Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

submission to the will of God, their fixing of their hearts on Heaven and heavenly things. Thus when a wise man, pleased with our Saviour, told him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest; our Saviour replied, the foxes have holes, and the birds have nests, but the Son of Man, meaning himself, hath not where to lay his head. It hath pleased Almighty God to place you, my friends, in an humble state of life. You are most of you slaves. But you will not be the worst for it in the world to come, if you behave well in your places. Soon will this world come to an end! soon, sooner perhaps than you expect, you may die and leave it. But if you have acted your part well, if you have done your duty, and by your repentance and belief in him, made your Saviour your friend, you will find that he, who while on earth, healed a poor leper of his leprosy, and a poor servant of his palsy, will exalt and raise you to a high rank in the kingdom of Heaven; will pardon your sins, and

make you heirs together with him of an inheritance, that never faileth, kept in the mansions of glory, for all who love and serve their blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And now to God, &c.

LECTURE XX.

ST. MATTHEW viii. 23, 24.

And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him; and, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.

IN

In my last Lecture, I told such of you as were here, of some wonderful things, which our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ did. These things shewed that he was more than man-that he was God. And indeed, if he had not been God, he would not have been able to save and redeem a whole world from death: if he had not been without sin, and no man is without sin, he could not have saved a whole world from sin. Your Saviour was

pure, and harmless, and undefiled: he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. This made him a fit sacrifice for a world of sinners. If it had not been for him, this God as well as man, you would have died in your sins, and you would have suffered for those sins the punishment of hell-fire. Will you not then love and serve your Saviour? When I give you an opportunity of hearing all about him, of knowing him and serving him here, and being happy with him after your deaths for ever: why will ye not come and hear me? Why will you stay away, let any idle excuse draw you away from Church, when by coming to it you may learn to save your souls alive? I can only pity those, who are so lost to their own true good, to the good of their souls, who act so foolish and wicked a part. I must be contented to let these go on in their wickedness and their ignorance. I can only wash my hands of them, I can only know that I have done my duty to them, and that they cannot tell me,

when I and they shall meet together before Jesus Christ to be judged, we were ready to hear, if you had been ready to teach us: we should not now have been damned to hell-fire, if you had told us, when we were upon earth, of our Saviour! This cannot now be the case: for here I am, ready to take all pains to teach you and improve you. The fault will be yours: your condemnation will be just. I trust and hope and pray to God, that what I say will have a good effect on the well-disposed amongst you, and make you as anxious to receive instruction, as I am, God knoweth, to give it.

Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who went all about the country, telling people to repent and to believe the Gospel, and shewing them all that they should do and believe, now went into a ship, in order to sail to some other part of the land of Judea. His disciples went with him. They were well-meaning, sincere people, and

5

« AnteriorContinuar »