For the lowly, he has prepared, beyond "this visible, diurnal sphere," mansions of undecaying beauty, where the fear of death can never enter, and the storms of revolution are unknown; where there is no night, and the glory of God and the Lamb is the light thereof for ever. The grave is the narrow entry to those everlasting abodes. How happy then to die. How happy, to be with Christ, to behold his glory, to fall prostrate in his presence, to exult in his smiles, and join the multitudes of holy beings, from all worlds, in endless ascriptions of praise to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The very bodies of the saints rest in hope. Their full redemption is secured; and, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, the dead shall be raised incorruptible. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." Would we describe ?-we cannot even conceive the fulness, the purity, the duration of that bliss, to which the redeemed family will be exalted in the new. heavens and the new earth they are destined to inhabit. "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Since all the blessings of eternity are for the lowly, and for them only, suffer me, my hearers, to ask you, what is your character? Do you trust, for acceptance with God, to the decencies and moralities of your life, or the homage paid to your virtue and usefulness, by the world? "The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." Do you rely for justification, on any regularity in your devotions, on any assumed sanctity and austerity of manners? The proud and ostentatious Pharisees, whom the merciful Saviour condemned as hypocrites, could boast of greater strictness. Have you seen and lamented the evil of your hearts? In the light of the glory of God, has sin assumed a deformity before unsuspected; all your comeliness within you been turned into corruption; and every plea from the infirmity of your nature, the violence of temptation, and the sincerity of your endeavours been for ever silenced? Have you bowed to his authority with reverence, and awe, and delight? Has the controversy you maintained with his law and government, while his terrors were upon you, been succeeded by a calm acquiescence in his will, and the acceptance of the punishment of your iniquity? Have you felt, do you still feel happy in the thought, that God reigns, that he reigns over you, and that he will so dispose of you, and of all his creatures for ever, as to ensure, in the highest degree, the honour of his own great name? Your If you have fallen thus low in your own esteem, you have seen, with new eyes, the wonders and the glories of redemption by the cross; you have clung to it as your last and only security; you have cried for more mercy; you have consecrated yourselves, body and soul, to the service of your divine Deliverer. You pant after perfect conformity to Christ. You live at the throne of grace. All your comforts die, if you neglect prayer. self-abasement before God discovers itself in your whole demeanour. There is a lowliness in your intercourse with men, an amiable self-distrust, an honouring of others, a readiness to do the most humiliating offices of love; in place of the arrogance, and contempt of others, and odious selfishness, which, however you might have studied to conceal them under the forms of a hollow-hearted civility and gentleness, once marked your character. You have learned to feel for others' woes,-to forgive and to bless even your enemies. There is in true humility, an unaffected sweetness, an angel kindness, of which the boasted politeness of the world is but a heartless imitation. Whoever you may be to whom this character belongs, the blessings annexed to it are yours. Receive them with gratitude, and employ to purposes worthy of your exalted privileges, the consolations which your Maker gives. Christian friends, let humility be the beginning and the crown of all your virtues. Let it regulate your zeal, purify your devotions, and give elevation, and dignity, and the hope of success, to all your enterprises. It is this, which renders you amiable in the sight of Heaven, ensures your peace and usefulness, and engages all the perfections of God for your protection, guidance, and ultimate victory over your spiritual enemies. And what inducements to growth in humility are set before you? With all your attainments in holiness, how must you sink into nothing before Him, in whose sight the heavens are not clean? How few and faint the lineaments of your resemblance to the meek and lowly Jesus, your Lord and Saviour? He was all diligence, all love, all zeal, all fidelity. What have you done to prove your title to the character of his disciples? Turn your eyes to inferior examples; to mere men like yourselves,-to Paul, and John, and Brainerd, and a multitude of others, whose whole life was a sacrifice to the glory of their Master, and the interests of his kingdom. What have been your efforts, your toils, your sufferings, your achievements? O that you would feel your deficiencies, and mourn and pray over them, till a new vigour, imparted by almighty grace, should diffuse itself through all your faculties, and impel you to memorable deeds, which should tell on the interests of a world lying in wickedness, and on the destinies of other generations. Let the worldly, the self-righteous, the proud of every name, learn the littleness, vanity and guilt of all their aspiring pretensions. I might tell you of the unreasonableness of your self-estimation, the obligations you have violated, your moral ruin, your dependence, your frailty, the grave, the worm, the last trumpet, the dread tribunal, the eternal pit of wo; and in view of all these realities, I might surely urge, with appalling emphasis, the doctrine of humility. Would you be truly great? Humility is the true greatness of man, as self-exaltation is his deepest disgrace. It is the greatness of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs; allying the child of sinfulness and dust to the ransomed of the Lord in a brighter world; attaching his interests to the honours and kingdom of the great Redeemer; opening to his weeping, ardent eye, the way of access to God the Father. What spectacle so grand as that of the lowly penitent summoning to his succour eternal strength, and, cheered with beams from the Sun of Righteousness, triumphing over all the powers of darkness? It is a greatness, which no worldly vicissitudes can impair. Fortune, and fame, and all that the ambitious covet, may flee away; he, who exults in prosperity to-day, may be a wretch to-morrow; the heavens, all brightness now, may, anon, be blackened with storms; the fairest hopes may be wrecked in a moment; and despair sit brooding over the ruins of all that the fond heart of man had cherished and idolized. But humility dissolves the charm of earthly attractions; it makes us independent of all below the skies; it fixes our hopes on the undecaying glories of heaven. It never forsakes us. It attends the peasant to his cottage, his frugal table, his homely toils; inspires him with a serenity, which conquerors may sigh after in vain; and raises him to a moral elevation, above the utmost flight of their ambition. It follows to his cell the victim of persecution, and invests him with a grandeur, to which even the imperial purple is beggarly defilement. All other greatness is momentary. But this is durable. It smiles at death; it walks with angels through the dark valley; it reposes on the bosom of Jesus; it will burst the prison of the grave; it will triumph in immortal beauty; it will shine with celestial radiance, when stars and suns are extinguished for ever. VOL. II. No. 10. THE NATIONAL PREACHER. 'Go-Teach al! Nations.-Matt. xxviii. 19. NEW-YORK, MARCH, 1828. SERMON XXXII. BY ALEXANDER V. GRISWOLD, D. D. BISHOP OF THE EASTERN DIOCESE. THE MALADY AND PHYSICIAN OF THE SOUL. LUKE, v. 31.—They that are whole need not a physician. THE variety of language, by which the knowledge of salvation in Jesus Christ is conveyed to our understanding, is pleasing and wonderful. The pardon of our sins, and justification through his merits, are represented under many metaphors, or images of temporal things, familiar to our minds, and affecting to our hearts. Sometimes we are represented as in bondage, from which the Lord from heaven is offered as our Deliverer. Our natural, sinful state is also compared to sleep, and his voice is heard calling us to awake. At other times we are viewed as dead, dead in trespasses and sins, from which deplorable state, his power alone can raise us to spiritual and immortal life. In the text, our moral turpitude is aptly compared to those mortal diseases, which often and painfully afflict our bodies, and eventually destroy our lives. Still Christ is offered as our Saviour; he now appears as a Physician, infinitely skilled, and sent from heaven to our re lief. The merits of his blood, and his power to save the soul, are by this figure beautifully illustrated. In the Gospel history we learn that Matthew, who is also named Levi, soon after he was called to be an apostle of Christ, made him a great feast in his own house, and invited many of the publicans, or tax-gatherers, and others of those whom the Jews called sinners; with whom Jesus sat down to meat. By taking leave of the world in this public manner, Matthew intended, probably, to show, how cheerfully and with what a willing mind he resigned all its gains and its pleasures, for a better kingdom; and to give his friends an opportunity of knowing that Divine Lord to whom his future hours were to be devoted. He hoped, too, by taking this solemn leave of his former associates, to make some salutary impression upon their minds, and induce them to follow his example. But it had an effect upon the Scribes and Pharisees widely different from his charitable intentions. Ever disposed to justify themselves, and condemn all who differed from them, the pure doctrines of the Saviour had no good effect upon their hearts :-they were engaged rather in observing wherein he departed from their own customs, and of course they censured him for eating and drinking with publicans and sinners. It was on this occasion that Jesus spake as recorded in our text, and in the corresponding passages of Matthew and Mark. Hearing their censorious observations, he said unto them, They that are whole need not a phy sician, but they that are sick. Go ye and learn what that meaneth,—I will have mercy and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, butsinners to repentance. These words were remarkably applicable to the occasion on which he used them. They contain a very delicate, and yet severe reproof of the murmuring Scribes and Pharisees ;-of their self righteousness, and vain notions af holiness and perfection: and at the same time, they contain a full justification, and more than justification of Jesus' associating with sinners. These words show that he was wise, and good, and merciful. Sinners were the men who needed a Saviour, and whom he came to save. As they only who are sick, have need of a physician; so they only who are morally depraved, who have done evil in God's sight, and are condemned by his righteous law, ' have need of some meritorious Intercessor, who can make expiation for their transgressions, and reconcile them to God. To such only, with any propriety, could a Saviour be sent. Supposing that there were among mankind any, such as the Pharisees thought themselves to be, perfectly righteous, with them a Redeemer had no concern. And accordingly our Lord tells them, "I am not, come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” And while he was occupied in this very charitable office; while he was taking suitable measures to renovate the hearts of men, and reclaim the wicked from the error of their way; while he was laying the foundation of his everlasting Gospel, and preparing the way for the salvation of a world, he was certainly acting a part acceptable to that God, who, as the Jews could not deny, had declared by his prophet Hosea, that he would have mercy and not sacrifice;—that he was more pleased with deeds of kindness and love, than with such external rites and ceremonial observances as those on which the Jews chiefly founded their claim to perfection. To those murmuring Jews, and self-righteous Pharisees, who censured their Saviour for associating with publicans and sinners, his words before us had of course particular application. But the very important doctrine which they so forcibly express, is of general concern, and merits our very serious consideration. The words clearly imply, THAT MAN IS SPIRITUALLY DISEASED; and THAT HE NEEDS A DIVINE PHYSICIAN. I. The former of these propositions-That man is spiritually diseased~~ that mankind are all in a state of moral depravity-is a doctrine, humiliating indeed, but exceedingly essential-lying at the foundation of Gospel truth. It would be but wasting words and time to spend them in proving that our Lord intended this as the character of our whole race. When he says the whole need not a physician,—and that he came not to call the righteous to repentance, he evidently does not mean that any are whole, or perfectly righteous, but the contrary. That "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth," we are told by him who knows the hearts of all men. He eame to call sinners to repentance; and we know well that the scriptures "conclude all under sin," and that God in his word "calls all men every where to repent." So full is our Bible of this doctrine,—so evidently and so much are we taught that mankind are by nature in a state unholy,-opposed to moral rectitude, and to the laws and the eternal attributes of the Deity, that some atonement must be made for sin, and accepted by sinners, before they can be accounted righteous in God's sight, and enjoy immortal blessedness;-so evidently, I say, is this doctrine taught in the holy scriptures, that when I name my subject, it is natural for you to think it unnecessary: it is natural, for you especially who are called Christians, to view it as declaring a self-evident truth; as teaching what every one knows; as repeating what you already a hundred times have heard. But until we can make men feel that they are not whole,—that they are in perishing need, of a Divine Physician,-we have done nothing. Even though we induce them to become professors of religion, and receive the sacraments, they will not be truly Christians, nor will their hearts be renewed with holy affections, till they are made sensible of their moral depravity,— sensible that they have no health in them. No man can possibly realize the worth of a Saviour, nor be duly thankful to God for his astonishing mercy in Jesus Christ, till he feels that he is indeed a sinful creature ;-that he cannot for any merits of his own be rewarded or received as righteous. When have you known any one to appear deeply interested in the Gospel message; when have you known any one to feel any thing like an ardent gratitude to the Saviour, and to view him as infinitely precious, till he has first felt himself to be a miserable sinner? And, on the other hand, have you ever known one-who felt himself to be justly condemned by the righteous law of God and who became truly and deeply penitent, that did not also rejoice in this Saviour? that did not appear to be sensible that Jesus is infinitely precious? No one ever did truly receive and rejoice in the doctrines of Christ, till the Divine Spirit "convinced him of sin, of righteousness, and of |