SERMON XII. LUKE xii. 32. Fear not little flock, for it is good pleasure to give you N your Father's the kingdom. O one, capable of reflection, ever engaged in any pursuit but with a view to the end.The peasant breaks the clod, and fcatters the feed, that in due season he may reap the fruit; the trader mixes in the fatigue and vexations of bufinefs, that he may increase his substance, and provide a fund for the winter of age; the student devotes his nights to meditation, and his days to literary labour, explores SERM. XII. XII. SERM. plores the records of antiquity, and the pages of modern fcience, that he may store his mind with knowledge, and raise himself to eminence. Nothing, perhaps, is undertaken for the pleasure it affords in itfelf, the effect it may produce is the leading inducement. But while we are attentive to the confequence of our actions here, we forget the great purpose for which we were called into being. Wherefore was man endowed with faculties so comprehenfive, and animated by a spirit fublime and aspiring? Why was he placed upon a spacious globe, made fuperior to the animal creation, and furnished with paffions to ftimulate, and reason to guide him? Surely not to toil through fourfcore years, and then return to the earth and perish: Surely not to confine his wishes to the fading, unfatisfactory pleasures of a day, and depart into everlafting darkness, with the melancholy conclufion XII. clufion that all is vanity. For higher SERM. views, for more fubftantial joys, for nobler ends were his noftrils filled with the breath of life. Inferior creatures were appointed for his use, to feed, to clothe, or to ferve him, and, after a while, to be diffolved and to appear no more; but the human race were formed to live for ever: God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity*. Our bleffed LORD, who hath established this glorious conviction upon a fure and immoveable foundation, exhorts his followers neither to dread the perfecutions of their adversaries, nor to be anxious for the advantages of the world. Our prefent afflictions are tranfient, and even our prefent happiness confifteth not in abundance, Why, then, fhould the threats of men alarm, or the profpect of wealth allure? *Wifd. ii. 23. The SERM. XII. The neceffaries of food and raiment fhall be supplied by Him who diftributes plenty to the fowls of the air; and for the rest, Fear not,-it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Let us confider what is the nature of that kingdom which is here promised to the primitive believers, and whether those who now embrace the Gofpel, have any title to the fame reward. His first disciples expected from CHRIST the restoration of that fecular dominion, which the Jewish tribes, in general, fo impatiently defired; and, in confequence of this affurance, we find the apostles contending, upon different occafions, who among them should be the greatest; nor did they refign thefe hopes of beholding their leader on the throne of David, and of raising themfelves to the fummit of earthly grandeur, till long intercourse with |