making it his great request to God, to be faithful to the Master who bought him with his blood.

PRAYER.

O Lord God Almighty, just and holy, our Maker, Preserver, Governor, and Judge; strike into our souls such a lively awe of thy dread presence, sovereignty, and purity, that we may fear nothing so much as to offend thee, desire nothing so much as to please thee, and be disposed in all things to obey thy blessed will. We are bound to thank thee for commanding us to consult the good of others, and the peace of our own lives; we are bound to thank thee for restraining us from doing mischief to others, and hurting ourselves; and more especially are we bound to thank thee for striking at the root of all evil in us, and laying thy command upon our hearts. For out of them are the issues of life; all our sin proceeds from that corrupt fountain; there thou lookest for the good or evil that is in us; and whatever we do is neither acceptable to thee, nor comfortable to ourselves, unless we do it heartily as unto thee, for the command's sake, for conscience sake, for Christ's sake, and with a pure desire to please thee. But, O Lord, seeing that of ourselves we can do nothing, help us with thy grace to be sincere with thee, our God, by faithfully endeavouring to keep thy commandments; that being renewed to holiness in the inner man, we may be found of thee in peace, and received to the reward of that perfect righteousness, which is treasured up for us in Jesus Christ, and given to all who come unto thee by him, our blessed and only Saviour. Amen.

SECTION LI.

ST. MATTHEW, xxii. 29.

YE do err, not knowing the Scriptures.-Worldly minds, more disposed to cavil than believe, cannot know them; they must, of all necessity, pervert them. Our Lord's inference is plain; if you would not err, you must know them. And all who read them in simplicity, and with an honest heart, to know the will of God that they may do it, shall know them. They are able to make all wise unto salvation, through faith that is in Jesus, being God's gift to men for this end; and not to know them, is to put out our own eyes. If you had a deed of gift, though but of a small property, which depended upon your knowing what was contained in it, what would you do?

ture.

Nor the power of God - Fully manifested in Scrip

Ver. 32. 1 am the God of Abraham, &c.- Not for this world, chiefly. He is the God of the faithful for better things. It is their glory and distinction to believe in him for them; and as they do this, upon the warrant of his word and promise, he cannot deceive them.

-God is not the God of the dead, but of the livingAlive after death, as to their souls. But the soul is not the man. The conclusion, therefore, is certain, that the body must be raised to make the perfect man which God created.

LECTURE.

THE Sadducees, we are told, held that there is no resurrection, or life after this; and one of their cavils, as

we learn from this passage of Scripture, was, that they could not conceive, in the case of a woman having several husbands, how she could be the wife of them all after death; grossly supposing, that if there was a resurrection, all things would continue the same in a future state as they are now; and that we should have the same bodies, passions, appetites, and enjoyments, that we now have. And, therefore, when they came to Christ with their puzzling question, as they thought, about the woman and her seven husbands, he showed them their mistake in taking it for granted that there would be marriages in heaven; and also gave them a proof of the resurrection from one of the books of Moses, which was the only part of Scripture they admitted, having first pointed out to them the cause of their unbelief in these words, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." I would speak a word to you upon this; I beseech you, let us take notice of it. Why are we generally so regardless of our future, everlasting concerns? Why are we so bowed down to the earth, and live only for the world? Why do we not understand and consider in what respect God is our God, and for what we are chiefly to believe in him? Why are we not more convinced of the necessity of caring for the soul; and why are any of us

at a loss to know what we must do to be saved? Our Lord here leads us to the root of all our wretched carelessness, mistakes, and unbelief, as well as he did the Sadducees. Take heed, therefore, that the words are not spoken to and of you-" Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures." If you studied to know the Scripture, resolved to walk in the light of it, took it for the guide of your hearts and consciences, and regarded every word of it as you would a voice immediately spoken to you from heaven, it would give a new turn to your judgments, thoughts, and desires; it would teach you to

know God and yourselves, and to believe in God for better things than you can have here; it would set you in the way of happiness, persuade you to make this life a preparation for a better, and guide you in every step of it. If it is the light which God has in mercy put into your hands for these purposes, what can you think of yourselves in the neglect of it? And what can be the consequence of your not knowing it, but darkness, perpetual error, and dead carelessness in the things which belong to your everlasting peace? If it is eternal life, the beginning of it, the way to it, the assurance of it, to "know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent," where shall we find this knowledge? How can we attain to this life, but by direction from God himself, as revealed to us in the book of Scripture? We are naturally in a state of great ignorance of God and divine things, too apt to say with the Sadducees, and too generally live, in the spite of warning and instruction from God, as if we thought as they did, "let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." My brethren, there is but one remedy for all this; know the Scriptures, that you may know your God; know your Saviour; know yourselves; know your danger; know the worth of your souls; know what hopes you are born to, and how to secure them: I say again, if you would not live and die in error, know the Scriptures. Begin your inquiry into these things where St. Matthew begins his Gospel, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." Take occasion from hence, to ask yourselves what sin is; and think how great the misery of our condition in sin must be, when we could be saved from it by no other way or means than the incarnation and death of the Son of God. Follow him from one chapter to another with close attention; and mark diligently, as you go along, what he

has done for the assurance of your faith, and to raise you to a cheerful trust and confidence in him as your Saviour and almighty Helper. Make the proper use and application of every miracle of healing which he wrought on the bodies of men, and say to yourselves, This is for me; I am sick of a deadly distemper, and want healing for my soul. His miracles were great mercies to those whom he cured; but they are greater to me, if they are so understood and believed as to bring me to him for his salvation, for the pardon of my sins, for a clean heart and a right spirit, and for my acceptance with God, and to fix me in a state of diligent preparation for eternity.

PRAYER.

Almighty God, who showest to them that are in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; send down thy Holy Spirit to illuminate and quicken us, and to groan within us for the blessings of thy children. Let thy word be precious to our souls, and the devout study of it the constant employment of our lives, that we may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. To know thee as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and rejoice in his salvation, is eternal life. Thou who sparedst not thy own Son, but didst deliver him up for us all, and wilt also freely with him give us all things; give us, we beseech thee, a lively faith in this thy mercy, and, together with it, obedient wills and pure hearts. Sanctify and bless us, and accept us for the sake of Jesus Christ, our only Saviour and Redeemer. Amen.