and sweet for bitter:" now ye may

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say

to your souls, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; také thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry:" but hereafter ye will be wofully convinced of the grievousness of your error, when it shall be too late to correct it: and when ye shall learn by melancholy experience, that " it profiteth a man nothing, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul; and that there is nothing, which a man can give, in exchange for his soul."

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SERMON II.

THE GOSPEL THE ONLY FOUNDATION OF RELI

GIOUS AND MORAL DUTY.

1 COR. iii. 11.

For other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

IN every building it is above all things necessary, that attention be paid to the foundation on which it rests. If a house be" built upon the sand," it will fall before the violence of the contending elements; if it be built and " founded upon a rock," though" the rain descend, and the floods come, and the winds blow and beat upon that house, it will fall not ;" but will survive their fury, an honour to the builder, and a defence and protection to

him who takes shelter under its cover. The holy scriptures compare man as a moral agent to a master-builder: and our blessed Lord, who employs the similitude, especially directs our thoughts to the analogy in this particular, by teaching us that in the moral, as well as in the material edifice, as is the foundation so will be the building. "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand." By which we learn, that it is on the truths, which we are taught by Jesus Christ, and on them alone, as on a safe and sure foundation, that a secure edifice can be erected. To build on him, is to "build upon a rock;" not to build on him, is to "build upon the sand:" to build on him is to attain that object, without which all building were ineffectualsafety and permanency; to build otherwise than on him, is to expose the edifice to be involved in hasty and inevitable ruin.

It is the uniform language of the Holy Spirit in his revealed word, that whatever benefits are derived to men through their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are derived to them exclusively through him. He is the foundation, and there is none else: for "other foundation can no man lay." Would we know what is our duty? Would we know the principle, on which we are to practise it? Would we have grace to perform it? Would we wish that our performances should be accepted by almighty God, and that atonement should be made for the manifold "sins, negli gences and ignorances," for which after all we shall have to account? For each and for all of these things, we must have recourse to Christ, and to Christ alone: Christ, and Christ alone, can teach us our duty; can place the performance of it on a right principle; can enable us to do it; can recommend our services to almighty God; and atone for our manifold imperfections. By a detailed examination of these particulars, I propose with the divine blessing to illustrate and confirm the Apostle's position in the text, that "other foundation