unto righteousness: fret not thyfelf because of the ungodly, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. Quietly pursue thy courfe in godliness: reft in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. For evil-doers fhall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Commit thy way unto the Lord; and thou shalt enjoy, even in the midst of many forrows, the greatest bleffings attainable on earth, peace of confcience in Christ, and cheerful dependence on the Almighty. Fret not thyself because of the man who profpereth in the way of wicked devices. Yet a little while and thou shalt be tranfplanted from the wilderness of this world into the land of promife; from the thorny field of tribulation into the garden of God. Health and riches and worldly fuccefs are bounties which it pleases God to bestow even upon his inveterate enemies.

He

maketh his fun to shine on the evil and on the good; and fendeth rain on the juft and on the unjust. Earthly enjoyments are not the rewards which he has fet apart for his fervants. For them he has prepared a kingdom yet to be revealed; a kingdom purchased for them by the blood of his Son; a kingdom of honour and glory

and

-and happiness at his right hand for ever. Be patient in faith and holiness; and that kingdom fhall become thine inheritance. Thou shalt enter into peace: thou shalt ftand in thy lot at the end of days. Thou fhalt behold thy Redeemer face to face. Thou shalt be in bleffedness with him throughout eternity.

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SERMON X.

On Occupation.

GEN. xlvi. 33.

What is your occupation?

ACTIVITY is the life of nature. The

planets rolling in their orbits, the earth revolving on her axis; the atmosphere purified by winds, the ocean by tides; the vapours rifing from the ground and returning in freshening fhowers, exhaled from the fea, and poured again by rivers into its bofom, proclaim the univerfal law. Turn to animated exiftence. See the air, the land, and the waters in commotion with countless tribes eagerly engaged in attack, in defence, in the construction of habitations, in the chase of prey, in employment fuited to their fphere and conducive to their happiness. Is man born an

exception

exception to the general rule? While the whole creation toils around him, is he to flumber in fupineness? Man is born to labour. For labour, man while

yet innocent was formed. The Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, to drefs it and to keep it. To that exertion which was ordained to be a fource of unmitigated delight; painful contention and overwhelming fatigue, when man apostatifed from his God, were fuperadded. In the fweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. By toil must thy daily food be purchased. To toil must thou look as the inftrument of fecurity, of accommodation, of comfort, of improvement. Such was the decree. And are none exempted? None. To Adam, as virtually including the whole human race, of whom he was to be the progenitor, was the mandate iffued. Of bread, as the representative of earthly acquifitions among which it is pre eminently neceffary, did the mandate speak. On every individual labour is enjoined. Through labour is cvery blefling to be fought.

In the early ages of the world employments now confined to the lowest claffes were deemed not unbecoming perfons of the moft elevated rank. The wearifome cares

of agriculture, and the humble offices of domeftic life, occupied princes and kings. Thus fpeaks the voice of profane history : and thus, even on a fubject of comparatively small importance, bears teftimony, unfufpicious because incidental, to the veracity and inspiration of the Sacred Records. Of the wealth of the Patriarchs flocks and herds formed a distinguished branch: and to the fuperintendence of flocks and herds was their daily folicitude devoted. Abraham, who was very rich in cattle, in filver and in gold; Abraham, whofe household was fo numerous, that he had already produced in arms on a critical occafion three hundred and eighteen of his trained fervants born in his own boufe; when he beheld three travellers approaching him as he fat in the door of his tent in the heat of the day, dispatched not an attendant with offers of hofpitality, but ran himself to invite them to pause and refresh themselves; and haftening to the herd, with his own hands felected the calf for their entertainment, while his wife prepared the cakes upon the hearth. the hearth. His grandfon Jacob is now gone down with his family into Egypt. Jofeph, the ruler of the land under Pharaoh, foreseeing that the king, to whom his brethren are about to be prefented

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