who come out, and are joined to the Sufferer, in order hereafter to be joined to the Glorified One, do constitute the church: which must know nothing but burdens, and distresses, and humiliations, during the dark and cloudy day; while, at the same time she is filled with the consolation, and hope, and assurance of good things to come. And thus far the work of the Godhead hath been manifested; no further, than to bring nature into a state of unconscious, and the will of renewed men into a state of conscious bondage, after the type of Christ's humiliation, with the promise of a future deliverance after the type of his resurrection.

Now, that which we have exhibited on the large scale of the historical progress of the work of the Godhead in the redemption of the world, which also we deduced from the doctrine of the Trinity, is the same with that which is done in the case of every individual upon whom he worketh. The Son cometh not to sow the seed until a preparatory work hath been done by the Holy Ghost upon the elements of our being. And what is this? It is the preparing of a soil to receive it. Just as he prepared the world for the receiving of Christ by all that had taken place from the creation; so, I say, by all that takes place from our birth the Holy Spirit doth prepare in us a soil for receiving and fructifying the seed of the word which is afterwards to be sown therein. And this he doth previous to our regeneration; for our regeneration is the impregnation with the seed of the word, its quickening within us: "being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." And therefore this work

of preparing the soil is without any help of the word of God, which, being once quickened, will ripen; there being no miscarriages, nor abortions, nor still-births, in the work of God's quickening Spirit, as those Arminians and Methodists dream. And if it be without the help of the word of God, by what means is it then brought about? By means of those preparatory materials of the redemption, which were wrought by him for this very end in the constitution of all things which have been since the creation,-by the good and honest use of the natural life of the mind; by the good and honest use of the natural life of the body; by the good and honest use of the natural life of all creatures which are around us; by the good and honest use of the constitutions and laws of civil society in which we dwell; and, finally, by the good and honest use of the visible church, which God hath planted in the world to be unto it a continual model and type of what it should be. By teaching unto men the good ends of all these things, for which he did constitute them, and enabling men to take hold of them for these same ends, the Spirit doth work in the hearts of men a fit soil for receiving the seed of the word when it shall be sown therein.

For it was not to be expected, that, when the Spirit so diligently prepared the world for the coming of Christ, he should neglect this preparatory work in the soul of man, for which the world was created, is preserved, and wrought upon. It is not to be believed, that, seeing there is a season of human life in every one during which he is incapable of receiving the preached word, that the Spirit, who is the great Author of life, should

not be occupied during the same in endeavouring to make a preparation for the coming of the Son of Man. If the law of all life, vegetable and animal, be a preparation for and a servant of the spiritual life, how much more ought the laws of human life and human well-being to be subservient thereto? In one word, what is human life, and all life, but a work of the Spirit," the Lord and giver of life?" And if so, for whom doth the Spirit work, but for Christ? and of whom doth he bear testimony, but of Christ? It can in no manner be doubted, therefore, that life in man, and the laws of man's well-being, are indeed a work preparatory for the knowledge of the Gospel. And this not any particular act, but the honesty or dishonesty of every act, the good or evil course according to which our life has been spent ; whether we have followed after wisdom or folly; whether we have walked in the ways of truth or of error; whether we have listened to the solicitations of evil, with which the world is filled, or to the continual suggestions of good, which are presented to our conscience; whether we have used our talents well, according to the light which God hath given us, or whether we have used them ill, according to the same light; whether we have obeyed the law of humanity towards the lower animals; whether we have followed knowledge and industry toward the inanimate creatures; whether we have followed honesty and uprightness towards all men, and treated every one according to his place and station; whether we have followed the law of chastity, continence, and temperance towards our body, -the law of sincerity and truth in our words, and of gentleness and gracious

ness in our minds; whether we have made a right use of all the advantages and opportunities which God hath given us; and, in short, whether we have sought to cultivate an honest, or give loose to the inclinations of a dishonest heart.

That I may take the due advantage and make the proper use of these observations, let me now return to the Lord's similitude, and give you a little insight into what is signified in husbandry by a good soil; and explain to you by what means it is produced, in order that you may perceive how very apt a similitude it is for expressing the manner in which a good disposition is wrought in men, by the right use of all those means and opportunities, which are fit for receiving and retaining and fructifying the seed of the word.

Those soils which are the most productive, are called vegetable, to distinguish them from sandy and clayey soils; and, as their name imports, they are produced from the decay of a succession of vegetable productions. It is by much bearing in a lower kind that they attain their fertility in a higher. For every thing is so created and constituted of God, as to be able to fructify the seeds of some one plant or another. The very rock, when exposed to the heat of the sun, you will find covered with a moss, then with a lichen, and then perhaps with a grass; and so on, according to a succession which my knowledge of the vegetable kingdom doth not enable me to describe. And when the plant, of whatever kind it is, hath come to perfection, and yielded its stem and leaves and

fruits and seeds, all these, except the seed, decay, and resolve themselves into earth again; whereby another coating is furnished to the ground; and so by much bearing a good and deep soil is at length produced, fit for the seeds of the husbandman. In like manner it is in man, that by much bearing of fruits in the lower degrees of instinct and knowledge, of kindly feelings and honest practices, a soil in due time is prepared which will receive and fructify the seed of the word of God, and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, to the praise and the glory of God.

It is further to be observed, that the plants and seeds which are first produced by any soil in this progress towards fertility, are of an inferior kind in the scale of vegetable life, and fit only for the nourishment of insects and fowls, but not for the nourishment of man or of beast, or at least in a very insufficient degree. But chiefly, it would seem, are they ordained of God for this very end of preparing a soil upon which the richer fruits and more nourishing plants may grow; the production of the lower kind being, as it were, to serve as the ground-work for the production of the higher kind. And so in human nature the right education and training of children in the ways of understanding, and truth, and honesty, and dutifulness, is to be diligently ensued; not so much for the present advantages or disadvantages, though these be many, but with a long-sighted wisdom to the future man, and a full conviction that we are thereby laying the materials for a more precious husbandry of spiritual things, to be carried on by an omnipotent and invisible hand.