" be a christian." And there are young people, how fhall I defcribe them? they had betimes convictions and impreffions; their early days were the time of their visitation; they asked for God their Maker; they often retired to pray; they loved the fabbath; they heard the gospel with sensibility; but, alas! "their "goodness was as a morning cloud, and early dew, "which passeth away." But" was it not better with

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you than now?" Ah! had you still " hearkened to "his commandments, then had your peace been as a "river, and your righteousness like the waves of the "fea." Will this discourse revive your former feelings, and cause you to return? or will it only hold you up as a warning, to guard others against triffing with confcience, and falling away after the fame example?

On fome of you, I fear, the address has been more than useless. I could wish you had faved yourselves the mortification of hearing a difcourse, in which there was nothing agreeable to your taste, and which you determined from the beginning to disregard; I could wish you had withdrawn yourselves from an assembly, which will one day furnish only witnesses against you. By an unsanctified use of the means of grace, you aggravate your fin, increase your misery, and render your converfion more difficult. In endeavouring to be your friends, your ministers become your enemies; in trying to fave, they condemn; though ordained to be "the favour of life unto life," your corruption renders them "the favour of death unto death;" and those affectionate importunities and faithful warnings, which if they had been followed would have secured your happiness, will furround your minds when you come to die, and render your recollection painful, and your profpect intolerable; for you will "mourn at "the last, when thy flesh and thy body are confumed, " and fay, How have I hated instruction, and my "heart despised reproof; and have not obeyed the "voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them "that instructed me! I was almost in all evil in the " midft of the congregation and assembly."

SERMON VI.

THE GOSPEL DEMANDS AND DESERVES ATTENTION.

MARK iv. 23.

If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

THE sages of antiquity delivered much

of their knowledge in comprehensive sentences. Each of the wife men of Greece was distinguished by fome aphorifm. All nations have had their peculiar proverbs. The generality of mankind are much more influenced by detached and striking phrafes, than by long addresses, or laboured reasonings, which require more time and application than they are either willing or able to afford. "The words of the wife are as goads, " and as nails fastened by the master of assemblies." The good effects of preaching are commonly produ. ced by particular expressions, which leave something for our own minds to develope or enlarge, which please the imagination, which are easily remembered, and which frequently recur. This method of instruction our Lord and Saviour adopted. We often read of "his sayings;" and there is no sentence, which He fo frequently repeated, as the words which I have read. This alone should powerfully recommend them to

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our regard; but they have higher claims, and we shall view them, I. As implying THE AUTHORITY OF THE SPEAKER. II. As suggesting THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. III. As appealing to IMPARTIAL

CONSIDERATION.

IMPROVEMENT.

"LET HIM HEAR."

ER.

IV. As demanding PRACTICAL "HE THAT HATH EARS TO HEAR,

I. Here is implied THE AUTHORITY OF THE SPEAKAnd who can advance claims on our attention equally numerous and powerful with His? "He en"tered into the synagogue, and taught. And they " were astonished at his doctrine; for he taught them "as one that HAD AUTHORITY, and not as the scribes." He poffefsed every thing from which a teacher could derive influence.

He had all the authority which is derived from knowledge. Religion was the subject he came to teach; he knew the whole, and the whole perfectly. With all the ease of intelligence, he speaks of things which would fwallow us up; they were familiar to Him. He speaks of God without any embarrassment; "He was in the bosom of the Father." He speaks of heaven without any emotions of wonder; it was his Father's house. He mentions the treachery of Judas without any surprise; "he knew from the be"ginning who would betray him." Nothing in the behaviour of his enemies, or of his friends; nothing in the denial of Peter, or difperfion of his difciples, aftonished him; "he knew what was in man." He was fully acquainted with the capacities and difpofitions of his hearers. He knew how much they were able to bear; when it was necessary to produce evidence, or to leave obfcurity; how to touch by fuitable motives, all the hidden springs of action; and by appropriate illustration, to remove prejudices, diffolve doubts, and fatisfy defires concealed in the minds of the owners, who "finding the secrets of the heart " made manifest," were filled with admiration, and exclaimed "never man spake like this man." Both his fubject and his audience were completely under his management.

He had all the authority which is derived from unimpeachable rectitude. This gives a speaker peculiar firmness and force. A confciousness of vice, or even of imperfection, has a tendency to make him partial or timid. And where is the teacher, who is sensible of no failings; who exemplifies universally those high instructions he delivers ? " In many things we offend "all." He alone could fay, "which of you convinceth me of fin?" It debafed none of his actions, it mixed with none of his motives. His tempers were all heavenly; his example embodied and enlivened every doctrine he preached. In him were none of those omiffions which call for the proverb, "physician, " heal thyself." He spake fearless of the reproach of his hearers, and unchecked by the reflections of his own confcience.

He had all the authority flowing from "miracles, " and wonders, and figns." Think of a speaker, who could call forth the powers of heaven and earth, and establish his doctrine by their testimony; who could • end his discourse and say, all this is true; witness, ye winds and waves and they "cease from their raging."