"For these purposes, O God, inspire us with thy Spirit, and strengthen us with all might in the inner man, that we may prefs forwards to perfection. May we acquire that humility which afterwards shall be exalted, that mourning which shall be comforted, thofe penitential tears which shall be changed into eternal confolations, that contempt of the world to which belongs the kingdom of heaven, that purity of heart which shall fit us to fee God; and perform all those works of mercy, and labours of love, for which the kingdom of our Lord was prepared before the foundations of the world were laid. Grant that neither the splendour of any thing that is great, nor the conceit of any thing that is good within us, may ever withdraw our eyes from looking upon ourselves as finful duft and afhes; but that we may perfevere with patience, and humility, and zeal, unto the end. Grant that when we shall depart from this life, we may fleep in the Lord, and when the morning of the refurrection dawns over the world, we may lift up our heads with triumph, and rejoicing, receive the bleffed fentence of those who

having done well, are called upon to enter into their Master's joy.

"And now, our waiting eyes, O God, are towards thee. May the words of our mouths, and the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable in thy fight, O Lord, our ftrength and our Redeemer. All these our in the name,

humble prayers, we offer up

and through the interceffion of Chrift, to whom with thee the Father and holy Spirit, be all praise and glory." Amen.

EVEN

EVENING SERMON.

MATTHEW XXviii. 6.

Come, fee the place where the Lord lay.

WHEN

THEN our Saviour expired upon the cross, the cause of Christianity feemed to be loft. Rejected by that nation to whom he was fent, condemned under the forms of a legal trial, and crucified as a malefactor before all the people, an effectual bar seemed to have been put for ever to all his defigns. It then feemed that all was over.. A people whom their prophets taught to look for a king, did not look for him to come down from a cross; a nation who expected the appearance of a Meffiah, did not expect him to appear from the grave. His followers were few in number, and feeble in fpirit. Although he had frequently foretold

foretold his death, the idea of a temporal prince was fo ftrong in their minds, that they could not reconcile themselves to the thought of a suffering Saviour; and though he had also on various occafions foretold his refurrection, they were fo much under the power of prejudices, deeply rooted, that they either did not understand, or did not believe his predictions. When he was apprehended by a band of foldiers, they forfook him and fled; they had not courage to attend him in the laft hour of his life; to go with him to the tribunal and to the cross: afar off only, they followed with their eyes, and beheld with tears, him whom they expected to behold no more. Then they gave up all for loft. The fun, which was foon after darkened by a preternatural eclipfe, and the rock which was rent afunder by an earthquake, appeared to be the fad tokens of a glory that had departed, and of a kingdom that was to be no more.

Dark and dismal were the shades of that night which defcended on the Saviour's tomb: the hearts of the disciples were

troubled,

troubled, and their Comforter was gone. All the scenes of their past lives, the miracles they had feen, the discourses they had heard, the hopes they had entertained, were like a dream; they abandoned themselves to despair, and, as we learn from the Evangelift Luke, they were about to leave Jerufalem, and betake themselves to their old employments.

While the enemies of Jefus triumphed, and his friends lamented, the councils of heaven were executing, and the operation of the Almighty was going forward. We read in the Gospel of Matthew,-" In the "end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn "towards the first day of the week, came

Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, to fee the fepulchre. And behold, there

was a great earthquake; for the angel "of the Lord defcended from heaven, and came and rolled back the ftone from the "door, and fat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as fnow. And for fear of him, the keepers did shake, and became as dead And the angel answered and said

66

men.

"unto