nexion of the whole; while, meantime, each separate publication may, it is hoped, possess some interest independently, and apart from its relation to the endeavour to illustrate the general scope of the Divine dispensations.

This Volume, like its predecessors, consists of Discourses not written or delivered in sequence, but prepared for the pulpit in the ordinary course of the Author's ministrations, and now linked together by their common reference to Christian Morality.'

The reader will not, therefore, expect a delineation of the Whole Duty of Man,' in all its details, but simply a statement of those principles from which, according to the Author's view of the subject, all virtues are derived, accompanied by the enforcement of such applications of them as are peculiarly required by the present condition of society.

Upper Clapton, July, 1833.

SERMON I.

THE CHRISTIAN MISSION.*

LUKE iv. 18, 19.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."

THERE is not an element or an object in material nature-there is not a science or an art-there is not an event in history, or a condition of societythere is not an intellect, or a faculty of intelligence, but what may be regarded as having a mission, and a divine mission too, for the accomplishment of some portion of the all-comprehensive plan of Providence. God maketh the winds his messengers, and flames of fire his ministers. It is the highest and the happiest state of an intelligent being to know whereunto he is sent, and to fulfil his mission

* Preached on the re-opening of Finsbury Chapel, after repairs, November 18, 1832.

B

with his might. To estimate with accuracy the position which we occupy in the world; the manner and degree in which it may be improved; and the good which in it we may realize for ourselves and others; this is to have the fairest prospect of answering the design of our existence, and becoming the authors and the possessors of the largest measure of enjoyment. This is what the text shows us Christ did. He knew why he came into the world; the end and the means were distinctly before him; and so he ran his appointed course, bore his cross and gained his crown.

There is much confusion in the minds of many persons about both miracles and missions. An undue importance has been attached to the difference between what is called natural, and what we term supernatural. The great question is, has the world a plan?-Had it an author? Is there a God, whose power is resistless, and whose agency is universal? If there be, the importance of that difference is much diminished, or rather, the nature of that difference is more distinctly ascertained. The reluctance of some to admit such a thing as a miracle, and the horror of others at those who doubt miracles, are alike exaggerated. They both seem to ascribe an independent and inherent force to the laws of nature. That expression continually misleads. With the admission of a providential plan, the phrase law of nature can only mean, the