II.

Divine grace; felt they are, not as the DISC. wild transports of fanatical enthusiasm, but as the gentle influences of fober reason and unaffected piety: they fuggest good actions, diffuade from evil practices, remind us that to God all our works must be known, admonish us of the confequences that must enfue from guilt, ftrengthen us to overcome the temptation which affails us, and excite unutterable joy in the fouls of those who with patience have struggled unto victory against the infidious attacks by which their innocence has been fearfully endangered, and their peace of mind alarmingly difquieted. Such is the help, and fuch the comfort, which we may derive from the grace of the Holy Spirit, if we lift up our fouls with a fervent defire, that we may not yield to the fin which befets us, but refift and furmount its violence.

To conclude; the end of all religion is, that we should "live foberly, righteously, "and godly";" that in ourselves we should

17 Tit. ii. 12.

be

II.

DISC. be temperate and pure; to our fellowcreatures, just and benevolent; to God, obedient, thankful, and devout.

The reafons which should induce us to discharge these feveral duties punctually and confcientiously, are the confident affurance of thence deriving greater happiness in this life, and the certain hope of ensuring bleffings, and escaping mifery, in a future ⚫ftate. For the attainment of thefe ends there neither is, nor ever has been in the world, a fyftem fo calculated by its motives, means, and helps, as the Gofpel fyftem: if therefore we regard ourselves, if we value the fatisfaction of a clear confcience, if we wish to increase the virtue and comforts of mankind; if we are concerned for our condition beyond the grave; if we are bound to obey the laws revealed to us by the Almighty; let us receive with meeknefs, preferve with watchfulness, and follow with diligence, the " Engrafted Word;" which (if carefully obferved)" is able to "fave our fouls."

DISCOURSE III.

On REDEMPTION through CHRIST.

ISAIAH, lxiii. 9.

In all their affliction, he was afflicted; and the Angel of his Prefence faved them; in bis love and in his pity be redeemed them and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

TH

;

HE Prophet Ifaiah, foreseeing the DISC. miferies with which his countrymen

the Ifraelites were threatened, and witneffing the iniquities by which the Divine displeasure had been provoked against them, pours forth in their behalf a penitential

prayer,

III.

III.

DISC. prayer, and humbly fupplicates the Almighty to renew his mercy, as on other accounts, fo in confideration of the peculiar regard with which in former days God had chofen, protected, and bleffed the Jewish nation. "I will mention" (says the Prophet) "the loving-kindneffes of "the Lord, and the praifes of the Lord, "according to all that the Lord hath be"ftowed on us, and the great goodness "towards the house of Ifrael, which he "hath beftowed on them, according to "his mercies, and according to the multi"tude of his loving-kindneffes "."

Among all the fignal inftances of Divine favour which the Jews had experienced, none was more confpicuous, none was recollected with a deeper fenfe of gratitude, than the deliverance from Egypt. When the Prophet therefore was to commemorate the bleffings of Heaven vouchfafed to the Ifraelites, it was obvious and natural for him to make his firft allufion to that

Ifaiah, Ixiii. 7.

III.

which formed a most striking part of their DISC. history. And this he does in a manner pathetic, and in terms which bespeak a foul at once impreffed with admiration, reverence, thankfulness, and humility, when he defcribes the condefcenfion and paternal care of Jehovah, manifefted to his people Ifrael. "In all their affliction, he

was afflicted; and the Angel of his "Prefence faved them; in his love and in "his pity he redeemed them; and he bare "them, and carried them all the days of "old." Which words may be thus enlarged: "The affliction which the Jews "were fuffering in Egypt, God faw with compaffion; the Angel of his Prefence "delivered

2 The deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, and the victories of the Greeks over the Perfians, are great events, intimately interwoven in the refpective histories of the two nations. Hence the Jewish Sacred Writers make perpetual mention of the one; and the Grecian Hiftorians, Philofophers, Poets, and Orators, continually record the other. The Jews, with religious gratitude, exalt the name of JEHOVAH for his fignal mercy manifefted in that extraor dinary redemption; the Greeks, with national pride, extol their ancestors for the valour exerted against their enemies. In cach cafe the inference to be drawn is, that the feveral tranfactions