the claims which men have upon you, | conflagration; and the wrath that now but of the peculiar and transcendental is suspended in this season of proclaims which GOD has upon you-it is then that you are met with the question, What have you done unto GOD? In reference to the moralities of human companionship, there is perhaps not one earthly tribunal before which you might not stand in the attitude of proud integrity; but with reference to that transcendantal morality, which relates to the thing formed, and Him who formed it," there is no apprehension ever entertained, and man's boasted righteousness melteth utterly away. Now it is blindness to this principle which forms one main ingredient in the false and fatal peace which is so general in our world. There is blindness to the jurisprudence of the upper sanctuary, as well as blindness to the futurities of the unseen state; the two together have the effect of the most deadly opiate; nor are we to wonder that our species have been charmed thereby into so profound a spiritual lethargy. And thus it is, that though the creatures of a fleeting and fantastic day, we tread on earth with as assured footsteps, as if instead of the short lived tenants, we were to be its everlasting lords; and the laugh, and the song, and the festive gaiety of the busy scenes of earthliness, all speak of a generation fast seeking the insensibility of spiritual death. Nor do the terrors of the grave shake this tranquillity; nor do the still more awful terrors of the judgment seat. That day of man's dissolution, which is so palpably at hand, and which sends before it so many intimations, fails to disturb him. That day of the world's dissolution, when the trumpet shall be sounded, and the men of all generations shall awake to the high reckonings of eternity; and this earth, and these heavens shall be involved in the ruin of one mighty ferred mercy, shall at length burst forth into open manifestation upon all the sons and daughters of the ungodly (a day which when it cometh will absorb every heart in one fearful and overwhelming interest; now it is yet to come, and is seen only through the imagined vista of many successive centuries)—has no more effect than a dream of poetry; and whether from the dimness of nature's sight to all the futurities of the spiritual world, or from its slender apprehensions of that guilt which, in the sacred eye of heaven, is so enormous, certain it is, that men can travel onwards both to the death and the judgment, and can say, "Peace, peace; when there is no peace." The awfulness of the first of these events, death, bears on it the experimental proof of God's intolerance of sin. If we indeed felt our guilt as little as we do our danger - if his displeasure were as slight and as gentle as our alarm, why should so dreadful a change come on our species as 'death—a thing unknown to angels -a state from which the whole of sensitive nature shrinks as at the approach of most unnatural violence? If GOD be as much at peace with the world, as the world is at peaceful complacency with itself, why then so hard and hostile a dispensation against it? Or if sin be of so trivial account in the estimation of heaven, as it is in the estimation of human society, how should it have brought down such a vengeance on the earth as to have smote it with the plague of mortality throughout all its borders, and swept off to the hideousness of the grave all the life and beauty produced in its successive generations? That surely is no trifle which has turned this bright and blooming world into a vast sepulchral vault for the men of all ages. Its mourning deathbeds, and its weeping families, and its marred and broken companionships, these are all emphatic testimonies of God's hatred of sin. That sin brought all these calamities on the world, is a principle announced to us in Scripture; and it is only Scripture which can explain to us the mystery of death. And when the same Scripture announces, that "after death cometh the judgment," let us not give in to the pleasing imagination, that he who hath made such fair exhibition of his sovereignty in the one, will in the other indulge and manifest his tenderness; but let us feel that as death is to every unrepentant sinner but the beginning of sorrow, so judgment will be to him as a second death. This is only the first general head of discourse. What I proposed to do, in the Second place, was, to state, WHAT THERE IS THE SUBSTANTIAL REMEDY IS, WHICH GOD HOLDS TO BE NECESSARY, AND TO CONTRAST IT WITH THAT SLENDER AND SUPERFICIAL REMEDY WHEREWITH MAN WOULD BE SATISFIED. THIS IF RIGHTLY DONE WOULD MAKE MANIFEST THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE PHRASES IN MY TEXT, THE ONE 66 PEACE, WHEN NO PEACE," THE OTHER 66 HEALING THE HURT OF THE DAUGHTER OF MY People slightLY." The connection which there is between tlfe apprehension of a slight disease, and the application of a slight remedy is quite obvious. That man will submit his sore to the amputation and caustic which he will not suffer to be probed to the bottom; but if the sore is superficial, he will only consent to a cure superficial also. It is with the hurt of the soul as with the hurt of the body; the malady under which it labours may be vital, yet if the patient do not think so, he will be glad to put it off with the very mildest of sanitives. That peace which is only gently ruffled, may only need a very gentle restorative again to compose it. The alarm which but agitates the soul in the shape of a rare and transient zephyr, may easily be hushed again; and the vessel which the tempest would drive from its moorings can maintain its place in the calm, and even among occasional breezes, with but a very frail dependance to hold by. that many would heal but lightly the hurt of their own souls; they will not go to that physician, the Lamb of GOD, who tells them to wash out their sins in his blood, and points out to them, nay beckons their approach to that fountain of purification which has been opened in the house of Judah; they care not for the virtues of that satisfying and substantial atonement through which alone the virulence even of foulest guilt can be done away; and still less have they a desire or demand for the operation of that regenerating power which entering the heart, and reaching the deep and the native ungodliness that is seated there, may turn all its affections from the world unto God. formation far more superficial than this will satisfy them. They will have nought to do-they call it methodistical or fanatical, or brand it with some epithet of opprobrium or ther-they will have nought to do with the mysteries of the new birth; they will look for their safety in eternity in another way than by a dark and dreary passage of spiritual distress, and then a conversion of the soul through the influence of the Holy Ghost, and then a translation into the marvellous light of the Gospel, and then a glorious revulsion of their whole heart and habits, so as to form them into a peculiar people whose conversation is in heaven, and whose great business on earth is to perfect their holiness-all this they nauseate, And thus it is, we fear, Re ano and they refuse, even though it should bear a resemblance to the doctrine of Scripture, and is not couched in obscure and cabalistic phraseology. They will, therefore, adjourn the whole question of their eternity, or take their own way of resolving it, and so with all their pain and all their pleasure on earth as heretofore they leave still untouched and unsubdued the spirit of earthliness within them; they would like, with the slender reformation they have, to get to heaven as comfortably as they can. Now it is not thus that the breach between GOD and a guilty world is healed. He is the party sinned against, and it is for him, and not for us, to dictate the terms of the treaty of reconciliation. Slightly as we look on our defection from GOD, and the disease of our fallen nature, it is not so looked upon in heaven. That mystery of redemption which prophets sung and which angels desire to look into; and which the Son of GOD, and none but him, could undertake, and which cost him a humbling incarnation, and the deep endurance of the world's atonement; and which, with the miracles and manifestations of divinity, was preached by holy apostles to the nations of the earth; and which is no where trusted in by man without the surrender of his heart to the will of God, and so a complete moral renovation of his habits and history; this is the only way in which the acceptance of the sinner has been made to harmonize with the honors of the offended Sovereign, or in which the lawgiver without the compromise of his dignity or of that high imperial state which belongs to him as Lord of the universe (and which it was the anarchy of creation to violate) the only way in which He can pass over our transgression of his law. But now that the way has been proclaimed, you are freely invited to draw nigh; and we are charged with the overtures of peace and of pardon from the mercy-seat to the guiltiest of all; and a full amnesty is proclaimed, even for the deadliest of your transgressions; and he who took upon himself the retribution of your sins now makes you welcome with the reward of his righteousness. By his sacrifice he has made you meet in law, and by his Spirit he is willing to make you meet in person and in character, for heaven; and you conform to this new economy of the Gospel when trusting in the love of a now reconciled Father, you are constrained by the moral force of a contemplation so delightful to love him back again, and with the ascendant power of this new affection in your heart to run with the alacrity of a heaven-born spirit in the way of all godliness. The subject is inexhaustible, but I shall proceed with it no further at present. 63 FROM DR. BARROW. KNOWLEDGE IS A SOURCE OF DELIGHT. sant. We are all naturally endowed with a strong appetite to know, to see, to pursue truth; and with a bashful abhorrency from being de And as success in inquiry after truth affords matter of joy and triumph; so being conscious of error and miscarriage therein, is attended with shame and sorrow. These desires wisdom in the most perfect manner satisfies, not by entertaining us with WISDOM of itself is delectable and satisfactory, as it implies a revelation of truth and a detection of error to us. 'Tis like light, pleasant to behold, casting a sprightly lustre, and diffus-ceived and entangled in mistake. ing a benign influence all about; presenting a goodly prospect of things to the eyes of our mind; displaying objects in their due shapes, postures, magnitudes, and colours; quickening our spirits with a comfortable warmth, and disposing our minds to a cheerful activity; dispelling the darkness of ig-dry, empty, fruitless theories upon norance, scattering the mists of doubt, driving away the spectres of delusive fancy; mitigating the cold of sullen melancholy; discovering obstacles, securing progress, and making the passages of life clear, open, and plea mean and vulgar subjects; but by enriching our minds with excellent and useful knowledge, directed to the noblest objects, and serviceable to the highest ends.-Serm. I. p. 1. WISDOM SELECTS TRUE PLEASURES. ness, unsteady purpose, ill contriv- WISDOM is exceedingly pleasant and peaceable; in general, by disposing us to acquire and to enjoy all the good delight and happiness we are capable of; and by freeing us from all the inconveniences, mischiefs, and infelicities our condition is subject to. For whatever good from clear understanding, deliberate advice, sagacious foresight, stable resolution, dextrous address, right intention, and orderly proceeding doth naturally re- Wisdom instructs us to examine, sult, wisdom confers: whatever evil compare, and rightly to value, the blind ignorance, false presumption, objects that court our affections and unwary credulity, precipitate rash-challenge our care; and thereby re us. 64 SELECTIONS FROM BARROW. gulates our passions and moderates | science of having well placed our our endeavours, which begets a pleasant serenity and peaceable tranquillity of mind. For when being deluded with false shows, and relying upon ill-grounded presumptions, we highly esteem, passionately affect, and eagerly pursue things of little worth in themselves or concernment to us; as we unhandsomely prostitute our affections, and prodigally mis-spend our time, and vainly lose our labour, so the event not answering our expectation, Our minds thereby are confounded, disturbed, and distempered. But, when guided by right reason, we conceive great esteem of, and zealously are enamoured with, and vigorously strive to attain things of excellent worth and weighty consequence, the con affections, and well employed our pains, and the experience of fruits corresponding to our hopes, ravishes our minds with unexpressible content. And so it is: present appearance and vulgar conceit ordinarily impose upon our fancies, disguising things with a deceitful varnish, and representing those that are vainest with the greatest advantage; whilst the noblest objects, being of a more subtle and spiritual nature, like fairest jewels enclosed in a homely box, avoid the notice of gross sense and pass undiscerned by us. But the light of wisdom, as it unmasks specious imposture and bereaves it of its false colors, so it penetrates into the retirements of true excellency, and reveals its genuine lustre. DUTY OF THANKSGIVING. WHEREVER we direct our eyes, whe- | ample theatre of the world, consither we reflect them inward upon ourselves, we behold his goodness to occupy and penetrate the very root and centre of our beings; or extend them abroad toward the things about us, we may perceive ourselves enclosed wholly, and surrounded with his benefits. At home we find a comely body framed by his curious artifice, various organs fitly proportioned, situated and tempered for strength, ornament and motion, actuated by a gentle heat, and invigorated with lively spirits, disposed to health, and qualified for a long endurance; subservient to a soul endued with divers senses, faculties and powers, apt to enquire after, pursue and perceive various delights and contents. Or when we contemplate the wonderful works of nature, and, walking about at our leisure, gaze upon this dering the stately beauty, constant order, and sumptuous furniture thereof; the glorious splendor and uniform motion of the heavens; the pleasant fertility of the earth; the curious figure and fragrant sweetness of plants; the exquisite frame of animals, and all other amazing miracles of nature, wherein the glorious attributes of GOD (especially his transcendent goodness) are most conspicuously displayed; (so that by them not only large acknowledgments, but even congratulatory hymns, as it were, of praise, have been extorted from the mouths of Aristotle, Pliny, Galen, and such like men, never suspected guilty of an excessive devotion;) then should our hearts be affected with thankful sense, and our lips break forth into his praise.Serm. VIII. p. 71, 79. |