the doctor, if the cause of the evil lies in the foul; our fins are the caufe; the disease, the punishment: our intemperance, injuftice, and ill courfes, have inflamed God's anger; he puts the humours in a ferment, and makes all thofe parts of our body inftruments of our torment, that have been inftruments of our fin.

O my Saviour! I afk no temporal bleffing, but on condition it conduces to thy glory, and my falvation. Alas! I am blind, and cannot foresee what will turn to my good, what to my prejudice. I leave all that concerns this world to thy choice: fickness or health, poverty or riches, life or death, are indifferent to me: only let me hear this comfortable word, thy fins are forgiven thee, and I am content.

Some of the scribes thought within themselves, he blafphemed; but they durft not fay fo, for fear of the people but our Saviour fhewed what he was, by discovering their thoughts. For if God alone can remit fins, he alone can enter into our thoughts: but, to convince them he had power to pardon fins, he commanded the paralytick to arife; take up thy bed, and go unto thy boufe, and he obey'd the command.

But why, O Lord, doft thou work miracles, to convince the Pharifees of thy divinity? Their obftinacy is proof against all motives; their ignorance lies in their heart, not in their understanding; thy goodness only ferves to render them more guilty.

I acknowledge, my Saviour, thou art the true Lamb, that takeft away the fins of the world: thou haft the power, and the goodness, to forgive more fins, than I am able to commit, and thou defireft nothing more than to pardon. Why then do I defer one moment to fling myself at thy feet, and to defire thee to take a poor finner

into

into thy favour, and protection? Thou dost ftretch out thy hand, to receive me; thy voice, to recall me from my diforders; thou doft promise heaven, if I return, and threateneft hell, if I refufe. Can I be fuch an enemy to myself, as neither to be moved by fuch a reward, nor frighted by fuch a punishment? From this

moment I will arife from the lethargy, my fins have caft me into; I will break with the world eternally, and bid adieu to all the fawning pleafures of the flesh, which only flatter my body, to ruin my foul, and promife content, but breed affliction.

However, to confound the scribes, he would work the cure, and fhew, that not he, but they were guilty of blafphemy. He said to the fick of the paly: Arife, take up thy bed, and go unto thy houfe: The cure followed his command, and be arofe, and departed to his house.

Our Saviour commanded three things to be obferved by all thofe, who seriously repent. 4rife they muft arife from the abyfs, into which their crimes had caft them, by a true horror aud deteftation; and firmly purpose to stand to their duty for the future. They must not only leave fin, but fly the occafion, and break through all the obftacles, that interpofe between them and their duty. Take up thy bed: they must carry the weight of their paffions by a generous refiftance, and labour to root out all ill habits contracted by frequent relapses.

Go unto thy houfe. They must enter into themselves, and compare, in folitude and cool blood, the miserable state of a finner, with the happiness of a penitent. What was I by my fins, and what am I now by thy mercy, O my God? I was thy mortal enemy, a flave of Satan, and heir to hell; had thy juftice taken me

off

off in that deplorable ftate, I had pafs'd into a worfe, where nothing but horror dwells, nothing occurs but darknefs and confufion, and both eternal. But Oh! now I am returned to thy grace, I have broken my chains, and of a flave am become thy child, thy favourite, and am restored to the title of thy kingdom. Let me fall no more into the precipices, from which thy goodness hath withdrawn me! Support my weakness, guide my steps, and give me victory over all temptations!

EPISTLE to the Ephefians, Chap. iv. Verse

22. That ye put off concerning the former converfation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lufts.

23. And be renewed in the Spirit of your mind.

24. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true bolinefs.

25. Wherefore putting away lying, Speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

26. Be ye angry and fin not: let not the fun go down upon your wrath.

27. Neither give place to the devil.

28. Let him that fole, fteal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

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The MORAL REFLECTION.

HE apoftle writes to the Ephefian converts, and conjures them to change their manners, with their religion. Put off, concerning the former converfation, the old man. When you lived in Pagan blindness, you followed the corrupt inclinations of nature; you gave all to fenfe, and placed your happiness in gratifying nature. But, being called by God's grace to christianity, you muft leave your pagan converfation with your idols, and frame your lives by the maxims of the gospel. In fine, you must be renewed in the Spirit of your mind. You muft hate what before you adored, and love what hated: you you lay down your ancient prejudices, and esteem croffes and mortifications the only wifdom, which before you held for the laft of follies. These truths the apostle preach'd to the new converts of Ephefus, and he has left them written for the inftruction of all Chriftians.

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Be renewed in the Spirit of your mind. This concerns us all. Who has walk'd fo fteady, as not to fall? Who has not been carried away, beyond his duty, by the heat and violence of his paffions? Who has not betrayed his confcience to pamper flesh, and abandoned virtue to follow vice? Alas! my God, we are all guilty, and thou haft declared by the mouth of thy favorite apoftle, that, if we fay we have no fin, the truth is not in us. Our lives have been a continual series of tranfgreffions, often even without fcruple, and fometimes without fhame. We will put on, for the future, the new man, which after God is created in righteoufness. We will wash out the ftains of our former fins with neverceafing tears, and practise those virtues, thy law commands.

commands. I find by experience, worldly delights have nothing pleafing, but the name; they amufe for a while, and then difappear, leaving nothing behind them, but remorfe and regret, for having pawned our fouls and thy favour for mere illufions.

The apostle defcends to particulars, and first he bids them put away lying, and speak the truth. This is a common weaknefs, and few can plead not guilty; it is a real offence to God; and, tho' we call it a fmall fin, it is a great offence: nay, all the merits of faints and angels are not able to fatisfy God's juftice for it. It is not only against the law of God, but of nature alfo; for fpeech was given us to entertain and to carry on fociety, which cannot fubfift, unless our tongues and our thoughts agree. The bafenefs of this vice appears by this, that it's one of the greatest affronts we can put on a man, to call him a liar, and how many have endeavoured to wash off the afperfion with the blood of the defamer?

But, dear Chriftians, if it be fuch an infamy to be called a liar, is it not a far greater to be one? If the very name be odious and degrading, is not the thing much more? Honour, therefore, as well as confcience, diffuades you from this vice; which renders you ungrateful to God, and unacceptable to men.

Give me, my God, the grace to put a guard on my lips, that nothing unfeemly, nothing ungrateful to thy divine majefty, may pafs them; the tongue is unquiet and restlefs, and feldom moves but to the prejudice of him that speaks, and often of him that hears. A child can put it in motion; nothing but a folid virtue can ftop it. Give me thy affiftance, that I may curb all its fallies, that I may keep it within the bounds VO II.

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