word been sweet to your taste? Have you had freedom at the throne of grace? Have you been made to eat at a communion-table of the things wherewith the atonement was made? Have you been comforted under affliction? These are just the fruits of the Spirit, and the evidences of his love. Lay open your hearts to his benign influences; cherish his motions, and honour the Spirit, even as you honour the Father and the Son. Let others scoff at the doctrine of divine influences, and the inhabitation of the Spirit, as the effect of enthusiasm; "but ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."

Finally, let us be instructed where to look for the cure and rectification of all the evils which afflict the Church in our day!—to the love of the Spirit. By our misimprovement and abuse of our privileges, by our unchristian temper and carriage, by our worldly spirit and untender conversation, we have provoked the Spirit to withdraw from us, and the consequence has been that the glory has departed from our Israel, and ordinances have become in a great measure inefficacious and unsuccessful. "Who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Who is convinced of sin? Who cries out, "What must I do to be saved?" Who receives the word gladly? Who brings forth fruit to perfection? Where are the fruits of the gospel, even where it is purely preached? "Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer-fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat; my soul desired the first-ripe fruit. The good man is perished out of the earth; and there is none upright among men. Our carelessness, our conformity to the world, and our mournful divisions, have wasted and nearly consumed the vitals of true Christianity, and left us little more than a spiritless and unsightly skeleton. "Our leanness, our leanness, woe unto us! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. ” 2

Yet there is hope in the love of the Spirit. It is divine, and therefore infinite, sovereign, and free. He is God, and not man; he will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities, and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Let us lament after the Lord, the Spirit, and implore his return. Come from the four winds, O breath of the Lord, and breathe upon the slain that they may live! Wilt thou not revive us again, that we may rejoice in thee? The love of the Spirit shed abroad in the heart would quicken, and restore, and soften, and sanctify. It would correct all the evils among us, private and public. It would remove all grounds of division, and, what is more difficult still, it would remove all that spirit of alienation, and enmity, and jealousy, which our controversies have engendered, even in

the hearts of those who have been contending for truth and purity. It would be like oil poured upon the waters of strife, stilling the noise of their waves, and the tumult which they have excited. It would induce the contending parties to confess their faults one to another, or rather bring both to their knees before God, in joint confession, and inspire them with a holy emulation to strive who should be first in repairing the desolations of Zion, and in bringing back the King of the Church to his own house.

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SERMON XI.

CHRISTIAN WATCHFULNESS.

"And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch.”—MARK, xiii. 37.

IN the word of God every duty is enjoined and enforced by suitable motives; but you must have observed that certain duties are more frequently introduced, and dwelt upon with greater particularity and earnestness, than others. They are stated and re-stated, enjoined and re-enjoined, enforced and illustrated, in such a manner as to impress them on our memories and imaginations, as well as on our hearts and consciences. From this we have reason to conclude, either that they are of superior importance, intrinsically or relatively, or else that we are in peculiar danger of overlooking and forgetting them. Of this description is the duty inculcated in the text. It is often brought forward in the discourses of our Lord, who has enforced it by examples, and illustrated it by parables. He enforced it by the history of the inhabitants of the old world, and of Sodom and Gomorrah; and he illustrated it by the parable of the ten virgins, and, in the passage before us, by the parable of the lord of a household, who, on undertaking a far journey, assigned to all his servants their several employments, and commanded the porter to watch.

He "commanded the porter to watch." This does not merely mean that, in allotting to each in the family his specific task, he ordered them to keep the door and preserve the house from the invasion of thieves and robbers, but it intimates that he kept the time of his return a secret, enjoining the porter to be ready to open to him on whatever night, and at whatever hour of the night, he might arrive; so that the charge to the porter was a warning to the whole household-to those who were in authority, and to those who were under authority: to the former, that they should not become unfaithful, extravagant, or tyrannical; to the latter, that they should not prove careless, idle, or unruly, lest their master should come upon them unawares, and find them in fault. Thus, what he said to one of them-the porter-he said to all. It was as much as if he had gone round the whole, and said to each, Watch, watch, watch. This, at least, is the application which our Lord makes of the parable. "Watch ye, therefore; for ye know

not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning; lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping." The words of the text may be viewed as an answer to the question which Peter asked-"Lord, speakest thou this parable to us, or even to all?" It is particularly addressed to those who are watchmen by office in the church; but not to them exclusively. What is primarily addressed to the angels of the churches, is spoken to all in the churches. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear; for to him it is said, Watch.

I propose, first, to explain, and then to enforce, the duty of Christian watchfulness.

I. To watch is, literally, to keep from sleep; and it has come to signify, metaphorically, to apply the mind to anything with great care, diligence, and intensity.

1. Christian watchfulness, or vigilance, is that state of mind by which we are prepared to seize every opportunity of doing our duty, and to discover and avoid every impediment in the way of this. It does not lie in any particular exercise of the mind, like believing, loving, hoping; but it is a settled frame or posture of the soul, capacitating it for putting forth these and other exercises in the best manner, according to circumstances. It is not confined to looking out for the coming of Christ to us at death and judgment. We are to "watch in all things,"1 "watch unto prayer," and other duties, and watch against temptation. To be a Christian is one thing; to be a vigilant Christian is another. A man, though alive, may be asleep, and his property may become the prey of the thief when he is in this state as easily as if he were dead; and as one may be alive without being lively, so one may be awake without being wakeful. Christian vigilance is combined with wisdom, producing a perspicacity or quick understanding in matters of judg ment, and a circumspection in matters of practice. "See that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise; wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."2 Diligence and vigilance are closely connected in the Christian life, but they are not the same. Diligence is mere activity. A man may be busily employed, and yet to very little purpose, or in a way different from that in which he ought to be employed. Vigilance has a special respect to the occasions and opportunities of action, which it enables to discover and improve.

The husbandman is vigilant when he observes and improves the proper seasons of ploughing, sowing, reaping, and other agricultural employments. The merchant is vigilant when he seizes on the proper times for buying and selling, for laying in and disposing of his stock. The man of business, whatever his employment may be, is vigilant when he looks well into his affairs, examines his books, strikes his 2 Eph. v. 15-17.

1 2 Tim. iv. 5.

balance, and ascertains exactly whether, and to what extent, he is gaining or losing. The soldier is vigilant when he observes the motions of the enemy, guards against surprise, and embraces the most favourable opportunity for an attack. The mariner is vigilant when he is prepared to take advantage of wind and tide, and cautiously avoids the rocks and shoals to which his vessel is exposed. The Christian is vigilant when he exercises every grace, performs every duty, and waits on every ordinance in its proper season; when he is aware of the sin that easily besets him, and keeps his eye on the temptations to which he is peculiarly exposed; when he walks wisely, warily, circumspectly; when, guarding against extremes, he joins trembling with his mirth in prosperity, and mingles joy with his sorrow in the day of affliction; when, sensible of the value of time, he redeems it by improving the precious moments to the best purposes; when he is ready to turn every event which befalls himself or others to his spiritual improvement; and, in fine, when knowing the uncertainty of life and its enjoyments, he stands prepared, or endeavours to prepare himself, for eternity. This is Christian watchfulness.

2. Christian watchfulness is a duty of great importance. You may have some idea of its extent from the general description which we have just given. It reaches to all our internal exercises and all our external actions. It keeps the gracious dispositions in action, and the corrupt dispositions in check. It maintains an animating superintendency over both the natural and the spiritual senses. It makes the Christian "ready to every good work ;" and is a chief means to "preserve him from every evil work." Would you recover from the spiritual decline into which you have fallen ? "Be watchful; and strengthen the things which remain and are ready to die."1 Would you preserve your spiritual attainments? "Look to yourselves, that ye lose not the things which ye have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward."2

The occupation of a porter or door-keeper is inferior in respectability to other offices in a great establishment; but the duty intrusted to him is nevertheless of great importance. His negligence lays the house open to every intruder. If the sentinel falls asleep at his post, the whole army may be surprised and cut of. If the man stationed at the gate is unfaithful, the fortress may be taken without assault, and the whole garrison put to the sword. A man ignorant of the management of a ship, when he sees all hands busily at work—some climbing the mast, others hoisting the sails, and others plying at the pump, will be apt to look on the pilot as a lazy supernumerary who spends his time in gazing idly at the stars, and amusing himself with turning a piece of timber from side to side; not aware that this man's services are of all others the most essential to the progress of the vessel on her way, and to the safety of all who are on board. In like manner, though there