remained behind in this vale of tears? Would he not have holden his peace, like Aaron; and, like David, suppressed every murmuring thought, because the Lord had done it? Let his example of patience and suffering affliction, have its proper influence upon your views and feelings, in this hour of trial. Your bereaved and mournful situation is a new and pressing motive to follow the Lord wholly. He can give you strength in weakness, light in darkness, and joy in sorrow. And if this light affliction, which is but for a moment, leads you to lean upon his arm, and to confide in his faithfulness, it will happily prepare you to come to your own grave, as a shock of corn fully ripe in its season.

The bereaved children will please to remember that they have enjoyed no common privilege, in being the offspring of such a pious, faithful, exemplary parent. How many prayers has he put up to God for you; how many kind and faithful instructions and warnings has he given you; how long have you enjoyed his endearing company, his faithful preaching, and his moving example. You have great reason to sing of mercy, as well as of judgment. And so long as you remember your loss, your loss will remind you of the peculiar obligations which lie upon you, to follow the Lord wholly. Your pious father undoubtedly left you, with a humble hope of meeting some or all of you in the heavenly Canaan.* And can you bear the thought of his never seeing you, and of your never seeing him, in the mansions of glory? Let his life and his death unitedly constrain you to live as he lived, that you may die as he died.

This whole congregation, we doubt not, sincerely lament the death of their amiable and faithful pastor. He loved you with a paternal affection, being willing to spend and to be spent for you. And he rejoiced in the marks of your love and respect to him. You have been a people highly favored of the Lord. He has given you, for a long season, one of his richest blessings. One of his able and faithful ministers has employed his talents, exhausted his strength, and worn out a long life, in the service of your souls. Be entreated to remember how you have received and heard; and to repent, if you have been barren and unfruitful, in such a well watered and cultivated vineyard. Your pastor has given up his account, and you must soon give up yours. Though you are now separated, yet you must soon meet again, before the supreme tribunal. And if any of you are now unprepared for that solemn meeting, it highly concerns you to prepare immediately. Know ye not, that the

*Mr. FISH left six children. Five of them are professors of religion, and two of them worthy ministers of the gospel.

saints shall judge the world? Know ye not, that faithful ministers will be a savor of death unto death unto their impenitent hearers? Let this thought sink deeply into all your hearts; and especially into the hearts of those who have professed to be fellow travellers with their aged pastor to the heavenly Canaan. Multitudes have apparently set their faces Zion-ward, and yet have fainted and perished in the way. Labor, thèrefore, to reach the heavenly rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

To conclude: Let this whole assembly be urged to prepare for dying. You have been preparing for living. You have felt the absurdity of sleeping in harvest, and of neglecting, in summer, to prepare for winter. But it is infinitely more absurd and dangerous, to neglect, in time, to prepare for eternity. We beseech you, therefore, to receive the salutary counsel of our compassionate Redeemer: "Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." Amen.

SERMON XXIV.

INFLUENCE OF A HOLY HEART ON A CHRISTIAN

MINISTER.

FUNERAL OF REV. DAVID SANFORD, A. M., MEDWAY, WHO DIED APRIL 7, 1810, AGED 73.

FOR he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith; and much people was added unto the Lord. - Acrs, xi. 24.

AFTER Our Saviour had risen from the dead, he directed his apostles to preach the gospel first at Jerusalem; where his enemies had imbrued their hands in his blood, and where they were prepared to make the greatest opposition to the doctrines he had taught. But Peter and John had been so long with Jesus, and imbibed so much of his spirit, that they were not afraid to preach his gospel in the face of his bitterest enemies. By some of their first and most successful discourses, they awakened the enmity and opposition of the ecclesiastical rulers, who laid hold on them, and put them in prison. The next day, however, they set them at liberty, after expressly forbidding them to speak or teach any more in the name of Jesus. But the apostles chose to regard God rather than man, and continued to preach with great success, without farther opposition, until Stephen, who was full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then his enemies arose, and procured his condemnation and death. "And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles." "Now," says the sacred historian in the context, "they who were scattered abroad upon

the persecution that arose about Stephen, travelled as far as Phenice and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they came to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus; and the hand of the Lord was with them; and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was at Jerusalem; and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith; and much people was added unto the Lord."

Barnabas was a Levite, of the country of Cyprus, and was, probably, converted by the instrumentality of Peter, on the day that five thousand embraced the gospel; and when perhaps a great company of the priests became obedient to the faith. He was one of the most eminent preachers in his day, and attracted the particular notice of the apostles, who changed his name from Joses to Barnabas, which is, being interpreted, the son of consolation; or, as it might be rendered, the son of exhortation, or the son of a prophet. But his character, rather than his name, deserves peculiar attention. "He was a good man." His heart had been renewed and sanctified by the special grace of God. And besides, he was "full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." These are phrases that properly signify his supernatural and miraculous gifts, which were then very common to private christians, as well as to ministers of the gospel. His saving grace and supernatural gifts both concurred to qualify him for his sacred office, and had a happy influence upon his ministerial labors. For it is said, in plain reference to his excellent character, "and much people was added unto the Lord;" that is, by his preaching and pious exertions in the work of the ministry. But since the faith of miracles and all other supernatural gifts have long ago been withdrawn from the church of Christ, it is only the holiness, the benevolence, or saving grace of Barnabas, that applies to the ministerial character at the present day. And taking the text in this restricted sense, it naturally leads us to inquire, what peculiar influence a holy heart will have upon a minister of the gospel.

A holy heart is the seat of all holy or gracious affections; and these are the source of all the holy and virtuous actions which are really acceptable in the sight of God. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." A good heart constitutes a good man. A new heart constitutes a new man. As soon as God gives a

man a new heart, he becomes a new creature; old things pass away, and all things become new. As soon as God gave Barnabas a good heart, he instantaneously became a good man, and morally prepared for every good work. And this is true of every one to whom God gives a new, a holy, or a gracious heart. Such a heart will have a governing influence over all the powers and faculties of his mind; over all his internal views, purposes, and designs; and consequently over all his external conduct. It is not the understanding, nor any other natural faculty of the soul, that governs a man in all his moral actions; but his heart alone. So far as his heart is holy and benevolent, just so far it will sanctify whatever he does; whether he acts in a private or public capacity, or whether he sustains a civil or sacred office. But we are now to consider only that peculiar influence, which a holy heart will have upon one who designs to preach the everlasting gospel.

First: A holy heart will influence him to desire and undertake the sacred work of the ministry from the only pure and proper motives. Under the influence of grace, he will not desire to preach the gospel and take the charge of souls, merely because he has had a public education, nor merely because he cannot pursue any other business with equal reputation and profit; but he will desire the office of a bishop, because it is a good office; and affords the best opportunity of promoting the glory of God, in the conversion of sinners and the edification of saints. Having been thoroughly convinced of his own moral depravity and just desert of eternal destruction; and having been made a partaker of the divine nature, by having the love of God shed abroad in his heart; he will feel a tender and benevolent concern for perishing sinners, and ardently desire to be made the happy instrument of saving them from the wrath to come. Accordingly, he will undertake the work of the ministry, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. He will seek first the kingdom of God, and make all his own interest subservient to it. The benevolence of Barnabas led him to preach the gospel from pure, disinterested motives. "Having land, he sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet." He meant to endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ; and not entangle himself with the affairs of this life, that he might please him who had chosen him to be a soldier. Though Paul was a young man of high expectations and worldly prospects, yet, as soon as his heart was moulded into the spirit of the gospel, he chose to preach it at the risk of every earthly interest. He solemnly declares that "when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that