 ingly having thus surveyed the most consi- 
 derable personal enjoyments and possessions, 
 let us now consider, 
 
 II. How David experienced the vanity of 
 created good, with respect to relative com- 
 forts and enjoyments. 
 
 And here you will observe, that there was 
 hardly a relation which promised happiness 
 in which Darid did not stand. He was a 
 husband and a father, a friend and a king, 
 yet in each of these he experienced the vanity 
 
170 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. of human life, and saw an end of all the per- 
 
 ^^~^^, fection which it could promise. 
 
 1. Let us in this view consider David as a 
 liushand. Here we must observe, that he 
 seems to set out with a happiness not always 
 common to the great : that he married a 
 person whom he loved, and by w^hom he 
 was tenderly beloved ; the beautiful daugh- 
 ter of king Saul, from whose faithful and 
 endearing society and friendship one would 
 think that he might have promised himself all 
 that he could have wished in such a relation 
 (no doubt the sweetest of human life), and 
 from which many of its most important 
 blessings spring : but, alas ! he was soon 
 torn from her embraces ; she herself w^as 
 forced to rouse him and send him away, 
 conveying him through a window to escape 
 the assassins who surrounded all the pas- 
 sages of the house, in order to slay him. A 
 tender parting no doubt, the sorrows of which 
 were on both sides much aggravated when 
 Michal was most injuriously and infamously 
 given to Shalti, the son of Laish, a circum- 
 stance which, whether it were accomplished 
 by direct force, or by an unwilling kind of 
 consent on her part, must have been ex- 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE. l?! 
 
 tremelv afflictino; as well as dishonourable serm. 
 
 . VII 
 
 to David. And though, more than ten years v^^^^ 
 afterwards, he regained her, yet her temper 
 then appears to have been, at least in one in- 
 stance, exceedingly distressing to him. She 
 despised his pious, and, on the whole, very 
 modest and discreet zeal, in dancing before 
 the ark of the Lord ; and she mixed pro- 
 faneness with an insolence and severity of 
 temper, which, if it were a specimen of 
 her usual behaviour, must to be sure have 
 rendered both her and her consort very un- 
 happy. She afterwards abode under the 
 curse of barrenness, which in that connexion 
 would be peculiarly grievous ; and, as for his 
 other wives, the very number of them would 
 be sufficient to have destroyed the prospect 
 of a tender and solid comfort in any one. 
 As to some of them we know that they 
 proved the occasion of his public disgrace, 
 by the special interposition of a righteous 
 Providence, and in the accomplishment of a 
 terrible prediction. Absalom went jn unto 
 them openb/, on the house top, as a public 
 token that he was determined never to think 
 of an accommodation with his father, who 
 was not to be iniagined capable of forgiving 
 
172 DAVID^S.REFLECTION ON THE 
 
 SERM. such a wronsf. But, indeed, before this it 
 
 VII. 
 
 .^^^ appeared how far he was from being happy 
 in the conjugal hfe, by that impure flame 
 which seizes not on contented and happy 
 hearts, when he was ensnared by the beauty 
 of Bathsheba, and violated the bed of that 
 faithful subject and gallant hero, who was 
 then fighting his battles, therein acting a 
 part most unworthy not only of David, but 
 of a common Israelite ; nay, indeed of one 
 who, though an alien from the commonwealth 
 of Israel, had any feeling of honour or of 
 decency. He afterwards married that beau- 
 tiful woman ; and she seems to have been, 
 during the remainder of his life, his favourite 
 queen. But undoubtedly all the pleasure 
 which he enjoyed in his relation to her 
 would be mutually embittered by the remem- 
 brance of that guilt on which that relation 
 was founded. 
 
 2. Let us consider David as a father, and 
 we shall find his disappointments equal un- 
 der that character. You know that God 
 gave him a numerous offspring : of some of 
 them, indeed, we know nothing more than 
 their names ; but, m ith regard to others of 
 them, we know that they were remarkably 
 
VANITY OF Tim CREATURE. 173 
 
 beautiful, and dearly beloved by their father, serm. 
 
 v'l r 
 In this number, under one or the other of .^^.-.^-^ 
 
 these classes, and, perhaps, under all, were 
 Amnon and Adonijah, Absalom and Tamar. 
 But can I mention their names, without 
 bringing to your memory the black tragedy 
 which made the family of David wretched 
 almost to a proverb ? What father would 
 not think it enough to break his heart, if 
 one of his children, and that too his eldest 
 hope, should be guilty of a rape, on whom- 
 soever it were committed, and so become 
 liable to death by the law of God and man ? 
 especially if this rape were incestuous, com- 
 mitted on the person of another of his chil- 
 dren, sister to the criminal ? and more espe- 
 cially if public infamy and most unmanly 
 cruelty were to be added to the injury? 
 Yet all this, you know, came to pass with 
 respect to Amnon, and his fair sister Tamar, 
 whose beauty (like that of many others, whom 
 history has recorded, and numbers more 
 too inconsiderable for history), proved to be 
 her ruin. What father would not grieve if 
 one of his children should be guilty of mur- 
 der? how much more if it were a brother 
 whom he murdered ? Yet this, also, w^s the 
 
VII. 
 
 174 DAVID^S REFLECTION ON THE 
 
 SERM. calamity of David. In this respect, a trial 
 much greater than that of Job, who lost his 
 children, innocent at least, and as it seemed 
 by the immediate stroke of Providence. 
 Amnon was assassinated at a feast which 
 Absalom had made for him, and to which 
 his father had expressly consented that he 
 should go ; and religion was made by that 
 profane wretch the cover for fratricide. On 
 this he fled for a considerable time, and the 
 overfond David was afflicted at his absence. 
 When he was restored he was for a time, 
 and only for a short time, banished from his 
 presence ; but even then, when permitted to 
 live in Jerusalem, he was plotting against 
 the crown, and the life of his father. What 
 father would not be grieved that his son 
 should be a rebel to a mild and righteous 
 prince, though personally a stranger? How 
 much more lamentable was it when there was 
 a rebellion at once against his king and his 
 parent? A rebellion in which his father^s 
 banishment would not suffice the young bar- 
 barian ; but in which he was impatient to 
 embrue his hands in his blood. Yet this did 
 David see; and then saw him fall by the singu- 
 lar vengeance of heaven, with all his guilt upon 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE. 175 
 
 his head, and butchered in the most shock- serm. 
 ing manner, even ni the most express con- .^^^-^-^ 
 tradiction to his tender command. I doubt 
 not but these scenes had a great hand in 
 impairing the strength of David, and wear- 
 ing him out at seventy years, notwithstand- 
 ing the native vigour of his constitution, 
 which might have reached to a much greater 
 age. And no doubt it was a further shock to 
 his sinking frame, when Adonijah, of whom 
 it is expressly said that he was a very goodly 
 man, like his brother Absalom (and that 
 his father had never displeased him at any 
 time by saying. Why hast thou done so?) 
 became a rebel against Solomon, and there- 
 fore against God (by whose authority Solo- 
 mon was anointed as well as David, who 
 made him his associate on the throne), and 
 thereby forfeited his life. O ! who would, 
 upon terms like these, have been the father 
 of this beautiful flock ? When the tender 
 pleasures of their infant caresses were so 
 overbalanced l)y the daggers which they 
 planted in the bosom which had cherished 
 them, by the stab which they gave to the 
 bowels out of which they came, who would 
 
176 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. not rather have said, Happy, in comparison 
 
 VII. 
 
 ^^■v-^^ of such parents, are the wombs that never 
 bare, and the breasts that never gave suck. 
 But they who have been unhappy in their 
 children have sometimes been happy in their 
 friends. Let us view David, 
 
 3. Under the character of a friend. And 
 so far as I can judge, never was man more 
 faithful, more tender, and more generous 
 under that character. And never was friend- 
 ship better deserved, or better repaid than 
 that of David to Jonathan. He seemed to 
 be a person pointed out by heaven for the 
 second blessing of David's life, for he would 
 willingly allow the first part to his sister, 
 under the nearer relation of wife. But, alas ! 
 the bands of this desirable friendship, which 
 united their hearts, were no sooner knit than 
 broken. All that we read of the effect of this 
 friendship is the mutual condolence of the 
 friends. But no doubt David comforted him- 
 self with the idea of making his friend, as 
 he had promised, the second in the kingdom 
 after his own accession to the crown ; and 
 thought how happy he should be in such a 
 counsellor; in such a guard, with whom he 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE. 177 
 
 would SO have shared the royal power, that serm. 
 the house of Saul should scarcely perceive v,.^,^^^ 
 that they had lost it. Vain flattering hopes ! 
 for with Saul, Jonathan also was slain ; and 
 there the sword of the Philistines, which in 
 other forms had so often attempted it in vain, 
 now reached the heart of David, mingled 
 his tears with the anointing oil that was 
 poured upon his head, and stained his royal 
 robe with weeping. For these were his ac- 
 cents, I am distressed for thee, my brother 
 Jonathan. And by whom was the loss re- 
 paired ? By Ahithophel, in whom he con- 
 fided, as if it had been the contrivance of 
 heaven to wound him most where he loved 
 best. These, therefore, were the accents of 
 his sorrows when his friend Ahithophel dis- 
 tinguished himself by the blackest counsel 
 against him, when there was not a man in 
 Israel who equalled his cruelty, when he 
 offered to have smitten him with his own 
 hand. It was not, says he, an enemy that 
 reproached me, '&c. Now when these dear 
 names of husband, father, and friend afford 
 so little solid happiness, the name of king 
 gives no great expectation. Yet I am to 
 consider him, 
 
 VOL. IV. N 
 
VII. 
 
 17^^ DAVID^S REFLECTION ON THE 
 
 ,SERM. 4. Under his royal character. Concern- 
 , ing which you will observe, that he appears 
 to have had as tender an affection for his 
 people as e\er prince had, of which he gives 
 this sure, though sad token, that when his 
 own soul was in the deepest distress, under 
 the sense of guilt, he mingles his prayers for 
 Zion, with intercession for his own pardon. 
 When out of the depths he cried to God, he 
 says, in the language of humble faith and 
 earnest desire. Let Israel hope in the Lord, 
 for he shall reclee?n Israel out of all its 
 troubles. When crying out, as of broken 
 bones, and in fear of being cast away from 
 God's presence, he says. Do good in thy 
 good pleasure to Siotiy &c. Yet he was not 
 without his trials as a prince. Though he 
 had a long series of victory and glory, he 
 saw Israel affronted when his embassadors 
 were sent to Hanan ; and afterward he saw 
 it seduced, first by Absalom, whose vile tales 
 were believed, though they unpitiably sought 
 the destruction of its aged, faithful, and 
 affectionate monarch : and then, upon a lit- 
 tle provocation, received from a haughty 
 word, ten of its tribes cried out in inso- 
 lent defiance, fVe have no part in David, 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE. 179 
 
 neither have we any inheritance in the son of serm. 
 Jesse/ Every man to his tents, O Israel! ^.^^^^ 
 Ungrateful words ! and then they follow, 
 I know not whom, one Sheba, the son of 
 Bikri, a vain upstarl, whom they were base 
 enough to prefer to the most illustrious mO' 
 narch who had ever sat on a throne ; M'ho 
 had so often gone in and out before them, 
 and had fought, and had been deservedly 
 called the light of Israel. This ingratitude 
 must have wounded him more sharply than 
 the weapons of their rebellion could otherwise 
 have done ; and would give him a renewed 
 and painful occasion to repeat the remark^ I 
 have seen an end of all perfection. 
 
 And who would on the whole have been 
 David, great and triumphant, rich and power- 
 ful as he was, if this had been all that we know 
 of his history ? But we reflect upon it with 
 pleasure, that he was a faithful servant of God, 
 that he had his word for his support, and that 
 he lived in communion with God, and in de- 
 votedness to him. Happy, had he evermain- 
 tained this high character! but, alas! it is not 
 to be disowned that he had one other more 
 melancholy experience of the vanity of all 
 created perfection, the imperfection of the 
 
 N 2 
 
180 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. human heart, and the mutable nature of the 
 .^^^^^ most confirmed habits of virtue and hoh- 
 ness. Witness that unhappy fall which I 
 mentioned before, and which I love not to 
 repeat ; the remembrance of which added 
 such a sting to all his other sorrows, which 
 brought that fatal sentence upon him, that 
 the sword should not depart from his house, 
 and wrote the tokens of Divine displeasure^ 
 even in the blood of his children : so that, 
 even before the judgment actually came upon 
 him, he cried out, Wlake me to hear of joy and 
 gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken 
 may rejoice. 
 
 I have dilated so much upon the illustra- 
 tion of these heads, that I must reduce the 
 improvement within very narrow bounds. 
 But some of the particulars of it are so 
 obvious, that I am well satisfied many of 
 my hearers have already prevented me in 
 their own minds. We may say then, 
 
 1. Let not the inexperienced think too 
 highly of the world. You who are setting 
 out in it, to whom its pleasures and its pros- 
 pects are new; you will, I dare say, have the 
 modesty to own, that your prospects are not 
 to be compared with those of David : expect 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE,' 181 
 
 not, therefore, the perfection which he could serm. 
 not find. Let not him that is deceived, in this ^^^^ 
 respect, tj'ust in vain words, for vanity will 
 he his recompense. I would not, indeed, 
 have you terrify yourselves with the expec- 
 tation of some very tragical event. Your 
 passage through life may be easy and fair, 
 but this can never be your home and your 
 rest. Some degree of sorrow is the lot of 
 mankind, and the felicity of the happy has 
 many mixtures and alloys. By keeping your 
 expectations low, you will meet disappoint- 
 ment the better prepared : your enjoyments, 
 by how much the less they were depended 
 upon, will be the more agreeable ; and, what 
 is the best consequence of all, you will by 
 these means be detached from this world, 
 and setting but a small value upon it, its 
 temptations will have but little force upon 
 you, and you will be better disposed to look 
 forward to a better world beyond the grave, 
 and will be daily improving more in your 
 preparations for it. 
 
 2. Let not the experienced wonder at the 
 emptiness which they find in the world. 
 What shall the 7nan do that comes after the 
 king? Have we more to hope for than the 
 
182 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. illustrious David ? Have we more to claim 
 ^^-^^^y than he ? Think it not strange if yet greater 
 trials should happen to you ; and, remember 
 that, some degree of chastisement is so far 
 from being any argument of being disre- 
 garded by God, that it is often a token of 
 his peculiar favour. 
 
 3. Let us rejoice in the reflection, that 
 David, amidst all his disappointments and 
 troubles, had an interest in the blessings of 
 an everlasting covenant. To this he sweetly 
 refers in his last words, and reposes himself 
 upon it with a peculiar delight. Though, 
 says he, mi/ house be not so with God, yet he 
 has made with me an everlasting covenant. 
 We cannot but love the character of David, 
 with all the alloys which were blended with 
 it : and it is delightful to think that he did 
 not sink under his burden, but that God 
 supported him : with what ? with the views 
 of that covenant which, through Christ, is 
 now made with each of us, and which there- 
 fore may support us, even though we were in 
 the like extremities. And, to close all, 
 
 4. Let us all turn, with him, to the word 
 of God, and seek this perfection there, which 
 cannot be found in the greatest variety, or 
 
VANITY OF THE CREATURE. 183 
 
 the greatest abundance of created enjoy- serm. 
 ments. Blessed be God ! that law in which v^I^ 
 David found so much comfort, and which 
 he speaks of as so dear and valuable, be- 
 yond the joys of dividing the spoil, beyond 
 the sweetness of honey ^ or the honeycomb ; 
 that law is still before us, yea, greatly im- 
 proved by the glorious addition of the gos- 
 pel. Let us therefore take it up as a Divine 
 treasure, as infinitely more precious than 
 rubies. There let us seek that God from 
 whom it came, and in him let us centre our 
 happiness ; saying from our heart, as David 
 did. My soul wait thou oiily upon God, for my 
 expectations are from him. But how fit these 
 sentiments are we shall more largely show in 
 the next discourse. 
 
184 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 David's reflection on the extent of 
 god's commandments. 
 
 Psalm cxix. 96. 
 
 1 have seen an end of all perfection, but thy commandment is 
 exceeding broad. 
 
 SERM. We were, on the last Lord's day, taking a view 
 .^^^^^^^ (I hope some of us found it a heart-affecting 
 view) of the narrow hmits of what seems 
 most excellent and perfect in creature enjoy- 
 ments here below. We considered it as 
 illustrated in the instance of David, by whom 
 these words were uttered ; David, no doubt 
 one-of the greatest, and, as one would imagine 
 from some circumstances of his life, one of 
 the happiest of mankind. We have consi- 
 dered .him with respect to his personal and 
 relative enjoyments ; with respect to strength 
 and beauty, genius and wealth, place and 
 power. We viewed him, also, under the 
 character of a husband, a father, a friend. 
 
Vlll. 
 
 EXTENT OF GOd's COMMANDMENTS. 185 
 
 and a king; and we saw great mixtures of serm. 
 vanity run through all these views : there v 
 was not one of them in which he might not 
 have said, / have seen an end of all perfec- 
 tion. And may not many of us likewise, 
 and upon our own experience, say that these 
 things are so. Though we never were placed 
 in such a sphere as David was, yet we have, 
 blessed be God, had our enjoyments : but 
 what have they been, many of them, when 
 compared with our expectations ? Have we 
 not had our disappointments too ? disap- 
 pointments, perhaps, often mingling them- 
 selves with our enjoyments ? yea, indeed, 
 what has not proved vanity and veiation of 
 spirit when our expectations have risen high ? 
 And what shall we say to these things? shall 
 we sit down in despair, and say there is no 
 such thing as happiness to be found ? Then 
 God has made all men in vain : then exist- 
 ence is a privilege not worth possessing ; and 
 then rational creatures, in proportion to the 
 degree in which their capacities are greater 
 than those of the brutes, are more miserable 
 than they. God forbid ! No, let us hear the 
 conclusion of the whole matter, and we shall 
 
VIII. 
 
 186 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. find that if we are truly disposed to fear God 
 J and keep his commandments, a solid and last- 
 ing happiness may be found, mutable and 
 transitory as the world is. If we may on 
 the one hand say, with David, that we see 
 the limits of all other perfection ; we may 
 add, with him too, thi/ commandments are 
 exceeding broad ; and accordingly that is the 
 topic of our present discourse. Having, 
 
 I. Already considered the reflection which 
 David made on the vanity of the creatures ; 
 let us consider, 
 
 II. The honourable testimony which he 
 bore to true religion, and to the word of 
 God as the great support of it. I hare seen 
 an end of all perfection, hut thy commandment 
 is exceeding broad. 
 
 I will first consider the sense, and then the 
 evidence of this assertion now before us. 
 
 I. I am to consider the sense of this as- 
 sertion, that God's commandment is exceeding 
 broad. 
 
 Now, I apprehend, in general, the sense is 
 this, that the Divine revelation, as leading to 
 God, and as practiccdly influencing the mind, 
 
EXTENT or god's COMMANDMENTS. 18/ 
 
 opens upon it a wide and extended view of serm. 
 happiness, incomparably beyond any thing ^^^^^ 
 in the present Morld. 
 
 1. By the command of God we are to 
 understand a Divine revelation in general. 
 This you may easily infer from observing 
 that the variety of words made use of in this 
 Psalm, the lazi\ the statutes, the command- 
 inent, the ordinance^ the precept^ the testimowj, 
 the word of God, all signify the same thing, 
 and all express the sacred oracles : but as 
 almost every verse of this Psalm speaks of 
 them, it is suitable, especially in the particu- 
 lar strain of this sacred composition, to use 
 such a variety of phrases. It may be fur- 
 ther intended to remind us of the various 
 matter which it contains, its moral com- 
 mands and precepts, its ceremonial ordi- 
 nances and statutes, the sanction by which 
 it is confirmed, and which God testifies, on 
 the one hand and on the other, in the pro- 
 mises and the threatenings of it. And we 
 may assure ourselves, that if it were true 
 of those books of the sacred canon, which 
 David had, that they are so incomparably 
 excellent and valuable as David continually 
 
188 DAVID^S REFLECTION OX THE 
 
 SERM. speaks them to be, it must be much more 
 v^^^v^ evidently so as it came to be enriched in 
 succeeding ages, not only with his writings 
 and those of the prophets which arose after 
 him, but also with those of the apostles of 
 our blessed Redeemer ; when the gospel was 
 added to the law; and not clothed in a dress 
 of dark hieroglyphics, if I may so speak, 
 and emblematic embroidery, as it was in 
 those early days, but in all its brightest and 
 clearest discovery, where with an unveiled 
 face we behold, as in this glass, the glory of 
 the Lord. 
 
 2. We must understand the Psalmist here 
 to speak of the commandment of God, as 
 directing our view to God, and engaging our 
 practical regards. 
 
 The excellence and benefit of the Divine 
 revelation evidently consists in this, that it 
 teaches us to know God : and then only 
 does it answer its end, when it engages us 
 'John to love and to serve him. If we know these 
 things, happy are we if we do them ^. But it 
 is most apparent, that if the great practical 
 design of the revelation be neglected, we 
 must be the worse rather than the better for 
 
EXTENT OF GOD^S COMMANDMENTS. 189 
 
 it. Those who, havmg known the way of serm. 
 tnith, have yet turned aside from the holy .^-^.,1^ 
 commandment^ they whom God has hionii in 
 this distinguished sense, and bestowed those 
 pecuhar favours upon them, must, if they 
 go on in their impiety, be expected to be 
 punished yet seven times more for their iniqui- 
 ties. But this is so obvious a thought that I 
 shall not long insist upon it : it is the less 
 necessary, as I am now speaking of the views 
 Avhich it imparts ; which if men pursue not, 
 the greater is their guilt and folly. I add, 
 
 3. When David speaks of the command- 
 ment of God as exceeding broad, he must 
 mean that it opens upon us a wide extended 
 view of happiness, far superior to any thing 
 which is to be found in the present world. 
 
 Were we to consider the phrase of the 
 breadth of the commandment alone, it would 
 be much more ambiguous, as it might signify 
 how extensive it was in its demands, and 
 that is van awful and an useful meditation : it 
 reaches not only to our actions and words, 
 but to our thoughts; it controls all the secret 
 workings of the soul, and sets it in the pre- 
 sence and the eye of the great heart-searching 
 God. It extends, also, to the whole course 
 
SERM. 
 VIII. 
 
 190 David's reflection on the 
 
 and series of our lives ; and there is not a 
 moment, when we are capable of any rational 
 action and sentiment, in which we are not 
 liable to its control ; in which we are not 
 to own, and to govern ourselves by its autho- 
 rity. O ! that we may consider this, that 
 we may be deeply affected wdth a view of 
 our own deficiency ; that we may see how 
 far our own righteousness is from being ade- 
 quate to the demands of a commandment of 
 such exceeding breadth ; and that we may 
 be employed, by applying ourselves to Christ, 
 whose obedience is as wide as is the extent 
 of the law itself; and whose righteousness is 
 ill and upon all them that believe, by which 
 alone they obtain justification before God. In 
 this view, I say the words contain a great 
 and important truth : but I apprehend that 
 when we come to compare them with the 
 former clause, they will be determined to 
 another signification. In what respect could 
 the command of God be broad, when com- 
 pared to the limited view of perfection in the 
 creature ? Surely, as it opened unto us more 
 extensive and important prospects, according 
 to the paraphrase which I gave to you on the 
 last Lord's day. " I soon see and find the 
 
EXTETMT OF GOI>*.S COMMANDMENTS. IQl 
 
 end of what appears to be greatest, fairest, serm. 
 and most promising in the world ; but when k^-^ 
 I see what a happiness thou. Lord, art di- 
 recting me to in thy word, I see no hmits, 
 no end of that: it promises to me an infinite 
 good, an ocean of happiness, which flows on 
 every side around me ; and does, as it were, 
 swallow me up in solid, complete, eternal 
 felicity/" * 
 
 Let me, having thus explained these words, 
 proceed now, 
 
 2. To show you the evidence of this as- 
 sertion ; or to show that " a soul convinced 
 of the vanity of this world and all its enjoy- 
 ments, may find that happiness in true reli- 
 gion, and in the word of God, when prac- 
 tically regarded, which it has not been able 
 to find elsewhere/' 
 
 Now here you will observe that I am not 
 to consider the excellency of the scriptures in 
 general, which would indeed be an endless 
 theme ; but that I am to consider it in this 
 particular point of light, with regard to the 
 views which it gives to us of happiness to 
 be obtained ; or the noble prospects which 
 it opens upon us, which quite disgrace and 
 discountenance all pretences to perfection to 
 
192 DAVID*S REFLECTION ON THE 
 
 SERM. be found in this world and its enioyments. 
 viii. . 
 
 .^^-.^.^.^ And here I shall endeavour more particu- 
 larly to show you that the prospects which it 
 gives to us are very great, and very sure. 
 
 1. The prospects which the word of God 
 opens upon us are very grand, delightful, and 
 noble ; for it gives to us a view of an alli- 
 ance with the great and blessed God, and of 
 all the natural consequences of his friend- 
 ship and favour, both in the present and in 
 the future w orld : and if I could but illus- 
 trate this in a proper manner, you would be 
 charmed and struck with it; and you would 
 say, that a thousand such w^orlds as this, 
 laid in the balance with it, were lighter than 
 •vanity. 
 
 1. The Divine W'Ord opehs to us the view 
 of an alliance with the great and ever blessed 
 God. 
 
 The great design of God's speaking to us 
 w'as to make himself known to us, that we 
 might be more sensible than the light of 
 nature alone could have made us, not only 
 that he is, but what he is : that we might 
 know more of his infinite perfections and 
 glories. And to what purpose were they to 
 be known ? that we might be astonished and 
 
EXTENT OF GOd's COMMANDMENTS. IQS 
 
 terrified? that we might tremble and cry out, serm. 
 JFo unto us for zie are undone, for our eyes have ^^^^^ 
 seen the King, the Lord of hosts; and who 
 can stand before this holy God ? Great reason 
 there is, in some views of the case, for such 
 reflections. But God could not intend this 
 by the revelation which he made of himself: 
 no ; he intended to bring us into a friendly 
 acquaintance with him, into a solemn league 
 and covenant with himself. This is, in- 
 deed, a very surprising thing, a thing of 
 which we cannot think and speak seriously 
 without great amazement. But it is a most 
 certain truth, that, pitying our weakness, our 
 wanderings, and our misery, God has, as it 
 were, spoken from heaven, that he might call 
 us to himself: that he might bring us near, 
 and join us to himself in most strict, gra- 
 cious, and endearing bonds : this, you know 
 to be his language. Incline your ear, and come 
 unto me : hear and your souls shall live ; and 
 I iiill make with you an everlasting covenant, 
 even the sure mercies of David ^. And if you ' isa. iv. 
 
 , • • 3. 
 
 would know what kind of a covenant it is, 
 another scripture will speak it, This is the 
 covenant I will make with them, I will he 
 merciful to their unrighteousness, and their 
 
 VOL. IV. o 
 
VIII. 
 
 194 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. si?is and their iniquities will I remember no 
 more: and, I will be to them a God, and 
 they shall he to me a people. This is the 
 covenant. And though these words, which 
 I have quoted, were after the days of David, 
 yet God, in effect, said all this, long before 
 David was born, to his great ancestor Abra- 
 ham, I will establish my covenant with thee, 
 and with thy seed after thee, for an everlasting 
 covenant ; to be a God unto thee and unto thy 
 seed after thee. Now, is there not some- 
 thing in this that seems very great? Is 
 there not something in it that tends to fill 
 the eye of the soul ? to load the heart so that 
 it shall be ready, as it were, to bow under 
 this weight of glory ? " The blessed God is 
 pleased to take notice of me, of such a little 
 contemptible worm as I : to speak of me as 
 setting a kind of value on me, so that he 
 avows his property in me, and says. Thou 
 art become mine. You are a peculiar treasure 
 to me, though all the earth and the heavens be 
 mine. Is not this a great view of ourselves, 
 to be thus owned and regarded by God ? 
 to have such a claim as this made to me ? 
 to be spoken of as forming a part of his 
 treasure, who is the most high God, the pos- 
 
EXTENT OF GOd's COMMANDMENTS. 195 
 
 sessor of heaven and earth ? This is mucli, serm. 
 but, blessed be God ! it is not all. Not only .^^^Ji^ 
 to be possessed by God, but to possess him : 
 not only to say, I am the Lord's, but to say, 
 God also is mine. That, not content with all 
 else that he has given to me before (and he 
 has been giving to me all that I have, and has 
 been every moment renewing his gifts), not 
 contented with all this, that he must also give 
 to me himself, and say, as he does, I am Jeho- 
 vah, even thy God; and what follows, open thy 
 mouth wide, and I will Jill it ^." These words ^ Ps.ixxxi. 
 seem to intimate that God demands it as a 
 token of our gratitude to him, and conde- 
 scends to own the relation of a God to us, 
 that we should endeavour to enlarge our 
 expectations, and form to ourselves some 
 great views and ample wishes, and desires 
 agreeably to that declaration. Accordingly 
 I am to add, 
 
 2d. The word of God gives to us a view 
 of all the natural consequences of his friend- 
 ship and favour, both in the present 9-nd in 
 the future world. 
 
 It not only gives to us such a view of the 
 Divine glory and perfections as may per- 
 suade us that something great and noble 
 
 o 2 
 
VIII. 
 
 196 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. is to be expected, but it assists our concep- 
 tion, upon this part of the subject, with the 
 hint of several of these happy consequences, 
 both with respect to time and to eternity. It 
 would be more than the employment of a 
 whole discourse to insist upon these things at 
 large ; but I will give you a little specimen 
 of w^hat might be said of them if our time 
 would allow. 
 
 With respect to the present world, it gives 
 us reason to apprehend that God will guide 
 us in our difficulties, that he will supply us 
 in our wants, that he will defend us amidst 
 dangers and temptations, that he will com- 
 fort us in sorrow, and that, finally, he will 
 support us even in death itself. Need I 
 refer you to particular passages relating to 
 these blessed results of his favour? Who 
 does not know that there are such ? I will 
 guide thee with mine eye : thou saidst, Call to 
 me. My Father, thou, art the guide of my 
 youth. My God will supply all your wants. 
 No good thing will he withhold from them that 
 fear his 7iame. God will not suffer you to he 
 tempted above what you are able to bear. God 
 comforts those whom he casts down ; and when 
 I pass through the valley of the shadow of 
 death, Sec. How many scriptures parallel to 
 
EXTENT OF GOd's COMMANDMENTS. 197 
 
 these might be mentioned upon this interest- serm. 
 mg topic r v^-v-^^ 
 
 Think, then, of the pious soul taking the 
 survey, looking upon the uncertainty of life 
 with these views. What a suitableness does 
 it find in such declarations. Suppose it to 
 be a young, and, in a great measure, an in- 
 experienced person, setting out in the green 
 of life, with that solicitude which thoughtful 
 persons, in those circumstances, cannot but 
 feel. What a suitable support is this : " I 
 hope that God will guide me amidst all my 
 uncertainties ; that he will dispose circum- 
 stances in the course of his providence, or 
 will make impressions on my mind by his 
 Spirit ; or will put a word into the mouth of 
 his minister, which shall be as a voice be- 
 hind me, saying. This is the way, walk ye in 
 it, when I am turning aside to the right hand 
 or to the left. I have little which I can call 
 my own, or if I had ever so much, it is un- 
 certain : my riches, were they ever so great, 
 might fly away as an eagle, whose strength 
 adds proportionable speed to his flight; hut 
 the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness there- 
 of: he never can be at a loss for the most 
 proper expedients for my relief, my content' 
 
VIII. 
 
 198 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. ment, and my delight. He will feed me with 
 ^food convenient for me; and, if it be not 
 always so delicate as I could wish, it will 
 be so much the more wholesome, so much 
 the more agreeable to what he knows the 
 health of my soul may require and admit. 
 Temptations will arise, and my spiritual ene- 
 mies will supplant my steps. The world 
 would afford them dangerous weapons to 
 assault me, for from this magazine are their 
 artillery drawn : but God can, and will en- 
 able me to vanquish them all. His secret 
 strength, operating in my weakness; his holy 
 Spirit, communicated to me to warn me of 
 the various snares which surround me, and to 
 animate me to break through them, will ac- 
 complish the blessed purpose : yes, God shall 
 so overreach all the politics of Satan, that 
 while he is assaulting me, and attempting to 
 destroy me, he shall only give me an exercise 
 by which the health of my soul shall be im- 
 proved ; and shall furnish out new matter to 
 me of real victory and triumph. Sorrowful 
 scenes may, indeed, arise : I see nothing 
 which I may not lose : I can hardly think of 
 any trial to which I may not be exposed. My 
 worldly enjoyments may, each of them, afflict 
 
EXTENT OF GOD^S COMMANDMENTS. 199 
 
 me in proportion to the degree in which they serm. 
 dehght me. But, O ! adored be the riches of .^^^ 
 his grace ! I have the joyful assurance that 
 he will still be with me ; and his gracious 
 converse can delight my soul in the darkest, 
 the most afBictive, the most calamitous cir- 
 cumstances. To feel my soul gladly draw^n 
 nearer to him, to express his gentle support 
 in the painful and calamitous hour will be 
 sweet indeed. What sufferings will not be 
 overpaid if they prove the occasion of mani- 
 festing my Father^s love ? not even the last 
 struggle shall terrify me ; nor all the natural 
 horrors of the dark valley of the shadow of 
 death, if thou art with me, and thy rod and 
 thy staff comfort me, as thy word teaches me 
 humbly to hope that they will. The pros- 
 pect is now changed : / pass through the 
 valley of Bacah, and I make it a well as the 
 rain fills the pools. Thy presence, Lord ! 
 turns darkness into light to me, and death 
 into life." 
 
 The word of God, also, gives us a delight- 
 ful view of the happy effects of the Divine 
 friendship in the future and invisible world. 
 It is not in this world that the noblest fruits 
 of the Divine favour are to be obtained : O ! 
 
VIJI. 
 
 200 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. what unworthy thoughts must we have of 
 , the blessed God, if we imagine it. That 
 David had such views, by comparing one 
 thing with another, is very plain : this I can- 
 not say, that the Mosaic law contained any 
 express promise of eternal life. David, never- 
 theless, expresses his hope of it in very high 
 language, as he speaks of rivers of pleasure 
 at God's right hand, in that world to which 
 the Messiah was to ascend : so he declared 
 it as his own great expectation, and as that 
 which he set against the highest prosperity 
 of the sinner, As for rne I shall behold thy 
 face in righteousness : I shall he satisfied when 
 I awake in thy likeness. And how much the 
 oracles of the New Testament illustrate this 
 matter, and in how clear a light they place 
 life and immoitality, I have often had op- 
 portunity to show to you. Here, then, let 
 us pause a little, and think of the state of a 
 good man's mind when full of these blessed 
 hopes. " Alas \" does he say, " I do not 
 only see an end of all the perfection of 
 happiness, with respect to my own personal 
 share in it, but v.ith respect to the whole 
 race of men. When I am Morn out, and 
 laid in the grave, my possessions must be 
 
EXTENT OF GOd's COMMANDMENTS. 201 
 
 consigned to others, and the rising race will serm. 
 
 enjoy those earthly pleasures which I, in my ^^ ^^ 
 
 turn, have enjoyed and parted wath for ever. 
 But how long shall they enjoy them ? Their 
 turn also will soon be over, and thus it will 
 go on for a few generations, very probably 
 now not a great many, and then cometh the 
 end ; when not only this or that house, how- 
 ever well built, shall be demolished, this or 
 that estate, however well gotten, wasted 
 and lost ; but when earth itself shall be de- 
 stroyed, and all the works of men, and all 
 the sports of human life shall utterly perish : 
 When the heavens^ being on fire, shall he dis- 
 solved, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
 heat, and the earth and all that is therein shall 
 be burnt up; and the ashes shall remain a 
 more affecting monument of human vanity 
 than any thing but the hand of God could 
 erect. It shall not, however, be a monument 
 of the vanity of my hopes. No ; as when I 
 quit my possessions and enjoyments here, I 
 have an humble confidence in the Divine 
 goodness, that he will receive my departed 
 spirit as a spirit which he has honoured with 
 his regard and love, so I also persuade my- 
 self, that when the end of all these things is 
 
202 DAVID S REFLECTION ON THE 
 
 SERM. come, he will remember me for good. His 
 VIII . . . 
 
 -^v-L^ word gives us a reviving hope that I shall 
 
 he his in the day when he makes up his jewels, 
 and that in that day which shall hum as an 
 oven, when the wicked and all that work ini- 
 quity shall he as stuhhle ; that he will then 
 cause the sun of righteousness to shine upon 
 me with its fairest and brightest beams ; 
 that he will then own me as his servant, as 
 his child, and that he will receive me, be- 
 yond the reach of any future change, to 
 dwell in the immutable felicity of that glo- 
 rious world where he reigns. And, O ! what 
 scenes of perfection will there open upon me ! 
 Turn thine eye, O my soul ! from these sha- 
 dows to dwell awhile on that prospect : but 
 what a prospect is it ? What an immense 
 wilderness, how wide and broad, how infinite 
 are the numbers of its inhabitants ? How 
 much beyond the view of Israel in its encamp- 
 ments, which Balaam had when he said. Who 
 can count its dust? What views of God's 
 bounty and love display themselves in all the 
 various forms of glory and happiness in which 
 saints and angels shine ? What views of his 
 own perfections and glory, in the sight which 
 I shall then have of hiinself in that beatific 
 
EXTENT OF GOd's COMMANDMENTS. 203 
 
 vision, when I shall be like to him, and shall serm. 
 see him as he is. God sheds abroad his mild- v^^^ 
 est glory, reflected from the face of Christ : 
 and I shall for ever be employed in contem- 
 plating and adoring those infinite and im- 
 mutable perfections, of which I can see no 
 end ; no limit of the object ; no limit of 
 time to which my view of it shall not be con- 
 tinued ; but I shall for ever gaze upon him 
 with ever new and ever increasing delight, 
 and in a complete assurance that he will for 
 ever be my God and my jyortion. O ! the 
 breadth and extent of this happiness ; and 
 of that revelation which brings to me the 
 tidings of it ! O I the height, and le?igth, 
 and breadth, and depth of that love of God 
 in Christ, which raises me to it, and passes 
 my imperfect knowledge. O, my immortal 
 soul ! thou shalt never have exhausted this 
 river of life with all thy repeated draughts." 
 Thus does the word of God nourish and 
 elevate the soul ; thus does it cheer and 
 delight it ; these views does it set before 
 us, and thus does it form our relish to what 
 is most pure and sublime, most amiable and 
 honourable. It teaches us not, indeed, to 
 acquire the world, but it does infinitely more 
 
204 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. in teaching us to contemn it. For how poor 
 ^^^ do all the enjoyments of sense appear, when 
 viewed in competition with this felicity. — 
 But is not this a golden dream? is there any 
 reality or solidity in it? May a poor sinful 
 mortal presume to speak thus of an alliance 
 with the God of heaven ; and of all those 
 happy consequences of that alliance, not 
 onl}'^ in time, but also in eternity ? Blessed 
 be God ! he may ; for I am briefly to add, 
 
 2. That as these prospects are very grand 
 and noble, so likewise are they very sure. 
 So David says, Thy testimonies are sure. 
 We have great satisfaction that they are 
 God's testimonies, and his promises. He 
 has given them by holi/ men of old, zcho 
 spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost : 
 yea, liaving in time past spoken to his people 
 hy the prophets, he has in these latter days 
 spoken unto us hy his Son : who proved 
 himself to be sent from God by his personal 
 miracles; by his resurrection from the dead ; 
 by the operation of his Spirit on the apostles 
 and private Christians ; and by transmitting 
 the sacred oracles to us with such evidence 
 of their genuineness, and of their Divine 
 uuthority, as are abundantly sufficient to 
 
EXTENT OF GOd's COMMANDMENTS. 205 
 
 assure every candid inquirer, not leaving serm. 
 himself, in this degenerate age, without wit- v.^,-v-^ 
 ness of their Divine power and efficacy upon 
 the mind. This is the recoixl that God has 
 given ifs, eternal life, and that this life is in 
 his Son. If the word of God be true, it 
 cannot possibly be false that we are thus 
 allied to God, if true and obedient believers; 
 and that, in consequence of this alliance, 
 such and such blessings are promised, and 
 if promised surely they shall be performed. 
 Can I question this ? Are there not some of 
 mankind, concerning whom I might say, " I 
 am sure that I may depend upon this or that 
 man^s word ; I am sure that he will not fail 
 me V And may I not much more say so of 
 my God ? Could any thing tempt him to 
 raise a hope which he would not answer ; to 
 make a promise which he would not fulfill ? 
 Shall the wicked ever have that to object 
 against the God of heaven ? Far be that 
 blasphemous supposition from our minds. 
 No, as David says, For ever, O Lord, thy 
 word is seated in heaven, and thy faithfulness 
 is throitghout all generations ; it shall for 
 ever remain immutable. David is dead, 
 and the prophets are dead, and the apos- 
 
206 
 
 DAVID S REFLECTION ON THE 
 
 SERM. ties are dead, hut the word of God Ikes 
 VIII. . ' ^ 
 
 v-^-v^^ a7ul abides for ever ; and that God, whose 
 
 word it is, is the same yesterday, to day, 
 and for ever. Therefore all those wide ex- 
 tended prospects which it opens upon me, 
 are not Utopean regions, the seats of vision- 
 ary felicity, reveries of a pleasing dream ; 
 but all make full, solid realities. Here is 
 perfection, firmness, solidity ; whereas the 
 promises of this world are, like some sort 
 of fruits, which wear a fine painted rind, 
 while they are rotten at heart. Such reflec- 
 tions as these we have the justest reason to 
 make, on this view of the subject ; and now 
 permit me, 
 
 III. To close all with a few hints by way 
 of inference and improvement. 
 
 1. We may infer that we have great rea- 
 son to be thankful for the word of God, 
 which opens unto us such views of extensive 
 and substantial happiness. 
 
 Adored be the grace of God, that he has 
 given to us his word : that he has been pleased 
 to speak from heaven, to send his messengers 
 from age to age, to testify to his creatures, 
 poor sinful creatures, that he had such kind 
 
EXTENT OF GOd's COMMANDMENTS. 207 
 
 designs towards them : that he was wilhng to serm. 
 take them into an alHance with himself, and ^^^^^ 
 to do these amazing things for them : and, 
 O blessed be his name ! that he has sent 
 this word to us, that he has sent it to 
 Great Britain, and that we should live when 
 he did it. You know how David was 
 affected with this. He has given his word 
 to Jacob; his statutes and commandments to 
 Israel, and has not dealt so with other nations. 
 To this day there are many to which he has 
 not done so : many millions of mankind, 
 who have never heard of a covenant made 
 with God ; never thought in their lives of 
 being reconciled to him, and at length re- 
 ceived to the perfect enjoyment of him in 
 glory. The vanities of the world are their 
 all. And of these some are very polite, 
 learned, and luxurious nations, nations that 
 have amongst them many of the choicest 
 productions of nature ; inhabiting southern 
 climates, which produce rich fruits, spices, 
 and gems : and others of them are poor 
 barbarous people, that run about almost 
 naked on their desert sands, or amidst their 
 wild forests. But it matters little in which 
 of these different climates a man is born. 
 
VIII. 
 
 208 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. unless it be that, perhaps, the vanity of Hfe 
 is more sensibly felt, and with greater an- 
 guish regretted, by the man who lives in 
 its greatest abundance. The great differ- 
 ence between nation and nation is not that 
 which climates or manners have made ; no, 
 nor that which has been made by sciences, 
 by liberty, by laws, though these are glorious 
 and important blessings ; but that which is 
 made by religion. This is the illustrious pre- 
 rogative of here and there a nation to which 
 God has given his word, and his gospel ; and 
 this is the prerogative of ours. " Yes,'' may 
 the poor Christian say, " and by a further hap- 
 piness it is dispensed all abroad. Poor as I 
 am, one way or another, by purchase or by 
 gift, I have a Bible, which I can call my 
 own, which I can read in secret, and in which 
 I find the most delightful company. I may 
 not only come to public ordinances, sabbath 
 after sabbath, and hear the word read and 
 explained ; but I have a Bible where I can 
 revive my memory of those Divine truths, 
 which, otherwise, I might lose, and by 
 which I can try the doctrines that I hear : 
 so drinking, as it were, at the fountain head. 
 Lord, thy precepts are my delight and my 
 
EXTENT OF GOd's COMMANDMENTS. 209 
 
 counsellors, and througli them I get under- serm. 
 standing, and am animated to aspire after k^^^^^ 
 those perfections, of which I have been hear- 
 ing, with greater ardour and constancy. I 
 will bless thee for it while I live ; and though 
 I leave it behind me when I enter the New 
 Jerusalem, I will there praise thee for ever 
 and ever, that I knew what it was to possess 
 so invaluable a treasure, and that thy grace 
 has given to me, as it were, a copy of it 
 translated into my very soul." 
 
 2. It should certainly engage us to con- 
 verse much with it. 
 
 You know that David was captivated with 
 it : he expresses it often, especially in this 
 Psalm, and particularly in the very next 
 verse, O, how love I thy law, it is my medita- 
 tion all the day. " This commandment of 
 thine, so broad, and that gives me such 
 views of perfection, when I see the limits of 
 creature comforts, does so possess itself of 
 my heart, that I cannot express the pleasure 
 that I take in conversing with it. I could 
 spend all the day in reading it, or in think- 
 ing of it : it fills my heart, as it were, with a 
 feeling of secret delight, an ardent, unutter- 
 able, transporting affection. O, how I love 
 
 VOL. IV. p 
 
210 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. it, with what a reUsh I do, as it were, clasp 
 ..^.^.^ it to my heart/' Can you say so ? I hope 
 some of you can. O ! make it your coun- 
 sellor, make it your familiar companion, like 
 that happy man whose delight is in the law of 
 the Lord^ and who meditates thereon day and 
 night. This will fortify your hearts against 
 the vanities of life, which might otherwise 
 delude you, as they have deluded thousands 
 and tens of thousands to their destruction. 
 It is this that must nourish religion in your 
 hearts ; that must continue those impres- 
 sions which these great objects, that we have 
 been surveying, have made upon your souls, 
 and keep them strong and lively. No one 
 but he who has experienced it, knows what 
 a tendency scripture has to enlarge and 
 strengthen the mind. The noble ideas which 
 the book of life suggests, pass not over it, 
 like shadows flitting over a mirror, but 
 stamp themselves deeply upon its essence, 
 and become, as it were, parts of itself. May 
 you, from your own experience, be able to 
 bear testimony to the truth of this asser- 
 tion. 
 
 3. We may further learn from hence the 
 wisdom of God in permitting the world to 
 
VIII. 
 
 EXTENT OF GOd's COMMANDMENTS. 211 
 
 be SO vain, when he has provided such a serm. 
 remedy against its vanity. 
 
 Judge nothing before the time. David met 
 with a great many difficulties and disap- 
 pointments ; but then he could say, and did 
 say. It has been good for me that I have been 
 afflicted; and many good men have had reason 
 ^to apply this acknowledgment to themselves : 
 yes, no doubt, my friends, many of you to 
 whom I am now speaking. This is not the 
 only place in which God is to display his 
 bounty to his creatures ; his love to his chil- 
 dren. He has wise and good reasons for the 
 mixture of vanity, trouble, and disappoint- 
 ment here to be found. By these grace is 
 glorified, by this his people are secured to 
 himself and fitted for the more perfect en- 
 joyment of the final happiness which he 
 intends for them. " Lord,'' may the good 
 man say, " I meet with comfort enough in 
 life, since I meet with as much as thou didst 
 intend for me, and I should fear that crea- 
 ture enjoyment which would separate my 
 soul from thee, and draw down my heart 
 from heaven." 
 
 4. Let us learn from all, to have an espe- 
 cial and most joyful recourse to the word of 
 
 p 2 
 
212 David's reflection on the 
 
 SERM. God, when our dependence on the creature 
 i^^.^^, must evidently fail us. Then I am sure that 
 we especially need it ; when heaviness in the 
 heart of man makes it stoop we need a good 
 word, not so much from a human friend, 
 though that be sweet, as from God him- 
 self, to make us glad. Let us therefore go 
 thither, as David says. This is my comfort in 
 my affliction, thy word has quickened me, has 
 made me, as it were, to live again when I 
 was just ready to sink. Learn, from what 
 we have been saying, not to have any de- 
 pendence upon any thing in this world ; no, 
 not upon the dearest friends in it ; which 
 are, after all, some of its best treasures. 
 Suppose this or that friend should be re- 
 moved, suppose it w^ere a minister : suppose 
 (which is a very supposable case) it were 
 he who is now addressing you ; this may 
 happen, and yet it may be very well with 
 your souls, perhaps much better than now. 
 It matters not much by whom the word of 
 God is spoken ; it is the word itself on which 
 the stress of your hope and comfort lies. As 
 the apostle, when he had been saying, All 
 flesh is gt^ass, Sec. but the word of the Lord 
 abides for ever, even this word preached by the 
 
EXTENT OF GOD S COMMANDMENTS. 213 
 
 gospel, and therefore your souls, if you have serm. 
 cordially received it, will love it whoever may ^^-^^ 
 die, whatever beside it may be taken away. 
 I conclude, therefore, with these words of 
 the apostle^s, which I should think exceed- 
 ingly proper, if I had the same apprehen- 
 sions concerning you, as he had with respect 
 to the Ephesians, whose face he was to see 
 no more : I commend you therefore, brethren, 
 to God, and to the word of his grace, which is 
 able to build you up, and to give you an inhe- 
 ritance amongst all them that are sanctified, 
 even in that world where the end of perfec- 
 tion will never be seen. 
 
PREACHED AT NORTHAMPTON, IN 1729. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 REV. MR. JAMES HERVEY. 
 
 REVEREND AND DEAR SIR, 
 
 It may perhaps surprise you, that amidst the 
 familiarities of our intimate friendship I should, 
 without any previous notice, address you thus 
 publicly from the press. I am not without some 
 apprehension, that your modesty may be a little 
 distressed on the occasion: but I am persuaded, 
 you will on the whole forgive the desire I had, 
 that all, to whom this little piece may come, 
 should know, what most who are personally ac- 
 quainted with us both already know, that I 
 most highly esteem you, and most affectionately 
 love you; and that no diversity in our profes- 
 sions and forms could prevent our entering into 
 
218 ^ DEDICATION. . 
 
 the strictest bonds of friendship, or make nie 
 unwilling most openly to profess it, and to per- 
 petuate the memory of it, while this shall re- 
 main. 
 
 I am sorry to say, the temper that generally 
 prevails is of such a nature as to prohibit inti- 
 macies of this kind, and too frequently to occa- 
 sion aversions, where there is no other cause of 
 them than a variety of religious sentiments and 
 practices. But it is our happiness, that we 
 apprehend that temper to be as unreasonable 
 as it is unlovely. And surely all thinking men 
 would see it in the same view, if they would 
 but seriously compare the importance of those 
 things wherein we agree with that of those in 
 which we differ; especially if they would farther 
 reflect, that the very same principles, under 
 different views, promote, in conscientious men, 
 those different practices, which, forgetting those 
 principles, fundamental as they are to all true 
 religion, the professors of it are so apt to con- 
 tend about. 
 
 You, my pious and honoured friend, being, I 
 doubt not, in your own mind persuaded, that 
 Diocesan Episcopacy is of divine original, and 
 that the church hath authority to decree rites 
 and ceremonies, and to determine controver- 
 sies in matters of faith, have solemnly declared 
 
DEDICATION. 219 
 
 that belief; and in consequence of it^ have 
 obliged yourself to render canonical obedience 
 to those, whom you thereby acknowledge as 
 governing you by an authority delegated from 
 Christ; that thus you may he subject to every 
 ordinance of man, for the LoriVs sake, and 
 thereby approve your submission to him. 1 
 have declined that subjection, not from any dis- 
 respect to the persons of the established eccle- 
 siastical governors (many of whom I hold in the 
 highest esteem, and number among the most 
 distinguished ornaments of our common Chris- 
 tianity), and least of all from any unwillingness 
 to yield subjection, where I apprehend Christ 
 to have appointed it : for, so far as I know my 
 own heart, it would be my greatest joy, to bow 
 with all humility to any authority delegated 
 from him. But I will freely tell you and the 
 world, my nonconformity is founded on this, 
 that I assuredly believe the contrary to what 
 the constitution of the Church of England re- 
 quires me to declare, on the above-mentioned 
 he^ds, and on some others, to be the truth : 
 and I esteem it much more eligible, to remain 
 under an incapacity of sharing its honours and 
 revenues, than to open my way to a possibility 
 of obtaining them by what would in me, while I 
 have such apprehensions, be undoubtedly an 
 
220 DEDICATION. 
 
 act of prevarication, hypocrisy, and falsehood ; 
 reverencing herein the authority of God, and 
 remembering the account I must shortly give 
 up in his presence. 
 
 Thus, sir, on the whole, we both choose what 
 we apprehend God requires; we both adhere 
 to that discipline, which we believe to have 
 been primitive ; or, where you give it up in 
 some instances, it is with an upright desire, I 
 doubt not, of conforming to what you judge to 
 be the leading and most important articles : but 
 we both desire, that the communion of the 
 church may be pure, and the form of its disci- 
 pline and worship truly apostolical ; and would 
 exert the power, of which we each of us think 
 ourselves regularly possessed, to make and keep 
 it so ; though we do not estimate our respective 
 powers alike. We pray in different words and 
 manners ; we preach in different habits ; we re- 
 ceive the sacred supper in different postures : 
 but we both preach repentance towards God, 
 and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, regenera- 
 tion and sanctification by his Spirit, and sub- 
 jection to his laws, and particularly to that dis- 
 tinguishing law of mutual love. We both ad- 
 dress the same God, in the name of the same 
 Mediator; and the great blessings we ask are 
 in the main the same. We both commemorate 
 
DEDICATION. 221 
 
 the death of Christ as our propitiatory sacrifice^, 
 resting our own souls, and directing our people 
 to rest theirs, on the atonement he hath made, 
 and the complete righteousness which he hath 
 wrought. Thus joining in love to him as our 
 common Saviour, and living the life which we 
 live in the fiesh hy the faith of the Son of God, 
 we are both waiting for his salvation ; expect- 
 ing that ere long our spirits will be joined, in 
 the general assembly and church of those who 
 die in the Lord (that assembly, where perfect 
 knowledge and love cement in everlasting bands 
 the souls that once differed, as widely as they 
 could differ who were one in Christ); where we 
 hope, through divine grace, to share ages of 
 delight, till our bodies shall be in the same 
 moment borne from the dust, to inherit in our 
 complete persons the everlasting kingdom of 
 our heavenly Father. And in the mean time, 
 why should it be thought strange, that amidst 
 so many endearing bonds of union, our thoughts 
 are hardly at leisure, to recollect the little cir- 
 cumstances in which we differ? Surely the part 
 we are acting under these different denomina- 
 tions is far more pleasing to God, more com- 
 fortable to ourselves, and more edifying to the 
 world, than if you, dear sir, were to set at 
 naught your brother for his nonconformity, or I 
 
222 DEDICATION. 
 
 to judge mine for his conformity ; and we were 
 to infect, not to say poison, the streams of God's 
 sanctuary, where we respectively preside, with 
 the bitterness of contention, censure, and re- 
 proach. 
 
 I assuredly believe, my worthy brother, that 
 in what I have now been writing with so un- 
 usual a freedom, and in what I thought I might 
 in this connection write with some peculiar ad- 
 vantage, I have uttered your sentiments as well 
 as my own. And surely, were they more gene- 
 rally to prevail, the face of our religious in- 
 terests in Great Britain would wear a more 
 pleasing and more hopeful aspect. Were our 
 hearts thus filled with a desire of approaching 
 to each other, and disposed on one hand and 
 the other to sacrifice, as far as with a safe con- 
 science we could, the circumstances that divide, 
 us, where we are divided, love might perhaps 
 find means of union, at present unthought of by 
 most. Or, in the mean time, our worshiping 
 in different places under different forms, might 
 be no more pernicious to the peace and pros- 
 perity of the church than our worshiping in 
 different places, according to the same ritual ; 
 which the greatest imaginable conformity can- 
 not possibly prevent, till we all come to the 
 general assembly, and join the innumerable 
 
DEDICATION. "22^ 
 
 iiiultitude thai surround the tlirone of the Lamb, 
 in that celestial temple, to which, with all the 
 people of God below, we daily aspire. 
 
 To this blessed end, I trust, through Divine 
 grace, our prayers, our discourses, our writ- 
 ings, and our examples will still be tending ; 
 and, blessed be God, that there are so many 
 excellent persons in both communions, whose 
 hands and hearts are joining with ours, in the 
 prosecution of it. May their numbers, their 
 zeal, and their charity be daily growing ! And 
 may God establish your health, dear sir, which 
 is now in so tender a state, that you may long 
 be capable of bearing your important part in 
 so noble a work ; that the parish in which you 
 labour, or some other that may afford you a yet 
 larger sphere of usefulness, may be happy to 
 distant years in your edifying sermons, and in 
 those private instructions which you are, with 
 so exemplary, and, oh ! that I could not say, 
 with so uncommon a zeal, adding to those which 
 you address to them from the pulpit ! Be as- 
 sured, sir, that no man living can more sincerely 
 rejoice in the acceptance of your labours, and 
 particularly in that great and general admira- 
 tion in which your pious and excellent contem- 
 plations are so justly held, by persons of almost 
 every rank and genius, education and profes- 
 
224 DEDICATION. 
 
 sion ; so that the warmest friendship can hardly 
 dictate a higher wish relating to them than that 
 they may be as useful, as they are delightful, to 
 all your readers. 
 
 As for the sermon, with which I here present 
 you, it was preached near twenty years ago, 
 and has long lain by me transcribed among 
 several others, which I have prepared for the 
 press, that if surviving friends should desire 
 it, they may be offered to the world after my 
 death. It is now published at the importunate 
 request of a worthy member of the established 
 church, to whom in the intimacy of our friend- 
 ship it had been communicated, and who has 
 himself been very deeply impressed with the 
 representation of the important truths which 
 are handled in it. My obligations to him, and 
 my regard for his judgment, would not permit 
 me to dispute such a point with him : and I was 
 the more ready to comply with his desire, as 
 something of a peculiar blessing seemed to 
 attend the discourse, when delivered from the 
 pulpit ; and that to such a degree, as I do not 
 know to have been equalled by any other ser- 
 mon I ever preached. This encourages me to 
 hope, that plain as it is, and destitute of almost 
 every charm that might recommend it to a 
 modern taste, the perusal of it may be useful 
 
DEDrCATION. 225 
 
 towards promoting the great end of the Chris- 
 tian ministry ; which midoubtedly is, to bring 
 men to a proper application to that compas- 
 sionate Saviom- whose overflowing goodness is 
 here celebrated, and by that means to lead 
 them to every grace and virtue, as the genuine 
 fruit of faith, and of that love which will na- 
 turally be connected with it. I will not call 
 this, the grand secret of reforming the world; 
 for, blessed be God, it is not a secret; but it 
 is the mighty instrument, which Divine mercy 
 has put into the hands of the ministers of Jesus, 
 to accomplish ends which all the wisdom of an- 
 cient and modern philosophers has attempted 
 in vain; and God is to this day bearing testi- 
 mony to the ivord of his grace. Yes, dear sir, 
 I will never be ashamed to confess it, that I 
 have the joy to see in your assemblies and in 
 ours, that where these doctrines are faithfully 
 and effectually preached, they rise, like the 
 warm beams of the sun on the face of the earth, 
 benumbed by the rigour of winter, and call 
 forth into verdure, beauty, and fragrancy, a 
 thousand excellent productions, the very seeds 
 of which would otherwise have perished. Re- 
 new, my worthy friend, the ardour of your 
 prayers, that the God of the spirits of all flesh 
 may every where excite a multitude of enlight- 
 
 VOL. IV. Q 
 
226 DEDICATION. 
 
 ened and animated witnesses, to these vital 
 truths of his everlasting gospel ; and that his 
 blessing may attend every effort for the ad- 
 vancement of this sacred cause : and particu- 
 larly, that it may, notwithstanding all its imper- 
 fections, attend this humble attempt, from the 
 hand of. 
 
 Reverend and dear Sir, 
 
 Your affectionate brother 
 
 in the work of the Christian ministry, 
 
 and ever faithful friend and servant. 
 
 P. DODDRIDGE. 
 
 Northampton, 
 September 18, 1748. 
 
227 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 CHRIST^S INVITATION TO THIRSTY SOULS. 
 
 John, vii. 37. 
 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and 
 cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and 
 drink. 
 
 All the words of our blessed Redeemer de- serm. 
 serve our very serious regard ; for, his eno- v^-^I^_, 
 mies themselves being judges, Never man 
 spake as he did ^. But there is something in ■ Ver. 46. 
 the words now before us, which may justly 
 challenge a peculiar attention ; as they were 
 not spoken in ordinary converse, or to a lit- 
 tle circle of domestic friends, but delivered 
 in the temple, with a loud voice, on a solemn 
 day, and in the midst of a very numerous 
 assembly. In the last day, that great day of 
 the feast, Jesus stood arid cried, or made pro- 
 clamation, saying, If any man thirst, let him 
 come unto me, and drink. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. It is plain from the second verse, that the 
 K^^J^^ feast here spoken of is the feast of taber- 
 nacles ; which was instituted in commemo- 
 ration of God's giving the law to Israel, and 
 conducting them through the wilderness, 
 ^Lev.xxiii. where they dwelt in tents ^. The feast lasted 
 
 42 43. . 
 
 eight days : most of the former of them were 
 spent in tabernacles, or arbours made up of 
 branches of the most shady trees, and adorn- 
 ed with the finest flowers and fruits which 
 that delightful country afforded in the month 
 of September. It is not improbable but on 
 all these days the pious worshippers wolald 
 sometimes quit these pleasant retreats, to at- 
 tend the services of the temple : but it was 
 the express command of God that The whole 
 eighth day should be spent there, that being 
 ^Lev.xxiii. a holij Convocation^, on which, besides other 
 
 36. • . . 
 
 mstitutions then to be attended, the whole 
 law was to be read over in the audience of 
 all the people, from the original copy which 
 4 Dent, was laid up in the holy of holies*. This was 
 10—2*0. the last day, that great day of the feast, M'hich 
 the evangelist mentions in the words before 
 us. 
 
 The Jewish writers assure us * that, to- 
 
 * Talm. Tract. Chill, ap Tieni. in Loc. 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 229 
 
 wards the latter end of their commonwealth, serm. 
 they had a peculiar ceremony on this day, v^-.^^. 
 to which our Lord may probably here refer. 
 After they had surrounded the altar seven 
 times, with palm branches in their hands, 
 and hosannas of praise, some of the Levites 
 used to pour out, in the court of the temple, 
 a considerable quantity of water, drawn from 
 the fountain of Siloam ; the people in the 
 mean time singing those words of Isaiah, 
 IVithjoy shall they draw water out of the wells 
 of salvation ^. It is very probable they did ' isa. xii. 
 this, as a token of their expectation and de- 
 sire of the Messiah's appearance ; who was 
 to sprinkle many nations ^, to ponr water on * isa. lii. 
 him that was thirsty, and foods upon the dry ^' 
 
 ground^. ^Isa. xliil. 
 
 It was probably during the time of this 
 ceremony, or immediately after it, that our 
 Lord stood up, perhaps on some eminence (as 
 the priest, who made this libation did *), and 
 cried, or proclaimed, with a loud and dis- 
 tinct voice, these gracious and important 
 words. If any man thirst, let him come unto 
 me and drink, q. d. " You all believe the pro- 
 mises of the Messiah, and you have invented 
 
 * Keland. Antiq. Heb. iv. c. G. 
 
 3. 
 
230 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. this rite as a token that you expect his com- 
 ^^..^I^y ing, and long for the effusion of the Spirit, 
 which is then to be bestowed. Behold in 
 me the person whom you profess so eagerly 
 to expect. He that believeth on me^ as the 
 scripture hath in effect said in many places* 
 (or he who has that faith in me which the 
 scripture requires), out of his belly shall flow 
 rivers of living zmter, that is, he shall receive 
 the communications of the Spirit, in such 
 abundant degrees, as shall not only be re- 
 freshing to himself, but shall render him 
 capable of administering, in the freest and 
 most plentiful manner, to the comfort and 
 edification of others. So richly shall he be 
 furnished with its gifts and graces, that spiri- 
 tual instructions and consolations shall flow 
 from him-^-j like water from a fountain, which 
 
 * For I do not apprehend, with Mr. Whiston, that our 
 Lord refers to some passage that is lost. 
 
 t Out of his belly, that is, from within — here from the 
 soul. Comp. Job. XV. 35. Their belly, that is, mind, pre- 
 pareth deceit. Job, xx. 20. He shall not feel quietness in 
 his belly, that is, his conscience. Prov. xx. 27. The candle 
 of the Lord searcheth the inivard parts of the belly, that is, 
 mind. Ibid. ver. 30. Stripes cleanse the inward parts of the 
 belly; that is, afflictions may be the means of purifying the 
 soul. 
 
IX. 
 
 TO THIRSTY SOULS. 23 i 
 
 branches itself out into mighty rivers.'^ Thus serm. 
 the evangehst himself teaches us to expound 
 these words, when he says, ver. 39, This he 
 spake of the Spmt, which they who believed on 
 him should receive. 
 
 Our Lord speaks of the Spirit here : but 
 we must remember that it is not in an ab- 
 stracted view, as separate from, but as in 
 conjunction with the other blessings of his 
 gospel, and as preparatory to a state of eter- 
 nal happiness. And therefore these words, 
 in which the blessed Jesus expresseth his 
 ability and readiness to bestow the Spirit, 
 do evidently imply that he is both able and 
 willing to impart all the blessings of this 
 gospel, to all those who do sincerely desire 
 them ; and this without any exception. A 
 glorious truth ! The epitome of the gospel, 
 and the hope and life of our souls ! Which in 
 an humble dependance on Divine influences 
 I shall now endeavour to illustrate and con- 
 firm. I will, 
 
 I. Show you that the springs of the most 
 valuable blessings are in Christ. 
 
 II. Prove that he is not as a fountain 
 sealed, but diffuses these streams with a 
 
232 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. Divine freedom, and in the richest abun- 
 
 IX 
 
 .^^.J^^^ dance, for the rehef of every thirsty soul. 
 
 III. I shall add some practical reflections. 
 
 I. I am to show you, that the springs of 
 the most valuable blessings are in Christ ; 
 so that he is abundantly able to refresh the 
 thirsty soul. 
 
 My brethren, I may say in the name of 
 my great Master, as was said to Israel of 
 •Ps.ixxxi. old, Opeji thy mouth wide, and I will Jill it^. 
 Extend your desires to the utmost bounda- 
 ries, that are consistent with reason and 
 piety, and from him you may receive the 
 most copious supply ; for he is able to do ex- 
 ceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask 
 5 Eph. iii. or think ^. 
 
 I will not enlarge on the general proof of 
 this fundamental truth, which so often oc- 
 curs. I will not speak particularly of the 
 fulness of Godhead which dwells in him 
 'Col. ii. bodily'^; nor of that communicated y*w/??e5s 
 which is treasured up in him as man and 
 " Col. i. Mediator, by the pleasure of the Father- ^, of 
 which we have all received, even grace for 
 
 ^ John i. grace, that is, an abundance of grace ^. I 
 i6. 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 233 
 
 aim, in my present discourse, not so much at serm. 
 
 • - . .IX 
 
 enlightening the understanding in the evi- >^^^ 
 
 dence of a doctrine so universally allowed 
 among all professing Christians, as at affect- 
 ing your heart, and my own, with a sense of 
 what, even while we acknowledge, we are all 
 so prone to forget. 
 
 Let me entreat you then to reflect, on this 
 occasion, what are those blessings which a 
 rational soul w^ould most eagerly desire, most 
 ardently thirst after. You will immediately 
 reply, if you know God and yourselves, " We 
 are guilty creatures, and we need a pardon ; 
 so need it, as to be for ever undone without 
 it. We are naturally indigent and depen- 
 dant, and we need an interest in the ;:on- 
 stant paternal care of the great Author of 
 our being. We are polluted, weak and dis- 
 consolate, and we need the energy of the 
 Divine, Spirit, to purify, to strengthen, and 
 to revive us. We are immortal creatures, 
 on the borders of the grave, through which 
 we are shortly to enter on the eternal world ; 
 and therefore we need, and cannot but ear- 
 nestly desire an interest in that future and 
 unchangeable happiness.'' My friends, if 
 this be 3^our judgment, it is according to 
 
IX. 
 
 234 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. truth ; may these desires be continually 
 growing in your souls! for, be the thirst ever 
 so impatient, the streams which flow from 
 this living fountain are abundantly sufficient 
 to relieve it. 
 
 1. Do you thirst for the pardon of sin? 
 From the Lord Jesus Christ you may receive 
 a supply. 
 
 Inconsiderable as this may seem to the 
 careless sinner, whose eyes are sleeping the 
 sleep of death, to the enlightened soul it can- 
 not but appear of infinite importance. When 
 once convictions take hold of the heart, when 
 the sacred law of the eternal God is thrown 
 open in all its extent and all its purity, and 
 conscience charges us with our violations of 
 it; when that awful hand appears to write 
 Tekel against us, thou art weighed in the 
 balance and found wanting, no wonder if 
 trembling and astonishment seize us ; no 
 wonder if even our joints are loosed, and our 
 
 *Dan. V. knees smite one against another '^; when angry 
 Omnipotence appears, as it were, rising 
 against us in all its terrors, and hell seems 
 to open its mouth to devour us. Well may 
 other cares and passions be lost in this, as 
 the rustling of a leaf in the report of thun- 
 
 6. 27. 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 235 
 
 der. Accordingly the awakened sinner is serm. 
 represented as inquiring, not after a blessing ^^^^-^ 
 out of the corn-floor and the wine-press, not 
 saying. What shall I eat, and what shall I 
 drink, and wherewithal shall I he clothed ? but 
 as possessed by other thoughts, which now 
 appear of infinitely greater moment. Where- 
 with shall I come before the Lord, and how 
 myself before the most high God? He is re- 
 presented as willing, if possible, to purchase 
 a pardon, not only at the expense of the most 
 costly offerings, with thousands of rams, and 
 ten thousands of rivers of oil, were they at his 
 disposal, but with a sacrifice abundantly 
 more precious than these : Shall i give, says 
 he, my first-horn for my transgression, the 
 fruit of my body for the sin of my sold ^ ? ' Mic. vi. 
 David speaks of himself as thirsting for par- ' 
 don, when he says, under a sense of guilt. 
 Whilst I kept silence my bones waxed old, 
 through my roaring all the day long ; for day 
 and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my 
 moisture was turned into the drought of sum- 
 mer ^. It was like an envenomed arrow shot « Ps. xxxii. 
 into his soul, the poison of which diffused 
 itself through all his veins, and even drank 
 up the vital spirits. 
 
236 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. Now if any of you have felt, or do now 
 
 TV 
 
 v^^-^^ feel, this raging thirst, if you experimentally 
 know that restlessness of mind which is the 
 inseparable attendant of such a circumstance, 
 it must be matter of joy to hear that the 
 blessed Jesus can allay these eager desires, 
 can sweetly compose the soul in the midst 
 of these painful agonies, by that blood of 
 sprinkUng which speaketh better things than 
 
 T Hah. \\\. the blood of AbeV. We are expressly told, 
 that in him we have redemption through his 
 
 "" Eph. i. blood, even the forgiveness of our shis ^ ; that 
 
 ^' God hath exalted him to be a Trince and a 
 
 Saviour, to give i^epentance and remission of 
 
 'Actsv. si?is^ ; and that by him we may be justified, 
 
 ^^' not only from the slighter irregularities of 
 
 life, but from the greatest enormities of it, 
 
 evenfrotn all those things from which we coidd 
 
 'Acisxui. not be justified by the law of Moses '^ ; for 
 ^^' which that dispensation appointed no expia- 
 tory sacrifices, but condemned the offender 
 
 ' Heb. X. to die without mercy ^. 
 ^ ' 2. Do 3^ou thirst for the favour of God ? 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ is able to introduce 
 you to it. 
 
 It is most evident, that this is in its own 
 nature infinitely desirable ; and when the 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 237 
 
 eyes of a man's understanding are enlightened, serm, 
 it will undoubtedly appear so. " And is .^ A^ 
 there," will he immediately cry out, " is 
 there indeed a being of infinite perfection 
 and glory, the overflowing eternal fountain 
 of happiness ? And will he communicate of 
 himself to mortal and to sinful creatures ? 
 Will he not only sheath the flaming sword 
 of his vengeance, but extend the golden 
 sceptre of his grace ? Will he not only sign 
 the pardon of such ungrateful rebels, but 
 even adopt them into the number of his chil- 
 dren ? How does my soul long to look up- 
 wards, and call him my Father ! Happy 
 creatures, whom he admits into such a rela- 
 tion, to whom he reveals himself under so 
 endearing a character ! Happy creatures in- 
 deed, that can go out, and come in, that can 
 lie down, and rise up, under the impression 
 of this glorious transporting thought, God is 
 ever surrounding us with his favourable pre- 
 sence, is ever with us a father and a friend ? 
 O that this happiness were mine ! How rich 
 should I be in such a portion, though I were 
 stripped of my earthly all, and sent out hun- 
 gry and hardly bestead, to seek my bread in 
 
238 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. desolate places! Let unthinking wretches 
 
 v^^-i^^ say. Who will show us any temporal good ; 
 but while I have a voice to express, and a 
 soul to form a desire, this shall be its lan- 
 guage, Lord, lift thou up the light of thy 
 3 Psa. iv. countenance upon me ^ !" 
 
 This, my friends, is the tendency of the 
 soul to its proper centre ; and as it is of all 
 others the most natural, so in a sanctified 
 heart it is of all others the most forcible and 
 lively. Therefore this kind of desires is re- 
 presented in scripture, by the most eager 
 and impatient thirst, even that of a hunted 
 deer after refreshing streams : ^5 the hart 
 panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my 
 soul after thee, O God ; my soul thirsteth for 
 God, for the living God ; when shall I come 
 
 ^ Psa. xiii. and appear before God ^ ! And elsewhere, 
 
 My soul thirsteth for God : my flesh longeth 
 
 for thee, as in a dry and thirsty land, where 
 
 ' Ps. ixiii. no water is ^ : " The thirsty pilgrim cannot 
 long more for cooling streams, when parched 
 up in a sandy desert, than I for thee.'' Nay, ' 
 the ardour of his desire is represented as ex- 
 torting a passionate cry. My heart and my 
 ^Psa. flesh crieth out for the living God^. 
 
 Ixxxiv. 2. 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 239 
 
 Do you, my friends, feel any such holy serm. 
 breathings ? Can you adopt these pathetic ^^J^ 
 words of David, as expressive of the inward 
 sentiments of your soul ? Blessed be God, 
 they are not hopeless desires ! The Lord 
 Jesus Christ is the sacred channel, through 
 which the waters of life flow, from the ever- 
 lasting, inexhaustible fountain ! It was the 
 very business which he came into the world 
 about, to establish a friendship between God 
 and his apostate creatures. Therefore we 
 are expressly told, that God hath made us 
 accepted m the beloved "^ : and our Lord as- ' Eph. i. 
 sures us, that he can introduce us to so great 
 an intimacy with him, that it may properly 
 be said, that he even dwells in our souls : If 
 any man love me, he will keep my word, and 
 my Father will love him, and we will come 
 unto him, and make our abode with him^. ^Joimxiv, 
 
 3. Do you thirst for the communications 
 of the Spirit ? The Lord Jesus Christ can 
 abundantly relieve you. 
 
 Are you sensible of those pollutions, which 
 have overspread your souls, and have sullied 
 the original beauties of them ? Are you 
 mourning over a law in your 7nembers, which 
 wars against that of your minds ^? Are you'Rom. vii. 
 
 23. 
 
^40 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. complaining of the weakness of your dege- 
 
 v^^J^^ nerate natures, that when to will is present 
 with you, how to perform that which is good 
 
 'Rom.vn.i/ou find not'^ ? Are gloomy apprehensions 
 arising in your minds in consequence of such 
 disorders ? Do you tremble under the fears 
 of Divine displeasure, already suspecting the 
 safety of your state, or fearing lest you should 
 lose what you have attained ? It is evident 
 you need the influences of the Spirit, whose 
 office it is to purify, to invigorate, and to 
 cheer the soul. Now it is from the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. that this Spirit is to be com- 
 municated, and therefore it is called the sup- 
 
 ' Phil. i. ply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ ^ ; and it is 
 said, that of his fulness we have all received 
 grace for grace, as I before observed. And 
 for this very reason, because the Spirit was 
 purchased by his blood, is treasured up in 
 his hand, and dispensed by him ; all the 
 blessed operations produced by his agency 
 are ascribed to Christ, by whom it is de- 
 clared that the soul is sanctified, strength- 
 ened, and comforted. Christ of God is made 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. i. unto US sanctificatio7i ^. I, says the apostle, 
 can do all things through Christ that strength- 
 
 * Phil. iv. eneth me *. Our consolations abound through 
 
 13. 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 241 
 
 Christ'^. It was the more proper and neces- serm. 
 sary to insist on this, as the text doth so ^^-^-^ 
 immediately relate to the supplies of the ' ^ ^°'"* '* 
 Spirit. 
 
 4. Do you thirst for the joys and glories 
 of the heavenly world ? The Lord Jesus 
 Christ is able to relieve you. 
 
 One would think, it were absolutely im- 
 possible to believe them, and not ardently to 
 desire a share in them. One would think, 
 that when we have been taking the most 
 transient survey of the land of promise, as 
 delineated in the word of God, we should 
 immediately cry out, as Moses in the views 
 of an earthly Canaan, I pray thee let me go 
 over, and see that pleasant land, which is be- 
 yond Jordan, even that goodly mountain, and 
 Lebanon ^. " It is delightful to view it from * Dent. iii. 
 hence ; but O, when shall I enter upon it ! 
 When shall I taste those pleasures of w hich 
 I now hear, and drink of those refreshing 
 streams which shine so beautiful in the dis- 
 tant prospect.'' We, says the apostle, who 
 are in this taberrmcle, do groan, being bur- 
 dened ; not that we may be unclothed, but 
 clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed 
 up of life ^ . And if we are thus thirsting for ' 2 Cor. v. 
 
 VOL. IV. R ^ 
 
24^ Christ's invitation 
 
 sERM. expected glory, to whom should we go but to 
 v^^i^y that Redeemer, who has the words of eternal 
 'Johnvi. Ufe^. He is the Lord of both worlds, and 
 ^^' heaven as well as earth is subject to his 
 command. All power is given unto him, 
 9 Matt, both in heaven and upon earth^. Let him 
 but give forth the sovereign word, and the 
 golden gates, the everlasting doors, shall bd 
 lifted up to admit us, and a throne of glory 
 erected, radiant and exalted as he shall or- 
 dain. He therefore speaks of it as his pecu- 
 liar office, and certain care, to prepare seats 
 and abodes of felicity for his people in the 
 invisible world, and at length to translate 
 them thither. In my Father's house are 
 many mansions : if it were not so, I would 
 have told you ; I go to prepare a place for 
 you, and if I go and prepare a place for you 
 I will come again, and receive you to fnyself 
 •johnxiv. that where I am there you may he also ^. 
 
 2 3. 
 
 I hope this may be sufficient to prove, that 
 the Lord Jesus Christ is able to satisfy the 
 most important desires of the soul, and to 
 allay its most eager thirst — for the pardon 
 of sin, — the favour of God, — the communi- 
 cations of the Spirit, — and the happiness of 
 the future state. " It is true,'' will the hum- 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 243 
 
 ble soul say, " I firmly believe the springs of serm. 
 the most valuable blessings are in him ; but v^A^ 
 have I any encouragement to hope, that he 
 will open them for the relief of so mean and 
 so unworthy a creature as I V This is the 
 business of my second general, viz. 
 
 II. To prove, that the Lord Jesus is will- 
 ing to communicate of these living streams 
 with a Divine freedom, for the refreshment 
 of every humble soul who sincerely thirsts 
 after them. 
 
 Blessed be God, there is a cloud of wit- 
 nesses to attest a truth in which our hopes 
 for time and for eternity are so nearly con- 
 cerned. I appeal to the invitations, to the 
 Spirit, to the tears, to the blood of the great 
 Redeemer, and to the experience of every 
 pious soul in heaven and on earth. 
 
 1. Let the invitations of Christ witness, 
 that he is ready to relieve thirsty souls. 
 
 The gospel-times are described in the pro- 
 phetic writings, as times of extraordinary 
 plenty, in which the most nourishing and 
 delightful provision should be offered to all, 
 in the most generous and liberal manner. 
 Ho^ every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
 
 R 2 
 
244 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. waters, and he that hath no money ; come ye, 
 K^-J^ buy zcme and milk without money, and without 
 ' isa. iv. price ^. And if we look into the history of 
 ^' the Evangehsts, we shall see the prophecy 
 accomplished in its fullest extent. For we 
 shall there find our blessed Redeemer pub- 
 lishing the free and unlimited offers of his 
 grace, to all that were willing to accept it. 
 You cannot be strangers to the passages I 
 refer to : Come unto me, all ye that labour 
 3 Matt. xi. and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest^: 
 Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise, or 
 <johnvi. on no account whatsoever, cast out^. And 
 in the text it is proclaimed, before the most 
 numerous assembly, on a most public occa- 
 sion, If any man thirst, let him come unto me 
 and drink. Can any invitation be more 
 general, more intelligible, more affecting 
 than these ? Hardly should we have ima- 
 gined it possible, unless we had in some re- 
 spects seen yet more pathetic declarations 
 than even those I have now recited. Yes, 
 my friends, our Lord Jesus Christ knew the 
 weakness of our minds, and seems to have 
 been aware of a foolish scruple which might 
 possibly arise in them. We might, perhaps, 
 have been ready to say, " The blessed Jesus 
 
TO THIRSTV SOULS. 245 
 
 was indeed in a surprising degree tender and serm. 
 compassionate, whilst he dwelt on earth, and v^^^^ 
 was himself surrounded with all the innocent 
 infirmities of our nature : but can we be 
 sure, that he retains the same overflowing 
 tenderness now he is returned to the regions 
 of glory, and surrounded with all the dig- 
 nity and pleasure of so exalted a station, 
 and all the employments which attended so 
 high an administration V To obviate even 
 this suspicion, ungrounded as it is, he has 
 been pleased, since his ascension and exalta- 
 tion, to send us repeated messages of love : 
 and he speaks from the throne of his glory 
 in as condescending and endearing language, 
 as he ever appears to have used in his hum- 
 blest abasement. And to awaken our atten- 
 tion, and to confirm our faith, he introduces 
 the declaration with a very solemn preface, 
 of which the beloved disciple takes care to 
 give us a particular account. He said unto 
 me, zcrite, q. d. Let it be recorded for the 
 instruction and consolation of the remotest 
 ages ; foi' these words, which I am now about 
 to utter, are true and faithful, and therefore 
 may be entirely depended upon, as the foun- 
 
246 
 
 CHRIST S INVITATION 
 
 SERM. dation of the most cheerful confidence. And 
 
 TV 
 
 v^^^^I^y what are these important words ? And he 
 said, it is done : the great work is now ac- 
 compHshed, the redemption is complete : I 
 am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning 
 and the end, whose nature and promises are 
 for ever the same ; and in consequence of 
 all this, I will give to him that is athirst, of 
 
 ' Rev.xxi. the fountain of the water of life freely ^. To 
 the same purpose are those remarkable words 
 in the next chapter, so near the close of the 
 canon of scripture, / Jesiis have sent mine 
 angel, or messenger, to testify these things 
 unto the churches, as things in which all the 
 churches are most intimately concerned ; 
 and to give the greater weight to them, let 
 it be remembered, / am the root and the off- 
 spring of David, and the bright and morning 
 star. And observe, whither so pompous an 
 introduction tends, and where it centres : 
 The Spirit and the bride say. Come ; and let 
 him that heareth say. Come ; for whoever he 
 be, he may join in proclaiming the invita- 
 tion : Let him that is athirst come ; and who- 
 soever will, let him take of the water of life 
 
 «Rev. xxii. freely^. My brethren, had our Lord allowed 
 
 Ifi; 17. ' 
 
TO THIRSTY SOUL,S. 247 
 
 US, as it were, to choose for ourselxes, and to serm. 
 dictate to liim in what words he should ex- ^^.^^^ 
 press himseh' to us, to silence every doubt, 
 and to banish every fear, I cannot imagine 
 that we could have found any more expres- 
 sive form of speech than this, Jfhosocver zcill, 
 let him come and take of the water of life freely . 
 And can we suspect, that the Lord of truth 
 and of glory would speak a language foreign 
 to his heart? that he would mock and de- 
 lude unhappy mortals wdth insincere propo- 
 sals, and airy hopes ? That be far from him, 
 and the thought be far from us ! Hath he 
 spoken, and shall he not do it ? Hath he pro- 
 mised, and shall he not make it good? But 
 further, 
 
 2. Let the Spirit of Christ witness his readi- ' 
 ness to relieve thirsty souls. 
 
 I know there is a great deal of difference 
 between the common operations of the Spirit 
 on the minds of those who continue obsti- 
 nate and impenitent, and those special in- 
 fluences by which he sweetly but powerfully 
 subdues the hearts of those who are, chosen 
 in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the 
 world. Yet I am persuaded, that none to 
 whom the gospel comes are utterly neglected 
 
248 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. by that sacred Agent. It is observable to 
 ^^^J^^. this purpose, that Stephen charges it upon 
 the Jews, that thei/ and their fathers had 
 ' Ac\.sv\\. always resisted the Holy Ghost "^ . Now this 
 charge of resisting him plainly supposeth, 
 that he had still been striving with them ; 
 for if there had been no attempt on the one 
 hand, there could have been no resistance 
 on the other. If then the Spirit of God 
 wrought in some degree on all the Jews, 
 throughout every age and period of their 
 state, it seems highly reasonable to believe, 
 that he works on those who enjoy the gospel 
 now ; since this dispensation, with special 
 reference to the extraordinary effusions of the 
 Holy Ghost, is called by the apostle, the law 
 ^Rom.v'iW. of the spirit of life in Christ Jesiis^. 
 
 For the farther confirmation of this, I ques- 
 tion not, but I might appeal to the experi- 
 ence of every one that hears me this day. 
 Surely none of you that are come to years 
 of discretion, have always been unaffected 
 with divine things. Some impressions have 
 been made, some convictions awakened, some 
 purposes formed : and in all these instances 
 God is drawing you, and the Spirit says. 
 Come. Now, as the Spirit operates under 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 249 
 
 the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ, these serm. 
 calls of the Spirit are to be considered as ^.^^-^^^^ 
 evidences of that readiness in Christ to be- 
 stow the blessings of the gospel, which I am 
 now endeavouring to prove. 
 
 3. Let the tears of Christ witness his readi- 
 ness to relieve those who hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness. 
 
 If we have not some Aery inveterate suspi- 
 cion of a person's insincerity and artifice, we 
 readily believe, that his heart is touched 
 w^hen we see the tears flow from his eyes. 
 Behold then the tears of a Redeemer over 
 perishing souls, and judge by them of the 
 compassions of his heart ! You know that 
 celebrated instance, when he beheld Jerusa- 
 lem and wept over it^. Our Lord was then » Luke xix. 
 in a triumphant procession, attended by ac- 
 clamations of the people, who were shouting, 
 Hosatina to the Son of David: and as for 
 Jerusalem, which he beheld from the Mount 
 of Olives, it was a city polluted with enor- 
 mous crimes, and the abode of his most 
 implacable enemies, who were then actually 
 conspiring his murder, which he knew they 
 would in a few days effect. Justly might he 
 have triumphed in that approaching ruin, 
 
IX. 
 
 250 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. which he knew a righteous God would bring 
 , upon them, for that as well as their other 
 provocations. But behold his compassion ! 
 Instead of insulting, ht weeps over them, and 
 says. If thou hadst knowfi, even thou, in this 
 thy clay, which even yet is continued, the 
 things that belong to thy peace I but now they 
 are hid from thine eyes. The natural broken 
 language of genuine and overflowing sorrow ! 
 Surely nothing can be more melting than 
 such tears, falling from such eyes, and in 
 such circumstances. And if our Lord could 
 not give up the impenitent sinners of Jerusa- 
 lem without weeping over them, surely he 
 will not despise the humble and penitent 
 soul, who is, perhaps with tears, seeking his 
 favour, and flying to his grace as his only 
 refuge. 
 
 4. Let the blood of Christ witness, that 
 he is ready to impart the blessings of his 
 gospel. 
 
 The tears of our blessed Redeemer must 
 needs be convincing and affecting, if the 
 mind be not sunk into an almost incredible 
 stupidity ; but his blood is still more so. 
 View him, my brethren, not only in the 
 previous scenes of his abasement, his descent 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 251 
 
 from heaven, and his abode on earth ; but serm. 
 view him on Mount Calvary, extended on s^^4^^^ 
 the cross, torn with thorns, wounded with 
 nails, pierced with a spear; and then say, 
 whether there be not a voice in each of 
 these sacred wounds, which loudly pro- 
 claims the tenderness of his heart, and de- 
 monstrates, beyond all possibility of dispute 
 or suspicion, his readiness to relieve the dis- 
 tressed soul that cries to him for the bless- 
 ings of the gospel. He died to purchase 
 them, not for himself, but for us ; and can 
 it be thought he will be unwilling to bestow 
 them ? We may well conclude that he loved 
 us, since he shed his blood to wash us from 
 our sins'^. For greater love hath no man 'Rev. is. 
 than this, that a man lay down his life for 
 his friends^ ; but he hath commended his love^ John w. 
 
 • • • • 13 
 
 towards us, hath set it off by this illustrious 
 and surprising circumstance, that while we 
 were strangers and enemies he hath died for 
 
 ^^ • ^ Rom. V. 
 
 5. Let the experience of every pious soul, ^* 
 whether on earth or in heaven, witness the 
 readiness of Christ to communicate the bless- 
 ings of his gospel for the relief of those who 
 thirst for them. 
 
252 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. Could we lift up our eyes to the regions 
 
 \.^^^~J^^ of glory, and count all the happy spirits 
 which are arrived there from these abodes 
 of darkness and sorrow, we should find in 
 each of them an everlasting witness and 
 monument of the great truth I am now 
 labouring to assert. Should we behold 
 them in their robes of majesty, with their 
 golden crowns, and their victorious palms, 
 and inquire as the apostle did, Ti ho are 
 these that are clothed in white robes, and from 
 whence do they come? The answer w^ould 
 be the same : These are they who are cojne 
 out of great tribulation, and have washed their 
 robes, and made them white in the blood of the 
 
 ♦ Rev. vii. Lamb"^. They have found him both a power- 
 ' ' ful and a compassionate Saviour, and there- 
 fore they are fixed in a state of undecaying 
 felicity. And some of them could confess 
 even the blackest crimes, committed before 
 they were brought to an acquaintance with 
 him ; but they were no bars in the way of 
 that grace, which is extended and magnified, 
 even to the chief of sinners. 
 
 The experience of the saints in heaven 
 witnesseth this ; and the experience of the 
 saints on earth doth, as it were, echo back 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 253 
 
 their testimony. Would you have hving, serm. 
 and visible witnesses ? Blessed be God, they ^^-^^ 
 are not wanting : I hope, I may add, they 
 are not far distant; and with regard to 
 many of you that hear me this day, I hope 
 and trust, that you have the witness within 
 you. I doubt not, but several in this assem- 
 bly may say, as we have heard, so have we 
 seen and felt : many a one, that may lay his 
 hand on his breast, and cry out in the words 
 of the Psalmist, This poor tnan cried, and the 
 Lord heard him, and delivered him from all 
 his trouble^, from that which was incompar- 'Ps.xxxiv. 
 ably more than all the rest. " Oppressed 
 with a burden of grief and of fear, I threw 
 myself at the feet of a Redeemer, and he 
 gently raised me ; he kindly embraced me ; 
 he smiled upon my soul, and said, by the 
 voice of his blessed Spirit, Be of good cheer, 
 thy sins are forgiven thee." What can we 
 oppose to such a cloud of witnesses ? Let us 
 cheerfully admit the evidence. Let us joy- 
 fully trust the power and the grace of him, 
 who this day renews his compassionate invi- 
 tation, and says, a7id crieth, as in the text, 
 If any man thirst, let him come nnto me, and 
 drink. 
 
254 CHRIST S INVITATION 
 
 SERM. III. I conclude with a more particular 
 ,^-^J^, application. 
 
 And here I would address myself, — to 
 those who do not yet thirst after gospel- 
 blessings, — to those who are now thirsting 
 after them, — and to those who have already 
 received some refreshment. 
 
 1. Let me apply myself to those who 
 do not yet thirst after the blessings of the 
 gospel. 
 
 And are there none of that character 
 among you ? Are there none in this assem- 
 bly, who hear me with negligence and cold- 
 ness, and know in their own conscience that 
 the bent of their desires and pursuits is 
 directed quite another way ? My friends, I 
 have a message from God to you; and I 
 would entreat you, that you would suffer 
 your consciences to answer these two ques- 
 tions, plain indeed, but of infinite impor- 
 tance. Are not the blessings which Christ 
 
 offers worth thirsting for? And is not 
 
 the time approaching, when, if you persist 
 in your present neglect, you will thirst for 
 them in vain ? 
 
 Are your souls sunk into so degenerate a 
 taste, and are you so divested of the common 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 2'55 
 
 reason of men, as not to see that the bless- serm. 
 
 IX. 
 
 ings proposed are highly excellent, and well v^-t^ 
 worthy the most ardent desire, and the most 
 vigorous pursuit, of every guilty yet immor- 
 tal creature ? Is it not truly desirable, that 
 our guilt should be cancelled, that the dis- 
 pleasure of God should be averted, and his 
 favour secured ? And that our souls should 
 be purified, strengthened, and supported b}'' 
 Divine consolations now, until they are con- 
 ducted to a state of everlasting happiness ? 
 Is it not desirable, that a creature made for 
 a perpetual duration, should have some more 
 stable and permanent happiness than this 
 mortal life ? 
 
 You know in your own consciences, that 
 these things are truly desirable : and would 
 to God, you would seriously compare them 
 with those vain cares, and those sordid plea- 
 sures, for the sake of which you neglect and 
 despise them. How utterly contemptible 
 would those cares and pleasures appear ! 
 How unworthy even of a mention or a 
 thought, when brought into such a com- 
 parison ! 
 
 But let me farther inquire, is not the time 
 approaching, when you will thirst for these 
 
^66 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. blessings in vain ? You are now insensible of 
 
 IX 
 
 v^^,^-^ your need of them, and lose yourselves in a 
 variety of amusing dreams, in w^hich you 
 fancy you are possessed of some consider- 
 able happiness. But, wretched creatures, in 
 a few years at most, death will awaken you ; 
 and then you will know the value of those 
 blessings which you now despise ; then you 
 will feel an insatiable thirst after them. 
 Your case will then appear exactly like that 
 described by the prophet. As when a hungry 
 man dreameth, and behold he eateth ; bnt he 
 awaketh, and is not satisfied; or as when a 
 thirsty man dreameth, and behold he drinketh, 
 but he awaketh, and behold he is faint, and his 
 
 isa.wh. soul hath appetite^. The appetites of your 
 souls after those valuable refreshments will 
 then be excited : but, alas ! they will be 
 excited only to torment you. It is a most 
 melancholy case which is represented in the 
 parable, of a poor creature, who, after he 
 had passed his life in the midst of the most 
 overflowing plenty, was at length plunged 
 into a state of indigence and misery, from 
 which he beheld Abraham afar off] and Laza- 
 rus in his bosom ; and he cried, saying. Father 
 Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Laza- 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 257 
 
 rus that he may dip the tip of his Jinger in serm. 
 water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented ^^-^^ 
 in this flame^ . It seemed a very modest peti-7Lukexvi. 
 tion ; he could hardly have asked a smaller ^ ' ^'^' 
 favour than a drop of water ; and there 
 seemed something peculiarly mortifying, in 
 receiving it from the finger of Lazarus ; and 
 yet you know, by the sequel of the story, 
 that even this was denied him. This is the 
 representation, which our Redeemer himself 
 hath given us, of the condition of sinners in 
 the eternal world : And will it not be a 
 dreadful condition to you ? Especially when 
 aggravated by those rivers of living water 
 which once surrounded you, and by this 
 gracious proclamation, so often repeated, and 
 so often despised : If any man thirst, let him 
 come unto me, and drink. 
 
 2. I would address myself to those, who 
 are now thirsting for the blessings of the 
 gospel. 
 
 I hope, through grace, there are some such 
 amongst you ; some, whose thirst is excited 
 by what hath now been spoken, and are 
 borrowing the words of David, in a sublimer 
 sense than that in which they were originally 
 intended : O that one would give me to drink 
 
 VOL. IV. s 
 
258 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. of the water of the well of Bethlehem ^ I Oh ! 
 v^^V^ that I might taste of those dehghtful streams, 
 2 Sam. ^y|^i(,i^ Aq^ from the Rock of Ages ! To you, 
 
 xxui. 15. o J ' 
 
 my friends, I would briefly say, — Consider 
 the thirst you feel as a token for good, — and 
 be importunate in your addresses to him, who 
 is so able and willing to grant a supply. 
 
 You may consider the thirst which you 
 feel as a token for good. The generality of 
 mankind despise these blessings : And why 
 do you desire them ? Surely you may con- 
 sider these desires as of a heavenly original. 
 It is the voice of Christ that is now speak- 
 ing ; it is the Spirit of Christ that is now 
 pleading with your heart ; so that I may say 
 to you, as was said to the blind man in the 
 gospel, who was so earnestly begging a cure, 
 9 Marks. Be of goocl coTfifort, nse, he calleth thee^. 
 What can therefore remain, but that you 
 should immediately apply yourselves to him. 
 Go directly, and plead the case with him. 
 Prostrate thyself, O humble penitent, pros- 
 trate thyself before his throne, and say, 
 " Blessed Jesus, thou that knowest all things, 
 knowest that I thirst after the blessings of 
 thy gospel. Thou seest that I most ardently 
 long for the pardon of sin, the favour of God, 
 
TO THIRSTY SOULS. 20.9 
 
 the influences of thy Spirit, and the glories serai. 
 of thine heavenly kingdom. I am fully per- ^.^'^^ 
 suaded, that with regard to all these, thou 
 art able to do for me abundantly above all I 
 can ask or think. And wilt thou not relieve 
 me? Wilt thou not give me to drink? Where- 
 fore then are thine invitations published in 
 the gospel ? Wherefore didst thou proclaim 
 those gracious words, which have been this 
 day so frequently repeated in thine house? 
 Wh}'' does thy Spirit even now work upon 
 my heart, and raise there this fervency of 
 desire? Wherefore didst thou weep? Where- 
 fore didst thou bleed ? Wherefore didst thou 
 die, if thou haclst no compassion for perish- 
 ing sinners ? But thou hast compassion ; 
 thou hast already extended it, to thousands ' 
 on earth, and millions in heaven. Lord, I 
 believe; help thou my unbelief! I throw 
 myself at thy feet ; nor can I fear I shall 
 perish there, unless infinite power be weak- 
 ened, and infinite love be exhausted.'^ If 
 but one soul return from the assembly with 
 these sentiments, and these resolutions, all 
 the labours of this day, and many former 
 days, will be abundantly repaid ; for that 
 
 -s 2 
 
260 Christ's invitation 
 
 SERM. soul will surely be relieved, and God in 
 K^^J^y Christ be glorified and exalted. And now, 
 
 3. I would conclude with addressing my- 
 self to those who have already tasted these 
 refreshments. With regard to such I would 
 offer the following exhortations. 
 
 Be thankful for the refreshments you have 
 already received. Bless God, that such mer- 
 ciful provision is made in the gospel, for the 
 relief and comfort of necessitous creatures ; 
 and above all, be thankful, that you have 
 been engaged to seek and to prize it, while 
 so many are, as it were, dying for thirst, in 
 the midst of these overflowing streams. It 
 is said of Hagar, that when she was almost 
 perishing in the wilderness, the Lord opened 
 Gen. xxi. her ei/es, and she saro a fountain of water ^. 
 So it is in your case ; the Lord hath opened 
 your eyes, and therefore you have seen this 
 fountain. 
 
 Be solicitous that others may taste those 
 refreshments which have been imparted to 
 you. It is said of Hagar, in the passage 
 cited above, that when God had discovered 
 this supply, she not only drank herself, but 
 gave to her chihl, and he also drank. So 
 
TO THIRSTV SOULS. 26 1 
 
 should you, my friends, be charitably con- serm. 
 cerned for the happiness of others as well as k^^J..^ 
 for your own. You that are parents should 
 be concerned, that your children may drink ; 
 and you that are masters, that your servants 
 may drink ; and all, that your friends and 
 neighbours may be refreshed. For, blessed 
 be God, there is no danger of sinking this 
 river by repeated plentiful draughts : still 
 would it flow on, still would it overflow its 
 borders, though not only we, but all the in- 
 habitants of the earth, should not merely 
 taste it, but live upon it. Which leads me 
 to add, 
 
 Continue your application to Christ for 
 farther supplies. We are told, that the 
 miraculous stream which flowed from the 
 rock attended the Israelites in their various 
 removes. Thei/ still drank of the rvck that 
 followed them^ and that rock was Christ ^. ' i Cor. x. 
 Such are the waters that flow from the Rock 
 of Ages ; they do not only refresh the soul 
 on its first conversion, but they afford it 
 daily comfort and support. Be constant 
 therefore in your applications to Christ, and 
 diligent in the use of all appointed means for 
 deriving influences from him. 
 
 4. 
 
262 Christ's invitation, etc. 
 
 SEiiM. To conclude all, long after the heavenly 
 
 v^-^^ world, where you shall receive a more abun- 
 dant supply. The waters which followed 
 Israel through the wilderness, failed when 
 they came into an inhabited land : but this 
 river of life will never forsake the believer ; 
 it will flow with him sweetly through the 
 dark valley of the shadow of death, till it 
 spreads itself into wider and deeper streams, 
 in the lovely regions of the heavenly Canaan. 
 Thus are we told, that in the New Jerusalem 
 the river of the water of Ufe proceedeth from 
 
 3 Rvv.xxii the throne of God ^ and of the Lamb^. And 
 thus our Lord assures the woman of Samaria, 
 ivhosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 
 give him, shall never thirst ; hut it shall he in 
 him as a well of water springing up into ever- 
 lasting Ufe. What then remains, but that 
 we each of us cry out, as she did. Lord, give 
 11$ of this living water, that we may thirst no 
 more, nor come, as now, to these ordinances 
 
 * John iv. to draw '*. Amen. 
 
 14, 15. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR ANIMATED 
 AND CROWNED: 
 
 M Jpuncral Sermon, 
 
 Occasioned by the heroic Death of tlte Hon. Colonel James Gardiner, 
 tcho was slain in the Battle at Preston-Pans, September 21, 1745. 
 
 PREACHED AT NORTHAMPTON, OCTOBER 13. 
 
DEDICATION 
 
 RIGHT HON. THE LADY FRANCES GARDINER. 
 MADAM, 
 
 The intimate knowledge which I had of Colonel 
 Gardiner's private as well as public character, 
 and of that endeared friendship which so long 
 subsisted between him and your Ladyship, 
 makes me more sensible than most others can 
 be, both of the inexpressible loss you have sus- 
 tained, and of the exquisite sense you have of 
 it. I might, in some degree, argue what you 
 felt, from the agony with which my own heart 
 was torn by that ever to be lamented stroke, 
 which deprived the nation, and the church, of 
 so great an ornament and blessing : and indeed. 
 Madam, I was so sensible of your calamity, as 
 to be ready in my first thoughts to congratulate 
 
266 DEDICATION. 
 
 you, when I heard the report which at first 
 prevailed, that you died under the shock. Yet 
 cooler reflection teaches me, on many accounts, 
 to rejoice that your Ladyship has survived that 
 dearest part of yourself; though after having 
 been so lovely and pleasant in your lives, it 
 would have been matter of personal rejoicing, 
 in death not to have been divided. The numer- 
 ous and promising ofispring with which God 
 hath blessed your marriage, had evidently the 
 highest interest in the continued life of so pious 
 and affectionate a mother : and I hope, and 
 assuredly believe, there was a more important, 
 and to you a much dearer interest concerned, 
 as God may be, and is, signally honoured, by 
 the manner in which you bear this heaviest and 
 most terrible stroke of his paternal rod. 
 
 God hath been pleased, Madam, to make you 
 both eminent for a variety of graces ; and he 
 has proportionably distinguished you both, in 
 the opportunity he has given you of exercising 
 those, which suit the most painful scenes that 
 can attend a pious and an honourable life. But 
 when 1 consider, what it is to have lost such a 
 man, at such a time, and in such circumstances, 
 I must needs declare, that brave and heroic as 
 the death of the Colonel was, your Ladyship^s 
 part is beyond all comparison the hardest. Yet 
 
DEDICATfON. , 2G7 
 
 even here has the grace of Christ been sufhcient 
 for you; and I join with your Ladyship in ador- 
 ing the power and faithfuhiess of him, who has 
 here so remarkably shown, that he forgets not 
 his promise to all his people of a strength pro- 
 portionable to their day ; that they may be en- 
 abled to glorify him in the hottest furnace, into 
 which it is possible they should be cast. 
 
 To hear, as I have heard from several per- 
 sons of distinguished character, who have lately 
 had the happiness of being near your Ladyship, 
 of that meek resignation to the Divine will, of 
 that calm patience, of that Christian courage, 
 with which, in so weak a state of health and 
 spirits, you have supported under this awful 
 providence, has given me great pleasure, but 
 no surprise. So near a relation to so brave a 
 man might have taught some degree of forti- 
 tude to a soul less susceptible of it than your 
 Ladyship's. Nor is there any doubt, but that 
 the prayers he has so long been laying up in 
 store for you, especially since the decay of his 
 constitution g-ave him reason to expect a speedy 
 remove, will assuredly at such a season come 
 into remembrance before God. And above all, 
 the sublime principles of the Christian religion, 
 so deeply imbibed into your own heart as well 
 as his, will not fai( to exert their energy on 
 
268 ' DEDICATION. 
 
 such an occasion. These, Madam, will teach 
 yoQ to view the hand of a^ wise, a righteous, 
 and a gracious God in this event; and will 
 show you that a friendship founded on such a 
 basis, so very endearing, and so closely cement- 
 ed, as that which has been here for many years 
 a blessing to you both, can know only a very 
 short interruption, and will soon grow up into 
 a union infinitely nobler and more delightful, 
 which never shall be liable to any separation. 
 
 In the mean time. Madam, it may comfort us 
 not a little under the sense of our present loss, 
 to think what religious improvement we may 
 gain by it, if we are not wanting to ourselves : 
 and happy shall we be, indeed, if we so hear 
 the rod, as to receive the instructions it so 
 naturally suggests and enforces. Persons of 
 any serious reflection will learn from this awful 
 event, how little we can judge of the Divine 
 favour by the visible dispensations of Provi- 
 dence here : they will learn, and it may be of 
 great importance to consider it, just in such a 
 crisis as this, that no distinguished degree of 
 piety can secure the very best of men from the 
 sword of a common enemy : and they will see, 
 written, alas ! in characters of the most precious 
 blood that war ever spilt in our island, the 
 vanity of the surest protectors and comforters 
 
DEDICATION. 269 
 
 whicli mortality can afford, at a time when they 
 are most needed. 
 
 These are general instructions, whicli, I hope, 
 thousands will receive, on this universally la- 
 mented occasion: but to you. Madam, and to 
 me, and to all that were honoured with the 
 most intiaiate friendship of this Christian hero, 
 his death has a peculiar voice. Whilst it leads 
 us back into so many past scenes of delight, in 
 the remembrance of which we now pour out our 
 souls within us, it calls aloud, amidst all this 
 tender distress, for a tribute of humble thank- 
 fulness to God, that ever we enjoyed such a 
 friend, and especially in such an intimacy of 
 mutual affection ; and that we had an oppor- 
 tunity of observing, in so many instances, the 
 secret recesses of a heart, which God had en- 
 riched, adorned, and ennobled with so much of 
 his own image, and such abundant communica- 
 tions of his grace : it calls for our redoubled 
 diligence and resolution, in imitating that bright 
 assemblage of virtues, which shone so resplen- 
 dent in our illustrious friend : and surely it 
 must, by a kind of irresistible influence, mor- 
 tify our affections to this impoverished world; 
 and must cause nature to concur with grace, in 
 raising our hearts upwards to that glorious 
 abode, where he dwells triumphant and immor- 
 
270 DEDICATION. 
 
 tal, and waits our arrival with an ardour of pure 
 and elevated love, which it was impossible for 
 death to quench. 
 
 Next to these views, nothing can give your 
 Ladyship greater satisfaction than to reflect, 
 how happy you made the amiable consort you 
 have lost, in that intimate relation you so long 
 bore to each other; in which, I well know, that 
 growing years ripened and increased your mu- 
 tual esteem and friendship. Nor will your 
 generous heart be insensible of that pleasure, 
 which may arise from reflecting, that the man- 
 ner of his death, though in itself so terrible, 
 that we dare not trust imagination with the par- 
 ticular review, was to him, in those circum- 
 stances, most glorious ; to religion highly orna- 
 mental; and to his country, great as his loss is, 
 on various accounts beneficial. Far, very far, 
 be it from us to think, that Colonel Gardiner, 
 though fallen by the weapons of rebellion and 
 treason, has fought and died in vain. I trust in 
 God, that so heroic a behaviour will inspire our 
 warriors with augmented courage, now they are 
 called to exert it in a cause, the most noble and 
 important that can ever be in question, the cause 
 of our laws, our liberty, and religion. I trust, 
 that all who keep up a correspondence with 
 heaven by prayer, will renew their intercession 
 
DEDICATION. 271 
 
 for this bleeding- land with increasing fervour, 
 now we have lost one who stood in the breach 
 with such unwearied importunity. And I am 
 well assured, that of the multitudes who lay up 
 his memory in their inmost hearts with venera- 
 tion and love, not a few will be often joining 
 their most affectionate prayers to God, for your 
 Ladyship, and the dear rising branches of your 
 family, with those which you may, in conse- 
 quence of a thousand obligations, always expect 
 from. 
 
 Madam, 
 Your Ladyship's most faithful. 
 And obedient humble seiTant, 
 
 P. DODDRIDGE. 
 
 Norfhampfon, 
 Nwember 27, 1745. 
 
275 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN WARKIOll ANIMATED 
 AND CROWNED. 
 
 Revelation, ii. 10. 
 
 Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of 
 
 life. 
 
 It is a glory peculiar to the Christian reli- serm. 
 gion, that it is capable of yielding joy and v^^-.^ 
 triumph to the mind, amidst calamities, in 
 which the strength of nature, and of a philo- 
 sophy that has no higher a support, can 
 hardly give it serenity, or even patience. 
 Those boasted aids are but like a candle in 
 some tempestuous night, which, how artifi- 
 cially soever it may be fenced in, is often 
 extinguished amidst the storm, in which it 
 should guide and cheer the traveller, or the 
 mariner; whom it leaves on a sudden, in 
 darkness, horror, and fear : while the conso- 
 lation of the gospel, like the sun, makes a 
 sure day even when behind the thickest 
 
 VOL, IV. T 
 
X. 
 
 274 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM. cloud, and soon emerges from it with an 
 accession of more sensible lustre. 
 
 The observation is verified in these words, 
 considered in connexion with that awful pro- 
 vidence, which has this day determined my 
 thoughts to fix upon them, as the subject of 
 my discourse ; the fall of that truly great 
 and good man, Colonel Gardiner : the en- 
 dearing tenderness of whose friendship would 
 have rendered his death an unspeakable ca- 
 lamity to me, had his character been only of 
 the common standard ; as on the other hand, 
 the exalted excellency of his character makes 
 his death to be lamented by thousands, who 
 were not happy in any peculiar intimacy or 
 personal acquaintance with him. 
 
 While we mourn the brave warrior, the 
 exemplary Christian, and the affectionate 
 friend ; lost to ourselves and our country, to 
 the church and the world, at a time when we 
 most needed all the defence of his bravery, 
 all the edification of his example, all the 
 comfort of his converse : struck with the 
 various and aggravated sorrow of so sudden, 
 and so terrible a blow, methinks there is but 
 one voice that can cheer us, which is this of 
 the great Captain of our sahatiou, so lately 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 275 
 
 addressing him, and still addressing us, in serm. 
 these comprehensive and xinimated words, v^^J^^ 
 Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give 
 thee a crown of life. 
 
 With regard to the connexion of them, it 
 may be sufficient to observe, that our Lord 
 in all these seven epistles to the Asiatic 
 churches represents the Christian life as a 
 warfare, and the blessings of the future state 
 as rewards to be bestowed on conquerors. 
 To him that overcometh will I give such and 
 such royal donatives. Pursuing the same 
 allegory, he warns the church of Smyrna of 
 an approaching combat, which should be 
 attended with some severe circumstances. 
 Some of them were to become captives ; the 
 devil shall cast some of you into prison : and 
 though the power of the enemy was to be 
 limited, in its extent, as well as its duration, 
 to the tribulation of ten days, it seems to be 
 implied, that while many were harassed and 
 distressed during that time, some of them 
 should before the close of it be called to re- 
 sist unto blood. But their great Leader 
 furnishes them with suitable armour, and 
 proportionable courage, by this gracious as- 
 
 T 2 
 
276 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM. surance, which it is our present business 
 ,^^^^^y farther to contemplate : Be thou faithful 
 uuto death, and I will give thee a crown of 
 life. 
 
 In which words you naturally observe a 
 charge, — and a promise by which it is en- 
 forced. — I shall briefly illustrate each, and, 
 then conclude with some reflections upon the 
 whole. 
 
 First, I am to open the charge here given : 
 J3e thou faithful unto death. 
 
 Concerning which I would observe, that 
 though it is immediately addressed to the 
 church at Smyrna, yet the nature of the 
 thing and numberless passages of the Divine 
 word concur to prove, that it is common in 
 its obligation to all Christians, and indeed to 
 all men. 
 
 I shall not be large in explaining the na- 
 ture of faithfulness in general ; concerning 
 which I might show you, that the word here 
 rendered faithful, has sometimes a relation 
 to the testimony which God has given us, 
 and sometimes to some trust that he has 
 reposed in us. In the former sense, it is 
 
John XX. 
 27. 
 
 ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 277 
 
 properly rendered believing, and opposed to serm. 
 infidelity: Be not faithless, but believing^. ^^'^^ 
 In the latter, it is opposed to injustice : He ' 
 that is faithful in that which is least, is faith- 
 ful also in much ; whereas he that is unjust 
 in the least, is unjust also in much^. And it' Luke wi. 
 is in reference to this sense of it, that our 
 Lord represents himself as saying to the man 
 who had improved his talents aright, If ell 
 done, good and faithful servant^! Our de-^Mat.xw. 
 
 » • • • 23 
 
 ceased friend was so remarkably faithful in 
 both these senses ; so ready to admit, and 
 so zealous to defend the faith once delivered 
 to the saints; and so active in improving those 
 various talents, with which, in mercy to many 
 others as well as to himself, God had in- 
 trusted him ; that it was very natural to 
 touch upon these significations of the word, 
 though it has here a more particular view to 
 another virtue, for which he was so illustri- 
 ously conspicuous, I mean the courageous 
 fidelity of a soldier in his warfare. 
 
 In this sense of the word, it is opposed to 
 treachery or cowardice, desertion or dis- 
 obedience to military orders. And thus it 
 is used elsewhere in this same book of the 
 Revelation, when speaking of those who war 
 
7. 
 
 278 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM. under the banner of the La?nb, the King of 
 
 v^^:^^ kings, and Lord of lords, the inspired writer 
 
 tells us thei/ we called, and chosen, andfaith- 
 
 "Rcv.xvii.y*///*, a select body of brave and valiant sol- 
 
 14. -.• 
 
 diers. 
 
 This hint will also fix the easiest and plain- 
 est sense in which the persons, to whom the 
 text is addressed, are required to be faithful 
 nnto death : which, though it does indeed in 
 general imply a patient continuance in well 
 s Rom. ii. doing ^, in whatever scenes of life Divine 
 providence may place us ; yet does espe- 
 cially refer to martial bravery, and express 
 a readiness to face death in its most terrible 
 forms, when our great General shall lead us 
 on to it. You well know this to be an in- 
 dispensable condition of our being acknow- 
 ledged by him in the day of his final tri- 
 umph : and of this he warned those that 
 gathered around him, when he was first 
 raising his army, under the greatest disad- 
 vantages in outward appearance ; expressly 
 and plainly telling them, that they must be 
 content to follow him to martyrdom, to fol- 
 low him to crucifixion, Mhen they receive 
 the word of command to do it ; or that all 
 their profession of regard to him would be in 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 279 
 
 vain. //' any man^ says he, tmll come after serm. 
 we, let him deny himself, and take up his C7vss, _-^,*^y 
 ajid follow me^ : for he that loveth his oicn life *.Mark 
 
 " ^ ^ ^' VIII, iJl. 
 
 more than me, is not worthy of me"^ ; he does ^ Matt. x. 
 not deserve the honour of bearing my name, 
 and passing for one of my soldiers : indeed 
 he cannot, on any terms, be my disciple^. sLukexiv. 
 
 This therefore is in effect the language of '^^' 
 our Lord, when he says, he thou faithful unto 
 death : it is as if he had said, " Remember 
 all you of Smyrna, or of any other place 
 and country, that call yourselves Christians, 
 throughout all generations, that you were by 
 baptism enlisted under my banners : remem- 
 ber that you have, as it were, sealed, and 
 subscribed your engagement to me, by exery 
 sacrament you have since attended '," as in- 
 deed it is well known, the word sacrament 
 originally signifies a military oath, which 
 soldiers take as a pledge of fidelity to their 
 general : " Remember therefore, that you are 
 ever to continue with me, and to march for- 
 ward under my direction, whatever hard- 
 ships and fatigues may lie in the way. And 
 remember, that if I lead you on to the most 
 formidable combat, you must cheerfully obey 
 the word of command, and charge boldly. 
 
X. 
 
 280 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM. though you should immediately die, whe- 
 > ther by the sword, or by fire. Should you 
 dare to flee, I am myself your enemy ; and 
 the weapons which I bear would justly be 
 levelled at your own traitorous heads. But 
 if you bravely follow me, I know how to 
 make you ample amends, even in circum- 
 stances when no human power and gratitude 
 can reach you ; for it is my glorious prero- 
 gative to engage, that to those who are thus 
 faithful unto death, I zo ill give a crown of life." 
 We are therefore, 
 
 Secondly, To consider the promise, by 
 which the charge is enforced : I will give 
 thee a crown of life. 
 
 And here I might observe, — a crown of 
 life is the glorious reward proposed, — and it 
 is to be received /ro//2 the hand of Christ. 
 
 1. A crown of life is the reward proposed : 
 which we are sure in this connexion implies 
 both grandeur and felicity ; here, though 
 rarely, connected together. 
 
 There is, no doubt, an allusion in these 
 words to the ancient, and I think very pru- 
 dent, custom of animating the bravery of 
 soldiers by honorary rewards, and particu- 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 281 
 
 larly by crowns ; sometimes of laurel, and serm. 
 sometimes, ni some extraordmarj mstances, v.^^-^.^^ 
 of silver or gold ; which they were permitted 
 to wear on public occasions, and in conse- 
 quence of receiving which they were some- 
 times entitled to some peculiar immunities. 
 But here our Lord Jesus Christ, conscious 
 of his own Divine power and , prerogative, 
 speaks with a dignity and elevation, which 
 no earthly prince or commander could ever 
 assume; promising a crown of life ^ and that, 
 as was observed before, even to those who 
 should fall in the battle : a crozcm of Ife in 
 the highest sense ; not only one, which 
 should ever be fresh and fair, but which 
 should give immortality to the happy brow 
 it adorned ; and be for ever worn, not only 
 as the monument of bravery and victory, 
 but as the ensign of royalty too : a crozni 
 connected with a kingdom, and with what 
 no other kingdom can give, perpetual life to 
 enjoy it ; perpetual youth and vigour to 
 relish all its delights. And this is agreeable 
 to the language of other scriptures, where we 
 read of the crown of life, zchich the Lord hath 
 promised to them that love hi?n^ ; a crown of ^ James i. 
 
 12. 
 
 righteousness, nhich the Lord the righteous 
 
282 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM. Judge shall give ^ ; a crown of glori/, zn^hich 
 fadeth not away^. We may also observe, 
 
 2. That it is said to be given bi/ Christ. 
 
 This some pious commentators have ex- 
 plained, as intimating, that it is the gift of 
 the Redeemer's free and unmerited grace, 
 and not a retribution due to the merit of 
 him that receiveth it. And this is an un- 
 doubted truth, v/hich it is of the highest 
 importance to acknowledge and consider. 
 The proper zoages of sin is death ; but eternal 
 life is, in opposition to wages, the gift of God 
 3 Rom. vlthroifQ'h Jesus Christ our Lord^. We should 
 humbly own it every day, that there is no 
 proportion between the value of our services, 
 and the crown which we expect to receive : 
 should own, that it is mercy that pardons 
 our sins, and grace that accepts our services; 
 much more that crowns them. Grace, grace, 
 shall, as it were, be engraven upon that 
 crown, in characters large and indelible : nor 
 will that inscription diminish its lustre, or 
 impair the pleasure with which we shall re- 
 ceive it. I could not forbear mentioning 
 this thought, as a truth of the utmost im- 
 portance, which stands on the firmest basis 
 of very many express scriptures ; a truth, of 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 283 
 
 which perhaps no man Hving had ever a serm. 
 deeper sense than our deceased friend. But v,^V^ 
 I mention it thus obhquel}^ because it may 
 be doubted whether we can justly argue it 
 from hence ; since the word give is some- 
 times used for rendering a retribution justly 
 due, and that in instances where grace and 
 favour have, in propriety of speech, no con- 
 cern at all *. 
 
 But it is certain, that this expression, I 
 will give thee a crown of life, is intended to 
 lead our thoughts to this important circum- 
 stance ; that this crown is to be received from 
 the hand of Christ himself. And the apostle 
 Paul evidently refers to the same circum- 
 stance, in terms which show how much he 
 entered into the spirit of the thought, when 
 he says. The Lord the righteous Judge shall 
 give it me^ : he himself, the great Judge of^^Tim.iv. 
 the contest, whose eye witnesses the whole 
 course of it, whose decision cannot err, and 
 from whose sentence there is no appeal : 
 alluding to the judge who presided in the 
 Grecian games, who was always a person of 
 
 * Compare Matt. xx. 8, Give the labourers their hire, with 
 Col. iv. 1, Masters, give unto your scrca7its that tihick is just 
 and equal. 
 
284 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM. rank and eminence, and himself reached 
 ^^^^^ forth the reward to him who overcame in 
 them. 
 
 So that on the whole, when our Lord 
 Jesus Christ says, Be thou faithful unto death, 
 and I will give thee a crown of life ; methinks 
 our devout meditations may expatiate upon 
 the words, in some such paraphrase as this. 
 It is as if he had said to you, and to me, and 
 to all his people, " O my faithful soldiers, 
 fear not death in its most terrible array ; for 
 you are immortal. Fear not them that can 
 » Matt. X. kill the body ^ : you have a nobler part, 
 ^^' which they cannot reach ; and I will under- 
 take, not only for its rescue, but its happi- 
 ness. I will answer for it, on the honour of 
 my royal word, that it shall live in a state of 
 noble enlargement, of triumphant joy. Think 
 on me : I am he that liveth, though I was 
 ^ Rev. i. dead : and behold, I am alive for evermore ^ : 
 ' John xiv. and because I live, you shall live also'^ ; shall 
 ^^- exist in a state that deserves the great and 
 honourable name of life ; so that earth in all 
 its lustre and pleasure, when compared with 
 it, is but as a scene of death, or at best as an 
 "Ps.ixxiii. amusing dream when one azmketh^/' 
 
 We mav also consider him, as pursuing 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 285 
 
 this animating address, and saying, " My serm. 
 brave companions in tribulation and pati- v^^ 
 ence, you shall not only live, but reign. 
 Think not, thou good soldier, mIio art now 
 fighting under my banner, that thy General 
 will wear his honours alone. If I have my 
 crown, if I have my triumph, be assured 
 that thou also shalt have thine. Thou 
 mayest indeed seem to perish in the com- 
 bat ; and thy friends may mourn, and thine 
 enemies insult, as if thou wert utterly cut off. 
 But behold, true victory spreads over thee 
 her golden wing, and holds out, not a gar- 
 land of fading flowers or leaves, but a crown 
 that shall keep its lustre, when all the cost- 
 liest gems on earth are melted in the general 
 burning ; yea, when the luminaries of heaven 
 are extinguished, and the sun and stars fade 
 away in their orbs.'' 
 
 " Nor will I,'" does he seem to say, " send 
 thee this crown by some inferior hand ; not 
 even by the noblest angel, that waits on the 
 throne I have now ascended. Thou shalt 
 receive it from mine own hand ;" from that 
 hand, which would make the least gift valu- 
 able : what a dignity then will it add to the 
 
286 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 greatest ! " Nor will I myself confer this 
 reward in private ; it shall be given with the 
 most magnificent solemnity. Thou shalt be 
 brought to me before the assembled world. 
 Thy name shall be called over ; thou shalt 
 appear, and I will own thee, and crown thee, 
 in public view. Thy friends shall see it with 
 raptures of joy, and congratulate an honour 
 in which they shall also share. Thine ene- 
 mies shall see it with envy and with rage, to 
 increase their confusion and misery : they 
 shall see, that while by their malicious as- 
 saults they were endeavouring to destroy 
 thee, they were only establishing thy throne, 
 and brightening the lustre which shall for 
 ever adorn thy brow ; while theirs is blasted 
 with the thunder of resistless wrath, and deep 
 engraven with the indelible marks of ven- 
 geance. This crown shalt thou for ever 
 wear, as the perpetual token of my esteem 
 and affection : nor shall it be merely a shin- 
 ing ornament : a rich revenue, a glorious 
 authority, goes along with it. Thou shalt 
 ^ R^v.\\i\. reign for ever and ever '^ ; and be a hing^ as 
 well as a priest unto God ^." 
 
 They who enter by a lively faith into the 
 
 3 
 ' Rev. i. 6 
 
13. 
 
 ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 287 
 
 import of these glorious words will, I doubt serm. 
 not, pardon my having expatiated so largely ^' 
 upon them. JFe have believed, and therefore 
 have we spoken^: and I question not, but'2Cor.iv. 
 that many of you have in the course of this 
 representation prevented me in some of the 
 reflections, which naturally arise from such a 
 subject. Yet it may not be improper to as- 
 sist your devout meditations upon them. 
 
 (1.) What reason have we to adore the 
 grace of our blessed Redeemer, which pre- 
 pares, and bestows, such rewards as these ! 
 
 While we hear him saying. Be thou faith- 
 ful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of 
 life; methinks it is but natural for each of 
 our hearts to answ er : " Lord, dost thou 
 speak of giving a crown, a crown of life and 
 glory, to me ! Too great, too great, might the 
 favour seem, if I, who have so often lifted up 
 my rebellious hand against thy throne, might 
 be allowed to lay down this guilty head in 
 the dust, and lose the memory of my trea- 
 sons, and the sense of my punishment toge- 
 ther, in everlasting forgetfulness. And is 
 such a croim prepared, and wilt thou, my 
 injured Sovereign, who mightest so justly 
 
xvii. 10. 
 
 288 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 I 
 
 SERM. arm thyself with vengeance against me, be- 
 .^^^^^..^^ stow this crown with thine own hand ; with 
 all these other circumstances of dignity, so 
 as even to make my triumphs thine own ! — 
 What is my strictest fidelity to thee? Though 
 I do indeed, as I humbly desire that I may, 
 continue faithful unto death, I am yet but an 
 unprojitahle servant; I have done no more 
 Luke than my duty^. I have pursued thy work, 
 in thy strength ; and, in consequence of that 
 love which thou hast put into my heart, it 
 hath been its own reward : and dost thou 
 thus crown one favour with another? — Blessed 
 Jesus, I would with all humility lay that crown 
 at thy feet, acknowledging before thee, and 
 the whole world, as I shall at length do in a 
 more expressive form, that it is not only the 
 gift of thy love, but the pitrchase of thy blood. 
 Never, never had I beheld it, otherwise than 
 at an unapproachable distance, as an aggra- 
 vation of my misery and despair, hadst not 
 thou worn another crozcn, a crown of infamy 
 and of thorns. The gems which must for 
 ever adorn my temples, were formed from 
 those precious drops that once trickled down 
 thine ; and all the splendour of my robes of 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 289 
 
 triumph is owing to their being washed in the serm. 
 blood of the Lmnb'^," With what pleasing 
 M'onder may we pursue the thought ! And 
 while it employs our mind, 
 
 (2.) How justly may this awaken a gene- 
 rous ambition to secure this crown to our- 
 selves ! 
 
 Dearly as it was purchased by our blessed 
 Redeemer, it is most freely offered to us, to 
 the youngest, to the meanest, to the most 
 unworthy. It is not prepared, merely for 
 those that have worn an earthly diadem or 
 coronet : would to God it were not despised 
 by most of them, as a thing less worthy of 
 their thoughts, than the most trifling amuse- 
 ment, by which they unbend their minds 
 from the weighty cares attending their sta- 
 tion ! But it is prepared for you ; even for 
 every one, who thinks it worth pursuing, and 
 accepting, upon the terms of the gospel 
 covenant ; for every one, who believing in 
 Christ, and loving him, is humbly determined 
 through his grace to hefaithfid wito death. — 
 And shall this glorious proposal be made to 
 you in vain ? Were it an earthly crown that 
 could lawfully be obtained, are there not 
 
 VOL. IV. u 
 
290 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM. many of us, notwithstanding all its weight 
 v^,^-^^,,^ of anxieties, and all the piercing thorns with 
 which we might know it to be lined, that 
 would be ready eagerly to seize it, and per- 
 haps to contend and quarrel with each other 
 for it ? But here is no foundation for conten- 
 tion. Here is a crown for each ; and such a 
 crozon, that all the royal ornaments of all the 
 princes upon earth, when compared with it, 
 are lighter than a feather, and viler than 
 dust. And shall we neo;lect it? Shall we 
 refuse it, from such a hand too, as that by 
 which it is offered ? Shall we so judge our- 
 5 Acts xiii. selves unworthy of eternal life ^, as thereby 
 indeed to make ourselves worthy of eternal 
 death ? For there is no other alternative. — 
 But blessed be God, it is not universally neg- 
 lected. There are, I doubt not, among you, 
 many who pursue it, many who shall assur- 
 edly obtain it. For their sakes let us reflect, 
 (3.) How courageously may the heads 
 which are to wear such a crown, he If ted up 
 to face all the trials of life and death ! 
 
 Those trials may be various, and perhaps 
 extreme ; but if borne aright, far from de- 
 priving us of this crown, they will only serve 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 291 
 
 to increase its lustre. It is the apostle PauFs 
 express assertion ; and he speaks as trans- 
 ported with the thought: Fo?' this cause we 
 faint not, but though the outward man perish, 
 yet the inward man is renewed day by day : 
 for our light affliction, which is but for a 
 moment, worketh for its a far more exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory ; while we look not 
 at the things which are seen, but at the things 
 which are not seen ; for the things which are 
 seen are temporal, but the things which are ^ 
 not seen are eternal^. Surely with this sup-^aCor.iv. 
 
 1 r i_ • 1 • 16—18. 
 
 port, we may not only nve, but triumph, m 
 
 poverty, in reproach, in weakness, in pain : 
 and with this we may die, not only serenely, 
 but joyfully. O, my friends, where are our 
 hearts ? Where is our faith ? Nay, I will 
 add, where is our reason ? Why are not our 
 eyes, our desires, and our hopes, more fre- 
 quently directed upward ? Surely one ray 
 from that resplendent diadem might be suf- 
 ficient to confound all the false charms of 
 these transitory vanities, which indeed owe 
 all their lustre to the darkness in which they 
 are placed. Surely when our spirits are over- 
 whelmed within us, one glance of it might be 
 
 u 2 
 
292 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM. sufficient to animate and elevate them ; and 
 v_^I,^^^ might teach us to say, in the midst of dan- 
 gers, sorrows, and death, In all these things 
 we are more than conquerors, through him 
 "> Rom. \'\\i. that loved us^. Tlius have some triumphed 
 
 37 
 
 in the last extremities of nature ; and both 
 the subject, and the occasion also, loudly 
 calls us to reflect, 
 
 (4.) What reason we have to congratu- 
 late these happy souls, that have already 
 s received the crown of life ! 
 
 When we are weeping over the cold, yea, 
 the bleeding remains of such, surely it is for 
 ourselves, and not for diem, that the stream 
 flows. The thought of their condition, far 
 from moving our compassion, may rather 
 inspire us with joy and with praise. Look 
 not on their pale countenance, nor on the 
 wide and deep wounds, through which per- 
 haps the soul rushed out to seize the great 
 prize of its faith and hope ; though even 
 those wounds appear beautiful, when earned 
 by distinguished virtue, by piety to their 
 country and their God. Look not on the 
 eyes closed in death, or the once honoured 
 and beloved head, now covered with the 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 29S 
 
 dust of the grave : but view, by an internal serm. 
 believing eye, that different form which the v^,-^^^^ 
 exalted triumphant spirit already wears, the 
 earnest of a yet brighter glory. Their great 
 Leader, whose care of them we are fondly 
 ready to suspect, or secretly to complain of 
 as deficient in such circumstances as these, 
 points, as it were, to the white robes, and the 
 flourishing palms, which he has given them ; 
 and calls for our regard to the crowns of life 
 which he has set on their heads, and to the 
 songs of joy and praise to which he has formed 
 their exulting tongues. And do we sully 
 and dishonour their triumphs with our tears? 
 Do we think so meanly of heaven, and of v 
 them, as to wish them with us again : that 
 they might eat and drink at our tables ; that 
 they might talk with us in our low language ; 
 that they might travel with us from stage to 
 stage in this wdderness ; and take their share 
 with us in those vanities of life, of which we 
 ourselves are so often weary, that there is 
 hardly a week, or a day, in which we are 
 not lifting up our eyes, and saying with a 
 deep inward groan, O that we had wings like 
 a dove I Then would we flee away, and be at 
 rest ^. " Psai. iv. 
 
294 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM. Surely with relation to these faithful sol- 
 ,^^^ diers of Jesus Christ, who have already fal- 
 len, it is a matter of no small joy to reflect, 
 
 9 isa. xi. that their warfare is accomplished ^ ; that 
 they have at length passed through every 
 scene in which their fidelity could be en- 
 dangered ; so that now they are inviolably 
 secure. How much more then should we 
 rejoice, that they are entered^ not only into 
 the rest, but into tliejoy of their Lord ; that 
 they conquered, even when they fell, and are 
 now reaping the fruits, the celestial and im- 
 mortal fruits, of that last great victory ? 
 
 A sense of honour often taught the hea- 
 thens, when attending those friends to the 
 funeral pile, who had died honourably in 
 their country's cause, to use some ceremo- 
 nies expressive of their joy for their glory ; 
 though that glory was an empty name, and 
 all the reward of it a wreath of laurel, which 
 was soon to crackle in the flame, and vanish 
 into smoke. And shall not the joy and 
 glory of the living spirit affect us, much 
 more than they could be affected with the 
 honours paid to the mangled corpse ? 
 
 Let us then think with reverence, and with 
 joy, on the pious dead ; and especially on 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 295 
 
 those whom God honoured with any special serm. 
 opportunities of approving their fidehty, in v^v^ 
 hfe, or in death : and if we mourn, as who, 
 in some circumstances, can forbear it ? let it 
 be as Christians, with that mixture of high 
 congratulation, with that erect countenance, 
 and that undaunted heart, which become 
 those that see by faith their exaltation and 
 felicity ; and burning with a strong and 
 sacred eagerness to join their triumphant 
 company, let us be ready to share in the 
 most painful of their trials, that we may also 
 share in their glories. 
 
 And surely, if I have ever known a life, 
 and a death, capable of inspiring us with 
 these sentiments in their sublimest eleva- 
 tions, it was the life and the death of that 
 illustrious Christian hero. Colonel Gardiner; 
 whose character was too well known to many 
 of you, by some months residence here, to 
 need your being informed of it from me ; 
 and whose history was too remarkable to be 
 confined within those few remaining: mo- 
 ments, which must be allotted to the finish- 
 ing of this discourse. Yet there was some- 
 thing so uncommon in both, that I think it 
 
X. 
 
 290 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM, of high importance to the honour of the 
 gospel and grace of Christ, that they should 
 be delivered down to posterity, in a distinct 
 and particular view\ And therefore, as the 
 providence of God, in concurrence with that 
 most intimate and familiar friendship with 
 which this great and good man was pleased 
 to honour n"'e, gives me an opportunity of 
 speaking of many important things, espe- 
 cially relating to his religious experiences, 
 with greater exactness and certainty than 
 most others might be capable of doing ; and 
 as he gave me his full permission, in case I 
 should have the affliction to survive him, to 
 declare freely whatever I knew of him, which 
 I might apprehend conducive to the glory of 
 God, and the advancement of religion ; I 
 purpose publishing, in a distinct tract, some 
 remarkable passages of his life, illustrated 
 by extracts from his own letters, which speak 
 in the most forcible manner the genuine sen- 
 timents of his heart. But as I promise my- 
 self considerable assistance in this work from 
 some valuable persons in the northern part 
 of our island, and possibly from some of his 
 own papers, to which our present confusions 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 297 
 
 forbid my access, I must delay the execution serm. 
 of this design at least for a few months ; and v,^-^^ 
 must likewise take heed, that I do not too 
 much anticipate what I may then offer to the 
 public view, by what it might otherwise be 
 very proper to mention now. 
 
 Let it therefore suffice for the present to 
 remind you, that Colonel Gardiner was one 
 of the most illustrious instances of the energy, 
 and indeed I must also add, of the sove- 
 reignty of Divine grace, which I have heard 
 or read of in modern history. He was in 
 the most amazing and miraculous manner, 
 without any Divine ordinance, without any 
 religious opportunity, or peculiar advantage, 
 deliverance, or affliction, reclaimed on a sud- 
 den, in the vigour of life and health, from 
 the most licentious and abandoned sensu- 
 ality, not only to a steady course of regu- 
 larity and virtue, but to high devotion, and 
 strict, though unaffected sanctity of man- 
 ners : a course, in which he persisted for 
 more than twenty-six years, that is, to the 
 close of life, so remarkably eminent for piety 
 towards God, diffusive humanity and Chris- 
 tian charity, lively faith, deep humility, strict 
 
298 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 temperance, active diligence in improving 
 time, meek resignation to the will of God, 
 steady patience in enduring afflictions, un- 
 affected contempt of secular interest, and 
 resolute and courageous zeal in maintaining 
 truth, as well as in reproving, and, where his 
 authority might take place, restraining vice 
 and wickedness of every kind ; that I must 
 deliberately declare, that when I consider all 
 these particulars together, it is hard for me 
 to say where, but in the book of God, he 
 found his example, or where he has left his 
 equal. Every one of these articles, with 
 many more, I hope, if God spare my life, to 
 have an opportunity of illustrating, in such a 
 manner as to show, that he was a living 
 demonstration of the energy and excellency 
 of the Christian religion ; nor can I imagine 
 how I can serve its interests better than by 
 recording what I have seen and known upon 
 this head, known to my edification, as well 
 as my joy. 
 
 But oh, how shall I lead back your 
 thoughts, and my own, to what we once 
 enjoyed in him, without too deep and tender 
 a sense of what we have lost ! To have poured 
 
ANIMATILD AND CROWNED. 299 
 
 out his soul in blood ; to have fallen by the serm. 
 savage and rebellious hands of his own coun- v^^,,.^^ 
 trymen, at the wall of his own house ; de- 
 serted by those, who were under the highest 
 obligations that can be imagined to have 
 defended his life with their own ; and, above 
 all, to have seen with his dying eyes the 
 enemies of our religion and liberties tri- 
 umphant, and to have heard in his latest 
 moments the horrid noise of their insulting 
 shouts ; — is a scene, in the view of which we 
 are almost tempted to say. Where were the 
 shields of angels ? Where the eye of Provi- 
 dence ? Where the remembrance of those 
 numberless prayers which had been offered 
 to God for the preservation of such a man, 
 at such a time as this ? — But let faith assure 
 us, that he was never more dear and pre- 
 cious in the eye of his Divine Leader than in 
 these dreadful moments, when if sense were 
 to judge, he might seem most neglected. 
 
 That is of all others the happiest death, 
 which may most sensibly approve our fidelity 
 to God, and our zeal for his glory. To stand 
 singly in the combat with the fiercest ene- 
 mies, in the best of causes, when the whole 
 
300 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM. regiment he commanded, fled ; to throw 
 ^^^^;^ himself with so noble an ardour to defend 
 those on foot, whom the whole body which 
 he headed were appointed to support, when 
 he saw that the fall of the nearest com- 
 mander exposed those brave men to the 
 extremity of danger, were circumstances that 
 evidently showed how much he held honour 
 and duty dearer than life. He could not 
 but be conscious of the distinguished pro- 
 fession he had made, under a religious cha- 
 racter ; he could not but be sensible how 
 much our army, in circumstances like these, 
 needs all that the most generous examples 
 can do, to animate its officers and its sol- 
 diers: and therefore, although when his men 
 would hear no voice but that of their fears 
 he might have retreated without infamy, he 
 seems deliberately and rightly to have judged, 
 that it was better he should sacrifice in such 
 a cause the little remainder of his life than 
 attempt to preserve it by a conduct, which 
 might leave the least room even for envy 
 and prejudice to suggest, that the regard to 
 religion and the public, which he had so 
 remarkably professed on all occasions, was 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 301 
 
 not Strong enough to lead him to face dan- serm. 
 ger and death, which natural bravery itself ^A^/ 
 had in early youth taught him to despise. 
 He had long since felt the genuine force 
 of honour sanctified by piety ; and conse- 
 quently, had too just a zeal for his king 
 and country, to bear the thought of desert- 
 ing the trust committed to him in such an 
 important moment ; too warm a love for the 
 protestant religion, not to rejoice in a call of 
 Providence to bleed in its defence. And 
 therefore, that he might make the last and 
 utmost opposition in his power to a rebellious 
 crew, by whose success, should it go on, an 
 inlet would be opened to the cruel ravages 
 of arbitrary power, and to the bloody and 
 relentless rage of popish superstition, he loved 
 not his life unto the death ^. And in this ' Rev. xii. 
 view his death was martyrdom, and has, I 
 doubt not, received the applauses and rewards 
 of it : for what is martyrdom, but voluntarily 
 to meet death for the honour of God, and 
 the testimony of a good conscience ? 
 
 And if it be indeed true, as it is reported 
 on very considerable authority, that before 
 he expired he had an interview with the 
 
X. 
 
 302 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM. leader of the opposite party, and declared 
 in his presence " the full assurance he had 
 of an immortal crown, which he was going 
 to receive," it is a circumstance worthy of 
 being had in everlasting remembrance : as 
 in that case Providence may seem wonder- 
 fully to have united two seemingly incon- 
 sistent circumstances, in the manner of his 
 dying ; the alternative of either of which he 
 has spoken of in my hearing, as what with 
 humble submission to the great Lord of life 
 he could most earnestly wish : " that if he 
 were not called directly to die for the truth,'' 
 which he rightly judged the most glorious 
 and happy lot of mortality, " he might either 
 fall in the field of battle, fighting in defence 
 of the religion and liberties of his country ; 
 or might have an apportunity of expressing 
 his hopes and joys, as a Christian, to the 
 honour of his. Lord, and the edification of 
 those about him, in his departing moments ; 
 and so might go off this earthly stage,'' as 
 in the letter that relates his death, it is ex- 
 pressly said that he did, " triumphing in the 
 assurance of a blessed immortality." 
 
 How difficult it must be, in our present 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 303 
 
 circumstances, to gain certain and exact in- serm. 
 formation, you will easily perceive : but v^^^^^^y 
 enough is known, and more than enough, 
 to show how justly the high consolations of 
 that glorious subject, which we have been 
 contemplating, may be applied to the pre- 
 sent solemn occasion. From what is certain 
 with relation to him, we may presume to say, 
 that after he had adorned the gospel by so 
 honourable a life, in such a conspicuous 
 station, God seems to have condescended, 
 as with his own hand, to raise him an illus- 
 trious theatre, on which he might die a 
 venerable and amiable spectacle to the worlds 
 and to angels, and to men^ ; balancing to his'icor.iv. 
 native land, by such an exit, the loss of what 
 future services it could have expected, from 
 a constitution so much broken as his was, by 
 the fatigues of his campaign in Flanders, 
 where by his indefatigable services in a very 
 extreme season he contracted an illness, from 
 which he never recovered. 
 
 On the whole therefore, whatever cause we 
 have, as indeed we have great cause to sym- 
 pathize with his wounded family, and with 
 his wounded country ; and how decent so- 
 
304 THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR 
 
 SERM. ever it may be, like David, to take up our 
 v^-vU^ lamentation over the mighty fallen^ and the 
 ' 2 Sam. i. brightest weapons of our war perished ^ ; and 
 oh, how naturally might some of us adopt 
 the preceding words too ! Yet after all, let 
 us endeavour to summon up a spirit, like 
 that with which he bore the loss of friends, 
 eminent for their goodness and usefulness. 
 "Gai.i. And while we glorify God in him'^, as on so 
 many accounts we have reason to do, let us 
 be animated by such an example to a reso- 
 lution of continuing, like him, steadfast in our 
 duty, amidst desertion and danger, and all 
 the terrors that can beset us around. As he, 
 having been so eminently faithful unto death, 
 has undoubtedly received a crown of life, 
 which shines with distinguished lustre, among 
 ' Rev. vii. thosc who are co?ne out of much tribulation ^ ; 
 let us be courageous followers of him, and of 
 all the glorious company of those, who tlwough 
 ^ Heb. \\. faith and patience inherit the promises^. Then 
 
 12 
 
 may we be able to enter into the comfort and 
 spirit of them all, and of this promise in par- 
 ticular; and shall not be discouraged, though 
 we are called to endure a great fight of afflic- 
 7 Heb. X. tions ^, or even to sacrifice our lives, in de- 
 
 32. 
 
ANIMATED AND CROWNED. 305 
 
 fence of our religion and liberties : since in sfjiivi. 
 this cause we know, if we should fall like ^J^ 
 him, even to die is gain ^. We are assured » puii. i. 
 upon the best authority, that as he fought 
 the good fight with so heroic a fortitude, and 
 finished his course with so steady a tenor, and 
 kept the faith with so unshaken a resolution, 
 theje is laid up for him a crown of brighter 
 glory than he has yet received, which the 
 Lord the righteous Judge will give unto him 
 in that great expected dai/ : and we know, 
 that it shall be given, not unto him only^ nor 
 only to those who ha^ e had an opportunity 
 of distinguishing themselves by the most 
 heroic services or sufferings in the cause of 
 their Divine Leader, hut unto all them that 
 love his appearance^. Amen. 'sTim.iv, 
 
 7,8. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 VOL, IV. 
 
ON PHILIP DODDRIDGE, D. D. 
 
 BY MR. BENJAMIN SOAVDEN, OF ROTTERDAM. 
 
 Sublime of genius! and with science bless'd, 
 
 Of every brilliant excellence possess'd ; 
 
 Beyond the common standard learn'd and wise, 
 
 Of conduct artless, and above disguise : 
 
 In whom but equals few, superiors none. 
 
 The friend, the husband, and the father shone ! 
 
 Loved by the truly virtuous and the great, 
 
 And honour'd with the flaming bigot's hate : 
 
 A tutor form'd t' implant in yielding youth. 
 
 And into fruit mature the seeds of truth ; 
 
 A writer, elegant in manly charms. 
 
 Who, like the sun, enlightens while he warms ; 
 
 A pastor, blending with divinest skill, 
 
 A seraph's knowledge, with a seraph's zeal, 
 
 Not only taught religion's paths, but trod. 
 
 And like illustrious Enoch, walk'd with God. 
 
 Doddridge! these rich embellishments combined. 
 
 Were thine — but who can paint an angel's mind? 
 
 Heaven saw thee ripe for glory, and in love 
 
 Removed thee hence to grace the realms above ! 
 
 Feb. 21,1754. 
 
 C and C. Wliilliiiyliiiiii, t'(.>llegt' Mouse, Cliiswick. 
 

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