much as to please thee, and be disposed in all things to obey thy blessed will. Thy commands are pure, thy law is holy, and just, and good; thou hast ordained it for our great benefit, and we are only miserable by transgressing it, and can never be happy but in conforming to it. Teach us to reverence thy word and will; teach us this wisdom, and guide our souls into the way of truth and purity. O! be thou the sole Lord, and supreme love of our hearts, and bring every thought into subjection to thee. And, that we may attain to this holy and happy state of a pure and free obedience, let thy love in Jesus Christ be always present to our minds, and lively in our hearts; that so we may be constrained to live unto him that died for us, by his rule, after his example, to thy glory. O Lord, for his sake, have mercy on us, and help us; pardon all our failings, supply all our wants, that being renewed to the desire and love of holiness, we may be found of thee in peace, and received to thy mercy in Jesus Christ. Amen.

SECTION XXXIII.

ST. MATTHEW, xv. 22.

A WOMAN of Canaan, &c. One out of God's covenant. Hast thou alienated thyself from him since thy baptism? And dost thou begin to feel thy sin, and find thyself in an evil case, helpless and undone? Cry, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David! Does he give no answer? Still cry after him. Does he give a seeming denial? Draw still nearer to him, and worship him. Does he speak roughly? Own it to be just; but still plead for the leavings of his bounty. Resolve to take no denial; he wants to have thee at this point with him; and will no

more reject thee, than thou couldst bear to see the tears running down the cheeks of thy own child, and leave it to. perish with hunger.

Ver. 28. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith.-What was her faith? She wanted help for her daughter, and believed in Jesus for it. This is always faith; and, if Jesus is always the same, will always have its relief from him. But then do not think you have faith in him, when you have no workings towards it, nor ground for it in yourselves; no heartfelt sense of your sinful state, and want of remission; no real desire to do the will of God as he shall teach you, nor of his power in you to subdue your corruptions. For this, and nothing but this, is his office in us, and our redemption by him; and all that do not believe in him, and come to him for this end, their faith is vain, they are yet in their sins.

If

you

knew

you

Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. might have your wish, what would you ask of God? Let me beg of you to consider whether you ever thought of this in your whole lives. If not, you are in the darkness of anatural state, without knowledge, or desire, of the one thing needful, and never prayed yet according to the will of God. For, if you were truly awakened, you would say at once, give me Christ; give me the Spirit to guide me into all saving truth; give me an obedient will, and heavenly affections. This you may have; this prayer will be heard; this hunger will be satisfied. On the contrary, if you choose to be empty, and do not desire that Christ should take possession of your souls, so you remain; your own will must take place.

Ver. 28. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Ask yourselves, one by one, is this for me, and may I take comfort from it? Will Christ make me whole, cleanse me from my sin, and turn my heart to

God? Blessed God! what learning, what comfort is there in thy holy Scriptures! and what sweetness may we draw from them, if we thus read them?

Ver. 30. And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, &c.— You are the lame, till he sets your feet at liberty to run the way of God's commandments; you are blind, if you do not see your sin; you are dumb, if you have not a tongue to pray, and praise God with; you are maimed as to any help in yourselves.

-And cast them down at Jesus's feet, and he healed them. Now, therefore, cast yourselves down at Jesus's feet, that he may work the spiritual cure, and remove from you the plague of an evil heart and an evil conscience.

Ver. 31. Insomuch that the multitude wondered. - He does not want stupid, unfeeling admiration from us; but to excite in us a belief of his power and goodness, that we may desire to experience them in ourselves, and glorify the God of Israel by our conversion.

Ver. 32. I have compassion on the multitude. They seem to have been insensible of their own hunger, out of desire to be with him; but he was not unmindful of any of their wants.

Ver. 33. Whence should we have so much bread, &c.-' Who could be slower of belief than the disciples were? They had just faith enough not to desert Christ, and that was all. After the day of Pentecost all their doubts were at an end; and it is very remarkable, that they were more steady from a faith of the Spirit's operation, than from their own eye-sight.

Ver. 38. And they that did eat were four thousand, &c. Let not this second miracle of feeding the multitude be read without effect. When you know of a truth what your work is, and your own utter inability to accomplish it, you will be apt to say, Whence can this be? How

shall such a weak creature as I am be strengthened for it, and carried happily through it? The answer is here; by that Jesus, who supplied the wants of above five thousand at one time, and four thousand at another, by an act of his almighty power.

LECTURE.

IN the story of the woman of Canaan, you must needs observe the nature and power of faith. In her, it was persevering trust in Christ, notwithstanding the discouraging repulses she met with, that he would cast the devil out of her daughter; in us, it is an unshaken belief in him, grounded on his word, not that he will cure our bodily distempers, but that, according to his name, he will do much greater things for us, in saving us from our sins. To this faith every thing will be granted; and, as sure as the Lord Jesus Christ said at that time, "be it unto thee even as thou wilt," so surely will he say the same to every one of us, when we trust in his grace and power, see ourselves undone without his blessed relief, and are so desirous of it as to take no denial. I beseech you, consider; St. Matthew was not directed by the Spirit of God to write this account of the Canaanitish woman with all its circumstances, only that you might know how she came to Jesus in her distress, what she said to him, and how she found a cure for her daughter; but that all who read or hear it might see their own. help in it, come to him with the same faith, be as earnest with him for their own healing, and, according to the particular instruction contained in the relation of the miracle, persist, like her, in looking for it at his hands. For this end, I say, the Gospels were written, that we

might believe in him as the Christ, the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world, offering himself to us in every miracle he wrought as the all-sufficient Helper of mankind at all times, and by his cures on the bodies of men giving us a pledge and assurance of our spiritual recovery; though not in the manner we think, or may have been taught to expect, by a particular, sensible testimony to the soul, yet certainly in his own time and way, which it is the property of a true faith to leave to him, in full dependence on his truth, wisdom, and goodness.

If the Scripture is not thus opened to us, if it does not bring us to Jesus as our only Helper in the distress and peril of our souls, it is no more to us than any other book. It can signify nothing to us what he did for others above seventeen hundred years ago, if he does nothing for us, if he has not his eyes still upon us, and the same compassionate heart toward us, you and me at this time and place; and that more especially as we are all perishing without him, and must be miserable for ever if he does not help and save us. Well now, supposing him to be present, as indeed he is, with the same bowels of melting pity which brought him into the world to die for you, what would you say to him, what would you ask of him? Would you say to him, Lord, I am a wretched, sinful creature, have mercy on me and help me, give me repentance, wash me in thy blood, be thou my advocate with the Father for pardon and life, send the Spirit of grace into my heart to make me a new man in faith and holiness? Has the Lord given you such an understanding of the danger of your condition, as that you make it your request to him day by day, and would think yourselves undone if you did not believe it would be granted? If not, what is Jesus to you? And what better