faith and holiness, the way marked out by God; and with the holy diligence becoming those who travel in the royal way, which infallibly leadeth into the new heavens and the new earth, "wherein dwelleth righteousness." It is "while we look not at the things which are seen and temporal, but at the things which are unseen and eternal, that we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward is renewed day by day."

5th, Let us seek the consolation of the text for our friends and relatives who will survive us. It is not the odour of a name, which the world will universally admire and commemorate, that I would excite you and myself to seek; this disgrace has been purchased at great expense by some of the greatest poisoners of society, by some of the greatest scourges of the human race. It is not for the purpose of feeding a pitiful vainglory, I that would excite you and myself to seek the name in the text. Vainglory and that name have nothing in common, and that name may command the applause of the world, but can never engage its affectionate regard. What is the name that will prove more precious than ointment to our surviving friends, that will be more sweet and refreshing to their spirits ready to fail them, through the shock of our removal from them, than the most reviving and costly perfumes? It must be founded in its conformity to the requirements of God in his word, it must commend itself to the understanding and the heart of the children of God;

and be an evidence of meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light, while it engages others to tread in the steps by which it is attained. And how is this name to be acquired, and by what costly sacrifices is it to be purchased? By what arduous undertakings and dear-bought victories can it be obtained? Simply by walking in love," as Christ also hath loved us, and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." This "is lovely and of good report;" now abideth faith, hope, and charity or love; but the greatest of these is charity, or love. "Love never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away."

SERMON XIX.

Is. Ixi. 1." The Lord hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted."

THE flesh of man is liable to be wounded, and his bones to be broken. The pain of these is severe; and precious is the help of him whom God enables to practise the healing art with success. But are wounds, or bruises, or broken bones, to be compared with a broken heart? "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear." Prov. xviii. 14. Hath God endowed a physician with skill to heal this most dangerous of all diseases? Where shall we find him? What must we do to gain access to him? Have we wealth sufficient to secure his aid?

a physician who comes to

Blessed be God, there is inform us of his qualifi

cations, and to offer the benefit of his skill, without money, and without price. "The Lord hath sent

me to bind up the broken-hearted."

I purpose, 1st, To make some explanatory observations on this gracious mission from the Lord; 2d, To invite the broken-hearted to accept the aid of the appointed physician, coming to bind them up; and, 3d, To conclude with some practical inferences. And may the Lord be revealed in the

exercise of his healing power in the experience of many this day.

I. To understand the text, we must attend, 1st, To the subjects of this binding up, the broken-hearted; 2d, To the person who is to apply this effectual remedy,—namely, to him who speaks these words and, 3d, To the Author of the commission given him to exercise this healing power, "The Lord hath sent me."

;

1st, The subjects of this binding up are "the broken-hearted." The heart means here the seat of the affections. Broken signifies something that is forcibly separated, as a bone, Ex. xii. 46; or a potter's vessel, Lev. vi. 28. The heart, by a figure of speech, is said to be broken, when it is, as it were, bruised, wounded, cut asunder by the crushing weight or piercing sharpness of grief. "My heart within me is broken,—because of the Lord, and the word of his holiness; for the land is full of adulterers, for because of swearing the land mourneth." Jer. xxiii. 9, 10. "The broken-hearted" are those who are grieved, quite dispirited, and discouraged by sin and its evils, crushing and piercing the heart, and who are deeply humbled and truly penitent for their transgressions and pollution. This was the temper of David, rending his heart before God for the matter of Uriah and his wife, when in faith he said, "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

Ps. li. 17. And this is the import of broken-hearted in the text, where it is connected and classed with "mourners" and "the spirit of heaviness," the objects of divine compassion, v. 3. Take the following characters of the broken-hearted, that you may compare yourselves with them, and determine your state and your right to the consolation of the text. The broken-hearted grieve for sin, chiefly because it is committed against God. David was far from being insensible of the evils his sin brought on himself and his neighbours, when he exclaimed, "O God, against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight." Ps. li. 4. The sight of the glory and grace of God produceth in penitent sinners selfloathing, and a thorough aversion from all sin, and endeavours after all holiness. Observe this effect of enlarged discoveries of the divine glory in Job, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee: Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." The desire of healing, Ps. li. 8; a conviction of the utter inability of a creature to heal, Lam. ii. 13, with some hope in the mercy of God, experienced by many humbled sinners, excites to apply to God for healing: "Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up." Hos. vi. 1. And this brokenness of heart is effected not by natural pain, or remorse, or fear, but by the Spirit of God influencing the different powers of the mind engaged in