people, pure Christians, and such as he will own, by casting every thing out of your hearts with which he cannot dwell.

When Jesus had cast the buyers and sellers out of the temple, we read that the blind and the lame came to him there, and he healed them. As these are some of the last of our Lord's miracles mentioned by St. Matthew, let me press it upon you once more, as I have done all along in the reading of this Gospel, to consider the end and design of them as to yourselves, that you may come to him in faith for your own cure, forgiveness of sins, and new hearts turned to God. For you are by nature the blind and the lame; ignorant of your condition, and blind to your true interest; averse to the will of God, and unable of yourselves to turn to him, and walk in the way of his commandments. And till you know it, and look to Christ for healing, whatever you hear of his miracles, whatever you believe of his power, will be without effect as to you; he is not your Helper and Saviour. And let not the meanness of your condition, or want of learning, be any discouragement to you; as you love your souls, make it not a pretence for living and dying without the knowledge of Christ, and, consequently, of salvation by him. Hear him saying, "Out "of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast per"fected praise." Beg of God that his praise may be perfected in you, by your knowledge and joyful acceptance of his grace and mercy in Christ Jesus; as it certainly will, if you resign yourselves in humility, and with an unfeigned sense of your blindness, to Christ the great Teacher. Without him we are all babes, one as well as another, high or low, rich or poor, learned or unlearned'; and he who alone teaches any, can teach all effectually, and make the meanest and most ignorant praise God for their conversion by him. And though all the world

should be displeased with you when you are in earnest in turning to Christ, and do all in their power to stop your mouths when you are crying after him, regard them not; when you know your want of him, and find of a truth that you must be undone without him, keep close to him, keep on praying. He blasted the fig-tree, on purpose that you might know what will be the end of an unfruitful state, and what prayer will do for you. It is said, “the "disciples marvelled when they saw how soon the fig-tree "withered away." First, take heed that this be not your doom. Then remember the application which Christ himself made of this miracle, viz. to convince us of the mighty power of the prayer of faith. Our corruption is great, our weakness is great, and we might well be daunted at the sight of them, if we had nothing to trust in but ourselves; but the mercy of God is above all our sins, and his strength will be our support; and we are as sure, as his word and promise can make us, that whatever we ask of him, trusting in his goodness, and believing his power, will be done for us, though ever so difficult in itself. We cannot remove the mountain, but nothing is impossible with God; and every time we fall down upon our knees, we pray for as great a miracle, if we know for what we pray.

PRAYER.

O Lord our God, pour upon us the Spirit of grace and supplications, to receive the instructions and follow the doctrine of the great Teacher, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, with all humility and thankfulness. As thou hast taught us what is acceptable unto thee, and delivered to us the rule of holy living; we beseech thee, turn the desire of our hearts to it, and all our hearts to thee, in prayer for a blessing upon what we learn from thy holy word. Convince us of our blindness, corruption,

and weakness, that we may come to Christ for help, rejoice in his salvation, and in the power of the Holy Ghost be enabled to do whatever thou requirest of us. Make us thy own people, make our souls and bodies thy living temples; that, consecrating ourselves to thee in faith and purity, and reverencing thee in our hearts, we may gladly embrace all occasions of presenting ourselves before thee in thy house, as the house of prayer, worship thee in spirit and in truth, whilst we live here upon earth; and sing praises to thee for ever in heaven, with all those whom thou hast redeemed to thyself by the blood of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

SECTION XLVII.

ST. MATTHEW, xxi. 24.

I WILL also ask you one thing - For their farther instruction, if they would have been sincere with him; for their confusion, as they were not.

Ver. 25. And they reasoned with themselves, &c.— Look at thyself. This was miserable shuffling, but is very common. There is no acting avowedly against conscience and reason; but the misfortune is, we have always some kind of sophistry at hand, to stifle the one, and blind the other, when we have no mind to be convinced.

Lord,

Ver. 27. We cannot tell.-They would not. Neither tell 1 you is the most grievous of all curses. grant we may never bring it upon ourselves, nor deprive ourselves of the benefit of thy teaching, by our insincerity and opposition to the truth.

Ver. 28. Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. - So

he says to us all every day concerning the great work we have to do under him.

Ver. 29. He answered, and said, I will not.—What wouldst thou think of thy heart, if it was as well known to thyself as it is to God, that it often says this?

But afterward he repented, and went.-Observe; repentance is an effectual change of the mind, and actual going into the vineyard.

Ver. 31. The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.-The very refuse of mankind sooner repent and turn to Christ, accept grace, and enter upon his way of salvation, here called the kingdom of God, than those who are high in their own and the world's esteem; and having an outward decency of behaviour to pride themselves in, stand upon it with God, and see no need of conversion.

Ver. 32. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, &c. In vain does John, or Christ, come in the way of righteousness, as teachers and examples of it, to those who think they know and are possessed of it before.

LECTURE.

WHEN the chief priests and elders of the people asked Jesus," by what authority he did these things," making a public a public entry into Jerusalem, receiving the acclamations of the multitude, as he that was to come in the name of the Lord, the blessed Son of David, the Messiah, and casting the buyers and sellers out of the temple, instead of giving them satisfaction in the point, and telling them plainly who he was, he evaded their question, by asking them another which he knew they would not answer. Not that he feared the worst they

could do to him; for he was ready to offer himself to death, and came to Jerusalem for that purpose. Let us then consider what we have heard. It may seem strange that He who was the light of the world, and came to save mankind, should leave them in the dark concerning himself, and refuse them the information they seemed to desire, as it was a matter on which their salvation depended. But the truth is, their design was not to learn of him, but to ensnare him; and he, who knew what was in their hearts, and how utterly unprepared they were to profit by his instruction, gave them such an answer as might lead them into the knowledge of themselves, and, · upon the whole, refused to acquaint them who he was, and by what authority he acted.

You see then, in this instance, how we must be qualified for Christ's teaching, and why we are, generally speaking, so little better for it. If there is an honest heart, and a willing mind, sincerely desirous of saving knowledge, he is ready for us; he will not suffer us to be ignorant, or deceived. If there is no such will and desire, no disposition to hear the truth from his mouth, nothing but guile and deceit in the heart, he may, and does frequently, leave us to ourselves; and that is just the same with respect to our souls, as it would be to our bodies, or to the earth, if the sun was to withdraw his light; we are in horrible darkness all our lives, and understand nothing so as to come to conversion and healing. Take heed, therefore, that Christ does not speak these words to you. For I appeal to yourselves; where is the difference between his saying, "Neither tell I you," that is, never teaching us any thing, and our stopping our ears, and hardening our hearts, against what he does teach us? And such is the condition of all those who neglect the Scripture; and though they are baptized in the name of Christ, and often hear him spoken