expand our souls to the full blaze of its divine illumination. In obedience, in short, to the voice which issued from the cloud, we must listen exclusively to Jesus Christ. "Hear ye him."

But how, it may be asked, are we to hear him? How are we to be made acquainted with his heavenly mandates? Why, he has told you himself, my friends, in what manner you are to proceed in order to acquire this valuable information. He has told you, you must have recourse to the governors of his Church, upon whom he has promised to send down his Holy Spirit to abide with them perpetually to the end of time. He has told you, that in hearing them, you hear him. "He who heareth you, heareth me." It is by listening therefore to them with docility and respect, that you are to learn the instructions of your divine Master, contained in holy writ, and not by the dictates of private judgment, which may lead you into the most gross and palpable errors.

Remember also, my friends, that when you are commanded to hear the Son of God, speaking to you by the lips of his ministers, it is not merely that you may acquire a knowledge of his sacred injunctions, but that you may render, moreover, your conduct conformable to them.

It is not

only that you may be hearers of the word, as St. James observes, but doers also. For such alone, says the same Apostle, "are blessed in their deeds." But is your attention to the divine word of this description? Is it accompanied with a cor

responding influence on your conduct? Does it make you punctual in performing your daily exercises of devotion, and in discharging your duty of public worship? Does it cause you to be watchful over the motions of your hearts, to curb the impetuosity of your passions, to smooth the asperities of your tempers, and to mortify by the spirit the lusts of the flesh? Does it operate as a restraint on the licentiousness of your tongues, and counteract the malignity of your censorious dispositions? Does it inspire you with patience, under all the afflictions, vexations, and troubles, which may fall to your lot, and render you kind, meek, affable, and unassuming, to all with whom you may be engaged in social intercourse? Do you never relax the severity of its precepts, to accommodate them to the propensities of corrupt nature, or allow its maxims to be superseded in your hearts by the unhallowed principles of worldly policy? These circumstances, my friends, demand your serious consideration for your blessed Saviour has himself assured you, that though they, who through ignorance, transgress his ordinances, "Shall be punished with but a few stripes, yet they who know his will, and do it not, shall be punished with many stripes."

Awed, therefore by the salutary fear of so rigorous a penalty, encouraged by the prospect of that boundless happiness, of which I presented you with an imperfect representation, in the former part of this instruction, and animated, above all,

by that still more perfect and sublime motive of divine love, resolve, henceforward, to make the sacred word of the Son of God, constantly and universally the rule of your conduct; and you may rest assured, that as he exhibited himself in glory to his Apostles on the Mount, so he will manifest himself hereafter to you, with incomparably superior magnificence and splendour, in the kingdom of his heavenly Father, and ravish your souls with inexpressible delight. "For he," said he to his Apostles, the night before his passion, "that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." (JOHN, c. xiv. v. 21.)

SERMON XIII.

THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT.

ON CONVERSION AND RELAPSE.

GOSPEL. St. Luke, xi. v. 14-28. At that time Jesus was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb, and when he had cast out the devil the dumb spoke, and the multitude were in admiration at it; but some of them said, he casteth out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils. And others tempting, asked of him a sign from heaven; but he seeing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation, and house upon house shall fall; and if Satan shall be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because you say, that through Beelzebub I cast out devils. Now if I cast out devils by Beelzebub, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I by the finger of God cast out devils, doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth his court, those things which he possesses are in peace; but if a stronger than he come upon him, and overcome him, he will take away all his armour wherein he trusted, and will distribute his spoils. He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest: and not finding, he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there; and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. And it came to pass as he spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the breasts that gave thee suck. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.

IT

appears from this day's Gospel, that our blessed Saviour had, by his divine power, restored to a

poor dumb man the faculty of speech, of which he is stated to have been deprived by the operation of the devil. This miracle, as well it might, excited in the minds of all who beheld it, the greatest astonishment. "And the multitude," says the sacred text, "were in admiration at it." The Pharisees, who were jealous of the growing reputation of Jesus among the people, perceiving the impression which so wonderful a prodigy had made upon their minds, and unable, at the same time, to deny its reality, had recourse to the expedient of impiously ascribing it to the preternatural agency of the prince of darkness. "But some of them said, this man casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils." Whilst others, with a design equally malicious, demanded of him that extraordinary sign from heaven, which, from a passage in the prophet Daniel, they conceived to be peculiarly characteristic of the Messiah. "And others," continues the text, "asked of him a sign from heaven." To this request Jesus did not think proper to pay any attention. But with respect to the wicked and blasphemous pretence, which attributed the cure he had miraculously performed, to the power of the devil, as it might tend to counteract the success of his own mission, by the unfavorable impression which it might possibly produce on the minds of the multitude, to that he deemed it advisable to make a distinct reply,—a reply which must certainly be allowed, by every candid and impartial mind, to have been