are choaked up and withered by their pernicious influence: but if the tender blade which fpringeth up from the good feed is not choaked up and over-whelmed by the cares and riches of this life, its growth is quickly and effectually ftopped by the ftill more deftructive pleasures of it. If intereft and ambition are with propriety stiled thorns and briars, the pleasures of this world may with equal juftice and propriety be compared to thofe gaudy flowers which we fo often fee intermingled with the ftanding corn; however their variegated beauties may delight the eye of the traveller, the husbandman confiders them but as fo many baneful and pernicious weeds, which draw away the moisture of the earth, and choak the progrefs of his rifing harveft. And thus it is also with the vices and follies, the amusements and gaieties of life; they enliven the face of nature, they gild our days with a falfe and fpecious luftre, but at the fame time loofen the bands of piety, and undermine the foundations of virtue. Pleasure is indeed the most dangerous enemy which the faith of Chrift hath to contend with. Cares and riches alienate and ingrofs, but pleasure corrupts and enflaves the mind. The ambitious man fometimes may be either reclaimed by reafon, or reformed by disappointment, may turn his thoughts from the fearch after honours and preferments, towards the acquifition of the one thing needful: the covetous man may learn, by long experi ence, the vanity of riches; may be convinced that it is not in their power to bestow that

happiness which they had promised; even he may leave his beloved treasures to fearch after the riches of Chrift's love, and to enjoy the ineftimable treafures of his bountiful Redeemer. But when the lover of pleafure, by a continual indulgence in fenfual gratifications, has corrupted and depraved his appetite, he treads for ever in the fame dirty path, fwallows the intoxicating draught even to the last dregs, and feldom quits his vices till he is no longer able to pursue them. Thofe, in fhort, who in these our days, as well as those of our bleffed Saviour, are choaked with the cares, the riches, or the pleafures of life, very feldom, if ever, bring fruit to perfection. The foil, we know, in which the feed is fown, may be, to all outward appearance, fair and fertile, the blade may spring up, and the field look gay and luxuriant, and yet perhaps, in a fhort time, weeds may over-run, the ftorm may blaft, or the canker-worm deftroy all the promifing hopes of the impatient hufbandman. How often, and in like manner, do we see those who have been bleft with a virtuous and liberal education, who have liftened to the word of God, and received it with joy, yet in time of temptation have fallen away; who have lived to deny that God whom they worshipped, and to reject that faith which they profeffed; who have been fo choaked with the cares, fo betrayed by the pleafures, or fo enflaved by the riches of this world, as to defpife the ordinances, and trample on the commandments of their Creator, and to act in direct oppofition to his will;

who,

who, whatever might be their fpecious pretences to honour and virtue, never proved their regard for them by their conduct and behaviour, never abounded in good works, or brought their fruit to perfection.

The Fourth and last species of hearers mentioned in the parable, are they, who in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. By thefe our Saviour, no doubt, meant to diftinguifh thofe illuftrious few, who, unawed by power, and uninfluenced by example, followed the dictates of their own confcience; who not only liftened to the words of righteousness and truth, but fhewed their belief by their actions, and the fincerity of their profeffions by the unifor mity of their practice: they brought forth fruit with patience. Though we do not, in the prefent luke warm and degenerate age, meet with that zeal and alacrity in the cause of Christ and his religion, which fhone forth amongst the primitive faints and martyrs, thanks be to God there are ftill fome feeds which have fallen into good ground, and fpring up and bear fruit amongst us: there are fome who oppose the stream of vice, and stem the torrent of impiety, fome who, fuperior to fashion, prejudice, and example, fupport the mouldering pillars of our faith, and prop the decaying fabric of Chriftianity. What then, upon the whole, is the moral ufe we are to draw from this parable? This the beautiful allegory doth itself fufficiently point out unto us. The good husbandman will, by labour and affiduity, meliorate

liorate and fertilize every foil: if the ground be hard and rocky, he will soften; if it be poor and barren, he will cultivate and enrich it; if it be by the way fide, and lies open to the injuries of travellers, he will endeavour to fence, to inclofe and fecure it, left the feed be trodden down, or the fowls of the air devour it: if the thorns and briars fpring up, and choak his rifing harveft, he will root up and deftroy them. And in like manner, we alfo muft act with our own minds; if they are of fo obdurate a nature, that religious truths make but little, or very flight impreffions on them; if when we hear the word of God, we do not attend seriously unto it, but fuffer our minds to wander after other objects, we fhould endeavour, by every means in our power, to foften and fubdue them; to open and enlarge them, fo as to render them capable of receiving the good feeds of holinefs and perfection. If we find them fluctuating and inconftant, fhifting with every wind of doctrine, we must exert all our ftrength to fix and establish them. If, by long acquaintance with our own treache rous hearts, we discover that they are oppreffed by the cares of this world, attached to the riches, or intoxicated by the pleafures of it, we fhould then make it our conftant bufinefs to alienate our affections from fuch unworthy purfuits, to employ them in cares that might be profitable, in the fearch of riches that would be lafting, and pleafures that would be unfading and immortal,

But

But laftly, and above all, we must remember the great fountain and foundation of all truth and righteoufnefs, an honeft and good heart; be careful that in all religious matters we carry with us a mind open to conviction; this will remove every obftacle, and leffen every difficulty: if the precepts of Christianity have any thing harfh or fevere in them, this will render them fmooth, eafy, and practicable; if they are obfcure, this will enlighten; and if they are rigid, it will foften them: this animating and invigorating principle will vegetate the feeds of truth, ripen faith into practice, and bring forth fruit unto falvation. Let us then, my brethren, put up our prayers to the great husbandman who fowed the feeds of the Gofpel, even Jefus Chrift the righteous, that he will himself graciously condefcend to affift us in our labours, to cultivate and improve the barren and unprofitable foil of our obdurate hearts, water them with the heavenly dew of his divine mercy, ftrengthen and fertilize them with his enlivening grace, that so they may fhoot forth into a fair and plenteous harvest of piety and goodness, and bear fruit, fome thirty, fome fifty, and fome an hundred fold.

SERMON