finally pardon us through the atonement of a blessed Redeemer.

THUS, my brethren, let us all, by our own best endeavours, assisted by the grace of God, examine our accounts here, in order to fit ourselves for that great account we must all render up to God hereafter. His will stand the clearest in that great day, whose accounts with his own soul have here been kept the most exact.-And may God, of his infinite mercy, grant that we may all so call our ways to remembrance, that we may turn our feet unto his testimonies.

SERMON

HE THAT

1 CORINTHIANS, ix. 10.

PLOUGHETH SHOULD

PLOUGH

HOPE AND HE THAT THRESHETH IN HO SHOULD BE PARTAKER OF HIS HOPE.

GOD hath given us in the Bible, the clea revelation of his will: but he hath also g us, to assist the Bible, books of instruc wherever we throw our eyes. The man who s for religious wisdom, can throw them no w without receiving it. The lilies of the f which are cut down and wither, will impress with the great lesson of mortality. The rav which sow not, nor gather into barns, will t him dependence on Divine Providence. sluggard is sent to the ant for instruction

intemperate man, to the sow, that walloweth in the mire-and the proud man is put in mind of the worm, which is destined, one day, to banquet upon him.

But amidst all the topics of instruction, which the book of nature holds out, there are none so apt, and various, as those suggested in the text, from the culture of the earth. The husbandman has the book of wisdom continually before him; and it is his own fault, if he do not gather instruction from it.

To assist him however in reading this wise book, though indeed it is open to us all, I shall, in the following discourse, point out a few of those various pieces of instruction it sets before us.

AND first, the very ground you cultivate, affords much instruction. Without proper tillage, you know, it will bear nothing: and the more it is cultivated, the more it will produce. And though there are many different kinds of soil, yet none is so bad, but it may be improved; and none so good, but without improvement, it will become barren.-Now what instruction have we here! How aptly does the ground represent our minds; and bring daily to our remembrance the need

VOL. I.

R

ever uninformed, becomes the standard of tru

Our blessed Saviour, you remember, in on his parables, explains the different disposition men towards religious truth, by different k of ground. He speaks of the hardened gro that will receive no seed-of the negle ground, in which the seed is choked-and the good ground, which being properly prepa brings forth fruit in abundance. As our ble Saviour himself therefore uses this explanat you may be sure it is a just one. You ough therefore to consider this parable as spoke you; and each of you reflect, which of t several kinds of ground he resembles- whe your minds are open and ready to receive struction or whether they are shut up hardened against it?

AFTER the instruction, which you re from the ground, consider next, what inst tion may be gathered from seed-time. On

you know, all the hopes of the husbandman depend. If he did not sow his seed, he could have no hope of harvest. -And does not this

teach you a lesson of the utmost consequence ? Can you have any expectation of a blessed harvest, if you have made no preparation for it by a seed-time? Let those who will not read God's word in one way, read it in another. From the field they may learn, that as it is necessary to sow seed in order to produce a harvest; so surely is religious instruction necessary to form a christian. What makes the difference between the mind of a heathen, and that of a christian? The one has received instruction, the other has not. By receiving instruction, is not meant barely. listening to it; but laying it up in your minds. The seed would only lie useless on the surface of the earth, unless it were harrowed in.-I speak however only of religious instruction. To numbers of you, much learning would be of little use. But without filling your minds with religious knowledge, by reading, hearing, and meditating, they will be like mere uncultivated wastes.

FROM the seed-time let us follow the corn as it springs up. Here you observe a new ap. pearance. As the blade cometh up, then come