XI.

the joints and marrow; reaching the very DISC. thoughts and intentions; fubduing and mortifying evil defires and blafphemous imaginations, as they arife within; confuting and filencing infidelity and error, as they affault us from without. A fingle text, well understood, and rightly applied, pierces the heart of a temptation, or an objection, and lays the most formidable adverfary dead at our feet. With this weapon the bleffed Jefus conquered in the wildernefs; by the fame weapon, and no other, must every disciple of his expect to conquer in the world.

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And now, friends, and fellow foldiers in the Christian warfare, liften to the voice of infpiration, and be directed by one who cannot direct you wrong. Enemies of all kinds furround you; enter not into the battle unarmed: the host of darkness is in array against you; put on the armour of light, to discover and furvey it. Let truth be the girdle of your loins, let righteousness be the protection of your heart, and let the fandals. of the Gofpel of peace adorn and defend

DISC. your feet in the way in which you go: let XI. faith be your invincible fhield, and hope

your impenetrable helmet: and on the thigh be girded the fword of the Spirit, bright and shining, and ready for use, and to be drawn, at a moment's warning. Thus completely armed from head to foot, always remembering from whence come skill and strength for the battle, fall upon your knees, as the Apostle enjoins at the close of his exhortation; "pray with all fupplication, and watch "with all perfeverance." Then go forth, and may the Almighty go forth with you, teaching your hands to war, and your fingers to fight, and at length giving you a complete and glorious victory over every enemy, through the Captain of our falvation, the Lord Jefus Christ.

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PSALM XLI. 1.

Bleffed is be that confidereth the poor.

XII.

S the world was made by wisdom, it DISC. requires wisdom to understand the frame of it. The more a man increases in wisdom, the more he will understand it; and the more he understands, the more he will approve. The full perfection of a complex machine in all it's parts, with their refpective bearings, and mutual dependencies on each other, is best comprehended by an artist. Superficial thinkers see little, and blame; deep thinkers see much, and commend.

DISC.

XII.

In viewing the conftitution of the moral fyftem, there is scarcely a phænomenon that ftrikes fo forcibly upon the mind, or occafions for much perplexity in it, as that of the inequality of mankind, or the state and condition of the poor. In the paffage of Scripture which has been just read, we are invited, by the promise of a Bleffing, to employ our thoughts on that fubject: "Bleffed is he that confidereth the poor;" that giveth himself thoroughly to ftudy and understand their cafe, and why it is as it is; to fee the reafon of the thing, and his own duty refulting from it.

The inequality of mankind is a plain and undeniable matter of fact: nor does it happen occafionally, in this or that age, in this or that country: it is univerfal and unavoidable, at least in the fituation of affairs which has taken place in the world, fince the Fall. From that period, it ever has been fo, it ever will be fo, it ever must be fo, till the time of the reftitution of all things. What, then, will be the first con

fideration

fideration with a rich man, when he fees a DIS C. poor man? If he be endowed with a clear XII. head, and a good heart, will he not reafon in fome fuch manner as the following?

;

God has given the earth to the children of men, for the fupport of all. While I abound, why does this man want? Plainly, that we may bear one another's burthens that my abundance may fupply his need, may alleviate his diftrefs, may help to sustain the affliction under which he groans; that I may take off his load of woe, and he take off the fuperfluity of my wealth that so the stream, now broken and turbid, may again find it's level, and flow pure and tranquil. Otherwife, if he be fuffered thus to carry, on his own fhoulders, through life, the weight of all this accumulated misery, fhould he murmur and complain, would it not be with some colour of justice, and must not I in fome measure be answerable for his fo doing? We are formed, by the fame artificer, of the fame matèrials; our truft is in the fame Saviour, and we muft ftand

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