Can there poffibly be a more faithful picture of a large proportion of the Chriftian world? Let us look around us, and obferve how the greater part of those we meet with are employed. In what is it that their thoughts are bufied, their views, their hopes, and their fears centured, their attention occupied, their hearts and fouls and affections engaged? Is it in fearching the Scriptures, in meditating on its doctrines, its precepts, its exhortations, its promifes, and its threats? Is it in communing with their own hearts, ⚫ in probing them to the very bottom, in looking carefully whether there be any way of wickedness in them, in plucking out every noxious weed, and leaving room for the good feed to grow and fwell and expand itself, and bring forth fruit to perfection? Is it in cultivating purity of manners, a fpirit of charity towards the whole human race, and the most exalted sentiments of piety, gratitude, and love towards their Maker and Redeemer? These I fear are far from being the general and principal occupations of mankind. Too many of them are, God knows, very differently employed. They are overwhelmed with bufinefs, they are devoted to amusement, they are immerfed in fenfuality, they are mad with ambition, they are idolaters of wealth, of power, of glory, of fame. On these things all their affections are fixed. These are the great objects of their pursuit; and if any accidental thought of religicn happens to crofs their way, they inftantly difmifs the unbidden, unwelcome gueft, with the answer of Felix to Paul, "Go thy way for this time; when we have a convenient feafon we will fend for thee."

But how then, it is faid, are we to conduct ourselves? If Providence has bleffed us with riches, with honor, with power, with reputation, are we to reject thefe gifts of our heavenly Father; or ought we not rather to accept them with thankfulness, and enjoy with gratitude, the advantages and the comforts which his bounty has beftowed upon us? Moft alluredly we ought. But then they are to be enjoyed alfo with innocence, with temperance, and with moderation. They must not be allowed to ufurp the first place in our hearts. They must not be permitted to fup

plant God in our affection, or to dispute that pre-eminence and priority which he claims over every propensity of our nature. This and this only can prevent the good feed from being choked with the cares, the rices, and the pleafures of the present life.

We now come in the last place to the feed which fell on good ground, which our Lord tells us in St. Luke, denotes those that in an honest and good heart, having heard word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience, fome an hundred fold, fome fixty, fome thirty.

We here fee that the first and principal qualification for hearing the word of God, for keeping it, for rendering it capable of bringing forth fruit, is an honest and a good heart; that is, a heart free from all thofe evil difpofitions and corrupt paffions which blind the eyes, diftort the understanding, and obftruct the admiffion of divine truth; a heart perfectly clear from prejudice, from pride, from vanity, from felf-fufficiency, and felf-conceit; a heart fincerely difpofed and earnestly defirous to find out the truth, and firmly resolved to embrace it when found;ready to acknowledge its own ignorance, and weakness, and corruption, and "to receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to fave the foul."

This is that innocence and fimplicity and fingleness of mind, which we find fo frequently recommended and fo highly applauded by our bleffed Lord, and which is fo beautifully and feelingly described when young children were brought to him that he should touch them, and were checked by his difciples. "Suffer little children to come unto me, fays he, and forbid them not, for of fuch is the kingdom of heaven; and then he adds, whofoever fhall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child he shall not enter therein*.” Here, in a few words, and by a most fignificant and affecting emblem, is expreffed that temper and difpofition of mind which is the most essential qualification for the kingdom of heaven. Unless we come to the Gospel with that meekness, gentlenefs, docility, and

* Mark x. 14, 15.

guileless fimplicity, which conftitute the character of a child, and render him fo lovely and captivating, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven; we cannot either affent to the evidence, believe the doctrines, or obey the precepts of the Chriftian religion. Hence we fee the true reason why fo many men of distinguished talents have rejected the religion of Chrift. It is not because its evidences are defective, or its doctrines repugnant to reafon; it is because their difpofitions were the very reverse of what the Gospel requires; becaufe (as their writings evidently fhow) they were high-fpirited, violent, proud, conceited, vain, difdainful, and fometimes profligate too; because, in fhort, they wanted that honeft and good heart, which not only receives the good feed, but keeps it, and nourishes it with unceafing patience, till it bring forth fruit to perfection. They could not enter into the marriage feast because they had not on the wedding garment, because they were not clothed with humility*. For "God refifteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Them that are meek fhall he guide in judgment, and fuch as are gentle, them shall he learn his wayt.”

But here arifes a difficulty on which the enemies of our faith lay great ftrefs, and frequently alledge as an excufe for their infidelity and impiety. If, fay they, the fuccefs of the good feed depends on the foil in which it is fown, the fuccefs of the Gofpel muft, in the fame manner, depend (as this very parable is meant to prove) on the temper and difpofition of the recipient, of the person to whom it is offered. Now this temper and difpofition are not of our own making: they are the work of nature; they are what our Creator has given us. If then, in any particular inftance, they are unfortunately fuch as difqualify us for the reception of the Gofpel, the fault is not ours; it is in the foil, it is in our natural conftitution, for which furely we cannot be held refponfible.

This plea is fpecious and plaufible; but it is nothing more. The fact is, that the imbecility and corruption introduced into our moral frame by the fall of our first paJames, iv. 6. Pfalm, xxv. 9.

*I Pet. v. 5.

rents, is in fome measure felt by all; but undoubtedly in different individuals fhews itself in different degrees, and that from their very earliest years. Look at any large family of children living together under the eye of their parents, and you will frequently discover in them a furprizing variety of tempers, humors, and difpofitions ; and although the fame inftructions are given to all, the fame care and attention, the fame difcipline, the fame vigilance exercised over each, yet fome fhall be, in their general conduct, meek, gentle, and fubmiffive; others impetuous, paffionate, and-froward; fome active, enterprizing, and bold; others quiet, contented and calm; fome cunning, artful, and clofe; others open, frank, and ingenuous; fome, in short, malevolent, mischievous, and unfeeling; others kind, compaffionate, good-natured, and though fometimes betraying the infirmity of human nature by cafual omiffions of duty and errors of conduct, yet foon made fenfible of their faults, and eafily led back to regularity, order, piety, and virtue.

Here then is unquestionably the difference of natural conftitution contended for. But what is the true inference? Is it that those whofe difpofitions are the worst are to give themselves up for loft, are to abandon all hopes of falvation, and to alledge their depraved nature as a fufficient apology for infidelity or vice, as conftituting a complete inability either to believe or to obey the Gospel? No fuch thing. On the contrary, it is a strong and pow erful call, first upon their parents and the guides of their youth, and afterwards upon themselves, to watch over, to restrain, to correct, to amend, to meliorate their evil difpofitions, and to fupply, by attention, by discipline and by prayer, what has been denied by nature. It may be thought hard, perhaps, that all this care, and labor, and painful conflict, fhould be neceffary to fome, and not (in the fame degree at leaft) to others; and that fo marked a distinction in so important a point fhould be made between creatures of the fame fpecies. But is not the same distinction made in other points of importance? Are not men placed from their very birth by the hand of Providence in different fituations of rank, power, wealth? Are

not fome indulged with every advantage, every bleffing that their hearts can wifh, and others funk in obscurity, penury, and wretchednefs? Are not fome favored with the most splendid talents and capacities for acquiring knowledge; others flow in conception, weak in underftanding, and almoft impenetrable to inftruction? Are not fome bleffed from their birth' with strong, healthy, robust constitutions, fubject to no infirmities, no diseases; others weak, fickly, tender, liable to perpetual diförders, and with the utmost difficulty dragging on a precarious existence? Yet does this preclude all these different individuals from improving their condition; does it prevent the lowest member of fociety from endeavoring to raise himfelf into a fuperior clafs; does it prevent the most indigent from laboring to acquire a fortune by industry, frugality, and activity; does it prevent the most ignorant from culti vating their minds, and furnishing them with fome degree of knowledge; does it prevent thofe of the tenderest and most delicate frames from ftrengthening, confirming, and' invigorating their health, by management, by medicine, and by temperance? We fee the contrary every day; we fee all these different characters fucceeding in their efforts beyond their most fanguine expectations, and rising to a degree of opulence, of rank, of power, of learning, and of health, of which at their outfet they could not have formed the moft diftant idea. And why then are we not to act in the fame manner with regard to our natural tempers, difpofitions, propenfities, and inclinations? Why are we not to fuppofe them as capable of improvement and melioration as our condition, our fortune, our intellectual powers, and our bodily health? Why are we to alledge impoffibility in one cafe more than in the others? The truth is, that a bad conftitution of mind as well as of body may, by proper care and attention, and the powerful influences of the Holy Spirit, be greatly, if not wholly, amended. And as it fometimes happens that they who have the weakest and most diftempered frames by means of an exact regimen and an unfhaken perfeverance in rule and method, outlive thofe of a robufter make and more luxuriant health; fo there are abundant inftances where men of the moft perverfe difpofitions and moft depraved