IX.

in their education or circumstance of SERM, life the parable supplies this salutary caution, that as they have an earlier' and superior acquaintance with the will of God, so there is a claim upon them for a prompter and a fuller service. If they are inattentive to the loud and early calls of God in his written word, they forfeit those benefits which are tendered to them, they heighten their ingratitude, and they aggravate in consequence their own condemnation.

On the other hand we may consider those as invited late, who for want of education, or through some unfavour able circumstances of fortune, station, or understanding, have small and scanty means of apprehending the will of God; so that they seem to be cast out of the pale of divine grace, and abandoned to the wilderness of moral ignorance and error. Now to them the parable supplies this gracious encouragement; that rejected as they seem of the care of heaven they are still within the eye and compass of a gracious Providence, which attends to their present wants, consults their final welfare, and as it judges best, will form some means to call them to the knowledge of the truth.

And

SERM,

IX.

And if they attend to the call with de yout and earnest minds, and gratefully comply with the terms of acceptance, the gates of heaven will not be shut against them. Notwithstanding the present indigence of their souls, they shall finally obtain a free admittance to the heavenly table,

But to wave the distinction between those invited first and those invited last, we must acknowledge it to be too general a feature of character among all. classes of men, who have received this heavenly call, to be cold and indifferent in embracing it. The same worldly concerns, which obstructed the attention of the people in our Saviour's day, continue to prevail in ours. One man is engaged in the pursuit of pleasure, another in that of riches, and another in that of honour. And though our Lord continues to importune them in his Word and by his Ministers, yet the impression that is made on their hearts is too frequently transient and unproductive. T They still make excuses to God and their own conscience, and turn with avidity to their secular pursuits, as if these were their serious and their sole When they shew such indif

concern.

ference

ference to this first and sovereign good, SERM, can they presume to hope that they IX, shall obtain the approbation of their Lord, or that they shall acquire the blessed privilege of eating bread in the Kingdom of God?

To correct this indifference to the calls of grace, it is expedient that we learn to rate them according to their real excellence. That a high degree of blessedness is comprehended in them will be sensibly ascertained by every one, who compares what the world offers with what religion yields. In the world we behold a mixture of good and evil, To those, who have the good things of life, a melancholy reflexion must sometimes intrude in the midst of their enjoyments, that the time of enjoying them is limited and uncertain, and that if they be not lost by the casualties of life, or dissipated by disease or infirmity, they must inevitably fail them at the hour of death, To those on the other hand, who have the evil things of life, there is an unhappy prospect of increasing sorrows with increasing years, And though their days are evil, though they possess months of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed unto

them,

SERM. them, yet they solicitously cling to IX. life, and shrink from the grave, even though they account it a refuge from every mortal trouble. In this gloomy view of things the considerate mind may be disposed to ask, Who will shew us any good? In the sorrows and the wants of life it is not to be found; nor even in the pleasures and possessions of life can we find any durable or substantial good. This good is only to be found in the walks of religion, which administers peace on earth by displaying to us the prospect of happiness in heaven.

But carnal and worldly minds have very different views of religion. They shrink from the invitation which it offers, because, as they vainly would persuade themselves, it demands too great à sacrifice of present and of worldly good. This however is a mistake, which originates only from a want of experience. If once they had been habituated to the exercises of religious Wisdom, they would have found to their inexhaustible comfort, that her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her

h Job yii, 3..

paths

paths are peace. When once we be- SERM. come acquainted with religion, not in IX. speculation, but by experiment, we' shall be brought to acknowledge in its favour, that in the ordinary course of things it does not debar us from the enjoyment of any real good, and that it does not require of us any great or extraordinary sacrifice. As a man of economy in his temporal concerns might accept an invitation to a feast without any prejudice to his worldly business or interest, so a man of true wisdom in the necessary task of religion may accept the invitation of his heavenly Lord without relinquishing any portion that is worth a care, of those pleasures or riches or honours, which are so desirable in the estimation of the world. Religion certainly spares no argument or motive to discountenance an inordinate affection for the things of this world, because of its tendency to detach us from the pursuit of a more essential good. Yet would we consult our real happiness, we should find that Religion, while it principally looks to our eternal welfare, is also conducive