rance and folly when they think they shew their wit. Thus religion itself becomes the matter of a laugh to some that are very wise in their own conceit, because of some things in it which they cannot give account of, and fully comprehend; as if their understanding were the measure of all truth, and whatever appears unintelligible and impossible to them, must needs be so in itself.

How immodest and truly ridiculous this is, any man of sense may judge; and he is very ill-grounded in his faith, and of a pitiful, unmanly spirit too, who dares not believe and act like a Christian, for fear of being flouted at and derided by a few profane, opinionated, silly wretches, who are indeed the shame and scandal of their kind. Rather let us do as our great Master here did, and proceed steadily in our holy purposes, and adhere to the faith with resolution and courage, notwithstanding the jeers and reproaches of a wicked generation.

And as he put them all out, except the father and mother of the damsel, and his three disciples mentioned before, such scorners not being worthy to see the miracle he designed to work; so all good men should shun the conversation of the lewd infidel tribe, that, being thus abandoned by the best of mankind, they may be ashamed, and brought to better thoughts and wiser counsels. And let every man take notice, who mocks at religion upon any account whatsoever, that the time will come when, with bitter cries and tears, he will seek to enter into the once despised kingdom of Jesus, and shall not be able P.

And then, when the kind invitations of the gospel P Luke xiii. 24.

o 2 Thess. iii. 14.

to happiness and glory shall be changed into Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, and the door of heaven for ever shut upon him, and God shall laugh at his calamity, and mock when his fear cometh; what weeping, and howling, and gnashing of teeth, through the extremity of his torment, will then become his dismal portion for ever!

Now when Jesus was entered in where the dead child was lying, he took her by the hand, and said unto her, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway her spirit came again; and she arose, and walked.

How sovereign was thy touch, blessed Redeemer! it cleansed even the lepers; gave sight to the blind; opened the ears of the deaf; made the dumb to speak; and raised the dead! So touch our blind, polluted, and deaf hearts, and which are even dead to all things that are good, that we may be cleansed from all our sins, see our true interest, hear and obey thy gracious voice, and arise to newness of life; and then do thou open our lips, that our mouth may shew forth thy praise!

As soon as the parents of the child saw that she was alive again, they were astonished with a great astonishment, and filled with joy and wonder: but Jesus, to avoid the as yet unseasonable applauses of the people, and that he might not too much provoke the envy and malice of the Jewish rulers, his time of suffering being not yet come, charged them straitly that no man should know it; that is, he earnestly desired them to make no noise of what had been done, but keep it as private as was possible; (for a thing of that nature could not, nor did q Matt. xxv. 41.

r Prov. i. 26.

he desire it should, be wholly concealed :) and then, further to convince them that she was really as much alive as ever, he commanded that something should be given her to eat; and which was but needful likewise to recruit her spirits, which were so much wasted by her sickness and the agonies of death, and could not be otherwise kept up but by a second miracle: whereas our Lord, in all the wondrous recoveries he wrought, after he had made nature sound and whole, and put it once again into a state of health, then left it to the usual methods of support.

And thus, when by the inward touches of his lifegiving Spirit, and the powerful calls of his word, Jesus in mercy awakens any of us from the dead sleep of sin to a lively feeling sense of heavenly things, whereby we become alive to religion, and have a sensible relish for it as our chief good; he then expects that we should do our part to preserve that spiritual life by proper nourishment; that we may thoroughly revive to righteousness, walking in the way of God's commandments, and growing in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christs.

And indeed so strangely numb and chill are we apt to be to religious objects, and so wholly taken up with those of sense, and so constant are the endeavours of our great enemy by various arts to stifle every good thought as soon as it arises, and quench every the least spark of devotion that begins to glow within us, that it is highly necessary to stir up the gift of God that is in us, as St. Paul adviseth Timothy; or, as the original imports, continually

recruit and fan our languid dying flames, as we would a fire that is going out. And as our sensitive appetite puts us upon procuring what is grateful to the body, and needful to its maintenance; and where there is no such appetite nature soon decays, and therefore we do all we can to strengthen and increase it when it begins to fail; so must we endeavour to excite and quicken such religious desires in our souls as may prompt us with pleasure to seek after the food of the heavenly life, and suck it in with as keen an appetite and savoury gust as may be.

This our Saviour calls hungering and thirsting after righteousness"; and David expresses by delighting in God, and in his law; when it becomes sweeter than honey to one's mouth, and we begin to taste how gracious the Lord is—who hath called us from darkness into his marvellous light-and from the power of Satan unto God.

He therefore that would be effectually raised from the death of sin to a new and holy life, so as to thrive and grow vigorous in it, must by no means neglect daily to inspirit it more and more, by such methods as our holy religion directs to; for otherwise it will soon grow languid and unactive, like the life of a body stupid with the numb palsy; just next door to no life at all, or at best no more than what we call an enlivening before death, a sudden flash of a dying flame, the last effort of a perishing, expiring soul.

More especially we should be careful to maintain a frequent conversation with heaven, by meditation

6.

u Matt. v.
z Psalm xxxiv. 8.

x Psalm xxxvii. 4.

a 1 Pet. ii. 9.

y Psalm cxix. 103. b Acts xxvi. 18.

and prayer, and the fervent aspirations of holy love this will refine our affections, and take them off from the world, and fix them upon their proper and only satisfying objects; and will be to the soul what the animal spirits are to the body, the mainspring of action, and that which will enable us, with vivacity and a natural readiness and grateful sensation, to perform the functions of the spiritual life.

And, indeed, devotion and love are the very life and soul of Christianity; and all the religious postures we put ourselves into are but mere mechanism without them, like the motions of a lifeless statue, which are caused by art, the figure all the while remaining as insensible as ever, for want of a vital principle within.

And as the very obstruction of the animal spirits in the body, though but for a while, causes in it strange numbness and stupidity; so the soul, without love and devotion, grows cold and sluggish and unactive; and, as they decay, religion pines away proportionably, and all expire together.

And since the life of the soul, through all the periods of it, its first beginnings, and future improvements, and glorious consummation, is entirely owing to that divine Spirit in whom, in every sense, we live, and move, and have our being; we must be exceeding careful to observe and comply with all his blessed actings upon our minds; and when he instils (as he often does, we know not how) good notices and pious thoughts into them; moves us to form such and such holy resolutions, and excites us to put them in practice; reminds us of our duty; forewarns us of our dangers; awakens our con