was often inflicted in proportion and suitable to the offence. "In the portion of Jezreel," where the murder of Naboth was committed," did dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel:" "as dogs had licked the blood of Naboth, so dogs licked the blood of Ahab,” who was the occasion of Naboth's being shed. In these latter days, when the Almighty has ceased to interpose so conspicuously in the moral government of the world, the temporal punishment does not often appear so well adapted to the offence. But let not the sinner presume to flatter himself that he shall eventually escape the judgment of God. Whether he has, been "drawn away by his own lusts and enticed;" or been tempted by the allurements of others, whom he has permitted to stir him up to wickedness; "the provocation, wherewith he hath provoked God to anger," shall not be forgotten. In the punishments of a temporal kind, which befell the sinful Israelites, he may perceive an emblem of the miseries, with which his sins will hereafter be visited. And as surely as dogs did lick the blood of Ahab, and eat the flesh of Jezebel in the portion

of Jezreel, so surely shall "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish" be poured out upon the impenitent sinner, according to his deeds.

May it please almighty God to grant us the grace of his Holy Spirit, that we may truly repent of and forsake our sins through faith in the blood of Him, by and through whom alone we may be saved, even our Lord Jesus Christ; to whom in the Unity of the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, now, henceforth and for

ever!

SERMON XXI.

MALICE INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE CHRISTIAN

CHARACTER.

EPH. iv. 31, 32.

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

IF the question were to be put to us, What advantage hath the Christian over the Heathen? or what profit is there of the Gospel? Much every way; we might answer: chiefly because of the hope it holds forth to its professors of the salvation of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ

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Jesus a." But " godliness," as the great Apostle of the Gentiles teaches, "is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is," as well as "of that which is to come b." The Gospel conducts men to future happiness, by means well adapted to the end; by teaching them and enabling them to overcome those vicious inclinations, which would prevent them from enjoying the pure delights of a spiritual state, could they with such incumbrances be admitted to it; and to acquire those heavenly tempers, which may qualify them for the enjoyment of heavenly bliss. With some particulars, that are to constitute the blessedness of that state, the holy scriptures make us acquainted. Amongst other things, they teach us that it is to be a state of rest and peace; of universal concord, and uninterrupted harmony. And accordingly they exhort us during our earthly pilgrimage, to cultivate the affections, whereby we may be qualified to enter into that delightful state: to "follow peace with all men;"" if it be possible,

Rom. iii. 24.

1 Tim. iv. 8.

'Heb. xii. 14.