SERMON XX.

MATT. xi. 4, 5.

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Jefus answered and faia unto them, Go, and fhew John again thofe things which ye do hear and fee: The blind receive their fight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleanfed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raifed up, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them

SERMON XXI.

2 SAM. i. 23.

Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they

were not divided

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SER

SERMON I

GENESIS, Chap. xxiv. Ver. 63.

And Ifaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide.

T is impoffible to view the fimplicity of ancient times, as recorded in Scripture, without a mixture of pleasure and surprise. We there fee nature in her artless form: we there behold man in his genuine dignity, with the recent impress of his God upon him fuch as he came from the hands of his Maker, and fuch as he certainly was intended always to remain.

VOL. I.

B

But,

But, at the fame time, the comparifon cannot help making between thofe times and our own, will naturally give pain to every confiderate mind. When we look back upon what man has been, and confider what he now is, we can fcarce forbear crying out, in the language of the Prophet of old," how "art thou fallen, O Lucifer, fon of the morning!"

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And perhaps no part of fcripture affords a more ftriking contrast between the manners of antient and prefent times, than the words now read to you. They defcribe to you a man of the firft rank and eminence in his country, the heir to a very noble fortune, in the prime and vigour of life, furrounded with every apparent blessing. You would therefore naturally expect, according to the present fyftem of manners, to find him amidst the gay fcenes of pleasure and diffipation, furrounded with companions of the midnight revel or devouring dice. But the wife fon of Abraham had better learned the value of life and the bleffings he enjoyed. He knew, that they were too precious to be squandered away in thoughtless folly or finful enjoyment. He was unwilling to buy repentance at fo great

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a price. Nature and innocence had to him fuperior charms. He therefore went out into the fields to meditate at the even-tide.

And there would he find fufficient fcope for his meditation. The great volume of nature was before him, with all its beauties and wonders. The fun, declining in blazing majefty, and hafting to enlighten other worlds; the flowers of the field, arrayed in all their various glories; the gradual approach of still evening and folemn darkness; the pale moon and starry host of heaven, in the ferenity of an eastern climate, would all have their feveral charms for a contemplative mind; would all teach him to look up from nature to that great God of nature, by whom they were formed in " num"ber, weight and measure."

He had alfo other fubjects for his folitary meditation. The recent death of an affectionate mother, and the approaching diffolution of a venerable father, would naturally call forth, in a difpofition like his, every tender and affecting thought; would remind him of the fhortnefs of human life, and of the neceffity of fummoning every faculty to

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the