[Now the heavenly Bridegroom makes a more effectual effort.] My Beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my Beloved, and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my Beloved, but, [see the effect of not opening to Christ at first,] my Beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone: my soul failed when he spoke: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him but he gave me no answer." This is enough to confirm my idea of watching and obeying the first suggestion of the Spirit of Christ.

I have thus shown what it is to walk with God, the blessed consequences, and the means. May I not now, my Christian brethren, urge upon you this delightful duty? It is what you owe to the blessed God, your Father and Saviour, who has astonished heaven by his kindness to you, and whose mercies, if you are not deceived, will hold you entranced to eternity. It is what you owe to him, and it will secure you a happy life, more than all the wealth and honors of the world. It is heaven begun below. Do you not wish to be happy? Bend all your cares then to walk with God. Be not satisfied with a general desire to do this, tematically on the means prescribed. means hourly, daily, yearly. Reduce your life to a system under the regulation of these rules. Good old Enoch could walk with God three hundred years. And he has never seen cause to repent it. Could you have access to him in his glory, would

but fix sysPursue those

he express regret for the pleasant mode of spending the last three hundred years of his life? We are apt to think that we are not expected to aim at the superior piety of the ancient saints. But why paralyze every power by such a stupefactive mistake? Are we not under as great obligations? Is not God as worthy of obedience now as in the days of old? Have the increased displays of his mercy in the Gospel impaired his claims? Has the affecting scene of Calvary rendered him less lovely in the eyes of sinners? Are the means used with mankind less than in the patriarchal age? Or are the happy consequences of a walk with God worn out by time? Why should we then content ourselves with being scarcely alive, when so many saints have been through life rapt in communion with God? Do we thirst for honors? What honor so great as to be the companion and son and favorite of the everlasting God? Do we wish for riches? Who so rich as the heir of him who owns all the treasures of the universe? Do we prize the best society? What better society can be found than Enoch had? Does any valuable consideration move us, or any ingenuous motive, O let us never cease to walk with God. Amen.

SERMON XIV.

WHEN I AM WEAK THEN AM I STRONG.

II. COR. XII. 10.

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak then am I strong.

In Paul's absence from Corinth, false apostles had crept in, who charged him, among other things, with being a hireling, because he received a partial support from the churches. This put him upon vindicating himself and his ministry: and the supreme modesty with which he performed this task, is an example for all apologists for themselves. He does not boast of his heavenly call, his high authority, his many miracles, his superior eloquence, his unrivalled piety, and his equally unrivalled usefulness. If he must glory he chooses to glory in his infirmities, as attesting both his own sincerity and the power of Christ in the success of his ministry. By infirmities and weaknesses he means the same, VOL. II.

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and comprehends under them, not only his general insufficiency for the salvation of men,-not only his feebleness of body,-but the hunger, thirst, nakedness, watchings, weariness, reproaches, and persecutions, which he endured for Christ. The manner in which he boasts of these infirmities, will appear from the following specimens. "We are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men.-Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place, and labor, working with our hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day." "We have this treasure in earthern vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of

us.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our body." "In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God; in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet

true; as unknown, and yet well known as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." "Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool,) I am more: in labors more abundant, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep in journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended and I burn not? If I must needs glory I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities." Having then mentioned one, (meaning himself,) who had been caught up to the third heaven," he adds, "Of such a one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory but in my infirmities." And having alluded to the thorn in his flesh, (supposed to have been an impediment in his speech brought on him by his persecution at Lystra,) and to his thrice repeated prayer for its removal, he proceeds to state the answer and the effect on his own mind. "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for

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