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died, that he might make us the sons of God, and heirs of eternal life ;-by the grace of the Holy Spirit who is ever ready to help our infirmities,-let us be encouraged to seek the good and the right way, and to cast off every enemy and every weight that would mislead or overpower us. The Divine wisdom has placed us in this world, as in a state of probation. He has given us freedom of choice, and made us accountable for all our actions, all our words, and all our thoughts. It is not his will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance-and from repentance to obedience, and everlasting life. Let our will, therefore, coincide with his; and let us seek and employ every aid which his loving kindness has provided for our peace, our safety, and our eternal well-being.

SERMON III.

ON THE EXTENSION OF CHRIST'S FOLD.

JOHN X. 16.

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd.

ALL the Evangelists, except St. John, give the history of our Saviour, narrative than he does.

more in the style of a common

They give an exact descrip

tion of his demeanonr; and in the artlessness of truth, set forth the general character of Him, whose acts of mercy and love they have recorded for our instruction. But in the gospel of his beloved disciple St. John, we have a more particular view of his character. We have many of his conversations given at full length, and by one who was not only the historian, but the bosom friend of Christ. To one of those conversations, the words of the text belong.

From the vigilance and tenderness with which our Lord watched over his disciples, he represents himself as "the good Shepherd;"-his disciples, called as

they were to lead a life of innocence, are, with great propriety, styled his sheep ;- and the Christian Church as it then existed, is described as a fold. There is something peculiarly amiable and interesting in such a description: and, indeed, in all writings, whether sacred or profane, we are more delighted with images borrowed from natural scenery and from rural life, than with allusions to artificial objects and the habitudes of mixed society. They enliven the subject of enquiry, by placing it in a familiar point of view; and are not only chaste and simple, but decorative. They refresh the mind, by recalling those associations of innocence and native beauty, which are formed in our childhood, and which, in men of good disposition, neither the artifices, nor the formalities of the world, can entirely destroy.

During our Saviour's own ministry, the Jews,i. e. such of the Jews as believed in him, were the only persons of whom his flock was composed. He expresses himself as "sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." The "other sheep," therefore, of which he speaks in the text, are the Gentiles. Them he engages to bring into his fold ;-and they are to hear his voice.

In the order of God's dispensations, the Jews were his favoured people. To them were committed his oracles; and they were the depositories of his laws and his covenant. The rest of the world were left to follow the dictates of their own reason; and from the light of nature and the notices of an obscure tradition,

to be "a law unto themselves." Great and important as their discoveries in moral science were, they had not those distinct notions of religion, of the primitive state of man, of the nature of the Godhead, of the ultimate end of human conduct, or of their own supreme good, as responsible creatures,—that the Jews had. They were, for many ages, sunk in idolatry; and their religious creed, if such it may be called, was a compound of absurdities. Ascribing to the Supreme Being the passions and weaknesses of men, they found, in the vices attributed to him, an example and excuse for every kind of sensuality, in which they were willing to indulge. Morality, in their view of things, was distinct from religion,—or at least, it was not considered an essential part of it. It was the business of their philosophers to lay down rules for the conduct of human life,-to discourse of the fitness, the decency, or the utility, of virtue,— and to speculate on the qualities and destiny of the soul. Their ministers of religion were, in fact, ministers of the civil state,-employed, for political purposes chiefly, to impose upon the multitude, by such ceremonies and such artifices, as would bring them to comply with the wishes of their rulers.

It may be curious to mention some of their notions upon religious subjects, if it is only to shew into what wildness the human mind will run, when it has nothing but its own speculations to depend upon.

One sect were of opinion, that "the world never was created," but that it had existed from all eternity.

Another sect taught that it was formed and governed by a blind Fate ;-another, that it was produced by chance, from the cohesion of atoms which, in different shapes and positions, obstructed each other in the great void of the universe ;-another, that it was the body, or part of the body, of the Deity himself;— another, that it was a huge animal. Of the nature of the GODHEAD.* Their sentiments were also as various. Some professed that there was no God ;— others, that there were many. Some thought that Divine Providence regulated all events, however inconsiderable,-others, that it was subject to Fate; -and others denied altogether the doctrine of a Providence, and maintained that the Gods were too happy in their own exalted state, to care for the administration of the universe. It would, indeed, be tedious to go into this subject, even so far as we can judge of it from the ancient writings that have come down to us, or to notice the many disputes that arose "concerning the shapes, the situation, the abodes, and the manner of life," of their several gods. Then, as to the HUMAN SOUL :-some held that it was an emanation of the Divinity;-others, that it was air, or mere animal breath ;-others, that it perished with the body;-others that it survived the body, and that it either became the soul of some other animal, took its flight to the stars or to heaven,

* See Cicero de Naturâ Deorum lib. 1. c. 1.

"De figuris Deorum, et de locis atque sedibus, et actione vitiæ, multa

dicuntur." Id. ib. ib.

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