proper and perfectly safe refuge is provided for you and freely offered to your acceptance. "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste." Here is a sure and safe hiding place; for God himself hath declared that " a man shall be a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place, and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Abandon, then, all false refuges, all vain hiding places, and come to this sure foundation, this refuge of safety. To it you are invited, and urged, and besought to flee, by the strongest and most persuasive motives that can be either exhibited or conceived. Yield then to those motives, and flee to this refuge that you may be safe forever. Or if you will not do this—if you will not abandon your false confidences and grounds of hope, at least let me obtain one thing of you. And that is,

3. That you will at least act an open and manly and decided part in this important affair. Confess openly that you do and that you mean to make lies your refuge, and under falsehood to hide yourselves. It is best to be open and explicit in our temporal affairs, and much more so in things that relate to eternity. By "a fair show in the flesh" you may indeed deceive men but you cannot deceive God. He knows your real character and temper and conduct as well without this confession as with it. Nothing, therefore, can be gained by concealment. On the other hand an open acknowledgment of the real truth may tend to strike conviction to your own consciences, to bring your characters to your own view, and make you attend to your own hearts. In this view it may be of signal service to you, for it may waken and rouse you to flee from the wrath to come. Confess then openly and plainly that for the sake of present peace of conscience and to quiet the fears of God's wrath-that in order to gratify your carnal, covetous or ambitious desires you are resolved to lay hold of every plausible ground of hope of God's favor, or of future safety and felicity, and of every plausible excuse for your own impenitence and unbelief. Admit that you care not what the pretence or excuse is, if you can but persuade yourself that it is true, and can find in it present peace. Admit that you are resolved to grasp the present world, and present comfort, no matter what becomes of the future; that you are determined to secure your temporal interest, and to enjoy the pleasures of this life, whether in the future you inherit heaven or hell-whether you are saved or damned. Admit, in short, that for your part you will eat and

drink though tomorrow you die; that you will say to your soul, "take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry," though it be at the hazard of hearing that awful voice from the heavens, "Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required;" admit all this, and it might alarm you, and by God's grace it might rouse you to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

SERMON XXI.

THE PARTING COMMENDATION.*

ACTS 20: 32.-And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

In this chapter is an account of part of Paul's journey from Philippi to Jerusalem. Ephesus was in proconsular Asia. It was a place where the apostle had labored much, and where at one time he had spent two years, (ch. 19: 8-11.) He was the founder of the church there; the spiritual father of its members. He had built them up and made them what they were. And now as he is going to Jerusalem, not knowing what was to befal him there; as he could not visit Ephesus, he sends from Miletus, a sea-port near, for the elders of the Ephesian church to come and meet him. On their arrival he addresses them in a very affectionate and solemn manner in the farewell discourse of which our text is a part. He tells them in much tenderness that they shall see his face no more; and then after advice on various points he leaves them with God in the language of our text. "And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified."

In dwelling on these words, I would show 1. What it is to commend to God, and to the word of his grace; 2. What is presupposed in this; 3. In what sense his word is able to build us up, and to give us an inheritance among them that are sanctified. I. What is it to commend to God, and to the word of his grace?

1. What is it to commend to God? It is,

* A farewell discourse to the church and society in New Haven, May 24, 1795. The body of this sermon, as far as the "Improvement," was left by the author in the shape of brief notes. As these notes have been

filled up only by the addition of the needful connecting words, the discourse as here presented gives but an imperfect idea of what it must have been as originally delivered. The application was written out in full by the author.

(1) To leave with God. It is to leave the individual to his guidance and counsel, to his gracious teaching and to the influence of his spirit. By his spirit he influences all good men. He restrains, animates and excites them to duty. He guards them from mistakes and temptations, from dishonoring his name, from sins of omission and of commission. All are liable to innumerable errors, to mistakes in judgment both through misinformation and depraved passions ;-are liable to the influence of corruption within; and to constant and sore temptations from the world and the great adversary of the soul. And from all these things we need protection, and God is able and willing to render it to us. And to commend one to God, is to leave him with God for this end.

Nor is this all. We not only need protection but to be excited to duty; to love God and his law, and Christ and his gospel; to love the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves; to cherish the spirit of repentance, and humility, and meekness, and gentleness, and all the christian graces. We also need to be incited to christian practice. It is not sufficient that we have the temper of Christ; but we are to carry out that temper in our practice, and endeavor to do so perfectly. We should aim at entire obedience to the will of God. And for this holy practice, we need the influence of the Holy Spirit; and to commend one to God is to leave him with God for this end, that he may obtain this influence to sanctify him for every good word and work.

To commend one to God is also to leave him with God, that grace may be given him according to his day. It is to leave him with God in prosperity, that he may use it aright; that he may not be lifted up with pride or vanity or ostentation, so as to pervert his blessings to covetousness or any unhallowed ends; but that he may use them with humility, with a feeling sense of his dependence, with devout gratitude, acknowledging God in them all, and ever remembering his accountability, and that with all he has he is bound to do good as the steward and servant of Christ. It is also to commend him to God's grace in adversity, that he may be supported; that he may neither faint nor be stupid under the divine dealings; that he may neither murmur nor despise the chastening of the Lord, but receive it as the discipline of a wise and tender parent. And in general it is to leave with God, that in all circumstances of life, whatsoever they may be, bis grace may be according to our need.

(2) To commend others to God, is also to pray to God for them according to their circumstances and necessities. It is to

offer earnest prayer for them that they may be kept from all evil and excited to all good; that they may be kept from dishonoring God, from bringing reproach to his name or injury to his cause. It is to pray that they may be excited to the exercise of every christian temper and the practice of every christian duty, so as in all things to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. These two things, then, seem mainly to be implied in commending a person to God; that we commit him in confidence to the divine keeping and guidance, and that by earnest prayer we ask for him all needed grace and blessing, for all the circumstances of life.

2. What is it to commend a person to the word of God's grace? It is,

(1) Earnestly to recommend to him a firm belief of the gospel. This is the word of his grace; the word that reveals and teaches his grace, and that freely offers it to all. And this word must be believed, if we would derive from it any spiritual benefit.

(2) It is to recommend an habitual attention to the gospel. It is to urge to the daily and serious perusal of it, and to a faithful attendance on all the means of grace, in which it is expounded and made plain.

(3) It is to recommend a cordial complacency in the gospel. This is essential. If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, he must be anathema-accursed. Any faith that does not lead to this, is but a dead faith.

(4) It is to recommend a practice according to the gospel. We must be not only hearers of the word but doers.

(5) It is to recommend a persevering adherence to the gospel; to all its doctrines and all its precepts. It is only by continuance in well doing that we can secure to ourselves glory and honor and immortality; only by being faithful unto death that we shall receive a crown of life.

II. What is presupposed in commending a person to God and to the word of his grace?

It presupposes that we are entirely dependent on God; that we are not sufficient for ourselves. We are dependent on him to preserve and protect, to excite and animate, in our faith and our practice. We ever need the assisting grace of God that we may be faithful and accepted in duty. Difficulties and dangers are about us, and we need to be guided and kept and saved from them. Sinners are not awakened and converted, and there is danger that many of them may never be. Christians have declined in spirituality, and grown cold and formal, and by falling into temptation and inconsistency have dishonored the cause of Christ.