Why are you not already numbered with the dead, mouldering in the grave, and gone to your, final trial? Why are you here; in the house of God; before the mercy-seat; candidates for eternal life; at the foot of the cross; listening to the sound of Redeeming and forgiving love; and hearing the Voice, at which all heaven trembles with rapture; "I love them, that love me; and those, who seek me early, shall find me?"

To all these questions there is but one answer: "Because, so it seemed good to the mercy of God."

From the mercy of God you must derive the renovation of your Souls, if they are ever renewed; and, if they are not, you cannot see the kingdom of God. The Spirit of truth, of whom you must be born again, if you ever become the sons of God, communicates all his blessings, from mercy only. Without his influence, you will neither know, nor feel, your guilt nor your danger; will neither renounce your sins, nor be endued with that holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Should, then, this glorious and benevolent Agent refuse to have mercy on you; what will become of you, here and hereafter? You will here be given up to hardness of heart, and blindness of mind; will have eyes indeed, but they will not see; ears, but they will not hear; and hearts, but they will not understand. Of course, you will never be converted, nor healed.

The time is hastening, when you will come to the bed of death. It cannot be far distant, at the utmost. It may, to some of you it probably will arrive much sooner than this period. Against some or other of your names the melancholy asterisk may make its appearance in the next triennial Catalogue. At this awful season, when your friends, your enjoyments, and even the world itself is retiring from you; when the pains of death are agonizing your hearts; while life is struggling in vain to keep its hold; while the soul is fluttering, and trembling, over its beloved tenement, and stretching its wings with terror and anguish for its final flight; where will you find consolation, peace, or hope? Your Physician will have spent his last medicine upon you. Your Minister, and perhaps yourselves also, will have uttered the last prayer for your recovery, and your friends wished, and wept, and supplicated, for the prolongation of your life, in vain. Lift now

474

the curtain, which conceals eternity from your view. Cast your eyes through the opening into that boundless vast; and tell me whether you discern, in all its regions, and among the endless millions of its inhabitants, a friend, an acquaintance, or even a stranger, who can prolong your life in this world, or who, unpermitted of God, can make your arrival in that safe, hopeful, peaceful, pleasant, and prosperous. Not one of them can by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him, that he should still live forever, and not see corruption. For the redemption of the soul is precious, and it ceaseth forever. When your bodies return to the dust, from which they were taken; your spirits will return, also, to God who gave them. They will return, to render their last account. Every work will then be brought into Judgment, with every secret thing, whether it has been good, or whether it has been evil. Who then will be your advocate? Who, beneath the eye of stern justice, will appear to plead your cause? Where will you find a friend, a refuge, or a hope, but in the mercy of God?

Accompany me in your thoughts one step farther. There are two states of existence beyond the grave: a state of immortal enjoyment, and a state of endless woe. To one of these you will go from the Judgment. Realize, so far as you are able, the difference between these allotments. Realize the difference be tween spending eternity with a band of fiends, or surrounded by the Church of the first-born, and the innumerable company of angels; in the bliss of Heaven, or the miseries of hell. Without an interest in the mercy of God, think, I beseech you think, where, how, with whom, you will pass your future being.

With all these solemn and interesting things in your view, let me recall to your minds the affecting transaction in the text. In the same situation with yourselves, with all the necessities which I have here stated to be yours, Jacob, when he began the business of life, determined with supreme wisdom to provide for them all. In what manner did he make this provision? He chose JEHOVAH as his God; and consecrated himself and his services, to the pleasure and praise of his Creator.

The choice is perfect: the example is perfect. If the proof, already adduced, were insufficient; the most decisive evidence is furnished in the subsequent parts of the Sacred Volume. The

blessings innumerable, and invaluable, which were bestowed upon him; the protection, which he received in this solitary and dan gerous journey; the prosperity, which attended his labours; his preservation from enemies, famine, and death; and the glorious things, done for his posterity, particularly in their sanctification and salvation; and peculiarly the immensely glorious things, which are promised, and which will be performed, for them, after their restoration in the latter days; are illustrious proofs, that the benefits of these resolutions may transcend the life and interests of him, by whom they are made; may flow down the stream of time to the remotest generations; and may enter, with them, the regions of eternity. On Jacob himself, and his everlasting welfare, the efficacy of these resolutions is wonderfully exhibited in the remarkable facts; that the Messiah sprang from his loins; that God was pleased to style him his servant, his chosen, Israel, a prince with God; and to style Himself the God of Jacob, the Mighty One of Jacob, and the Holy One of Israel: and that to sit down in the Kingdom of God with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, is appropriate language, used by Christ to denote the immortal blessings of Heaven. The effects of these resolutions were, therefore, immeasurable and eternal.

Confidently follow, then, this glorious example. Open your eyes on all your wants, and weaknesses, your exposures, temptations, and sins. Feel, that life and death, endless enjoyment and absolute ruin are now offered to your choice. Feel, that He, who was not ashamed to be called the God of Jacob, will be pleased to be your God; that he loves those, who love Him; that those, who honour Him, He will honour; and that those, who seek him early, will find him. Remember, that all good is in His hands; that He is the Fountain, whence every stream of enjoyment, tasted by the Intelligent Creation, has flowed from the beginning, and will flow forever. Remember, that he is the Sun of righteousness, which alone has illumined, and quickened, the Moral Universe, throughout all its immeasurable regions; that in his light you will see light, and peace, and joy; and that, where he shines not, all is darkness and solitude, misery and despair.

SERMON XXVI.

THE APOSTLES OF CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE.

PREACHED TO THE CANDIDATES. FOR THE BACCALAUREATE IN 1811.

MATTHEW X. 5.

These twelve Jesus sent forth.

THE Twelve, here spoken of, were the twelve Apostles of Christ, who were now sent out by their Master upon an extraordinary mission.

This Mission was obviously the commencement of their Ministry. It was an extraordinary commencement of an extraordinary business; a business, in many respects singular, in all wonderful; and demanding from mankind the strongest approbation, and the most intense gratitude. Such a subject cannot fail to claim the attention of every man, who feels an interest in Christianity; nor of being a profitable theme of our present meditation. In examining it I shall consider, briefly, the Person by whom, and the Errand on which, the Apostles were sent; their Circumstances; their Character; and the Issue of their agency, as it respected both themselves, and their fellow-men.

They were sent on this Mission by the Saviour of mankind. This glorious person, whose Name, with singular propriety and emphasis, is called Wonderful, appeared in this world in the humble character of a Jewish peasant. Yet in this character he uttered, from the stores of his own mind, wisdom, which no genius, learning, or science, has enabled any child of Adam to rival; exhibit

ed virtue, compared with which the highest human excellence is a rush-light to the sun; and possessed powers, which disease and pain, life and death, the world and its elements, instantaneously obeyed.

Nor did he merely possess these powers himself: but was able to communicate them to others at his pleasure. On this very occasion he commissioned his Apostles to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons. In the progress of their Ministry they performed all these wonderful works. Demons, diseases, and death, actually fled at their approach; and the soul, at their command, was arrested in its flight, and, returning back from the world of spirits, animated again the lifeless form, to which it had bidden a final farewell. At the same time, he endued them with an exact and comprehensive knowledge of the pleasure and providence of God; a knowledge, with which they were able, without error or defect, to teach mankind their duty, and place their feet in the path to immortal life. Views, which before were limited to their cottages and their nets, he expanded over the divine kingdom. Thoughts, which before crept upon the ground, he raised to heaven. To these endowments he added Virtue, in every form and degree, in which it was necessary to enable them to fulfil the duties of their Ministry; virtue, superior to the fear and the flattery of men, to the trials and the allurements of the world, to toil and discouragement, to danger and death.

By these communications he evinced, in a particular manner, his own superiority to all the Prophets, who had preceded him; and showed, that his powers were of a nature widely different from theirs. The messages, which they received, they faithfully delivered; the powers, with which they were endued, they exerted with the same fidelity, in accomplishing the specific purposes for which they were given. But he, while he executed the pleasure, and disclosed the will, of his Father, performed also his own will, and uttered his own pleasure: as he has taught us in this authoritative phraseology, "I will be thou clean." "Verily, verily, I say unto you." But his peculiar character is still more forcibly exhibited, in his communication of inspiration, miraculous powers, and moral excellence, to others. The Prophets, who preceded him, communicated nothing. He not only conveyed all