chance that one opinion should be right as another; this additional presumption, in favour of what the Church teaches, should be sufficient to decide a prudent man "to continue in those things which he had been taught and assured of; knowing of whom he had learned them." Secondly, we may assist ourselves in conceiving the danger of neglecting God's ministers, in matters of religion, by reflecting how we are ourselves affected by similar conduct in our earthly concerns. Suppose then that a master has given certain instructions to his servants previously to his going a journey, and that he has appointed some, whom he trusted, to overlook the rest, and see that the others adhered to his orders: further; suppose that these servants cannot agree among themselves as to what their master intended them to do, but that the upper servants think one thing, and the under servants another, now how will these men act, if they have any regard for their master's approbation? will not the under servants see at once, that in case their superiors happen to be right, themselves will incur far severer censure by disobeying them, than they could possibly do by obeying them if they were wrong? will they not acknowledge at once, that the reason their master set other servants over them was that they should be obedient, and that it will be a far greater offence in them to neglect right orders than to follow mistaken ones.

Indeed in all common concerns, we must have observed that nothing so much shuts a man out

from the sympathy of his neighbours, as the fact that he has got into difficulties by neglecting advice, and determining to act on his own opinion, while ready allowance is always made for those who have been misled by acknowledged principles of prudence.

Now these feelings, which we entertain one towards another in our ordinary concerns, and which common sense sanctions as reasonable, are constantly appealed to by our Lord in His parables, as illustrating the way in which Almighty God regards the actions of His creatures; and hence we may readily conceive how much more leniently He will view the errors which we may fall into by obedience to His Church, than by secession from it.

The considerations which have just been presented to you through a parallel case, may be illustrated and enforced by a striking example from the thirteenth chapter of the first of Kings. We there hear of a Prophet, who, by a singular and dreadful death, is marked as a monument of God's disapprobation; yet let us reflect what it is that he did to draw down on himself such an awful judgment. Few, perhaps, have read the chapter in which his story is contained, without feeling the thought cross them, as if he had been severely dealt with. His obedience throughout that part of his mission which seemed most beset with temptation, his fearlessness in the presence of Jeroboam, when that wicked king would gladly have destroyed him, and after he had executed his commission, his resolute

refusal to profit by the terrors which he had awakened, seem to mark him out as a sincere and faithful messenger. "The man of God said to the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee; neither will I eat bread, nor drink water in this place for so it was charged me by the Lord." It seems he was proof against both fear and enticement, and his disobedience at last hardly looks like more than an artless reliance on one who was unworthy of his confidence: The old prophet "said unto him, I am a prophet also, as thou art, and an Angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring, him back to thy house, that he may eat bread and drink water; but he lied unto him: so he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water."

Such was the crime of the disobedient prophet, and for this a lion met him by the way and slew him. Now if we attend to this narrative, we shall see that his offence consisted in giving credit to one who pretended to be God's messenger, and yet gave no proof of his commission: he believed in what was declared to him, though he did not know of whom he heard it. And this offence was aggravated by the fact, that he did himself know the truth of his own commission, both by the manner in which it was conveyed to him, and the miracle he had wrought in attestation of it."

Thus then he allowed himself to disobey a command which he knew to have proceeded from God,

because it was revoked by one claiming a divine commission which he did not prove. He did not "continue in those things which he knew and had been assured of," although he did "know of whom he had learned them." He chose his teacher for himself, and God has left his fate as a warning how conduct like his will be dealt with among us: excusable as his conduct may appear in our eyes, God, who cannot err, has pronounced his sentence; and "whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto men more than unto God, judge ye."

SERMON XIX'.

BOLDNESS IN PAIN AND DANGER.

JEREMIAH xii. 5.

"If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?"

In the present state of society, when the power of law is so fully established, that both our persons and our properties are protected from aggression, and we can calculate on enjoying in peace the fruits of our labour, we are apt to forget, amid the blessings we enjoy, how great and how numerous are the evils from which we are exempted.

Slight reflection, however, must convince us that the condition in which the inhabitants of this country are at present placed, is very different from the average lot of mankind. The ravages of war, the violence of lawless men, the oppression of power, the corrupt administration of justice, and number