more than I can describe, you will feel to be the happy effect of looking "not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." Those who have attained a measure of this grace will, I am sure, be striving for more, and will be sensible how little they have attained. Those who know and practise nothing of this christian art of turning miseries into blessings, should at length learn that they need conversion. To what purpose do they call themselves believers, if their belief realizes nothing invisible; if they be enslaved to present objects; if Christ and the medicine of his grace be to them altogether unknown, in point of power and efficacy? For till they be in Christ, and become new creatures, they cannot make this happy use of afflictions. They cannot be heavenly-minded, while their souls cleave to the dust of the earth. They need to be quickened, for they are "dead in trespasses and sins;" and if they ask what they must do to be saved, I can give no other answer but this, "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved." Let them, by prayer and supplication, by careful attention to the word of God and the means of grace, seek till they find, as other souls have done, that there is a God in Israel that hears the cry of the humble, and who is "rich in mercy to all who call upon him." Blessed be God! "His hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. Men need to feel their poverty and guilt, else their very prayers are mockery: but while Jesus lives to intercede, those who in the deepest manner are conscious of their vileness, may cheerfully expect to receive even abundantly above all that they can ask

or think,

I have now finished the general illustration of this practical subject of heavenly-mindedness. I own I chose it with a special reference to the mournful event which is fresh upon all our minds. Even without that reference, I could wish you to retain the ideas of St. Paul; for they are most weighty and most instructive. But as referred to the sudden departure of our late worthy Pastor*, they, to my mind at least, give a more powerful impression for his character and spirit, and the providences of God which attended him, do much illustrate every one of the particulars to which I have spoken, as I shall now endeavour to show.

He was, brethren, heavenly-minded. He was not so naturally. No man ever was heavenlyminded by nature since sin entered into the world, except the Lord from heaven, who came to take away our sins, and in whom was no sin. But your lamented Pastor was made so through divine grace; and the grand spring which produced this change was faith in Jesus Christ: Not that poor, barren, counterfeit of nominal profession, which is the great disgrace of the christian name, but a lively dependance on God's free unmerited mercy through Christ. You knew his activity, meekness, compassion, and

*The Rev. Thomas Clarke, D. D. was only 45 years of age at the time of his decease. He was a native of Hull, and admitted a Student of Trinity College, Cambridge, about the year 1769, from whence he removed to Clare Hall, in order to enjoy the benefit of a Scholarship given him by the Mayor and Corporation of Hull He took the degree of B. A. in the year 1773, and became a Fellow and Tutor of his College. In the year 1783 he was presented by the Mayor and Aldermen to the Vicarage of the Holy Trinity Church, in Hull, where he resided till his death in the summer of 1797. He married the only sister of W. Wilberforce, Esq. M, P. for the County of York, but left no issue.

unwearied efforts to do good, and to promote every liberal and beneficent plan for the relief of misery, and to check the torrent of vice and impiety; in which last endeavour. he was content to suffer reproach, and to bear the calumnies of the wicked and profane. This, however, is a species of persecution which, in every age, all faithful followers of Christ must expect. But amidst all these his good works, he viewed himself as an unprofitable servant, and in one of the last conversations I had with him, I well remember what a deep and strong sense he expressed of the preciousness of Christ and his salvation. His confidential friends know how much he felt the sinfulness of nature, how thankful he was for the grace of the gospel, and how perfectly convinced of the emptiness of that nominal religion, with which it has been but too fashionable for men to content themselves.

But affliction was his lot, and his peculiar affliction consisted in extreme debility of body. Serious and conscientious as he certainly was, decidedly on the side of godliness, and opposite to that of profaneness, I do not hesitate to say that his light affliction, wrought for him an "exceeding and eternal weight of glory," through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit which accompanied it. For of him it was eminently true, that though his "outward man" was perishing, yet his "inward man" was "renewed day by day." He felt in his own experience the uncertainty of all worldly things, and the suddenness of his departure reads a lecture to us all on the vanity of this life, with a louder sound than I can give it.

Notwithstanding the extreme debility of his

frame, divine strength was made perfect in his weakness, and he could with the Apostle glory in his infirmities, that the power of Christ might rest upon him. Through affliction, by the divine blessing, he remarkably grew in grace, attained that strength and firmness of christian faith and love, which he evidently displayed among us. Though happily for himself, he was removed from us at a time when we had reason to hope that his remaining in the flesh might have been more profitable than ever. But God's ways are not as man's. It behoves us reverently to acquiesce in the divine disposals.

While I thus speak of your late worthy Pastor as a serious, genuine Christian, and as a pattern for our imitation, let me beseech you to remember that he faithfully delivered to you the pure doctrine of salvation by Jesus Christ, and very affectionately exhorted you to receive it in your hearts, and to adorn it in your lives. And I have the strongest reasons to believe, though you saw and knew his active exertions, that he would have laboured much more abundantly among you in the best of causes, if he had been able. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. You, however, who heard from him the way of salvation, should remember that you will have an account to give at the day of Judgment, how far you have profited thereby.

This place, indeed, cannot be said to be at all wanting in christian instruction. Let us take heed, brethren, that we provoke not God to leave us to darkness. If sermons after sermons on the truth of the gospel affect not our hearts in a holy and heavenly manner; if under a multitude of means

of grace, we can remain lukewarm and earthlyminded, we turn that which should have been a blessing to us into a curse.

Be not deceived:

God will not be mocked, and He who has suddenly quenched one Light, can quench also all the Lights which he has been pleased to raise up among us, and leave us to follow our own imaginations-the greatest curse that can befal a sinful people. God may well say of this place, "what could have been done more for my vineyard, that I have not done in it." The alarming progress of lewdness and profaneness of late years, is not what should be expected from such a place as this; and the many who decently hear and assent to divine truths without practical influence, have deep reason to examine themselves and to consider their ways.

From you, who have long followed the ways of God, a greater measure of Christian fruitfulness is reasonably to be expected, and I thank God there are those among us who do thus bring forth fruit. To them and to all others who have ears to hear, I would, by way of conclusion, earnestly recommend that heavenly-mindedness with which I began this plain discourse, and which I wished to make the central point of the whole. Let me beseech you to be thoroughly serious, and never. to trifle in religion." If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth."

END OF VOL. II. OF SERMONS.

Luke Hansard & Sons,

near Lincoln's-Inn Fields, London.

HM