of themselves to service, as, to those who understand not the reason of it, would seem presumptuous forwardness. And there may be in some minds, at one and the same time, a strange mixture and counterworking of these two together; a sense of unfitness and unworthiness drawing back, and yet the strength of love driving forward, thinking thus, how can I, who am so filthy, so vile, speak of God? Yet he hath shown me mercy! How, then, can I be silent?

me,

Send me. Moses' reluctance, this same prophet would have vented too, before the touch of the coal, while he said, Woe is I am undone, or struck down, as the word may signify; he can not speak with such unholy lips of so holy a God. Isaiah cries out of polluted lips, as Moses complained of stammering lips. And this is fit to precede, first, a sense of extreme inability and unworthiness, and then, upon a change and call, ready obedience. A man once undone and dead, and then recovered, is the only fit messenger for God. In such a one, love overcomes all difficulties both without and within, and in his work no constraint is he feeling but that of love; and where that is, no other will be needed. The sweet, all-powerful constraint of love will send thee all-cheerful, though it were through fire or water: no water can quench it, nor fire outburn it; it burns hotter than any other kindled against it. After the touch of that coal, no forbearing. So Jer. xx. 9; But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, I could not stay. Feed the flock of God which is among you, says St. Peter, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint but willingly; not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind. Yet the prophet says, Send me. Though he had so ardent a desire and readiness to go, yet he will not go unsent, but humbly offers himself, and waits both for his commission and instruction; and how awful are they!

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may. dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.—Psalm xxvii. 4.

Dost thou ask, what he desires? Peradventure it is a land flowing with milk and honey, in a carnal sense, although this is to

be spiritually sought after and desired; or, peradventure, the subjugation of his enemies, or the death of his personal foes, or the power and wealth of this world. For he is on fire with love, much he sigheth, and gloweth, and panteth. Let us see what he desires; One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after. What is it he doth seek after? That I may dwell, saith he, in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. And suppose thou dost dwell in the house of the Lord, what will be the source of thy joy there? That I may behold, saith he, the fair beauty of the Lord.

My brethren, why is it that you cry out, why is it that you exult, why is it that you love, but because the spark of this affection is there? What long you for, I pray you? Can it be seen with the eyes? Can it be touched? Is it some beauty which delights the eyes? Were not the martyrs ardently loved; and when we commemorate them, do not we burn with love? What love we in them, brethren? Their limbs torn by wild beasts? What more loathsome if you ask the eyes of the flesh! What more beautiful, if thou ask the eyes of the heart! What would be thy feelings at the sight of some beautiful youth, who was a thief? How would thine eyes be shocked? Would the eyes of the flesh be shocked? If thou ask them, nothing more exquisitely adjusted, more gracefully proportioned than that person: the symmetry of the limbs, and the comeliness of the complexion, allure the eyes; yet when thou hearest that he is a thief, thy mind revolts from him. On the other hand, thou seest an old man, bent double, staying himself upon a staff, moving himself with extreme difficulty, furrowed all over with wrinkles; what seest thou to delight thine eyes? Thou art told that he is a righteous man: thou lovest him; thou embracest him.

Such are the rewards promised to us, my brethren. Let such be the object of your affections; such the kingdom for which you sigh; such the country for which you long; if you would attain to that with which our Lord did come; that is, to grace and truth. But if they be bodily rewards which thou hast coveted at God's hand, thou art still under the law, and the law, for that very reason, thou wilt not fulfill. For when thou perceivest those temporal things poured forth in abundance upon men who offend God, thy footsteps falter, and thou sayest to thyself, Behold, I worship God, every day I run to church, my knees are worn with

prayers, and yet I am always sick. Men commit murders, they are guilty of extortion, they overflow and abound, every thing goes well with them. Were then such as these the things thou didst seek at God's hand? Certain it is thou didst belong to grace. If the grace God gave thee is grace, because gratuitous, because he freely gave, then do thou freely love. Do not love God for a reward; let himself be thy reward. Let thy soul say, One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the fair beauty of the Lord. Fear not to be cloyed and surfeited. Such will be that beauty, that it will be always present with thee, and yet thou wilt never be satiated or rather, thou wilt be always satiated and never satiated. For if I should say thou wilt not be satiated, this would imply hunger and if thou wilt be satiated, I am afraid lest I convey the idea of surfeit. Where there shall be neither surfeit nor yet hunger, I know not what word to use. But God hath it to make good to those who find no word wherewith to express it, yet believe that they shall receive it.

But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many.—Eccles. xi. 8.

A PRUDENT forecast of possible evils as future to us, arms us with patience to sustain them. Since man was expelled from the terrestrial paradise, and is below the celestial, he is liable to innumerable afflicting accidents. His condition here is like an open sea, so voluble and inconstant, so violent and furious: sometimes the ships are raised upon the tops of the waves, as if they sailed in the air; and sometimes plunged into the waters, and ready to be swallowed up. Such frequent changes happen in our passage to eternity, and it is mercifully ordered so by divine wisdom, that we may so use the world, as not to abuse it and ourselves, by overvaluing and affecting it. It is a contemplation of Theodoret, that the sun and moon, the most glorious luminaries of heaven, and so beneficial to the earth, would be honored as Deities, if they appeared with the same invariable tenor of light. And therefore God wisely disposed of their motions, that

at the revolution of eertain periods, they should suffer an eclipse, that the ignorant world might be convinced that they were but parts of nature, appointed for the service of man, and are not worthy of divine honor. Thus we see that often the brightest and fullest prosperity is eclipsed, to convince us by the miserable. changes in this world, that the best estate of man is altogether vanity, and that these things are utterly insufficient to make us happy, and are not worthy of the chief regard and affection of our immortal souls. To set our hearts on them, is to build on the sand, and to expose ourselves to ruinous falls by every storm. A sudden blast overthrows the fabric of fancy, our conceited happiness in the enjoyment of perishing things. Our greatest cornforts may occasion our greatest afflictions; The glory of a family may occasion the grief of it. Now the consideration of the mutable nature of things here below, keeps the heart loose from them, fortifies us with proper thoughts to bear evils that happen, and prevents disappointment, that is an aggravating circumstance of our troubles, and a great vexation to the mind. The Israelites, when transported from the land of Canaan to Babylon, felt the rigors of their captivity the more sensibly, in that they were confident in their term and state in that land, as their permanent inheritance: to be expelled from so rich a country, wherein they promised themselves rest, was a high degree of their misery.

There is indeed a foresight of evils that may befall us, that has torment that anticipates and exasperates misery. Fear, that gives the signal of approaching evils, often brings more terror than caution, and, like a timorous sentinel by a false alarm, astonishes rather than prepares the mind to encounter with danger. Our Saviour strictly forbids such perplexing apprehensions of future evils, as most unbecoming Christians, who are under the perpetual providence of their heavenly Father: Take no thought for the morrow, the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. But on the contrary, to be secure in our prosperity, as if we should always enjoy a favorable course of things, as if our most flourishing comforts did not spring from an earthly origi nal, and might be suddenly blasted, or easily cut down, is to lay ourselves open to surprising disorders and perplexities when evils befall us. It is the wise counsel of Peter to believers, Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as if

some strange thing happened to you. For unexpected adversity falls upon the soul in its full weight, and suddenly overthrows it. Uncomfortable accidents strike to the heart, when it is not armed to receive the blow; whereas the remembrance of our frail and fickle state, makes us less troubled in afflictive changes, because prepared for what may happen to us,

Brethren, be followers of me, and mark them that walk so as ye have us for an ensample.-Phil. iii. 17.

He had said above, beware of dogs, from such he had led them away; to these he brings them near, whom they ought hereafter to imitate. If any one, saith he, will imitate us, if any one will walk the same road, take heed to them, for though I am not present, ye know the manner of my walk, that is, my conduct in life. For not by words only did he teach, but by deeds too; as in the chorus, and the army, the rest must imitate the leader of the chorus or the army, and thus advance in good order. For it is possible that the order may be dissolved by sedition.

The apostles, therefore, were a type, and kept throughout a certain archetypal model. Consider how entirely accurate their life was, so that they are proposed as an archetype and example, and as living laws. For what was said in writing, they manifested to all in their actions. This is the best teaching; thus the teacher will be able to carry on his disciple. But if he indeed speaks as a philosopher, but in his actions doth the contrary, he is no longer a teacher. For mere verbal wisdom is easy even for the disciple: but there is need of that teaching and leading which comes of deeds. For this maketh the teacher to be reverenced, and prepares the disciple to yield obedience. How so? When one sees him delivering wisdom in words, he will say he commands impossibilities; that they are impossibilities, the teacher is the first to show, by not doing them. But if he sees his virtue fully carried out in action, he will no longer be able to speak thus. Yet although the life of our teacher be careless, let us take heed to ourselves, and let us listen to the words of the prophet: And they shall be all taught of God. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, saying, Know the Lord, for they