was provided of God, and inftructed of his mother, to rectify the diforders of his own houfe, and to fupply the place of a degenerate race of priests, ripe for deftruction and doomed to it, and ready to bring down a "father's grey hairs with forrow to the grave."

Hannah's fong of praife, which follows at length in the opening of the next chapter, merits, on many accounts, a feparate and particular confideration. It poffeffes all the majesty, grace and beauty of ancient oriental poetry. It is one of the happiest effufions of an excellent female heart labouring under a grateful fense of the higheft obligations. It prefents and impreffes fome of the jufteft and most interesting views of Divine Providence, and, what is above all, it difclofes one of the clearest and most diftinct profpects of the coming, perfon and character of Meffiah, the · Prophet of prophets, King of kings, Lord of lords. Yes, chriftians, for this prophetefs was referved the -honour of first pronouncing in facred fong, that "name which is as ointment poured forth," which angels mention with wonder and reverence, and which the whole company of the redeemed fhall one day proclaim with "joy unfpeakable and full of glory; MESSIAH the anointed of the Lord-whom the world fo long expected, who in the fulness of time appeared, whom unbelieving Jews refused to acknowledge; whom they despised, rejected, crucified, and put to death; whom "God has exalted a Prince and Saviour to give repentance and the remiflion of fins ;" to whofe fecond coming the courfe of nature, the evolutions of providence, the hopes and fears of every heart of man, the earnest expectation of the creature, and the handwriting of God in fcripture, all, all directly point.

The next Lecture will be an attempt to illuftrate, and practically to improve Hannah's fong of praife. May we bring to it a portion of that fpirit which infpired the lips of her who fung, and directed the pen of him who wrote. Let me conclude the prefent, with calling on every one prefent, to recollect perfonal

obligations,

obligations, and to walk fuitably to them. Call to remembrance vows formed on a bed of languishing, in the hour of difficulty, in the inftant of danger, at the table of the Lord; and thankfully pay them: as knowing that "it is better not to vow, than to vow and not to pay."

Defire more earnestly the best gifts; spiritual, heavenly, eternal bleflings. By all means, in your vows, ftipulate for your portion of present and temporal good things, faying with Jacob, "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, fo that I come again to my father's houfe in peace, then shall the Lord be my God;"*-and with Hannah, pouring out the bitterness of an oppreffed heart before God, and begging relief of the Father of mercies, faying, "O Lord of Hofts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid." But forget not withal, to ftipulate, with Solomon, for "an understanding heart," to prize and to improve mercies already beftowed; and with Jabez, calling on the God of Ifrael, faying, "Oh that thou wouldest blefs me indeed,— and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil that it may not grieve me,"

Hannah promised to devote to the Lord the child which fhould be given her; and ye have folemnly engaged to yield yourselves unto God; and "ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price." "I befeech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye prefent your bodies a living facrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable fervice. And be not conformed to this world: but ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."t

be

* Gen. xxviii. 20, 21.
P 2

+ Rom. xii. 1, 2.

History

And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord: mine born is exalted in the Lord, my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies because I rejoice in thy falvation. There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none befide thee: neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more fo exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that ftumbled are girded with ftrength. They that were full have hired out themfelves for bread; and they that were hungry ceafed; fo that the barren hath born seven: and he that hath many children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raifeth up the poor out of the duft, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to fet them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath fet the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his faints, and the wicked fhall be filent in darkness: for by strength fhall no

*

man

man prevail. The adverfaries of the Lord fhall be broken to pieces: out of heaven fhall he thunder upon them: the Lord fhall judge the ends of the earth; and he fhall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

IN

man, the mafter-piece of creation, are difcernible various kinds of life, diftinct from each other, yet most wonderfully blended and united, fo as to form one great and aftonifhing whole. The animal, the intellectual, the moral life: to which we add, in man as he came from the hands of his Creator, and in man "renewed" by grace "in he spirit of his mind," the fpiritual and divine life, the dawning light, the earnest and pledge, the celeftial foretaste of everlafting life.

The first of these we enjoy in common with the beasts that perish. Like theirs, our bodies grow and decline. Like them we are led by fenfe and appetite, and are susceptible of pleasure and pain. And, like them, we arose out of the earth, are fupported by it, and feel ourfelves returning to it again.

The fecond, or intellectual life, raises man far above every other animal. He poffeffes the power of thought, that productive faculty of the Almighty; that image of God in our nature. He contemplates, compares, reflects, reasons, plans, performs. By means of this he exercises dominion over all other creatures. Inferior to many, in fome refpects, by this he renders himself fuperior to all; and reduces all their powers to the fubjection and obedience of himself.

The moral life places man in fociety; connects him with intelligent beings like himself; opens a capacious field of duty and of enjoyment; ftamps him an object of approbation or blame, of reward or punish

ment.

The divine life unites man to the Author and fupporter of his existence, the fource of all his comforts, the foundation of all his hopes; the witness and the judge of all his actions; the avenger of all unrighteoufnefs,

unrighteousness, "the rewarder of them who diligently feek him."

To Adam, as an animal, God faid, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth: behold I have given you every herb bearing feed, which is upon the face of all the earth; and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree, yielding feed; to you it fhall be for meat."

In Adam the intellectual life discovered itself, when the Lord God brought unto him "every beaft of the field, and every fowl of the air, to fee what he would call them; and whatfoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof."

-God having implanted a principle of moral life in man, faid, "It is not good that the man fhould be alone; I will make him an help meet for him;" he took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to drefs it and to keep it; and commanded the man, faying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayeft freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou fhalt furely die."

In Adam the spiritual and divine life was perfected, when "God created man in his own image." It was extinguifhed and loft when by tranfgreffion he fell; it was revived by the promise of the Meffiah and falvation through his blood; and it will be completely recovered when the image of God is restored through the spirit of fanctification.

All these different kinds of life have their feveral and correfponding expreffions; and according as any one prevails, fuch is the character of the man. When the habitual cry is, " What fhall I eat, what fhall I drink, and wherewithal fhall I be cloathed ?" it is easy to determine what life is predominant : it is eafy to difcern when the brute runs away with the Solomon may be given as an inftance of the prevalence of intellectual life. He looked through nature, and "fpake of trees, from the cedar-tree that

man.