St. Paul; the Apoftle turned, under the guidance of the Holy Ghoft, to the Gentiles. Behold in these examples, the established course of the divine counfels. Grace, perfeveringly neglected and abused, is withdrawn. If God fhall withdraw his grace from thee; thou shalt become, like Saul, the fervant of another master. An evil spirit, that evil spirit who is the author of fin and mifery, fhall feize thee as his prey. Then who fhall break thy chains? Enslaved to Satan, thou fhalt perform his pleasure here: thou fhalt fulfil his work, adding iniquity to iniquity: and into his kingdom fhall death remove thee, there with him to be tormented for ever and

ever.

My Brethren; knowing the terror of the Lord, we perfuade men. Reflect and be perfuaded. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Forget not the bleffings of redemption. Glorious as was the earthly dominion to which Saul was exalted; how faintly does it fhadow out the kingdom which the Lord of glory has purchased for you! Be faithful unto death, that He may give you the crown of life.

Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people, faith
your God.

IT

T is thus that the prophet Isaiah announces the Gospel to the people of Ifrael. To his evangelical eye, enlightened by the spirit of Jehovah, futurity becomes present. Through the obscurity of remote ages he beholds the fun of righteousness glowing with unclouded beams. What he beholds he reveals. He avers to the twelve tribes that the word of their God ftands fast for ever; that at the appointed hour, however diftant, God will establish the covenant made with their forefathers; that He will fend the promised Redeemer, who fhall feed his flock as a fhepherd, preach good

good tidings unto the meek, bind up the broken-hearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and comfort all that mourn. But the Gospel was not to be good tidings only to the pofterity of Jacob. Its confolations were to extend, as Ifaiah repeatedly declares, to the Gentiles, to the utmost corners of the world. In unifon with the declarations of this eminent Meffenger of God; with the primeval covenant to Abraham, that in his feed all the nations of the earth should be blessed; and with the corresponding promises of the Moft High renewed from generation to generation, by fucceeding prophets; is the voice of the Angel, who communicates the birth of Chrift to the shepherds: Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Confidering therefore the words of the text as pertaining no less to ourselves than to the inhabitants of Judea to whom they were addreffed; I would endeavour, under the bleffing of God, to apply them to our immediate inftruction.

Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, faitla your God.

We have here from the lips of eternal truth, the affurance of a very great bleffing to follow from the preaching of the Gospel; Comfort: and a description of the persons

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to whom the bleffing belongs; My people. I propofe in the firft place to fhew what the comfort is, which the Gofpel of our Lord conveys to mankind: and afterwards to defcribe the perfons, who are authorised to take that comfort to themselves.

I. Whenever we fpeak of comforting another, the very expreffion implies that he is in tribulation and diftrefs. When the Gofpel of Chrift is stated as bringing comfort to men; the statement itself proves that, without the gospel of Chrift, the condition of men must be wretched. If the Gospel is to minifter effectual comfort under that wretchednefs, it must meet all our wants it must lay open a method of complete deliverance from the evils of every kind under which we labour. Examine then what is the fituation of men, of every one of us, by nature and search whether Jefus Chrift has not provided for us in his unbounded mercy the means of being rescued from all the miseries, to which by nature we are fubject.

What is the fituation in which each of you finds himself, in confequence of that corrupt nature which you have brought into the world? You discover that from the earliest period which you can recollect

you have been prone to fin. Sin fhewed fymptoms of its power over you in your infancy. As childhood advanced, fin manifested itself in additional shapes. Youth came attended with new offences. Manhood added to the number. You perceive the imagination of your heart ftill to be evil continually. In word, or in thought, or in temper, or in conduct, you discern that you are a perpetual tranfgreffor: difregarding God, unwilling to obey Him, weary of serving Him, diftrustful of his Providence, discontented with his appointments; injurious to your neighbour; prone to be unkind, unforgiving, selfish, envious, proud, ambitious. Nor can you prefume to whisper to yourself that, when you trefpass against heaven and before man, you do not know that you are offending: or that you are constrained to offend in oppofition to your judgement and choice. Whatever plea may be alledged in special inftances of ignorance or of furprife; you in general fin against your knowledge and conviction. In almost every cafe of fin, your confcience either reproaches you at the time; or would have reproached you, if you had not wilfully fhut your ears, and denied yourself leisure to listen to its warnings. And when you tranfgrefs through ignorance;

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