ting out in life, that we are to look for the moft violent affaults from our paffions within, and from the world and the prince of it without. And if we ftrenuously refift thofe enemies of our falvation that present themselves to us at that most critical and dangerous period, all the rest that follow in our maturer age will be an eafy conquest. On him who in the beginning of life has preserved himself unfpotted from the world, all its fubfequent attractions and allurements, all its magnificence, wealth, and splendour, will make little or no impreffion. A mind that has been long habituated to difcipline and felf-government amidst far more powerful temptations, will have nothing to apprehend from such affailants as these. But after all, our great fecurity is affiftance from above, which will never be denied to those who fervently apply for it. And with the power of divine grace to fupport us, with the example of our Lord in the wilderness to animate us, and an eternity of happiness to reward us, what is there that can shake our conftancy or corrupt our fidelity?

Set yourselves then without delay to acquire an early habit of ftri&t felf-government, and an early intercourse with your heavenly Protector and Comforter. Let it be your first care to establish the fovereignty of reason and the empire of grace over your foul, and you will foon find it no difficulty to repel the most powerful temptations. "Watch ye, ftand faft in the faith; quit yourselves like men; be ftrong," be refolute, be patient; look frequently up to the prize that is set before you, left you be weary and faint in your minds. Confider that every pleasure you facrifice to your duty here, will be placed to your credit and encrease your happiness hereafter. The conflict with your paffions will grow lefs irkfome every day. A few years (with fome of you perhaps a very few) will put an entire end to it; and you will then, to your unspeakable comfort, be enabled. to cry out with St. Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my courfe, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteoufness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, fhall give me in that day."t

LECTURE V.

MATTH. iv. Latter Part.

THE

HE former part of the fourth chapter of St. Matthew, which contains the hiftory of our Saviour's temptation, having been explained to you in the preceding Lecture, I fhall now proceed to the latter part of the chapter, in which an account is given of the first opening of our bleffed Lord's miniftry, by his preaching, by his chufing a few companions to attend him, and by his beginning to work miracles; all which things are stated very briefly, without any attempt to expatiate on the importance and magnitude of the fubject, which was nevertheless the nobleft and most interesting that is to be found in hiftory; an enterprize the most stupendous and aftonishing that ever before entered into the mind of man, nothing less than the converfion of a whole world from wickednefs and idolatry. to virtue and true religion.

On this vaft undertaking our Lord now entered; and we are informed by St. Matthew, in the 17th verse of this chapter, in what manner he first announced himself and his religion to the world. His first address to the people was fimilar to that of the Baptift, Repent ye, for the kingdom' of heaven is at hand. The very firft qualification he required of those who afpired to be his difciples was repentance, a fincere contrition for all paft offences, and a refolution to renounce in future every species of fin; for fin, he well knew, would be the grand obftacle to the reception of his Gospel.

What a noble idea does this prefent to us of the dignity and fanctity of our divine religion! It cannot even be approached by the unhallowed and the profane. Before they can be admitted even into the outward courts of its fanctu

ary, they must leave their corrupt appetite and their finful practices behind them. "Put off thy fhoes from off thy "feet," said God to Mofes from the burning bush," for the "place whereon thou ftandeft is holy ground."* Put off all thy vicious habits, fays Chrift to every one that afpires to be his difciple, for the religion thou art to embrace is a holy religion, and the God thou art to ferve is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot even look upon iniquity. In fome of the ancient fects of philofophy, before any one could be admitted into their fchools, or initiated in their myfteries, he was obliged to undergo a certain course of preparation, a certain term of trial and probation, which however confifted of little more than a few fuperftitious ceremonies, or fome acts of external difcipline and purification. But the preparation for receiving the Christian religion is the preparation of the heart. The difcipline required for a participation of its privileges, is the mortification of fing the facrifice of every guilty propenfity and defire.

This facrifice however the great founder of our religion did not require for nothing. He promised his followers a recompence infinitely beyond the indulgences they were to renounce; he promised them a place in his KINGDOM, a kingdom of which he was the fovereign; a kingdom of righteousness here, and of glory hereafter. Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand†.

He then proceeds to select and afsociate to himself a certain number of perfons, who were to be his affiftants and coadjutors in the establishment and the administration of his heavenly kingdom.

And here it was natural to expect, that in making this choice he fhould look to men of influence, authority, and weight; that being himself deftitute of all the advantages. of rank, power, wealth, and learning, he fhould endeavor. to compenfate for thofe defects in his own perfon by the contrary qualities of his affociates, by connecting himself with fome of the most powerful, moft opulent, most learned, and most eloquent men of his time.

And this most undoubtedly would have been his mode of proceeding, had his object been to establish his religion by mere human means, by influence or by force, by the charms of eloquence, by the powers of reafon, by the example, by the authority, by the fashion of the great. But these were not the inftruments which Chrift meant to make ufe of. He meant to fhow that he was above them all; that he had far other refources, far different auxiliaries, to call in to his fupport, in comparison of which all the wealth and magnificence, and power and wisdom of the world, were trivial and contemptible things, We find therefore that not the wife, not the mighty, not the noble were called* to co-operate with him; but men of the meaneft birth, of the lowest occupations, of the humbleft talents, and most uncultivated minds. "As he was walking by the fea of Galilee, St. Matthew tells us, he faw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, cafting a net into the fea, for they were fifhers. And he faith unto them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men; and they ftraightway left their nets (that is in fact all their fubfift ence, all the little property they had in the world) and followed him. And going from thence he faw other two brethren, James the fon of Zebedee and John his brother, in a fhip with Zebedee their father mending their nets; and he called them, and they immediately left the fhip, and their father, and followed himt." Thefe were the men whom he selected for his companions and affistants. These fishermen of Galilee were to be, under him, the inftruments of over-throwing the ftupendous and magnificent fyftem of paganism and "idolatry throughout the world, and produ cing the greatest change, the moft general and moft important revolution in principles, in morals, and in religion, that ever took place on this globe. For this aftonishing work, thefe fimple, illiterate, humble men, were fingled out by our Lord. He chofe, as the apoftle expreffes it, "the foolish things of the world to confound the wife, and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; that his religion might not be established by the enticing words of man's wisdom, but by demonftration Matth. iv. 18-22 # 1 Cor. i. 27.

I Cor. i, 26,