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consists of those "that hear the word of the kingdom (as our Lord expresses it) and understand it not; then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in their hearts. These are they, says he,

which received seed by the way-side." By these are meant those persons whose minds, like the beaten high road, are hard and impenetrable, and inaccessible to conviction. Of these we all know there are too many in the world; some who have imbibed early and deeprooted prejudices against Christianity; who either conceiving themselves superior to the rest of mankind in genius, knowledge, and penetration, reject with scorn whatever the bulk of mankind receives with veneration, and erect favourite systems of their own, which they conceive to be the very perfection of human wisdom; or, on the other hand, having been unfortunately very early initiated in the writings of modern philosophists, implicitly adopt the opinions of those whom they consider as the great luminaries and oracles of the age, receive ridicule as argument, and assertion as proof and prefer the silly witticisms, the specious sophistry, the metaphysical subtlety, the coarse buffoonery, which distinguish many of the most popular opponents of our faith, to the simplicity, dignity, and sublimity of the divine truths of the Gospel. These are the professed infidels, or as, they choose to style themselves, the disciples of philosophy and reason, and the enemies of priestcraft, fanaticism, and superstition.

But besides these there is another description of men, on whom the good seed makes little or no impression; these are the thoughtless, the inattentive, the inconsiderate, the trifling, the gay, who think of nothing beyond the present scene, and who do not consider themselves as in the smallest degree interested in any thing else. These men, without professing themselves unbelievers, without formally and explicitly rejecting the Gospel, yet do in fact never concern themselves about it. It forms no part of their system, it does not at all enter into their plans of life. The former sort above described are infidels on principle; these are practical in

fidels, without any principle at all. Being born of Christian parents, and instructed perhaps in the first rudiments of Christianity, they call themselves Christian; they attend divine service, they repeat their prayers, they listen to the discourses of the preacher, they make no objections to what they hear, they question not the propriety of what they are taught; but here their religion ends; it never goes beyond the surface, it never penetrates into their hearts, it lies on the hard beaten highway. The instant they leave the church, every idea of religion vanishes out of their thoughts; they never reflect for one moment on what they have heard; they never consider the infinite importance of what is to happen after death; the awful prospects of eternity never present themselves to their minds, neither excite their hopes nor alarm their fears. "With their mouths indeed they confess the Lord Jesus, but they do not believe with their hearts unto salvation;" and although perhaps in the wide waste of a trifling insignificant life, a few worthy actions or a few solitary virtues appear, yet their affections are not set on things above, their hopes. are not centered there, their views do not tend there; their treasure is on earth, and there is their heart also.

These two characters, the hardened unbeliever, and the mere nominal Christian, constitute the first class described by our Saviour in the parable of the sower. These are they which receive the seed by the way-side, where it lies neglected upon the surface, till "the fowls of the air devour it, or the wicked one catcheth it out of their hearts ;" and there is an end at once of all their hopes of salvation, perhaps forever.

Secondly, There is another sort of soil mentioned in the parable, which gives the seed at first a more favourable reception. When it falls on stony ground, it finds no great difficulty in gaining admission into a little loose earth scattered upon a rock; it springs up with amazing rapidity; but no sooner "does the sun rise upon it with its scorching heat, than it withers away for want of depth of earth, root, and moisture."

What a lively representation is this of weak and unstable Christians! They receive Christianity at first with gladness; they are extremely ready to be made eternally happy, and suppose that they have nothing else to do but to repeat their creed, and take possession of heaven. But when they find that there are certain conditions to be performed on their parts also; that they must give up their favourite interests and restrain their strongest passions, must sometimes even pluck out a right eye or tear off a right arm; that they must take up their cross and follow a crucified Saviour thro' many difficulties, distresses, and persecutions, their ardour and alacrity are instantly extinguished. They want strength of mind, soundness of principle, and sincerity of faith to support them. No wonder then that they fall away and depart from their allegiance to their divine Master and Redeemer. This is the second sort of hearers described in the parable, "that receive the word at first with joy; but having no root in themselves, when tribulation and persecution arise because of the word, by and by they are offended." This refers more immediately to the first disciples and first preachers of the Gospel, who were exposed in the discharge of their high office to the severest trials, and the cruelest persecutions from their numerous and powerful enemies. Some of them undoubtedly, who had not sufficient root in themselves, gave way to the storms that assailed them, and made ship-wreck of their faith, as our Lord here foretels that they would. But others we know stood firm and unmoved, amidst the most tremendous dangers, and underwent, with unparalleled fortitude, the most excrutiating torments. The description which the writer to the Hebrews gives of the saints and prophets of old, may, with the strictest truth, be applied to the apostles and their successors in the first ages of the Gospel, under the various persecutions to which they were exposed. They had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword,

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were destitute, afflicted, tormented."* All these barbarities they endured with unshaken patience and firmness, and thereby bore the strongest possible testimony, not only to their own sincerity, but to the divine and miraculous influence of the religion which they taught. For it is justly and forcibly observed by the excellent Mr. Addison, that the astonishing and unexampled fortitude which was shewn by innumerable multitudes of martyrs, in those slow and painful torments that were inflicted on them, is nothing less than a standing miracle during the three first centuries. "I cannot, says he, conceive a man placed in the burning iron chair of Lyons, amidst the insults and mockeries of a crowded amphitheatre, and still keeping his seat; or stretched upon a grate of iron over an intense fire, and breathing out his soul amidst the exquisite sufferings of such a tedious execution, rather than renounce his religion, or blaspheme his Saviour, without suppos-, ing something supernatural. Such trials seem to me above the strength of human nature, and able to over. bear duty, reason, faith, conviction, nay, and the most absolute certainty of a future state. We can easily imagine that a few persons in so good a cause might have laid down their lives at the gibbet, the stake, or the block; but that multitudes of each sex, of every age, of different countries and conditions, should, for near three hundred years together, expire leisurely amidst the most exquisite tortures, rather than apostatize from the truth, has something in it so far beyond the natural strength and force of mortals, that one cannot but conclude there was some miraculous power to support the sufferers; and if so, here is at once a proof, from history and from fact, of the divine origin of our religion."+

There is a third portion of the seed that falls among thorns. This wants neither root nor depth of earth. It grows up; but the misfortune is, that the thorns grow up with it. The fault of the soil is not that of bearing nothing, but of bearing too much; of bearing what it ought

* Hebrews xi. 37.

Addison's Evidences, S. 7.

not, of exhausting its strength and nutrition on vile and worthless productions, which choke the good seed, and prevent it from coming to perfection." These are they, says our Saviour, in the parallel place of St. Luke, which when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares, and riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection." In their youth perhaps they receive religious instruction, they imbibe right principles, and listen to good advice; but no sooner do they go forth, no sooner do they leave those persons and those places from whom they received them, than they take the road either of business or of pleasure, pursue their interests, their amusements, or their guilty indulgences with unbounded eagerness, and have neither time nor inclination to cultivate the seeds of religion that have been sown in their hearts, and to eradicate the weeds that have been mingled with them. The consequence is, that the weeds prevail, and the seeds are choked and lost.

Can there possibly be a more faithful picture of a large proportion of the Christian world? Let us look around us, and observe how the greater part of those we meet with are employed. In what is it that their thoughts are busied, their views, their hopes, and their fears centered, their attention occupied, their hearts and souls and affections engaged? Is it in searching the Scriptures, in meditating on its doctrines, its precepts, its exhortations, its promises, 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 seed to grow and swell and expand itself, and bring forth fruit to perfection? Is it in cultivating purity of manners, a spirit 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 over

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