Christ imparts to us in the principle, we should return to him in the exercise.

2. The frankincense may put us in mind of holy and humble prayer, fervent and devout affections. This was to be continually burning upon the golden altar of incense, and was a principal ingredient in the precious perfume prescribed under the law; both which might exhibit, not only the intercession of Christ, but the prayers of the saints. Hence David says, "Let my prayer be set before thee as incense;" and the spouse is said to come up out of the wilderness "perfumed with myrrh, and frankincense, and all the powders of the merchant."

3. The myrrh may with propriety be accommodated to patient suffering; for though sweet to the smell, it is bitter to the taste. Thus "no affliction for the present is joyous, but grievous; yet afterwards, it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness:" and a cheerful submission to it is both. pleasing to God and profitable to the saints. Those that would wear the crown, must bear the cross; and he who willingly bears the cross, shall wear the crown. Though affliction is the fruit of sin, yet many precious graces are drawn forth, and many precious effects arise from sanctified affliction. In a word, myrrh preserves from putrefaction, and sends forth a pleasant odour; and so does grace, when tried in the furnace of affliction. I shall conclude with two observations.

1. As the wise men came into the house, and there saw Christ, so we should seek him in his word and ordinances. Many do not find Christ, because they seek him without doors, and not in the house. They are not successful in their inquiries after him, because they do not seek him in an acceptable manner, and where he is to be found.

2. As the wise men brought presents to Christ, so should we and what? Why, broken hearts, gracious

SERMON XXVI.

THE NATURE AND EXERCISES OF TRUE

FIDELITY.

PROVERBS Xx. 6.

A faithful man who can find?

MOST men, like the Pharisees, sound their own trumpet, and are forward enough to proclaim their good deeds. They talk a great deal of their justice, probity, generosity, and piety; are proud of their abilities, and boast of their performances; but Solomon, who was well acquainted with human nature, and a diligent observer of men, says, "A faithful man who can find?" I purpose to explain the character here specified, and to open the import of the question proposed. A faithful man is one of the highest characters in the world: to explain which it may be necessary to take notice, first, of its opposites; secondly, of its objects.

I. Of its opposites; for contraries, such as light and darkness, sin and holiness, heaven and hell, best illustrate each other. Now faithfulness is opposed,

1. To hypocrisy and guile; so that it signifies the same as uprightness and integrity. Faithfulness is opposed to hypocrisy of every kind. "Behold an Israelite indeed," says Christ of Nathaniel," in whom is no guile;❞—one who really is what he appears to be, who acts from right

conversation. Oh, what an amiable character! Who would not say with the Psalmist, "Let uprightness and integrity preserve me?"

2. To fraud, and double dealing; so that it implies a strict attention to the rules of justice and equity, and a conscientious discharge of every trust reposed in us; so that the faithful man would do to others as he would desire and expect that others should do to him. He will render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, as well as unto God the things that are God's; he will punctually perform what he has promised, and discharge all the obligations under which he has laid himself; carefully avoid doing any injury to others, or, having done it, like Zaccheus make full restitution. And here I might observe, that acts of mercy, as well as of justice, come under the notion of fidelity. Zaccheus becoming a sincere believer, not only made reparation to those whom he had injured, but gave half of his goods to the poor.

3. To sloth and indolence; and then it implies a diligent improvement of our talents for the benefit of mankind, and the exertion of all our powers in the service of God. Thus the servant in the gospel, who by his prudence and activity had made his five talents ten, is said to be not only a good but faithful servant. We are called out of the world into the vineyard, or church, not to be idle, but to labour; and if we do not employ ourselves in God's work, the devil will employ us in his drudgery. But dreadful will be the consequences; for he who finds us our work will certainly pay us our wages; and "the wages of sin is death." Man is naturally an active creature. Now to be faithful, implies not only that we labour, but that we labour for God; not only that we are active, for we are inclined to be so, and cannot well be otherwise,—but that we are active to some valuable purpose. Those are faithful servants to men who cheerfully, speedily, and universally, obey their master's commands. And such are the faithful servants of God; so that the faithful Christian is one who makes religion his

constant business. To be partial in God's law, mortify one lust and gratify another, obey in one instance and rebel in another, is a manifest proof of unfaithfulness.

4. To fickleness and inconstancy. Faithfulness and perseverance are inseparably connected together, so that the faithful man will be a persevering one. Hence it is said of those who turned their backs upon religion, that "they set not their heart aright, nor was their spirit stedfast with God." Hence also that exhortation of Christ to the church at Smyrna, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." So that the crown is a free gift after our most strenuous and constant endeavours to obtain it; and yet without those endeavours we are not faithful.

II. I proceed to take notice of the objects of this faithfulness; and it may be considered in a threefold point of view, either as it respects a man's self, his fellow-creatures, or the most high God.

1. It may be considered as it respects a man's self. The faithful man, then, is one who obeys the dictates of his own conscience. First, he takes care to have it well informed, and then endeavours to preserve it free from offence by scrupulously avoiding what it declares to be evil, and diligently performing what it pronounces good. Another instance of a man's faithfulness to himself, is when he bears a true testimony concerning himself, being neither a selfflatterer nor a self-slanderer; neither willing to part with his integrity, as Job,-" My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live," nor imagining that he is something when he is nothing; a favourite of heaven, when he is a child of the devil. So that faithfulness, in this view of it, chiefly consists in our making a right estimate, or taking a proper measurement of ourselves; or, as the apostle, with beautiful simplicity, expresses it, "thinking soberly of ourselves, and as we ought to think."

2. It may be considered, as it respects our fellow