discharging our duty, to lay out ourselves in advancing the interest of Chrst and of religion in the world: that since he has brought us into his family, we exert our endeavours to bring others also into it. —Another bond is,

2. The love and duty we owe to mankind: Rom. xiii. 9, "If there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Those who are yet strangers to God, are our fellow-creatures, lying in the ditch of sin, swimming to the ocean of wrath, in which condition we also were before we were the Lord's; which requires from us a very serious concern to help them out of that state, Tit. iii. 1, 2, 3. And this is as natural as it is for one that has narrowly escaped drowning, to bestir himself to help his fellow who is in hazard of perishing.

The use and improvement I would make of this is, to call upon you, O Christians and communicants! whosoever of you are the Lord's, to put your hand to this work, to recommend Christ and religion to others. You that are come out from among the devil's family, make it your work to prevail on others to come away also. Remember the Samaritan woman, who told her neighbours of Christ, and invited them to come to him: John iv. 29, "Go thou and do likewise."-To stir you up to this work, I shall lay before you the following motives.

MOT. 1. What use are you for in this world, if you be not useful for God, and your generation, in this work to which you are called? If you will do nothing for God, you but take up room on God's earth, and cumber his ground. The children of God are not so situated. They say, "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's."

MOT. 2. It is a dangerous thing to be an unprofitable servant in God's house; Matth. xxv. 30, " And cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." An unprofitable tree may stand safer in a wood than in an orchard; and what is quite unfit for the master's use, is fuel for the fire.

MoT. 3. It is the nature of true grace, and has been the practice of the saints, thus to lay themselves out for God and the good of others. Grace is communicative; it is a well of water, from which many may be refreshed; it is a holy fire to warm others. Accordingly, we find Abraham's grace working thus, Gen. xviii. 19, "For I know him," said God, "that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do jus

tice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." Thus also, we find David's grace, Psalm xxxiv. 8, "O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." Thus also the spouse's grace, Song v.; the woman of Samaria, John iv. 29.

MOT. 4. You would thrive better yourselves, if you were more employed in this work: Prov. xi. 25, "The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered himself." The spring runs, and the fire burns, the more freely that they get a vent; and they that use their talents thus for God, are in the high way to increase them: Matth. xxv. 28, 29, "Take therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance." A cold heart, without zeal for God's interest, and a sealed mouth, which cannot open for God, produces a back-going withered condition.

MoT. 5. It is well laid out work. For either sinners are gained by it, as it often falls out: Song vi. 1, "Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? Whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee." In this case the work is an abundant reward for itself: James i. 27, "Pure religion and undefiled, before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction." But it shall not go so; for every soul thou doest good to, shall be as a jewel in thy crown: "They that turn many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars for ever and ever." Thou wilt gain the blessing of those ready to perish; and if thou shouldst not gain thy point, yet thy work shall not be in vain; Isa. xlix. 4, "Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain; yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God."—But here some who are under difficulties may propose this

QUESTION, HOW shall a person manage this duty? I answer, Follow after the copy we have in the text, in these three particulars :

1. Speak to the commendation of him and his service. The world have mean and low thoughts of God; speak to his greatness, that the souls of others may be awed by it; to his goodness and lovingkindness, that their souls may be stirred up to love him, hope in him, trust him. Speak to the advantage of his service, how comfortable, pleasant, and beneficial it is, Psalm xxxiv. 6, 7, 8.

2. Prudently communicate your experiences of his goodness to you. Tell what you have seen, heard, tasted, and felt of him, that others may be excited to wait on him. Tell it to those who are absolute strangers to God, when there is any hope of thus doing them

good, as in the case of the text; but otherwise we must beware of casting these pearls before swine. Tell it to fellow-Christians who need to be strengthened: Psalm Ixvi. 16, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul." And tell it even to those who see no beauty in ordinances: Zech. viii. 23, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."

3. Confidently avow your choice of God and his service before the world. Let them see that you have made your choice, and do not repent it. Say, with Joshua, chap. xxiv. 15, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." The being ashamed of confessing the Lord and his way before an evil generation, does much hurt to religion; but a confident profession is a practical testimony to it. To these three may be added,

4. A conversation becoming the gospel, and those principles which you possess. In the text,

The first thing we have is Paul's intercourse with heaven, his communion with God: "There stood by me," &c.

The second thing is, Paul's special relation to the God of heaven: "Whose I am, and whom I serve."-We begin with the

First thing in the text, Paul's intercourse with heaven, his communion with God. "There stood by me this night, the angel of the Lord."-In this several things offer themselves to our notice, which we shall shortly explain.-There is,

I. The party employed to bring him the comfortable message from God: "The angel of the Lord."

II. The peculiarity of this manifestation and intercourse with heaven.

III. The posture of the angel: "He stood."

IV. The time of this manifestation: "This night.”

Let us then attend,

I. To the party employed to bring him the comfortable message from God: an holy angel, who appeared to him in the ship. This was often the privilege of the saints in the Old Testament, and sometimes in the New, in the first times of it. We are not, however, now to expect such appearances. The sacred volume is completed, and we are not to expect new revelations. Angels are employed to serve for the good and benefit of those that are the Lord's. We know little of the ministry of angels, but the scriptures are plain, that this is the privilege of all who are his Psalm xxxiv. 7, "The

angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." Heb. i. 14, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation." And the angels being invisible, we know not how much we are indebted to them for their ministry; we will know it better afterwards, when we will be in no hazard of abusing it.

The improvement I would make of this is, to point out the dignity and advantage of the children of God. King's children have honourable attendants; these, however, are only men. But if thou be a child of the family of God, angels attend thee. They have a concern for thy welfare, to promote it, as devils are trying to hinder it. And these angels will attend thee,-during thy life in this world. The scripture is plain, that God gives his angels charge concerning those who are his, to keep them while in the way. It is a promise of the covenant that has been sealed to us: Psalm xci. 11, 12, "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." As a father of a family charges the elder children with the care of the younger ones; so does God the angels, with the saints on earth, the young heirs of glory; and they diligently execute their charge, however little we know about it. This appears from the scriptures already quoted. The angels will attend thee at thy death, they will wait on thy soul removing from the body, and convey it away home to your Father's house in glory: Luke xvi. 22," And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." When the child comes out of its mother's belly into this world, some inhabitants here receive it, and take care of it; and when the soul of a believer comes out of the body, and is born into another world, the angels, inhabitants there, take it, and convey it away to their country. This honour have all the saints.-Let us attend,

II. To the peculiarity of this manifestation and intercourse with heaven." The angel stood by me." They were all in the same ship, but none knew what passed between the Lord and Paul; none saw nor heard the angel but Paul himself. And two things are here remarkable,

1. There were many strangers to God in the ship; but Paul was his own, and with him God keeps communion; but with none of them, though in the same ship with him.-Whence observe, that there is a secret conveyance of intercourse with heaven to those who are the Lord's, in the midst of a crowd of persons who know nothing of the matter. Many a time matters go on betwixt God and a gracious soul, as betwixt Jonathan and David, when they only knew

the matter, 1 Sam. xx. 39. The Lord knoweth who are his, and who are not, however mixed the multitude may be, 2 Tim. ii. 19. Whatever fair appearances a hypocrite puts on, he can see through the disguise; and however iniquity prevail in his own, he can discern the pearl of faith and love in a dunghill of corruption. The arrow is shot at a venture, but the Spirit of the Lord directs it. Communion with God and intercourse with heaven, lies in inward, not in external things: 1 Tim. iv. 8, "For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." Every person might see who went to the table, what visible thing was done there, who received the bread and wine. But what passed in the retirements of the heart there, whose spikenard sent forth the smell, who received Christ into their hearts, whose faith and love were exercised, with whom the idol of jealousy was preserved, or who put the knife to the throat of it: the whole is a secret betwixt God and the soul itself. The improvement of this is, to learn, that it is a sad thing to have been where that intercourse with heaven was, and to have had no share of it; to be persons whom God goes by, and comes by, manifests his grace on the right hand, and on the left hand, while they have no share of it. We have no ground to doubt but communion with God was enjoyed by some in that church-yard, and at the Lord's table. O! what was your share of it? If you have had none, it is a token, either that you were dead in your sins, and in a state of alienation from God, and not come out of the devil's family, though you were by profession among God's children: Amos iii. 3, "Can two walk together, unless they be agreed?" Dead folk cannot converse with the living, nor dead souls have communion with the living God. Habitual estrangement from communion with God, is a black mark of a graceless state, 2 Cor. vi. 16. Let that stir you up yet to come out from among them, and leave the congregation of the dead, while yet there is hope. Or it is a token, that ye were asleep, and all out of case for communion with God. And if that was the case, O but it was ill-timed! Song v. 1, 2. Ye have slipt a precious season, ye know not if ever it may return. Review, therefore, your carriage and way at this occasion; awaken timeously, and repent, else you may come to get an awakening stroke from the Lord, which may go very deep: 1 Cor. xi. 30, "For this cause many were weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."-Learn to bless God, be thankful, and walk worthy of your privilege, you who have had the distinguishing mercy of communion with God. To whom much is given much also shall be required. Did he bring you into his banqueting-house? Then follow on in the way of holiness, as strengthened by what you have