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tives, however severe it may be: if we are his faithful fervants (and if we are not, we have nothing to do with this kind of comfort) we fhall find the means of bearing evil arife with the occafion. We are affured, that God careth for us; and that he knoweth what things we have need of before we afk. While we are therefore under his care, we shall find our strength fufficient for the evil of the day, whatever it may be.

of

Thus I have endeavoured to fhew you, how much all thofe are to blame who take thought for to-morrow; either in the way procuring more than they want, or in the way of dreading evils which may never happen.

THE great conclufion from the whole is, that instead of depending on ourfelves, we should truft our affairs in better hands, and depend on God. Worldly hopes, and worldly fears, are only various modes of difappointment; but he who trufts in God has a fure refuge.

Some people may fay, they cannot help the Intrufion of these anxious thoughts, In a degree, perhaps, they cannot. It is their natural temper it is their infirmity; and the infirmities

of

of our nature can never totally be fubdued: but ftill we ought to strive against this infirmity, as we should do against other infirmities; and when we do not, what was at firft an infirmity, may in the end become guilt.

I shall conclude with that noble and affecting address to the anxious world, with which our bleffed Saviour clofes his argument:

Therefore I fay unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, nor what ye shall drink; nor yet for the body, what ye shall put on : is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Is not that God who gave you being, able also to preserve that being? Is not that God who gave you a body, able also to clothe that body? Behold the fowls of the air: they fou not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. They are wholly divefted of all future care, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them; and are not you much better than they? Will God take care of the fowls of the air, and not take care of you? Confider the lilies of the field, how they grow they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I fay unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of thefe. And will God clothe fo inferior a part of his creation as the G 2

flowers

flowers of the field with such splendour, and will he not provide you with the common neceffaries of life?-Befides, how foolish it is to indulge this anxious temper; which of you, even by taking thought, can add one moment to his life *?-which of you, with all his anxious care, can change a state of trial into a state of happiness? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? for after all these things do the Gentiles feek the children of this world, who think of nothing else. Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But feek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things fhall be added unto you. Live in obedience to God's laws-in a dependence on him; be industrious and frugal, and the pooreft of you need not fear a furply of these neceffary things. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow will take thought for the things of itfelf; fufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

This is a better tranflation of the original, than one eubit to his ftature, which is indeed a great quantity.-See Parkhurft's remarks, in his lexicon, on the two words Haixia and Inxus; the former of which sometimes fignifies the duration of a man's life—the latter, a fhort portion of time.

SERMON VI.

I COR. xiii. Is

THOUGH I SPEAK WITH THE TONGUES OF MEN AND OF ANGELS, AND HAVE NOT CHARITY, I AM BECOME AS SOUNDING BRASS, OR TINKLING CYMBAL

IT must be a deficiency of fome very effential grace, which can render the voice of angels an empty found: the apostle calls it charity; and that we may not mistake his meaning, he has given us feveral marks by which we may distinguish it from every other chriftian virtue.

By these marks, therefore, I fhall examine, firft, what the apostle means by charity; fecondly, the excellence of it; and, thirdly, how far we are poffeffed of it.

I. First, then, let us find out what the apoftle means by charity. If we had not been guarded against the mistake, many might perhaps fuppofe he meant only giving alms; but one of his marks fets it wide of this interpretation. We may give all our goods, he tells us, to feed the poor, and yet ftill want charity. This indeed was of old the Pharifee's idea of charity: he boafted that he gave alms of every thing he poffeffed; but at the fame time, with all the infolence of pride, he could thank God, that he was not as other men were.-There was nothing like charity here. This would not ftand the teft of the apostle's defcription. Alms-giving may make a part of it, and always fhould, where there is ability; yet charity may exift without that ability.- -But let the apostle explain himself.

In the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th verses of this chapter he does it fully. He removes it entirely from outward actions, (with which at present his difcourfe is not concerned,) and carries it immediately to the heart, where it rules and enlivens all, our affections.

In the first place, he tells us, the charitable man fuffereth long, and is kind. He not only beareth the little flights and affronts of men, without