who have lost a friend or relative; yet a preacher cannot but recollect that this is the sound of his Master's feet behind him: and, while he laments your sufferings, he knows that his admonitions would have little effect in many cases, were not truth brought home thus painfully to your business and bosom.

Again, it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting; because, however dark the house may be, though it may resemble a prison with its bars, so that a man may be ready to say, “I am shut up: I cannot get forth :" yet there is no house of mourning but what admits a ray of the sun, and that beam is a beam of immortality. Christ says to the inhabitants of the House of Mourning, "Look out! Is thy consolation small? Is thy prospect to be despised? Is there nothing to be said in this case, that may rouse thy attention, comfort thy heart, and excite a hope full of immortality,' when this vision of the moment is gone?"—and how soon will it be gone with every one of us!

There is not a house in which any one of you lives, which will not soon be a house of mourning on his account. "He is dead!". "He hath been dead these four days!"-"My father is dead!"-" My mother is dead!"- "The desire of my eyes is taken away at a stroke!-My dear child is gone!"

Remember, then, that in that house, whatever is gone, one thing is left-the promise of a faithful God:

I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me shall never die." There is "one thing needful;" a "better part;" a voice of instruction, at that very time saying to you, "Take hold of my hand, as you descend to the grave: hold fast my hand as your refuge set before you. Pray to God with David,

'Remember me with the favour which thou bearest to thy people: visit me with thy salvation; that I may see the good of thy chosen; that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation; that I may glory with thine inheritance. Remember the word unto thy servant, on which thou hast caused me to hope." "

Whatever remedies others may propose on this occasion, there is no effectual remedy but the Gospel. Imagination even cannot suppose comfort in death, but from the voice of God calling to look forward to immortality and security. Let us, therefore, while in the house of mourning, not lose the grand truth which is so strongly set forth in it--"I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and he that liveth and believeth in me, shall never die." That you and I may take firm hold of that privilege, may God grant, for Jesus Christ's sake!

SERMON XII.

THE VANITY OF HUMAN IMAGINATIONS.

JEREMIAH, Xxiii. 28, 29.

The prophet, that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he, that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully: what is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord: and like a hammer, that breaketh the rock in pieces?

ERROR Consists in following the reveries of human imagination, instead of the plain dictates of the word of God.

"This is the condemnation, that light is

come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light:" it suits their natural concupiscence: this therefore is the condemnation, the root of their errors both of heart and head, that they lean to their human understandings and inclinations, instead of the plain directions given them in God's word.

Against this we find the prophet entering a solemn protest. "My heart within me," says he, "is broken, because of the prophets: all my bones shake: I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome; because of the Lord, and because of the words of his holiness. They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace: and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you-I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets, that prophesy lies? which think to cause my people to forget my name, by their dreams. which they tell every man to his neighbour-The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream :" if these men have dreamed something in their own minds that God hath laid no foundation, let them tell it as a dream: it is but a dream: but let them not call it the word of God: let them not lay it down as a foundation of truth! such a prophet as has thus dreamed, let him tell his dream but let him tell it as a dream. But "he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully:" let him simply deliver my message: neither adding to it, nor detracting from it: "let him speak my word faithfully: for what is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord:" the dreams of these false prophets are but chaff at the best; and

what is all this chaff to the purpose? it is not to be compared to the wheat, which is solid, substantial, and nourishing: "what is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord:" for "Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord: and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Is it not efficient? Will it not

accomplish that for which I sent it?

This passage discovers, therefore, to us,

1. The vanity of all human imaginations in religion.

2. The energy of scriptural truth.

I. Let us consider the VANITY OF ALL HUMAN IMAGINATIONS IN RELIGION.

If a man has a dream, let him tell it as a dream : but let him not bring it forward as any foundation for faith and practice.

In considering this subject, we are to reflect that man is an active being: he must be employed: but, however active he may be, if, in setting forward in a project, he neglect some given standard, to which that project should be brought to try its truth and validity; if he proceed, leaning to his imagination and his own understanding, he resembles a traveller, who sets out perhaps with great energy, and travels at a vast rate; but, so far is he from coming to his point, that, the faster he travels, the more he deviates from the path which he should have pursued: he is wholly wrong; and, therefore, the rate of his travelling only leads him faster and further into error. religion, a man may be ever learning, and yet never able to come to the real knowledge of the truth; because, like the traveller, he takes the wrong road.

In

Look at the deplorable state of the heathen world; yet they have had great lights; men of astonishing

genius and perseverance. But where are they? You can see very little more in the heathen world, so far as it respects moral considerations in religion, than dreams of vanity and vice. I have dreamed: I have dreamed: but what is all this chaff to the wheat!

And, even under Divine Revelation-when God has spoken-look at the state of the Antediluvians, when God saw the earth covered with wickedness and idolatry. Look at the state of the Jews, after such wonders and signal deliverances:-images worshipped as their gods! Look at the state of Christianity, over a great part of the earth: what superstition! what tyranny over conscience! what gross imposition on mankind! And even look into the Protestant world—where we profess to rid ourselves of these evils-what divisions, and unscriptural notions!

And what is all this ?-It shows the vanity of human imaginations: the evil of setting up some fancy and idol, instead of simply following God's word: the folly of a man saying, as if he was fond of his reveries, I have dreamed: I have dreamed.

But, when we reflect on the vanity of human imaginations in religion, we should consider two things:

I. Let us ask, what do all these afford to man?

There are certain grand questions which a man has to ask; and he lies in darkness and sleeps the sleep of death, till he does actually ask these questions, and that very seriously. He should first inquire into his fallen state, as having departed from the living God, by an awful alienation of heart and apostacy. He should inquire as to any remedy, which God hath appointed in this case: where there is any