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that gathered little had no lack." Now if we attend to the conduct of Providence to this day, and in every ftate of the world, we fhall find the fame equality of diftribution ftill going on. A man has just what he ufes and no more. With a cheft full of gold, he has a defire to eat but twice or thrice a day at moft. With a thousand fuits of apparel in his wardrobe, he can ufe but one at a time. His neighbour, therefore, who has but one dinner, and one coat at once, is, upon the whole, juft as rich as he. Beyond what nature requires, reafon approves, and the Almighty crowns with his bleffing, all is childish and fantastical. "There is that feattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.' If this were felt and underflood as it ought, we should fee lefs eagerness, rapacity and felfifhnefs in one part of mankind, and lefs unthankfulness and difcontent in another.

Sixthly. Mark the danger of giving way to a light, wanton, fanciful difpofition. Even manna pleafed not long. An imagination filled with the luxurious dain ties of Egypt, foon fpurned at it, as "light bread." There is no end to wifhing and defiring. Unadulterated nature craves but little, and is not difficult to please. But once give the reins to fancy, and the wealth of Cræfus, the magnificence of Solomon, the elegance of Lucullus, and the luxury of Heliogabalus, will foon ftink and be defpifed. Men ate angels' food, and loathed it. Of what importance then must it be, to check in ourselves, and to repress in those whose virtue and happiness are entrusted to our care, the first workings of a wild and fantastical appetite. Children cannot be too fimply clothed and fed. Solicit the palate by delicacies, and you kindle a fire in the imagination to which no wealth can administer a fufficient fupply of fuel, which no reafon can keep within bounds, which will certainly produce a thousand real evils, and render the poffeffion of the real felicities of M 2

* Prov. xi. 24.

life

life tastelefs and infipid. Teach young ones to value themselves on drefs and appearance, and you undermine the fabric of their true confequence. In proportion as you lead them to derive their importance from the adorning of their bodies, you strip and expose

their minds.

Seventhly. The fame Power which corrupted the manna on the fecond day, and which preserved it from corruption every feventh day, commanded a fmallportion to be laid up, for a memorial to future generations; and for that purpofe miraculously kept it in its original state of fweetness and perfection.. In this we fee the abfolute fubjection of all things to the will. of God. They grow and decay, they continue and pafs away, they live and perifh, juft as he will. "I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living." "And, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he fhall ftand at the lat-ter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms deftroy this body, yet in my flefh fhall I fee God." No power nor fkill can redeem the body from the power of the grave; the arm of an archangel is unable to confine it there.

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Finally. The manna from heaven is likewise an image of better things to come. The bread of angels could not confer immortality on those who did eat it : but the true bread which came down from heaven," 66 communicates eternal life to all who partake of it. But the words of our Saviour himself will best explain this fubject. Jefus faith unto them, I am the bread, of life; he that cometh to me fhall never hunger, and he that believeth on me fhall never thirft. Verily, verily, I fay unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he fhall live for ever;

and the

bread

bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews, therefore, ftrove among themselves, faying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jefus, faid unto them, Verily, verily, I fay unto you, except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you. Whofo eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raife him up at the laft day for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." " As the living Father hath fent me, and I live by the Father, fo he that eateth me, even he fhall live by me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth of this bread fhall live for ever."*

Having thus finished the Course of Lectures proposed for this feafon,t what remains, but that with a grateful heart I first acknowledge the great goodness of Almighty God, who has graciously lent health and ftrength for carrying on this undertaking thus far. If › any favour of divine things has been felt, or communicated; if fcripture truth has, to any, been fet in a new or an agreeable light; if a tafte for facred reading and meditation has been conveyed.; if the connexion between the Old and New Teftament has been pointed out, and impreffed upon any heart; and, if the young

* John vi. 47, &c.

in

For the reafon affigned, when these difcourfes were firft fubmitted to the public eye, fome of the occasional addresses from the pulpit were retained in the publication. But the Lectures of a season not correfponding exactly to the ufual fize of a volume, it became at length a matter of doubt, whether thefe addreffes fhould be altogether fuppreffed, modelled into a more proper diction and ftation from the prefs, or given exactly in the order and words in which they were delivered. The doubt iffued in refolving upon the laft. This Lecture concluded the Course of the Spring, 1783. The Course of the enfuing feafon commenced with that which follows. Perhaps it was unneceffary to fay fo much, in explanation of a matter fo little important as the conclufion of one difcourfe and the introduction to another.

in particular have been induced, by any thing faid in this place, to think for themselves, and to compare fpiritual things with fpiritual; the Lecturer has gained his end, and is already in poffeffion of his reward. The praife he cheerfully renders to Him to whom it belongs.

To you, my very dear friends, my thanks are in the next place unquestionably due, and are rendered with unfeigned gratitude. Your patient attendance and candid attention, during feven months together, I fhall ever confider as a proof of attachment the most flattering and the moft encouraging. Why fhould I conceal my feelings on the occafion? I engaged in this undertaking, at firft, with fear and trembling; I proceeded with folicitude; but I conclude with heartfelt fatisfaction; becaufe the countenance I have met with encourages me to hope that my labours may have been doing fome good. If there be one circumstance which gives me pain, it is the excefs of that liberality and approbation which has fo far over-rated and overpaid my endeavours, to convey to you useful and pleaf, ing inftruction. In return, all I can do, is to wifh and pray that your kindness may be returned a thousand fold into your bofoms, in temporal, fpiritual and heavenly bleffings. And now, my beloved brethren, farewell. To the grace of God I commend you all: even, "to Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to prefent you faultlefs before the prefence of his glory with exceeding joy; even to the only wife God our Saviour." That we thall never all meet again in an earthly temple, is certain. For time is haftening to filence the tongue of the preacher, and to close the hearer's ear. But we have everlafting confolation and good hope, through grace, of meeting together, and of worshipping in that temple, which has no need of the fun, neither of the moon, to fhine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are faved

* Jude 24, 25

faved fhall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it fhall not be fhut at all by day; for there fhall be no night there."* Let us, therefore, "be stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forafmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord."+

* Rev. xxi. 23, 24, 25.

+1 Cor. xv. 58.

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