3

ment, implied in the word watch, are addressed to all persons; to those who stand in the relation of mere crea, tures, by.. creation and Providence; to those who have become children by the grace of faith, repentance, and adoption; and to those especially, who are rulers of the household. There is scope enough furnished by the subject to address every class of persons-ministers as well as magistrates, to be vigilant in the performance of their respective duties; and to address churches on the neces sity of communicating a knowledge of their Lord's will to all the different national branches of the household, scattered over the face of the world; beginning, however, in their own houses, their own neighbourhoods, and their respective countries. But we this day merely glance at these various topics, and I shall now close with noticing the motives to watchfulness which Holy Scripture sanctions. Some of these are addressed to admiration of what is excellent, and gratitude for what is kind; but more to our fears and to our hopes.

t

It has been a conceit of proud man, both in the west and in the east, in ancient Rome and in modern China, that either hope or fear entering into the motive of moral action, is destructive of virtue. But this is a sentiment as opposite as possible to the whole scope of divine revelation; for promises and threatenings, exciting hopes, and awakening fears, run through the whole of the Sacred Volume from beginning to end. The promises of pardon and of peace, and of a filial relation to God, and eternal bliss, are presented to the hopes of faith and repentance. The servant who has faithfully employed the talents committed to his care, shall be commended by the great Lord of all for having done well, and shall be welcomed to his Lord's joy. But on the faithless, and unbelieving, and hard-hearted, and impenitent, who may have wasted their Lord's goods, or neglected the talents committed to them, shall be tribulation and anguish for ever and ever. And indeed, the most prominent motive addressed by our Lord, in the subject of this day's discourse, to the servants of the household, appeals to their fears, viz. the sudden and unexpected coming

of the Master, whilst they are indulging in sleepy slothfulness, or tyrannising over their fellows.

I shall now, my friends, drop the figure or comparison employed by our Saviour, and exhort you to let the possibility of sudden and unexpected death, (which may be considered, to you, the coming of the Lord,) have the weight on your minds which it ought. The old-fashioned distinction between an habitual and an actual preparation for death, has considerable meaning and propriety. Every person who has not repented, and believed the Gospel, is habitually, totally unfit to die; and those who have the fear of God before their eyes, and who have, it is hoped, repented and believed the Gospel; if their faith be not in vigorous exercise, and their obedience unreserved, and their usefulness extensive, as the Providence of God may enable them, they are not in actual preparation to meet their Lord. And observe, finally, that the warning and the threatening in the passage before us, are both addressed to those who are denominated servants, which may justly cause those who hold offices in churches, as well every member, to watch heedfully against a deadening spirit of self-security, and the pernicious presumption, that long life will be theirs.

DISCOURSE XX.

BEING AN EXHORTATION, delivered at thE REV. HENRY BURDER'S, THOMAS'S SQUARE, HACKNEY, august 18, 1825.

THE CARES OF THIS LIFE MUST NOT BE
EXCESSIVE.

LUKE, XXI. 3.

"Take heed, lest your hearts be overcharged with the cares of this life."

ALL the various conditions of human life, and all the several ages and characters of mankind, have their appropriate cares; objects of solicitude occupy the mind, and sometimes harass it, which are either to be attained, or to be avoided. In all countries too, this is the case, for man is essentially the same in every part of the world. The poor are often anxious about a competent supply of necessaries from day to day, sometimes they are anxious to elevate their condition in society, and labour to become rich. The rich are often full of cares to secure their property, or anxious about the manner of investing or of increasing it; for the possession of wealth does not usually destroy the wish to possess more. The young are frequently solicitous about their future settlement in life, and parents are anxious about their children, how to provide for them, and to ensure their respectability and comfort in the world; and there are some parents anxious about the moral and spiritual welfare of their children. The afflicted are often mentally distressed about the issue of their afflictions; and

the prosperous sometimes dread what will be their condition in case of a reverse, or in old age. The ambitious are racked with anxieties to obtain interest, and patronage, and promotion; and those in high places often dread the probabilities of disgrace. The literary aspirant is full of care to obtain distinction, and those who have attained it, feel great anxiety to sustain their character. There are many whose lawful concerns, their agriculture, or manufactures, or commerce, fill their minds with constant carping cares. And there are teachers of literature and science, and ministers of religion, whose minds lose their equanimity by over-anxiety about the performance of their duty, or the temporalities of their charge. Care and anxiety are not confined to those whose only cry is, What shall we eat or drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? Cares and anxieties extend to those persons who are perfectly indifferent to, or most abundantly supplied with these comforts.

Some cares and anxieties seem necessarily forced upon human beings, but the greater number are self-induced; that is, they do not arise from the circumstances in which Providence has placed us, but are brought upon ourselves by our own defects or excesses.

I now come to the question, Are the cares of this life sinful? Does Christianity require Christians to be careless and thoughtless concerning the present life? Must the Christian merchant be careless and indifferent about his affairs? Must the mother take no thought about her children, the children about their parents? Are these expressions of Holy Scriptare" Take no thought for to-morrow,” "Be careful for nothing"-to be understood, as the words, if taken by themselves, plainly mean?

If to these questions we answer, Yes, we make the doctrine of our holy religion of a piece with pagan systems in India and China, which require the good man to quit his kindred, and the business of life, and to become a monk and a beggar. But from this interpretation of Sacred Scripture we are preserved, by looking more diligently into the Holy Book. Interspersed, throughout that volume, there are general maxims, and express precepts, which

commend and require carefulness, industry, and assiduity in all lawful callings. The remark of the wise King, contained in these words-"The hand of the diligent maketh rich," is a divine sanction to diligence. The precept of the Apostle, "Be diligent in business," is to the same effect. "He that careth not for his own, especially for those of his own house, hath denied the faith, and is worse than a disbeliever of Christianity."—" He that will not work," either with his hand, or his head, or both; "neither should he eat." These sentiments, you know, are given by the Apostles; therefore we conclude that the Scripture does not warrant, much less exhort to, idleness, sloth, indifference, carelessness, or thoughtlessness about our well-being in the present state of our existence; but, so far from requiring, actually blames these vices; and calls upon Christians to be diligent, thoughtful, attentive, and prudent; and actually to labour that they may have a surplus to give to him that needeth.

But it may be said, does not your interpretation make void the Saviour's precept, and the apostolic admonition? We answer, No. The precept and the admonition are directed against excess and an infidel anxiety; against a degree of care and thought for this life, which leaves no time to care for the life to come; an anxiety about temporalities, which forgets that there is an eternity; and a solicitude about human means, which overlooks an almighty, allwise, and ever benignant Providence.

There is, moreover, a manner of speaking in the original languages of Holy Scripture, which, when rendered word for word, affirms absolutely what was only intended comparatively: thus, for example, " He that hateth not his father and his mother, cannot be my disciple." In English, this is a hard saying, and what, in the strict grammatical sense of the words, the human reason cannot assent to; and which, indeed, is entirely opposite to the fifth commandment, "Honour thy father and thy mother." But the language of another evangelist has quite explained the mode of speaking here used, by employing another way of expressing the same sentiment, thus: "He that loveth