in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.-Forgiveness of sins, and reconciliation with an offended God: He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.-The gift of the Holy Ghost: The Holy Ghost, says St. John, was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. His bodily resurrection works in us a spiritual resurrection to holiness of life.

His death and resurrection, also, wrought a plentiful harvest in the conversion of the world to the Christian religion. What St. Paul says of Abraham, is most fully true of Christ. There sprang even of ONE (and him TRULY DEAD) as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore innumerable. David foretels this increase of Christ's kingdom. There shall be an heap of corn in the earth, high upon the hills: his fruit shall shake like Libanus.

Hence, then, my brethren, since Christ's sufferings and afflictions led him to glory, let us frequently meditate on the use and benefit of afflictions. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Consider, that the way to gain life, was first to lose it. You must endure a seed-time by death, if you will have an harvest to eternal life. Break up the fallow ground, says the Prophet, in sorrow and repentance; and sow not among thorns, but in an honest heart. We are told by St. Paul, that we are God's

husbandry. Our resurrection will be our harvest ; the angels shall be the reapers; and heaven the granary into which we shall be gathered.

And let us recollect, with cheerful confidence, that as Christ, on this day, was the first-fruits of this harvest by his resurrection, so the first-fruits are a pledge of the whole succeeding harvest. This, indeed, was partially represented on the day of his resurrection: many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves, after his resurrection; and it was prefigured also in the law. They were to bring their first ripe sheaf of corn, and present it to God: and that was an assurance of their following harvest. Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's, at his coming. His resurrection was not only the example, but the principle of our resurrection. Then doubt not of thine own. Those that are Christ's, he will bring with him; and so shall we be EVER with the Lord.

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SERMON XV.

FROM HAMMOND*.

MATTHEW X. 15.

It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.

THE whole of the New Covenant consists of these two words, Christ and Faith; Christ bestowed on God's part, faith on ours; Christ the matter, faith the condition, of the Covenant. Now, to present this faith to you, as an object for your understanding to gaze at, or to point out the beauty and symmetry of every limb and member, were but to recal you to your catechism, and to take pains to inform you of what you are presumed to know already. The greater danger is, that we are behind in our practice; that we know what faith is, but do not labour for it. The wisest plan, therefore, is to compress this floating knowledge into something

* Henry Hammond was born 1605, and died 1660.

solid that what was formerly but a mere dream or fancy, may begin to be a WORK of faith. For this purpose, no rhetoric is so likely to influence your wills, as that which is most sharp and terrible; the consideration of the desperate state of UNBELIEVERS.

To pass by a multitude of ignorant infidels, such as pagans and heathens; and of knowing, but not acknowledging, infidels, as Turks and Jews; we shall find that there are believing infidels, who know and acknowledge Christ, the Gospel, and the promises, but yet deny him in their hearts. And these are distinctly pointed out to us in the verse before the text, Whosoever shall not RECEIVE you : that is, shall not receive the truth of Christ, and the Gospel preached by you; as it is explained in a subsequent verse, He that receiveth you, receiveth ME. Christ, with his sufferings and satisfaction, was once offered on the cross, and, by the Gospel and its ministers, has ever since been offered to the world and nothing is required of us but a hand and a heart to receive him. Now, this receiving of Christ, is a taking or accepting of the RIGHTEOUSNESS of Christ, and so making it our own. But, the offer being thus made by God to give us his beloved Son; if we stand upon terms, if we fix our hearts on worldly vanities, and resolve never to forego them, or to disclaim our own righteousness; then are we the infidels here spoken of; We will not come to him, that we might have LIFE. Alas! but too many reject this blessed offer from a false

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and fatal security; by not heeding or weighing God's justice, and, consequently undervaluing his mercies. They never have felt him as an angry judge, and therefore they now scorn him as a Saviour. And if the severity of the law has been sent by God to humble them in the spirit of bondage, and thus to school them to Christ, they have eyes but see not, ears but hear it not. Nay, if, by an inward voice, it cries so loud as that it cannot but be heard; they will charm it with pleasures, or overwhelm it with business; as Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and, as we are informed, built cities, and got some of his progeny to invent music; to still, perhaps, his tumultuous conscience: that the noise of the workman and the melody of the instruments, might outsound the din within him; as, in the sacrifices of Moloch, when their children, whom they offered in a hollow brazen vessel, could not but utter the most dreadful cries, they had timbrels and tabrets perpetually beating, that they might drown their agonizing shrieks.

There are some who, conscious of their sad condition, fly instantly to the Gospel, and, as soon as ever they hear a promise, lay hold of it, and are resolved to be saved by Christ, because otherwise they see they must be damned. But these take · Christ the Saviour, but not Christ the Lord. They are willing to be saved by him, but never think of serving him. For ever are they praying