SERMON II. MARK X. 38. Jefus faid unto them, Ye know not what ye ask. HESE words of our bleffed Sa- SERM. TH viour are a fevere rebuke on two of his difciples. James and John, the fons of Zebedee, came unto him, faying, Mafter, we would that thou shouldeft do for us whatsoever we shall defire; and he faid unto them, what would ye that I should do for you? and they faid unto him, grant unto us that we may fit one at thy right hand, and the other at thy left hand, in thy glory. Not content, it feems, with the humble hopes of future happiness in the manfions of the bleft, SERM. they were for afpiring to the highest and moft exalted station, to be placed on each fide the throne of glory, and next in honour and dignity to their great Redeemer; a request which he, no doubt, thought highly unreasonable. And, accordingly, fays St. Mark, he said unto them, ye know not what ye afk; by which he gave them to understand, that he thought their demands exorbitant; that the kingdom of heaven was not a thing to be acquired with fo much ease, or fo readily to be granted, as their vanity and felf-conceit seemed to flatter them; nay, that it was not even his to give, but that God the Father would prepare it for them, and them only, whofe fuperior merits should entitle them to a participation of it. Now, though these words were at that time addreffed folely to James and John, they they may, I think, with the utmost pro priety be applied, and perhaps were at first meant by our Saviour himself, as a warning to all mankind; a deferved cenfure on all the exorbitant defires, extra. vagant wishes, and idle prayers, which men from time to time pour out before the Divine Being. As prayer, therefore, has always been looked upon as the indifpenfable duty of every Christian, it may not be improper in this place to endeavour to remove any errors which may have crept into the practice of fo important and folemn an office of our religion, and to lead men into a right method in the performance of it. As man is a being too infufficient of himself to supply his own wants, fo is he for the most part too ignorant even to know SERM. SERM. know them; ever too folicitous for the II. =} attainment of those things which are most useless and infignificant; too indolent and remifs in the fearch of that on which his happiness does more immediately depend, As a fervant, therefore, it is his duty to intreat his Master's favour and protection; as a creature, it is his interest to addrefs his Creator. And herein the nature of those gifts which we require at the hands of God is carefully to be confidered, left, if we ask amifs, we receive not. We must be extremely cautious of requefting any thing unfit for God to grant, or for us to implore; for if we seriously reflect on the divine mercy, and on our own unworthiness, the proudeft and the most selfish will be obliged to confefs, that we have most of us, though not as much as we defire, yet as much perhaps as |