should hear the word, and the grace of God in setting it home with energy on their hearts, cannot be enough devoutly acknowledged and gracefully remembered. Nor is there an instance of any one, savingly benefitted by the instructions and invitations of the gospel, who will not readily admit the truth of what the apostle asserts, that as it is our duty to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, so it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure.*-And how very pleasing to think, that, however in too many sad instances ministers have occasion to complain, Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?† the day is hastening on, when an infinite multitude shall acknowledge with hosannas of the loudest praise, that the word of the kingdom, though treated by many with indifference and contempt, was the power of God to their everlasting salvation!

DISCOURSE III.

The character of enthusiastic hearers con

sidered.

PART I.

MATT. xiii. 5, 6

Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had not root, they withered away.

OUR Saviour's view in this parable is, to lay open the principles, motives, and conduct of the various sorts of persons who hear the gospel. The characters he draws are four-the INATTENTIVE -the ENTHUSIASTIC-the WORLDLY-MINDEDthe SINCERE. The first of these we have considered, and proceed now,

SECONDLY, to the ENTHUSIASTIC, or those up on whom to appearance the word has an instantaneous and mighty effect, but who yet reap no real advantage from it.

The temper and conduct of these persons are strikingly represented in the text, which our Saviour thus expounds:* He that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it: yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. Here are four things to be distinctly considered,

I. The character of these hearers, previous to their hearing the word:

II. The effect it instantly produces on their minds:

III. Their failure afterwards: and,

IV. The cause of their apostacy. We begin, I. With the character of these hearers previous to their hearing the word.

They are compared to stony or rocky ground,† . which is unfavourable to cultivation; but yet has a little mould or earth cast over it, suited to receive. seed, in which it may lodge a while and disseminate itself. So that this ground is partly bad and partly good. And thus are very aptly described. the miserably perverse and depraved state of the will, on the one hand, and the warmth and liveliness of the natural passions, on the other. These qualities often meet in one and the same person, and bear a different aspect to religion, the one. being unfavourable and the other favourable to it.

1. It is true of these hearers that their will is

wretchedly depraved.

Stone is a figure used in scripture to signify the obstinate aversion of the mind to what is holy and good. So Ezekiel speaks of a stony heart, in opposition to a heart of flesh;* and Paul of the living epistles of Christ being written not on tables of stone, but fleshy tables of the heart. There is in persons of this character a certain prejudice against serious religion, which perversely resists all reasonings, expostulations and persuasions respecting it. Their carnal minds are enmity against God, for they are not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Their words are stout against God. They say, Who is the Lord that we should obey his voice? What is the Almighty that we should serve him. We will not have God to reign over us. We will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. Thus they make their faces harder than a rock, and their hearts as an adamant stone lest they should hear the law. They are stiff-hearted, rebellious, and impudent; not only alienated from the life of God, but in some instances, past feeling.ƒ

What a miserable state of the human mind is this! Hearts thus set on iniquity, and thus unyielding to

the dictates of conscience, providence, and the scriptures; may well be compared to stony, flinty, rocky ground. There are indeed degrees of depravity, and some men through sinful indulgence become more stupid than others; so that their consciences are said to be seared with a hot iron.* But it is true of all, while in a natural state, that their will is averse to that which is good. They do not with their mind serve God, and they will not come unto Christ that they may have life. Wherefore the figurative language of the text applies to the sort of hearers we are now discoursing of, in common with all others in an unrenewed state.-And yet, with all this depravity of the will, they have,

2. Warm and lively passions: a circumstance in itself not a little favourable to religion.

This is admirably expressed by the earth or mould said to be cast over the rock, which was of a nature so rich and luxuriant that the seed instantly mingled with it, and expanding sprung up, and created a beautiful verdure which promised great fruitfulness. Nothing was wanting to produce the desired effect, but a sufficient depth of earth. Had the ground at bottom been properly cultivated, this fine mould cast upon it would have assisted and forwarded vegetation: but that remaining hard and rocky, this had only a temporary effect, and served little other purpose than to deceive the expectation of the husbandman.

* 1 Tim. iv. 2.