not dissolved, and be restored to their embraces, never, never to be parted more. Oh then, can you murmur at the decrees of the Almighty Shall you compare your ignorance with omniscience, your weakness with unlimited power, with the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity; who fills heaven and earth with his immensity; who, in the sublime language of scripture, measured the waters in the hollow of his hands, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance! Who stretched out the North over the empty place, and hangeth the heaven upon nothing; before whom hell trembles; who decks himself with light as with a gar ment; who lays the beams of his chambers in the waters, and spreads out heaven as a tent to dwell in; who makes the clouds his chariot, and walks upon the wings of the wind; who is the mighty God and terrible, wonderful in counsel: whose judgments are unsearchable, and whose ways are past finding out! Think not, O Christian, that your misfortunes are inflicted as instances of the divine displea sure for know, that "Whom the Lord loveth he chastiseth, and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."* I grant with you that no afflic tions are for the present joyous, but grievous. Human nature cannot but feel the disagreeable effects; but if they are properly improved, they shall produce the fruits of righteousness and peace. Do you seek for a period to all your sufferings, and think life, short as it is, too long to endure what you have reason to expect will be your portion of evil, and that nothing in this world will compensate for all your labours and submission, and that no other time will come, *Heb. xii. 6. when your happiness will commence? Consider death has a thousand avenues, leading to its peaceful mansions: its doors stand everlastingly open, to receive mankind. Through these, you are to pass to regions of uninterrupted joy, where there shall be no more weeping, sorrow, care, or pain; from whence every trouble shall be banished, and all afflictions eternally excluded; where God, the fountain of happiness, shall be all in all, where the Captain of your salvation, who himself was made perfect by suf fering, shall reward you with a crown of glory, that shall never fade away. Amen. SERMON III. THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. A sense of the Presence of God, the best preservative against Sin. There hath stood one among you whom you know not. John i. 26. IN speaking of John the Baptist, the sacred writers give him the name of Elias. The revival of that illustrious name was suggested by a striking resemblance in the manners of John to the character of the ancient prophet; and, in tracing this resemblance, we discern how fitly the forerunner of the Messiah was qualified for the office of removing that early obstacle to the joyful reception of the gospel, which arose from the false expectations of the Jews. At a time when idolatry received the countenance of royal authority, in the land possessed by the favoured people of heaven, Elias, with the courage and dignity of a man of God, had demonstrated the sovereignty of the Lord of Israel, and the vanity of worshipping idols. With no less intrepidity did John the Baptist combat the secular interpretation of the ancient scriptures, which the people of this day heard from their teachers. They continually lived in expectation of their Messiah; they were amazed at the extraordinary life of the Baptist; and, as the sceptre was now wrested from the royal tribe of Judah, by the hands of a stranger, and the seventy weeks of years, the term assigned by Daniel for the Messiah's coming, were now expired, they supposed his nature as divine as his conduct, and concluded, that this was the man commissioned by heaven to break their chains, and restore to their kingdom its former splendour. They accordingly sent an embassy from Jerusalem, of Priests and Levites, to St. John, to learn from his own mouth if he were the Messiah. "Are you he that is to come, or do we expect another? What do you say of yourself? If you are Christ, tell us so plainly.' He not only answers, that he is not the Messiah, but disclaims even the title of Prophet, desirous of being great in the sight of God rather than appear so before men. Supposing, however, that he declined the dignity from a principle of humility, and his baptizing the people seemed to warrant their mistake; for they had learned, out of the prophecies of Ezechiel and Zachary, that baptizing constituted a part of the character of the Messiah. "I will pour upon you a pure water, and you shall be cleansed from all your iniquities."+ "In that day there shall be an open fountain to the house of David." They therefore importune him the more, saying, "Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? To which he peremptorily answers, "I am a voice crying out in the desart, make straight the way of the Lord. I bap 66 * Mat. xi. 3. + Ezee. xxxvi. tise in water, but in the midst of you there hath stood whom you know not." The great precursor of our Lord by these words assured them, that the Messiah was come; yet we find not upon record, that they made any further enquiry after him. Alas, how many Christians, in regard to Jesus Christ, conduct them as the Jews, and to whom this bitter reproach comes home! There standeth one in the midst of you whom you know not, a God who is "a consuming fire," who is "a searcher of hearts;" a God "jealous of his honour," and an avenger of contempt offered to him, to the third and fourth generation. The strongest cords, with which the enemy of mankind bind sinners, are an oblivion and neglect of the divine presence; and, we have an assurance of this from God's own mouth; for, having enumerated, in the twenty-second chapter of Ezechiel, all the crying sins and abominable impieties of the city of Jerusalem, he concludes the tragical description with the source and origin of all the rest: "Thou hast forgotten me." And from whence, my brethren, proceed the numberless scandals, the shameful impurities, the unbridled liberties, the shocking impieties, to which you hourly prostitute yourselves, but from a want of the sense of the presence of God? The object then of this discourse shall be to shew you, that a sense of the presence of God is the greatest preservative against sin. The presence of God in all things, and all places, proved from the extent and universality of his operation, was judged by the great apostle, of sufficient strength to level all infidelity at a blow; to convince the most haughty spirit, and to awaken the most heavy heart, into an awful attention to the Deity. Therefore he used no |