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perceive in the book of Scripture, as in the book of Creation, the same degree of plainness and obscurity intermixed; the same difference between the nature and the use of things, the one eluding research, and the other level to common apprehension; the same order, and the same sublime irregularity; some parts peculiarly prominent, while the whole equally rejects all attempts completely to systematize it. We see that the Scripture is adapted to the actual state of man; that it is suited to his wants and weaknesses in every period, whether he be young or old; in every condition, whether he be prosperous or afflicted; in every relation, whether he be a master or servant, a father or child, a citizen of this world, or an heir of immortality. The book understands my fears, and meets my hopes; and were I to find it by accident, and had never read it before, I must, upon perusing it, confess, that it could only have been produced by one who perfectly knew my misery, and was infinitely concerned for my welfare-that is, GOD. "I have written to him"-What? Observe,

II. THE CONTENTS-"the great things of my law." We naturally judge of an author by his work; but there are cases in which we judge of a work by the author. What I mean is this; we have such a knowledge of some men, and such a confidence in them, that we are sure they cannot write improperly; and conclude even beforehand, that what they send forth must be worthy of our purchase and our perusal. And as soon as we learn that God himself is the author of this book, we may approach it confidently, expecting to find in it a greatness becoming his glorious Name.

Nor shall we be disappointed. We here find great things.

Great in number. What other book ever laid open such a boundless multiplicity of subjects, and gave rise to such an infinity of thoughts?

Great in profundity. What other book could bear thousands of writers and preachers to be always explaining and improving it? What other book would bear daily and hourly reading and reviewing?-Yet we always find something fresh and interesting; and the subjects so far from being exhausted, lead us to pray, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard. neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." Great in importance. Here we see the way in which God harmonizes all his perfections in the salvation of man. Here we see how he delivers a perishing sinner from the curse of the law and the bondage of corrup

tion; how the guilty are made righteous; how the unholy are made pure; how the weak are rendered equal to every duty and difficulty of the Christian life.-The subjects are not addressed to our fancies and opinions, but to our consciences. They relate to the soul, to eternity. They include "exceeding great and precious promises;" and which infinitely surpass all the offers of the world.

Great in their efficacy. They have awakened the most secure consciences; they have softened the hardest hearts; they have comforted the greatest sufferers; they have enabled them to glory in tribulation, and to triumph in death. Plato complained that he could not bring over the inhabitants of even one village to live by the rules of his philosophy. But how many millions have been reformed and renewed by the doctrines of the Cross! "The words that I speak unto you," says our Saviour, "they are spirit, and they are life." "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ," says Paul, "for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." It bringeth salvation, not only as to the discovery, but the experience of it; and teaches us what nothing else ever did, or ever will teach, to "deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in the present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." And where it does not save, it civilizes; and it has done more in taming the fierceness and savageness of the multitude, in raising the tone of morals, in securing the welfare of the community, than all the civil institutions in the world.

In a word, the greatest thing we have upon earth is the Gospel. It dignifies every country in which it is found; and the poorest cottage that contains a Bible is rendered unspeakably more valuable than a heathen palace. This gave the Jews their pre-eminence over all other nations; "to them were committed the oracles of God." No wonder therefore that the prophet should consider the loss of this mercy as the greatest judgment that could ever befall a people. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord."

III. Let us consider THE RECEPTION WHICH THIS DIVINE COMMUNICATION MEETS WITH. "I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing." A strange thing here means a thing foreign to us; a matter of indifference; a thing that does not concern us, and cannot affect us; by which we shall gain nothing if we observe it, lose nothing if we despise it; a thing unworthy of our attention: the very reverse of what Moses said, "It is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life." And

that men thus in reality treat the Scriptures you after your desert, he would not bear with

of truth, is the charge here advanced. Let us examine it.

you a day or an hour. But he is a God of patience; and is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. Yet, lest you should suppose that forbearance is conni

First; it is a charge the most wonderful. We should naturally suppose that a book written by God himself would engage atten-vance, and that, because he does not immetion. We should reasonably conclude that it would excite no little interest if it only professed to be his work; how much more if the probability of this fact was strong; but who would think it possible to disregard it, if the evidences in its favour were numerous and undeniable!-All other books, being human, betray the imperfections of their authors; yet they are eagerly bought and read, admired and relished: but here is a book neglected, that is proved to be divine!

People are naturally attracted to a work that regards themselves. If I were to announce that a book was published which only mentioned your name, it is questionable whether you would be able to sleep till you had seen it. If you were poor, or if you were sick and dying, and a publication could inform you how to obtain riches, or health, and cure you would surely obtain it, and examine it with singular solicitude. But the Scripture speaks of you; it describes your character; it contains the charter of your privileges; it reveals a deliverance from all your woes; and by a method that awakens your wonder, while it relieves your wants. The angels desire to look into these things, and study them with intense application; yet angels need no repentance, no redemption. And will you-you who are immediately and eternally interested in them—will you make light of them!

diately reckon with you, he will never call you to account, hear, I beseech you, the fol lowing threatenings which he stands solemnly pledged to execute:--" And if it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven." "Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices." "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?"

We could add to the number of these tremendous denunciations. But surely more than enough has been repeated to rouse all your anxiety, and to lead you to inquire, Lord, is it I?"

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A charge, Secondly, the most criminal. We often err in our estimate of things, especially those of a moral nature. We have frequently a wrong standard by which to Yet, Fourthly, the charge is very commonly judge of what is good; hence that which is deserved. Few pay a due regard to the bless highly esteemed among men, is an abomina-ed word of God.-Take infidels, who openly tion in the sight of God. In the same way we deceive ourselves with regard to what is evil. We judge of sin by outward appear ances, or by the grossness of the action. But God takes into view not only the injury that is done to our neighbour, but the dishonour that is done to himself; not only what is done, but what is omitted: he weighs the state of the mind, the motives that determine us, the good we oppose and hinder; the difficulties we have to overcome, the convictions we have to stifle, the reasons that render us inexcusable. And by this rule, nothing can be more wicked, than to treat with contempt or neglect the means God has provided and revealed in his infinite goodness and wisdom for our everlasting welfare. It cannot therefore, while any thing like justice remains in the world, be done with impunity.

Hence, Thirdly, the charge is the most dreadful. If indeed God was to deal with

reject it, and endeavour to make others be lieve what it would seem impossible for them to believe themselves, that a system so wise in its contrivance, so beneficial in its tendency, so holy in its influence, is the work of foolish or wicked men!!-Take apostates. How many, even in our own day, have we seen, who once made a flaming profession of religion, whose hearts have turned back, and whose steps have declined from his ways; who can laugh at that which once made them tremble, and are "so bewitched"-I use the words of the Apostle, "that they cannot obey the truth."-Take nominal Christians, some of whom would be much offended if you refused to consider them as real ones. Yet how seldom do they read it! How rarely do they hear it! And of those that hear it, often hear it, hear it dispensed with fidelity and affeetion, how many are there who are curious hearers, captious hearers, forgetful hearers,

hearers only deceiving their own selves! Did | glorified." Long for the day when the Scripyou never observe the complaint that God ture shall be found in every family. Be conaddressed to Ezekiel? "Son of man, the cerned to furnish those around you with the children of thy people speak one to another, Bible who may be destitute of it. Take peevery one to his brother, saying, Come I pray culiar care early to awaken in those whom you, and hear what is the word that cometh God has graciously given you, an affectionate forth from the Lord. And they come unto and a familiar regard to it. It is the order of thee as the people cometh, and they sit be- Heaven. "These words, which I command fore thee as my people, and they hear thy thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and words, but they will not do them: for with thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy chiltheir mouth they show much love, but their dren, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest heart goeth after their covetousness. And, in thine house, and when thou walkest by the lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song way, and when thou liest down, and when of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for play well on an instrument: for they hear thy a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be as words, but they do them not." Does this ap- frontlets between thine eyes." ply to none of us? It characterizes thousands who attend even where the Gospel is preached in its purity. We say therefore again, that few pay a due regard to the word of God; few imbibe its spirit; few fear its threatenings; few embrace its promises; few obey its commands; few practically own its authority.

O precious Bible! I could for ever enlarge in thy praise.-Read it, ye mourners in Zion: it will wipe away your tears. Read it, ye bereaved: it will assure you that a father of the fatherless, and a husband of the widow, is God in his holy habitation. Read it, ye poor: it will soothe you under your privations. Read it, ye rich: it will sanctify your abundance. Ye old, read it: it will support your tottering age. Ye young, read it: it will preserve your giddy steps. "Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.”

DISCOURSE LX.

But to conclude. The charge is not universally true. Blessed be God, there are some exceptions; and we trust in the number of exceptions some of you are found. I hope some of you are daily kneeling before this sacred volume and praying, "Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name." Good men have always been attached to their Bibles! Many have shed their blood, rather than even conceal their regard to it. We read in the book of martyrs of a husbandman who gave a whole load of hay for one leaf of one of the epistles! BOYLE, that great philosopher, said, speaking of the Scripture, "I prefer a sprig of the tree of life to a whole wood of bays.' Judge HALE, that ornament of his profession and country, said, that "if he did not honour God's word by reading a portion of it every A good man leaveth an inheritance to his chilmorning, things went not well with him all the day." Job said, "I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food." David exclaimed, "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day! More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb."

Can you express yourselves in similar language? Are these your sentiments? You ought to be thankful-and to be thankful not only that you possess such an invaluable blessing as the Scriptures, but that you have been taught to prize it, and enabled to use it. You have found it to be, in your own happy experience, a compass to guide you; a remedy to heal you; a sword to defend you; a balm for every wound, a cordial for every fear.

But let me urge upon you a still greater attention to the word of God. Let it not only "dwell" in you, but dwell in you "richly," and "in all wisdom." Pray for the spread of it, that it may have "free course and be

THE ADVANTAGE OF HAVING
GODLY PARENTS.

dren's children.-Prov. xiii. 22. WHAT SO interesting as children? Children are pledges of mutual and hallowed affection. Children recall the early scenes of our own lives; they renew our image; they embalm our memory; they multiply and perpetuate ourselves. Other attachments lose their influence over us with age, but love to children warms the heart in death. It is the source of numberless and unutterable' hopes and fears, and pains and pleasures.

What is the emblem of divine compassion? "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Rachel weeps for her children, and "will not be comforted, because they are not." Who does not feel for the venerable patriarch as he exclaims, "Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not

and will ye take Benjamin away? All these things are against me." Who can refuse to mourn with the king of Israel as he retires from the shouts of a victory that had

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saved his own life; and, as he goes up into are not born Christians, but are made such. his chamber over the gate, weeping, ex-"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creaclaims, "O my son Absalom! my son, my ture." But some are saved by the washing son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, of regeneration, and the renewing of the O Absalom, my son, my son!" When the Holy Ghost. God has begun "a good work woman came to our Lord on the behalf of in them;" and the work denominates the her daughter grievously vexed with a devil, subjects of it. Such is the origin of the how does she express herself! "Thou Son character. But what are the features of it? of David, have mercy on me.' The mother In a good man we must have piety. He suffered as much by sympathy as the daugh- trusts in God, and submits to him; he loves ter by disease; and the deliverance of the one and fears him. He keeps holy the Sabbath would have been the relief of the other. of the Lord his God. He enters his house; he reads and hears his word; he comes to his table; he approaches his throne for mercy and grace to help him in time of need. And while others live without God in the world, he is actuated by a desire to please and glorify him in all his actions. Unless the heart be right with God, we are nothing. Without principle and motive, whatever noise we make in religion, we are but "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal."

In a good man we must have sincerity. You would not think of applying the word to a mere pretender; to one whose actions were always at variance with his words and his heart; to one who was all form and varnish in religion; a whited sepulchre, which looks fair outwardly, but is within full of death and corruption. But you feel no reluctance to appropriate the term to one, even though he has not much light, and is not free from infirmities, who is what he appears to be; and of whom our Saviour would say, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile."

But if parents are affected by the condition of children, children are affected by the conduct of parents. Thus we read that God "visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him." "Which is certainly unjust," some are ready to exclaim; "and is sufficient to condemn the book in which the assertion is found." And yet we constantly see children, in ways innumerable, suffering for the vices of their ancestors. By the idleness and drunkenness of one father, his infants are reduced to rags and ruin. By the licentious guilt of another, disease carries off his newborn babe-the babe is not criminal, yet it is tortured with pain and dies. The fact is undeniable; and deism has to encounter the same difficulty with revelation. Religion is no more chargeable with it than the course of nature. If the Bible be not the word of God, the world is the work of God; and where is the difference between his announcing such a rule, or his acting upon it? On the other hand, goodness operates In a good man we must have uniformity. powerfully and beneficially in descent; and He is not one thing alone, and another in we read that God showeth mercy unto company. He is not a meek follower of the thousands of them that love him and keep Lamb in the house of God, and a tyrant in his commandments:" that "his mercy is his own. He is not prayerful in sickness, from everlasting to everlasting upon them and prayerless in health. He is not humble that fear him;" and "his righteousness unto in adversity, and proud and rigorous in pros children's children." And among the vari-perity. He is the same essentially in all the ous subjects that come under the observation varieties of human condition: the changes of Solomon, is that of a godly father entailing blessings on his family. "A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children."

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Let us premise three things.

MAN.

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of life serve only to prove his character, and to develope it. They are trials, and often severe ones; but they meet with gold; and it will appear unto praise and glory and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

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I. THE CHARACTER IN QUESTION IS A GOOD In a good man we must have benevolence Some persons are prejudiced against and beneficence. It is not enough to be barely the very use of the term: but they would do moral; and to render to all their due. À well to remember that it is one of the words good man does not keep just within the the Holy Ghost teacheth." It is needless to precincts of legal obligation; but goes forth repeat passages to prove this; but it may be where no human statute would punish him necessary to observe that the term is to be for neglect; and having freely received, he taken with limitations. None are good per- freely gives. The love and gratitude which fectly for "there is not a just man upon the he cannot extend to God, overflow upon his earth that doeth good and sinneth not." Paul fellow-creatures. He has imbibed the Spirit confessed that he had not attained-that he of him who went about doing good; and as was not already perfect; but only pressing he has opportunity, he does "good unto all towards the mark. None are good natural- men, especially unto them that are of the ly: for as we are all derived from the same household of faith." This part of his characsource, and this is a depraved one, "who can ter the Scripture makes a test of the reality bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" Wel of every other part: "He that loveth not his

in reference to the man, the woman is by no means excluded. Though she moves less publicly and visibly, her influence, like that of the more primary and hidden springs in a machine, is certainly great and efficient. To a family, a good mother, no less than a good father, is an invaluable blessing. To whom under God did the Jewish Church owe a Samuel? To a wise and pious Hannah. To whom did the Christian Church owe a Timothy? "From a child he had known the Scripture, which is able to make us wise unto salvation;" and the secret is laid open: "When," says the Apostle, "I call to re

brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him-how dwelleth the love of God in him!" It is this that attaches others so firmly and inviolably to him: "scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die." It is this that draws so peculiarly the gracious notice of God himself. "To do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. A good man showeth favour and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion. Sure-membrance the unfeigned faith that is in ly he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord."

thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also." It is not to Jesse, but to Jesse's wife, that David so tenderly and devoutly refers, when he says, " O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid."

These things being premised, let us examine what that inheritance is, which a good man leaves to his offspring.

Secondly. Solomon supposes that such a good man may be found in connected life. And what is there in his goodness that is likely to hinder this? what is there in his goodness that does not render it the more probable? His religion will improve all those views and feelings that tend to make him social and useful. Some have attached I know not what kind of holiness and preeminence to celibacy; but the Scripture I. It comprehends RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTIONS. knows nothing of it. There we read that There are some who are unfriendly to the "marriage is honourable in all." There we practice of infusing into children any doctrinal find the doctrine of forbidding to marry, principles; and plead for leaving their minds branded with infamy. Jesus graced a wed-quite free and unbiased, till they are able to ding with his own presence, and wrought his first miracle to aid even the festivity of the scene. God himself in paradise instituted marriage; and said, "It is not good for man to be alone." And who will rise up and give his Maker the lie? Enoch married earlier than his cotemporaries, and begat sons and daughters; and yet "he walked with God; and was not, for God took him." Compare this man, early surrounded with family connexions, with a wretched, sordid monk in a cell, or with any of those poor, selfish, coldhearted beings who refuse to serve their generation according to the will of God-and which of them rises or sinks in your estimation ?—Yea, it is supposed that this good man has offspring too-another natural conclusion, and sanctioned generally by the promise of God. "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel."

Thirdly. Though the subject is spoken of

judge for themselves. But can a parent forbear to impart to those who are peculiarly dear to him what he knows to be of unspeakable importance, and of immediate necessity? Will the mind of his child remain free and unbiased through infancy and youth? If empty of good, will it not be filled with the evil that so pressingly surrounds it in a world like this? Will the enemy check his march, and leave the passes unoccupied till you choose to possess them yourselves?-If our children do not remember God in the days of their youth, they are not very likely to remember him at all. The promise is, "I love them that love me, and they that seek me early shall find me:" but can they love him without knowing him? Do they seek him by instinct, or from motive? We are commanded to use means even by him who works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure: and if we regard his authority, the dispute is ended: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Hear how Moses charges the Jews: these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when

"And

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