if men who have the Scriptures do not hear them, their heart is wrong, and then a miracle would have no effect.

Now in the last place, remember, that the man, who would not see, lost the use of his eyes. Beware, lest the like misfortune should befal any of you; lest, by neglecting the light while it is shining in your eyes, you should be able at last to see nothing. Never turn away from the truth, lest the truth should turn away from you, and leave you in eternal darkness. Cultivate every gift that you have, and it will be increased: use what light you have, and God will open your eyes to see more: he that can see great things, shall see greater. If you read the Scripture, and desire to understand it, some new light will come in upon you, and will enable you to understand it better. When once the inclination is discovered, it will be encouraged and assisted. Sergius Paulus called for Barnabas and Saul; and then all those great things followed, about which I have been discoursing to you. Philip the Evangelist was sent to the Ethiopian nobleman in the wilderness; but then you are to observe, that he was sent to a man, who had already got a bible in his hand, and who wished to hear it interpreted.

God

God will act by the same rules now, by which he acted in former ages: these examples of the scriptures will certainly be fulfilled in you. If you hate the light, as Elymas did, you will become blind and lose it: if you rejoice in it, and use it, it will increase more and more unto the perfect day; that is, till the light of truth shall lead to the light of life eternal; for which end God sent it from heaven, and spread it over the world,

SERMON VI,

Ahithophel the Suicide.

2 SAM. xvii. 23.

AND WHEN AHITHOPHEL SAW THAT HIS COUNSEL WAS NOT FOLLOWED, HE SAD

DLED HIS ASS, AND AROSE, AND GAT HIM HOME TO HIS HOUSE, TO HIS CITY, AND PUT HIS HOUSEHOLD IN ORDER, AND HANGED HIMSELF, AND DIED.

SELF-MURDER is a subject, the consideration of which can never be impertinent or unseasonable in a Christian congregation: because in setting forth the causes of that dreadful crime, and in recommending preservatives, we may secure people from many of those les-ser evils which lead to it; evils, which every wise man will be glad to avoid. The same

rules

rules which are sufficient to save a man from death, may save him also from a burning fe ver; for which he will have great reason to be thankful. One of the best methods I can think of for the understanding of this crime is, to examine the nature of it, as it appears to us upon the record of historical truth. Example shews more than reasoning or precept will teach without it: I shall therefore proceed to explain the subject from the example which the bible hath set before us in the remarkable case of Ahithophel.

When we see ruin and destruction brought upon the soul of any man, much good may certainly done by dissecting his character. Dissection is a disagreeable operation; to learn from the actual inspection of a dead human subject is a hard trial to a tender mind. But if the corpse is that of a malefactor, justly put to death, for some hateful treason, or some inhuman practice, the mind is more easily reconciled to it. The wretch, who, when alive had defaced in himself the image of God, is no longer to be considered as a man, The person now under our consideration was a malefactor of the basest kind in his life time: we may therefore very properly dissect him, and learn what we can from him,

All the circumstances prove that this man was no lunatic; that he acted with as much deliberation against his own life, as if he had been lying in wait for the life of any other man. He committed his own murder with the same foresight as he would have committed any other wickedness. He " set his house in order;" that is, he settled his affairs, he made his will as a person of sound mind and memory; as he would have done, if death had been coming upon him in a natural way. The case is therefore unexceptionable of the kind; such as we may safely make use of for discovering that internal state of a wicked mind, which terminates in the fatal crime of self-murder.

We discover in the first place, that he was a man of bad principles; by which I mean such principles as do not restrain, but give encouragement to the bad passions of pride, covetousness, and ambition; which is the nature of those principles which are not of God, but are of man, and of the world. When a man of these principles gains the world, in its wealth, its fame, its honour, or its power, he gets all he wants; when he loses it, he loses all he seeks for; there is nothing left for him. A worldly-minded man commonly grows up un

der