children. Hold up to him the image of your departed friends, in particular of those, who were distinguished for their piety and benevolence, and who, whilst they lived, were the supports and ornaments of this church.

You my brethren, who survive, are a society of friends; you respect each other; and you have chosen for your pastor a man, who has every disposition to prolong your tranquility and increase your felicity. Without saying any thing of his talents, which speak for themselves, I shall only observe, that he has been blessed with enlightened and virtuous parents; and that having passed his childhood under their discreet and tender guidance, his youth has been favoured with the best means of intellectual and moral improvement, which the country affords. With such advantages, you have reason to expect that he will be an affectionate pastor; that he will be, not only your instructer, but your son, your brother, your friend, and your comforter.

My young friends of this society, who, by the ordination of a new pastor, begin a new era of hope, of love, of joy, how happy would you be, if you would determine at the same time to commence your religious course!

Precious are the first fruits of life, when they are offered to God; fragrant is the perfume, which ascends to heaven from the flowers of spring; melodious is the song of devotion, when it is chanted by a youthful tongue. Give yourselves up therefore to your heavenly Father; become in every sense the disciples of your benevolent Redeemer. You are his friends, if you do what he commands you :* He commands you to celebrate his dying love. Hesitate not a moment to obey his reasonable, his affectionate call. Join the parents, whom you venerate, and the pastor, whom you esteem, at the table of the Lord and there may you find increase of strength in every good resolution, and growth in evcry christian grace, till at length you rise up a holy temple in the Lord,† fair without and beautiful within, and in which the spirit of the Almighty will delight for ever to dwell. + Eph. ii. 21.

*John xv. 14.

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When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple, behold thy mother.

THE virtues, which Jesus displayed during his life, shone with the greatest lustre in its closing scenes. Such an assemblage of divine graces then appeared in his character, that the grateful christian contemplates it with love, delight, and admiration. Happily the evangelical writers are sufficiently minute in the concluding chapters of his history, which constitute the most affecting parts of the gospels. We here see a personage, of sublime dignity and heroick fortitude, voluntarily submitting to pain and death, that he may promote the most important of all purposes, the glory of God, and the felicity of mankind.

Among other virtues, which he manifested on this occasion, none was more conspicuous than his tenderness. By tenderness I mean the soft affection, which filled his suscepible heart, his kind attention to his friends, and his anxiety for their happiness. This will be my theme at present; and I purpose, in the first place, to consider it; and secondly, to show what inferences we should draw, and what practical uses we should make of the subject.

I. IN treating the tenderness of our Saviour, it may be sufficient to mention some of the instances of it, which are recorded in his history, without dwelling on them particularly; for there is always danger, if we expatiate on them, that we should weaken their effect by too diffuse a style, or by cold exclamation. The Evangelists have related them with so much simplicity and pathos, that we cannot, by adopting an expanded manner, render them more forcible. Passing by the instances, which appear in the former parts of the gospels, I will remind you of those, which took place at the close of his life.

1. THE first instance, which I shall mention, is the tenderness of our Lord to the

family of Lazarus.* There must have been something very amiable in the character of this young man and his two sisters; for it is said by St. John, that Jesus loved them. When therefore Lazarus died, though our Saviour had determined to restore him to life by his miraculous power, yet he was much affected with the sorrow of his sisters, and he wept at their tears. The Jews, who were present, were so struck with his tenderness to the deceased, that they could not forbear saying, Behold how he loved him. The sensibility, which, amidst the display of his majesty, our Lord discovered on this occasion, renders his character extremely interesting. He thought it not beneath his dignity to mingle his tears with the tears of the afflicted sisters, and to exert his kind attention, and to make use of soothing words, to comfort their hearts. He becomes the object of affection and delight; but we do not perceive that he debased himself by cherishing and expressing the feelings of tenderness.

2. THE Second instance of the tenderness of our Saviour, of which I would remind you, is that which he manifested to his disciples in