Saviour's fentence is-I never knew you: depart from me, all ye was hers of iniquity.

Our bleffed Saviour having brought his divine difcourfe to a conclusion, illuftrates his doctrine in the following manner:--Whofocver, faith he, heareth thefe fayings of mine, and doth them, I will liken him unto a wife man, who built his houfe upon a rock; and the rains defcended, and the foods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. That is, he who founds his hopes on a confcientious regard to the commandments of God—he who heareth these sayings of mine, as our Saviour fays, and doth them, need fear nothing which this world can bring upon him: its ftorms and floods may beat against him-he may be vifited with poverty, or fickness, or distress of any kind-his hopes are founded upon a rock he never expected his happiness from the things of this world; and if he never meets with what he never expected, it can be no difappointment.

On the other hand, fays our Saviour, every one that heareth thefe fayings of mine, and doth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who

built his houfe upon the fand: and the rains de fcended, and the winds blew, and beat upon that houfe, and it fell; and great was the fall thereof. That is, he who leaves the practice of religion out of the question, and rests his hopes on what elfe he pleases, will find they are founded like a houfe on a fandy foundation-on the leaft attack of the storm, the whole will give way; there is nothing to fupport it.

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WITH this fimilitude our bleffed Saviour conIcluded his discourse. In a foregoing chapter we have a visible exhibition, as it were, of the various temptations we should have to encounter in our paffage through the world; and the proper modes of repelling them by the truths of fcripture. We have here the fame plan, in a manner, purfued;-the example commented on by precept. We are taught to confider the world as a very fufpected inftructor: all its maxims are contrary to the truths of the gospel: they are calculated only for this life-the rules of the gofpel, for the next. We conceive a still higher idea of the excellency of christianity, when we find our bleffed Saviour exalting it far above the law of Mofes.-Holy prayers, we next

learn, are the means to attain the graces of the Spirit. The broad way that leadeth to deftruction, and the narrow way that leadeth to life, fhould be continually in our thoughts.-One of the grand purpofes of this divine difcourfe is to fhew, that no profeffions of any kind, nor any religious opinions, will be of the leaft avail, without a holy life. The concluding paffages of the fixth chapter, Therefore I say unto you, &c. are among the most affecting parts of scripture. We cannot read them too often. If well obferved, they would make us all, both rich and poor, as` happy in our several stations as this world can allow. They should, indeed, be present with us in all our worldly concerns; as they give us the justest ideas of human life: they come home to our feelings, as we are placed in a world abounding with many difficulties, and point out the only true way of paffing through them.

When our Saviour had finished his discourse, we are told, the people were aftonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the fcribes: that is, they could easily distinguish between the noble truths which he told them, and the cold and trifling discourses of the Scribes and Pharifees.

Let us follow their example; and, receiving these great precepts of religion as coming from one having authority, let us esteem it our highest interest to submit to that authority, and confcientiously to obey it.

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SERMON XIX.

JOHN, V. 29.

SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES; FOR IN THEM YE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.

IN the eighth chapter, which I now begin, we

have an account of our Saviour's firft miracle.By thus fhewing he had the power of working miracles, he fhewed also that he had authority to make laws. The miracles which he wrought were indeed a double proof of his authority:they first proved it, by fhewing that he acted under the power of God; and, fecondly, they proved it, by completing thofe prophecies which afcribed fuch miracles to the Meffiah.-But, if our Saviour's miracles had been intended only to prove his authority, his power over nature, as when he stilled a ftorm by speaking a word, had been fufficient: but they had the farther

end