alarming confiderations have weight with you, to perfuade you to make him your only foundation?

If you have already made him fo, then be affured you are fafe and immoveable for ever. Let ftorms of private or public calamity rise and beat upon you; let your fears and doubts rife to ever fo high a deluge; let temptations make ever fo fevere attacks upon you, ftill the foundation on which you ftand abides firm and unfhaken. Nay, let all nature go to wreck, and feas and land, and heaven and earth be blended together, ftill this foundation ftands firm, and the living temple built upon it will remain immoveable for ever. You that believe, need not make hafte, you need not be ftruck into confternation upon the appearance of danger, nor fly to unlawful means of deliverance, your all is fafe, and therfore you may be ferene and calm. Is the burden of your guilt intolerable, and are you ready to fink under it? Or are you finking under a load of forrow? Whatever be the burden, caft it upon the Lord, and he will sustain you. This foundation is able to bear you up, however great the preffure. Come Come ye that are weary and heavy laden, come, and build your hopes, and place your reft here. O! what joyful tidings are these! I hope they will prove a word in season to some foul that is weary.

What now remains but that I fhould more explicitly point out this precious ftone to you all, by illuftrating the emphatical word behold, prefixt to the

text.

Behold, ye poor finking fouls, behold with wonder and gratitude: here is a fure foundation for you; caft your whole weight, venture your eternal all upon it, and it will support you. Say no more, Alas! I muft fink for ever under this mountain of guilt;' but turn to Jefus, with finking Peter, and cry, Help, Lord, I perifh; and he will bear you up. Yes, whatever ftorms may blow, whatever convulfions may fhake the world, you are fafe.

Behold,

Behold, ye joyful believers. See here the foundation of all your joys and hopes. Do you ftand firm like Mount Zion? See, here is the rock that fupports you. Gratefully acknowledge it, and infcribe this precious ftone with your praises. Point it out to others as the only ground of hope for perishing fouls.

Behold, ye wretched felf-righteous Pharifees, the only rock on which you must build if you expect to ftand. Your proud felf-confident virtue, your boafted philofophic morality, is but a loose tottering foundation. Virtue and morality are neceffary to complete and adorn the fuperftructure; but when they are laid at the bottom of all, they will prove but a quicksand.

Behold, ye defpifers, and wonder and perifh! perish you must if you fet at nought this precious ftone. To you this only foundation is like to prove a stone of Stumbling, and a rock of offence. To you the nature of things is inverted: the only ground of hope will heighten your defpair; and the Saviour of men will be your destroyer.

Behold, ye glorious angels, behold the firm foundation divine love has laid for the falvation of guilty worms. It is as firm as that on which you stand. Are the affairs of mortals beneath your notice? No, we are concerned with Jefus too who is your head 1; and our connection with him must give us an importance in your view. Therefore join with us in celebrating the praises of this foundation. This precious stone appears to you in all its fplendors: its brilliancy dazzles your admiring eyes. We also admire it as far as we know it; but to us it is like a foundation laid deep under ground, that fupports us though we fee it not. When fhall we be placed in your advantageous fituation, the heights of the heavenly Zion, where it will appear full to our view, and be the object of our delightful contemplation for ever and ever!

VOL. II.

Dd

SERMON

SERMON XXIX.

THE NECESSITY AND EXCELLENCE OF FAMILY

RELIGION.

I TIMOTHY V. 8. But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worfe than an infidel.

HE great Author of our nature, who has made

us fociable creatures, has inftituted various focieties among mankind, both civil and religious, and joined them together by the various bonds of relation. The firft and radical fociety is that of a family, which is the nursery of the church and state. This was the fociety instituted in Paradife in the state of innocence, when the indulgent Creator, finding that it was not good for man, a fociable creature, to be alone, formed an help meet for him, and united them in the endearing bonds of the conjugal relation. From thence the human race was propagated; and when multiplied, it was formed into civil governments and ecclefiaftical affemblies. Without these affociations the worship of God could not be publicly and focially performed, and liberty and property could not be fecured. Without thefe, men would turn favages and roam at large, deftitute of religion, infenfible of the human paffions, and regardless of each other's welfare. Civil and religious focieties are therefore wifely continued in the world, and we enjoy the numerous advantages of them. But these do not exclude, but prefuppofse domestic societies, which are the meterials of which they are composed; and as churches and kingdoms are formed out of families, they will be fuch as the meterials of which

they

they confift. It is therefore of the greatest importance to religion and civil society that families be under proper regulations, that they may produce proper plants for church and ftate, and efpecially for the eternal world, in which all the temporary affociations of mortals in this world finally terminate, and to which they ultimately refer.

Now in families, as well as in all governments, there are fuperiors and inferiors; and as it is the place of the latter to obey, fo it belongs to the former both to rule and to provide. The heads of families are obliged not only to exercise their authority over their dependents, but also to provide for them a competency of the neceffaries of life; and indeed their right to rule is but a power to provide for themselves and their domeftics.

This is implied in my text, where the apoftle makes the omiffion of this duty utterly inconfiftent with Christianity; and a crime fo unnatural, that even infidels are free from it. If any man provide not for his own, and especially for thofe of his own houfe, he bath denied the faith, and is worfe than an infidel.

The apoftle, among other things, in this chapter is giving directions how widows fhould be treated in the church. If they were widows indeed; that is, widowed and entirely deftitute of relations to fupport them; then he advises to maintain them at the public expences of the church. (ver. 3, 9, 10.) But if they were fuch widows as had children or nephews, then he orders that they fhould be maintained by these their relatives, and that the charge fhould not fall upon the church. (ver. 4, 16.)

He fuppofes that the relatives of fome of them might be unwilling to put themselves to this expence : and to engage fuch to their duty, he in the text exposes the unnatural wickednefs of neglecting it. If any man provide not for his own, and efpecially for thofe of his own houfe, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

By

By a man's own are meant poor relatives, who are unable to fupport themselves. And by his house are meant thofe that are his domeftics, and that live with him, as wife, children, fervants. The former a man is obliged to provide for, but especially the latter; and if he neglect it, he has denied the faith in fact, however much he may profess it in words; he is no christian, nor to be treated as fuch: nay, he is worse than an infidel; for many heathens have had fo much humanity and natural light, as to obferve their duty, supporting their domeftics and fuch of their relatives as could not procure a fubfiftence for themselves.

In order to make provifion for our families, we must be careful or laborious, according to our circumftances, and fee that all our domeftics be fo too. And him that will not work, neither let him eat. 2 Theff. iii. 10.

6

This, fome of you will fay, is excellent doctrine, and this is our favourite text, which we often descant upon to justify our eager purfuit of the world. This commandment have we kept from our youth up; and, as we exert ourselves to provide eftates for our children, we are not chargeable with any guilt in this cafe.' But ftay, firs; before you peremptorily conclude yourselves innocent, let me afk you, are your domeftics, your wives, children, and fervants, nothing but meterial bodies? If fo, I grant your duty is fulfilled by providing for their bodies. If they are only formed for this world, and have no concern with a future, then it is enough for you to make provifion for them in the prefent ftate. They are like your cattle, upon this hypothefis, and you may treat them as you do your beafts, fodder them well, and make them work for you. But are you fo abfurd as to indulge fuch a thought? Are you not fully convinced that your domeftics were made for eternity, endowed with immortal fouls, and have the greatest concern with the eternal world? If fo, can you think