good they ought, either abandon them to their own corrupt inclinations, or instruct them only in all manner of evil. I entreat you, by the respect you owe to your holy religion-I exhort you, by the love you bear to your children-I command you, by the duty you owe to God and to your country, stretch forth a helping hand to save them from destruction;— assist them by your benevolence, encourage them by your example, and prevent the miseries they are heaping up for themselves, and the mischiefs they are meditating for society; so shall your heavenly Father, the God of all mercies reward you with happiness here in yourselves, and your offspring, and receive you hereafter as blessed children into the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.

SERMON XVIII.

LUKE, CHAP. xvii. VERSE 17. Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

THERE are some virtues so easy to be practised, and so congenial to the feelings of human nature, that one cannot help being surprised at every omission of them; of this nature is gratitude to God, not only that daily praise which is due to him for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, but particularly those expressions of thanksgiving, which must naturally flow from a grateful heart, in

return for any immediate interposition of Providence in rescuing us from sudden calamities or signal circumstances of distress. As numerous however as they are, unaccountable are the instances of ingratitude we meet with in the world that tend to destroy the favourable opinion one would be inclined to conceive of the heart of man. A most striking proof of this assertion is displayed in the Gospel of St. Luke, from whence the words of my text are taken.

As our Saviour entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off; and they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, master, "have mercy on us." It must be readily allowed, that odious as the sin of ingratitude appears in every stage of it, yet it is capable of being aggravated by peculiar circumstances attending it, and the differ ent degrees of it-In proportion as the be

nefit conferred, is great or beyond our expectation, so should the return be. For this reason, upon any sudden and unexpected deliverance from particular distress, the heart of man is apt to express its gratitude, for the time at least, in strong and unusual terms of warmth and energy, if not to dwell upon the remembrance of it, with equal and repeated plea sure. The case of the ten lepers was precisely this afflicted with a dreadful contagious distemper, almost out of the reach of human skill, but conceiving hopes from what they had heard of the wonderful miracles wrought by our Saviour, they placed themselves in his way to Jerusalem; and standing afar off at a distance from him (for by the law they were separated from society, as being unclean), they lifted up their voices and cried, "Jesus, master, have mercy upon us." Such an appeal could not go unnoticed; He, who to the power of a God united all the

tender feelings of a man, was never inattentive to the cry of misery, in whatever shape it supplicated his notice. When he saw the truly deplorable state in which they were, he said unto them, "Go, and "shew yourselves unto the priests." Studious on all occasions to respect and comply with the ceremonial part of that law, which he came not to destroy, but to fulfil; in this instance he observed that rule of the Levitical institution, which ordained, that, whoever had the appearance of leprosy, should be brought to the priests, who were to discern whether it were a leprosy or not, and accordingly to pronounce the person clean or unclean; at the same time convinced of the inefficacy of all human aid, though clothed in the sacred garb of priesthood, he exerted that power derived from God alone, to work a miracle in their favour; "and it "came to pass, that as they went they "were cleansed."