your fearful hearts, Be strong, fear not, your God will come and save you!" Ye, " afflicted and tossed with tempest, and not comforted," whatever your distresses were, surely ye have lost a brother, "a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." But though his benevolent heart can no more expand towards you," has your Lord forgotten to be gracious? Has Jesus shut up his tender mercies?" No: to him you may still carry your complaints: he bids the weary and heavy-laden to come unto him: he "has received gifts," not for the indigent only, but "for the rebellious:" nor shall one of you be "sent empty away." Whom did he ever dismiss, in the days of his flesh, without granting to him the blessing he desired? So now, if ye will go unto him, he "will satiate every weary soul, and replenish every sorrowful soul:" he "will give you beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that God may be glorified."

V. The last observation we proposed to make, was that Christ is the same in his fidelity to his promises

We have before shewn, that he led his people through the wilderness: he had promised to cast out all their enemies, and to give them "a land flowing with milk and honey." And behold, Joshua, at the close of a long life, and after an experience of many years, could make this appeal to all Israel: "Ye know in all your hearts, and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof." The same fidelity did Jesus manifest, whilst he sojourned upon earth: the Father had committed to him a chosen people to keep and Jesus with his dying breath could say, "Those whom thou gavest me I have kept, and

m Josh. xxiii. 14.

none of them is lost." He promised to his disconsolate disciples, that he would pour out his Spirit upon them; and that the Comforter, whom he would send, should far more than compensate for the loss of his bodily presence: and how speedily did he perform his promise! Thus, Thus, in every succeeding age, have his people found him faithful. He has " given exceeding great and precious promises" to his Church, not one jot or tittle of which have ever failed. They who have rested on his word, have never been disappointed. Enthusiasts indeed, who have put their own vain conceits in the place of his word, and have presumed to call their own feelings or fancies by the sacred appellation of a promise, have often met with disappointments; nor can they reasonably expect any thing else but they who rest upon the clear promises of the Gospel, and wait for the accomplishment of them to their own souls, "shall not be ashamed or confounded world without end." Let any creature upon earth "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," and shall he be left wholly destitute with respect to temporal comforts? No: he perhaps may be severely tried for a season; but ere long he shall have " all needful things added unto him." Let a sinner "whose sins have been of a scarlet or crimson dye," make application to the Lord for mercy; and shall he ever be cast out? No, "in no wise," provided he come simply trusting in the Saviour's righteousness. Let any seek deliverance from the snares of Satan, by whom he has been led captive at his will; and shall he be left in bondage to his lusts? Most surely not, if he will rely on Him who has said, " Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under grace." Now it may be, that many of you have been promising yourselves much spiritual, perhaps also some temporal, advantage, from your deceased minister: and behold! in an instant, all your hopes are blasted the creature, though so excellent, proves in this respect but a broken reed. But if you will look to Christ, you cannot raise your

66

expectations too high: he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever: you may rely on him, for body and for soul, for time and for eternity: he will be to you a sun and a shield; he will give you both grace and glory; nor will he withhold any good thing from them that walk uprightly." If he see it necessary that for a season you should be "in heaviness through manifold temptations," he will make your trials to work for good; and "your light and momentary afflictions shall work out for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory:" only commit your souls to him in well-doing, and he will 'keep you by his Almighty power, through faith, unto salvation."

66

In the IMPROVEMENT which we would make of this subject

We beg leave once more to notice the words that immediately precede the text; "Remember them that have had the rule over you, that have spoken unto you the word of God; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation." We may appear indeed, in this, to draw your attention from Christ, and to fix it on the creature. But we shall still keep in view our main subject; and at once consult the scope of the context, the peculiarity of this occasion, and the feelings of your hearts.

First then," Remember him who has had the rule over you, and has preached unto you the word of God." Surely I need not say much to enforce this part of the exhortation: he is deeply engraven on your hearts, nor will the remembrance of him be soon effaced from your minds. Many of you would have "even plucked out your own eyes and have given them unto him," if by so doing you could have conferred upon him any essential benefit: yea, I doubt not, there are many in this assembly that would gladly, very gladly, have laid down their lives in his stead, that so great a blessing as he was, might yet have been continued to the Church of God. It cannot be but that the poor must long remember

their generous and constant benefactor. Many of the children too, I trust, whom he so delighted to instruct, will remember him to the latest period of their lives. Above all, the people, who looked up to him as their spiritual father, to whom they owed their own souls, will bear him in remembrance. They will never forget "how holily, justly, and unblameably he behaved himself among them," and how "he exhorted and comforted and charged every one of them, as a father doth his children, that they would walk worthy of God, who hath called them unto his kingdom and glory." Deservedly will his name be reverenced in this place for ages; for " he was a burning and a shining light ;" and had so uniformly persisted in well-doing, that he had utterly put to silence the ignorance of foolish men," and made religion respectable in the eyes of the most ungodly.

Let me proceed then in the next place to say, "Follow his faith." What his faith was, you well know. Christ was the one foundation of all his hopes. He desired "to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, but that which is by the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." And as he trusted in no other for his own salvation, so he preached no other amongst you. He had "determined, like St. Paul, to know nothing amongst you but Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Every discourse he preached tended immediately or remotely to glorify Christ amongst you: if he preached the law, it was that, as a schoolmaster, it might lead you to Christ: if he insisted upon obedience, it was, that you might "glorify Christ by your bodies and your spirits which are Christ's." In short, Christ was, as well in his ministrations as in the inspired writings, "the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last." Were he preaching to you at this moment, I am persuaded he would have no other theme; yea, if to the end of the world he were continued to preach unto you, you would hear of nothing but Christ, the

66

same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. It was this which made his ministry so acceptable unto you: it was this which God rendered useful to the conversion and consolation of multitudes amongst you. By the faith of Christ he lived, and in the faith of Christ he died. Almost the last words he uttered were these, Weep not for me; I am very happy, I DIE IN THE FAITH OF THE LORD JESUS." I have been anticipated in one remarkable circumstance which I had intended to mention to you; and I am unwilling to omit it now, because there may be some here who were not present this morning. Indeed it is so applicable to my subject, and so illustrative of the character of your dear pastor, that I may well be excused if I repeat what you have already heard. That blessed man, though he possessed a very considerable share of human learning, valued no book in comparison of the Scriptures: when therefore he found his dissolution approaching, he desired his dear partner to read a portion of the word of God: she immediately read to him, first the 23d Psalm, and afterwards the 8th chapter of Proverbs. In the last verse but one of that chapter, she came to these words; "Whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord." Immediately, without waiting for her to conclude the chapter, he cried, "Stop, stop, now shut up the book; that is enough for me." Blessed man! he had sweetly experienced the truth of those words; he had found life in Christ Jesus; he had obtained favour of the Lord; and he knew that he was going to dwell with his Lord for ever. Such was his faith. He held fast Christ as his "wisdom, his righteousness, his sanctification, and his complete redemption." He made "Christ his all, and in all." But while he trusted in Christ alone for his justification before God, no man living ever more forcibly inculcated the necessity of good works, or, I may truly add, practised them with more delight. He was also a firm friend to the Established Church, and inculcated on all occasions submission to the constituted authorities of this kingdom. He