what progress we have made in it, whether we desire, above all things, to see it prosper in our hands, and are looking up continually to thee for a blessing upon it. Let thy word, which we have heard this day, be as fire searching our inward parts; that being convinced of our ignorance, sloth, and spiritual deadness, we may, from henceforth, redeem the time, be careful to use the talents, which thou hast committed to us, to thy glory, labour earnestly for our souls, receive directions from thee in what way our pains will be successful, and resolve, in the power of thy Spirit, to put them in practice. The book of knowledge is in our hands; it tells us of our fall, sin, and danger, and of a wonderful work of mercy and redemption, and thy grace is promised to make it light and strength in our hearts. Great, O Lord, is thy goodness to us, in thy calls and warnings, in the gift of thy Son, in the offer of thy Spirit, in the hope of eternal life, which thou hast set before us. Suffer us not to neglect such means of deliverance and salvation; but grant, for thy mercy's sake, that, being washed in the blood of the everlasting covenant, renewed by thy grace, and waiting for the coming of our Lord, we may enter into the joy which thou hast prepared for all thy faithful servants in Christ Jesus, our blessed and only Saviour. Amen.

SECTION LVIII.

ST. MATTHEW, xxy. 31.

WHEN the Son of man shall come in his glory, &c.— He is a Christian who makes this awful time present to himself, lives continually under a sense of it, and is in a state of diligent preparation for it, according to the mind of Christ.

Ver. 32. He shall separate them—According to their own choice, and separation of themselves now.

Ver. 34. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you. - For none but the faithful; and for them only by the grace and love of God.

Ver. 35, 36. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat, &c.-Confessed, relieved me in my distressed, suffering, persecuted members, and proved your faith by its effects.

Ver. 37, 38, 39. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when, &c.—Thinking themselves unworthy, having kept no register of their good deeds, knowing the imperfection of them, and their reward to be of grace, far beyond their desert.

and

Ver. 41. Depart from me, ye cursed.- Having departed first from him. His heaven, if he could bestow it upon them, his presence, his service, his attendants, would be as much their aversion then, as they are now. All such may conceive something of the unhappy state they are in, and the curse they are under at present, by considering that heaven itself would be a curse to them.

Ver. 44. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when, &c. With astonishing blindness they wondered to the last to be charged with any neglect of, or disregard to, him. And we are here plainly given to understand, 1. That many live and die in utter ignorance of themselves. 2. That faith worketh by love. And, 3. That where there is no lively working for Christ's sake, there is no faith.

Ver. 46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.-It is dangerous presumption, to say that the words everlasting and eternal, as applied to life or punishment, have different meanings, when the original word is the same.

From this whole passage it is alleged, that Christ, in the most decisive manner, lays the salvation of men upon their works. To affirm that they will not be rewarded according to their works, would certainly be great ignorance of Scripture. But then those works must either be absolutely perfect in themselves, to merit a reward, or be washed in the blood of Christ, and only good as springing from a root of faith in, and love to, him, which are evidently supposed to be the ground of the works here mentioned; and who then will abide by the former plea? Lord, it is of thy grace that we do any thing that is good, and of thy mercy that we are accepted. Purify our hearts by faith, that, in the sense of thy undeserved goodness to us, we may abound in acts of mercy to all men, especially to them that are of the household of faith; and inherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, for all that unfeignedly love thee in Jesus Christ.

LECTURE.

WE may consider this twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew as one of our Lord's last legacies to the world, it being delivered by him but three days before his death. I say, for this reason, if for no other, we may suppose it contains matter of great importance to us, calls for our most serious attention, and requires to be well understood and laid to heart. In the parable of the ten virgins, he warns us of the necessity of watching and being ready for his coming, or, which is the same thing to every one of us, the hour of death; and that, if we are not, we must not expect to enter in with him to the marriage; the door will be shut upon us for ever. What does the diligent, conscientious, Christian reader of Scripture say to this?

Am I watching for the coming of my Lord? Is it my desire, endeavour, and earnest prayer, to keep the lamp of a pure heart and a holy life always burning, and to have it fed with a lively faith, and a continual supply of the Spirit of grace?

In the parable of the slothful servant, he sounds an alarm to those who think well of their condition, though the work he has appointed them lies dead upon their hands, and they have no proof to give of any true concern for their souls. What! says the man, who desires to profit by what he hears, is this my case? Do I know nothing, believe nothing, do nothing? Do I pass all my time in a dozing, dreaming condition, never considering what Christ has done for me, nor what he expects from me? If I do, I am here told my doom; and when God comes to reckon with me, shall as surely be pronounced wicked, as this man was, who hid his Lord's talent in the earth, and be given up to weeping and gnashing of teeth for ever. My brethren, I beg of you to understand; though we are not openly wicked, though, in the main, we are goodnatured and inoffensive, prudent and civil, and have some form of religion, it may be only a natural state; and no account will be made of all this, if we are unawakened to a sense of our condition, ignorant of our danger and misery in sin, were never inwardly stirred up to seek after Christ as our only remedy, and, therefore, strangers to the life and power of religion, remiss and slothful in the great and necessary work of our salvation. God will say of all such, whatever else they may have been doing in the world, whatever they think of themselves, "Take from "him that he hath" given him to make use of, and he would not; he hath not done the work I appointed him to do; "cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness."

And, lastly, to give the greater weight to these two

parables, as well as to all his foregoing instructions, and that what he had delivered, in the course of his ministry, might make a deep and lasting impression upon our minds, he concludes his teaching with opening to us the process of the day of judgment, and setting it, as it were, before our eyes. You have had it now read to you; and, if you have heard it with any degree of attention, cannot but perceive that our examination, at the last day, will turn upon what we have done, and what fruits our faith has produced. God be thanked, we shall not then, if Christians, be questioned whether we have kept the whole law, from the beginning to the end of our lives, without spot of sin, or the least failure in our obedience; for so we must all be given up to condemnation. God be thanked, he who is to be our Judge is also the Son of man, has a feeling of our infirmities, took our nature upon him, that in it he might take away the sin of it, and be made the Lord our righteousness; for there never was that man born of Adam, who can stand in judgment before God, without an interest in his precious bloodshedding, all-sufficient merits, and perfect righteousness. God be thanked that we are next to hear of Christ crucified. God be thanked, and praised for ever, for this blessed Gospel-relief, and most comfortable truth of Scripture, that by grace we are saved through faith, and have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But nevertheless, the faith which saves us, worketh by love, keepeth the commandments, and maketh us new creatures; and if our faith hath not its proper fruit and natural operation, it proves itself at once to be dead faith, that is, nothing but pretence and self-deceit. And for this reason, though our works, as being imperfect, cannot be pronounced of God what they are not, and, therefore, of themselves cannot save us, yet, we are told, the principal inquiry will be concerning them, as they are the