approaching to God? Is not the service of God a weariness to you; the duties of religion burthensome? Are you not more in your element when at market than at church? are you not better pleased with a wake, or a fair, than with a good sermon; would you not rather be at a play, or a dance, or any place of amusement, than pouring out your hearts before God in prayer, and interceeding for heavenly blessings; O! this is a bad sign, a sign of impenitence and unbelief, a mark of carelessness and unconcern, a symtom of inattention to the one thing needful. Suppose some earthly father should deliver up his son to death to save us from some grievous calamity that was about to befal us, and the son should willingly surrender himself into the hands of the executioner for the sake of benefitting many of his fellow creatures; which should we most admire, the compassion of the father, or the love of the son; but who ever heard of such a thing! when shall we find such an instance; but the Father of the universe has not spared His only begotten Son from a cruel ignominious death, to serve us; the Son has resigned Himself up, not for His fellow creatures, not for His friends, not for His faithful servants, but for rebels, for traitors, for enemies, for unthankful and unholy; and can we be unmindful of such an act of unmerited love, can we refrain from weeping when such a subject is treated of, if our hearts were properly affected with the evil of sin, methinks we could not, and shall the blessed angels desire greatly to look into all this mystery, and we take no interest in the matter; but here are some I would hope whose hearts are inflamed with love to Jesus Christ, for His great love wherewith He hath loved us, and who see their sins to have been the occasion of His cross and passion, His agony and death; my advice to such is, ponder daily upon this subject, the power of sin is mortified and subdued; but I fear, there are others who are unmoved with this pathetic relation, who can grieve at the death of a friend or relative, but cannot shed a tear at the remembrance of your Saviour's sufferings and death: and will you remain unaffected at the bar of judgment! Now let the tears of contrition flow apace, now mourn over your unbelief and hardness of heart, now look to the friend of sinners who favors you with another season of grace, who gives you another affectionate call, who urges you to repentance by men of like passions with yourselves; and will this be the last warning to some; perhaps it may: the thread of life is soon cut, a slight accident will do the business, a trivial matter will occassion the dissolusion of any of us, and then our fate is for ever fixed, our die for ever cast, our destiny for ever determined. Now to God, &c. SERMON IX. PROV. CHAP. 4, VERSE 7. Wisdom is the principle thing, therefore THE words which I have selected for our present meditation, is one of the sayings of Him who was most famed for wisdom and knowledge of all the children of men; the most accomplished Prince that ever filled an earthly throne. In the book of Proverbs there are rules laid down for every situation in life, direction given for the right ordering of our conversation; here we are instructed in every branch of christian knowledge; here we are taught how to avoid broils and contentions, how to conduct ourselves with propriety and decorum, how to manage our civil affairs, as well as religious matters; in a word, how to attend to this world so as not to neglect that which is tocome. In discoursing from the words words of the text, I shall first set forth the nature of true wisdom; secondly, I shall shew that it is the chief or principle thing, and thirdly, enforce the exhortation; therefore get wisdom. True wisdom then, my brethren, consists in fearing God and keeping his commandments, for herein (the wise man observes) is comprised the whole of our duty. But before we can fear God, we must know Him; this is an important branch of wisdom; hence Jesus Christ says, this is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent; in order therefore to acquaint ourselves with the Almighty and be at peace, we must act faith upon our peace maker, for this purpose was He sent, that He might make peace between God and man, that He might effect a reconciliation between the Creator and His rebellious creatures; this was the design of His first advent, this was the object He had in view, when He descended from heaven to earth; but how is this object frustrated by many, seeing they refuse to be reconciled upon the scriptural plan; they cannot endure the proposal of holy writ, they will not accede to the terms of the gospel, they will not listen as it were to the conditions of love and mercy. But to return more immediately to our subject, if we would be truly wise we must be fools in our own estimation, reflecting that we are born like the wild asses colt; how to do evil,we understand well; but to do good, we have no knowledge, until we are taught of God; that is, enlightened by His Spirit and influenced by His Grace. To be truly wise is to be truly religious, not in word only, not in appearance merely, not by a specious profession of Christianity, or a regular attendance at the house of God; all this may be, and after all, there is only the semblance of Godliness, the garb of piety, the exterior of goodness, the shadow of a change; whereas the wisdom my text holds forth, consists in doing violence to ourselves, in maintaining a daily conflict with sin, in resisting our common enemy, who is ever seeking our ruin, though frequently under the mask of friendship; in vanquishing evil tempers, in suppressing anger, in subduing irregular desires, unhallowed thoughts, unholy dispositions; in a word, in being born again, in becoming a new creature, in undergoing a divine change, a change of principles, as well as practice; a change of heart, as well as life; behold then, my brethren, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, that is understanding. Having thus briefly shewn the nature of true wisdom, I proceed, secondly, to make it appear, that, agreable to the text it is the principle thing, perhaps few will deny this N |