"he honeftly had determined to have spared fome "portion of it, fcanty as it was, to have placed thee "fafely in the way of knowledge and inftruction"But alas! he is gone from us never to return

"

more, and with him are fled the means of doing "it: For, Behold the creditor is come upon us, to "take all that we have."Grief is eloquent, and will not eafily be imitated.But let the man, who is the least friend to diftreffes of this nature, conceive fome difconfolate widow uttering her complaint even in this manner, and then let him confider, if there is any forrow like this forrow, wherewith the Lord has afflicted her? or whether there can be any charity like that, of taking the child out of the mother's bofom, and refcuing her from thefe apprehenfions? Should a heathen, a stranger to our holy religion and the love it teaches, should he, as he journeyed, come to the place where the lay, when he faw, would be not have compaffion on her? God forbid a Chriftian fhould this day want it! or at any time look upon fuch a diftrefs, and pass by on the other fide!

Let

Rather let him do, as his Saviour taught him,' bind up the wounds, and pour comfort into the heart of one, whom the hand of God has fo bruifed. him practise what it is, with Elijah's tranfport, to fay to the afflicted widow,See, thy fon liveth!— liveth by my charity, and the bounty of this hour, to all the purposes which make life defirable,-to be made a good man, and a profitable subject : on one hand, to be trained up to fuch a fenfe of his duty, as may fecure him an intereft in the world to come; and with regard to this world, to be fo brought up Vol. V.

D

in it to a love of honest labour and industry, as all his life long to earn and eat his bread with joy and thankfulness..

"Much peace and happiness rest upon the head "and heart of every one who thus brings children "to CHRIST!-May the bleffing of him that was "ready to perifh come feasonably upon him!

"The Lord comfort him, when he most wants it, "when he lies fick upon his bed! Make thou, O "God! all his bed in his fickness; and for what "he now scatters, give him, then that peace of "thine which paffeth all understanding, and which "nothing in this world/can either give or take away." Amen.

SERMON VI.

Pharifee and Publican in the Temple.

I tell

LUKE XVIII. 14. 1A part.

you this man went down to his houfe juftified rather than the other.

THESE words are the judgment which our SAVIOUR his left upon the behaviour and different degrees of merit in the two men, the Pharifee and Publican, whom he reprefents, in the foregoing parable as going up into the temple to pray. In what manner they difcharged this great and folemn duty, will beft be feen from a confideration of the prayer, which each is faid to have addreffed to GoD upon the occafion.

The pharifee, inftead of an act of humiliation in that awful prefence before which he stood,with an air of triumph and felf-fufficiency, thanks GoD that he had not made him like others—extortioners, adulterers, unjust, or even as this publican.-The publican is reprefented as ftanding afar off, and, with a heart touched with humility from a juft fenfe of his own unworthinefs, is faid only to have fmote upon his breast, saying,--God be merciful to me a finner. I tell you, adds our SAVIOUR, this man went down to his houfe juftified rather than the other.

Though the juftice of this determination ftrikes every one at first fight, it may not be amifs to enter into a more particular examination of the evidence and reafons upon which it might be founded, not only because it may place the equity of this decifion in favour of the publican in a stronger light, but that the fubject seems likely to lead me to a train of reflections not unsuitable to the folemnity of the seafon *.

The pharifee was one of that fect, who, in our SAVIOUR'S time, what by the aufterity of their lives

their publick alms-deeds, and greater pretences to piety than other men, had gradually wrought themfelves into much credit and reputation with the people; and indeed, as the bulk of these are eafily caught with appearances, their character seems to have been admirably well fuited to fuch a purpose.If you looked no farther than the outward part of it, you would think it made up of all goodness and perfection; an uncommon fanctity of life, guarded by great decorum and severity of manners,-profuse and fre. quent charities to the poor-many acts of religion— much obfervance of the law-much abftinence—. much prayer.

It is painful to fufpect the appearance of fo much good and would have been fo here, had not our bleffed SAVIOUR left us their real character upon record, and drawn up by himself in one word- -that the fect were like whitened fepulchres, all fair and beautiful without, and enriched there with whatever could attract the eye of the beholder; but, when

* Preached in Lent.

fearched within-fide, were full of corruption, and of whatever could shock and disgust the fearcher. So that with all their affectation of piety, and more extraordinary ftrictnefs and regularity in their outward deportment, all was irregular and uncultivated within

and all thefe fair pretences, how promifing foever, blafted by the indulgence of the worft of human paffions-pride-spiritual pride, the worst of all pride-hypocrify, felf love, covetoufness, extortion, cruelty, and revenge. What pity it is that the facred name of religion fhould ever have been borrowed, and employed in fo bad a work, as in covering over fuch a black catalouge of vices-or that the fair form of virtue fhould have been thus difgraced and for ever drawn into fufpicion, from the unworthy uses of this kind to which the artful and abandoned have often put her! The pharifee feems. to have had not many fcruples of this kind; and the prayer he makes use of in the temple is a true picture of the man's heart, and fhows with what a difpofition and frame of mind he came to worship.

GOD! I thank thee, that thou haft formed me of different materials from the rest of my fpecies, whom thou haft created frail and vain by nature, but by choice and difpofition utterly corrupt and

wicked.

Me, thou haft fashioned in a different mould, and haft infufed fo large a portion of thy fpirit into me, lo! I am raised above the temptations and defires to which flesh and blood are fubject.I thank thee that thou haft made me thus—not a frail vessel of clay, like that of other menor even this publican,