have scorned the deliverance proffered her by the tyrant, and welcomed the torments which were to free her from the flesh. Thus was the bloody tragedy completed: the mother and her seven sons fell together, choosing the most excruciating death in preference to disobeying God, and having such faith in a Resurrection unto life, that they despised the fire, and the rack, and the axe. Who does not look with veneration on the martyred group? Whose heart burns not, as the matron dashes away the tears which the agonies of her sons must have forced to her eyes, and points, with majestic air, those already dying to a bright world above, and urges those, whose trial is yet to come, to defy the malice and the cruelty of the persecutor? Who feels not the greatness of the faith that was displayed? and who then can marvel that an Apostle, eager to exhibit the noblest triumphs of the principle of faith, should not have confined himself to the Patriarchs and warriors, whose stories are told by inspired writers, but, going down into more private life, should have selected the family which was massacred in one day by an infamous tyrant, and have added its members to his illustrious catalogue, though he found the record in a book whose author is not reckoned amongst those described by our text, "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost?"

Now we have thus wished to show you that the Apocryphal Books, which are being read at this time in the public services of the Church, though not inspired, may be referred to with advantage, and made serviceable to the Christian. You are especially to observe that our Church does not use them to establish any doctrine. The

Roman Catholic does; and so loose, if not erroneous, are many of the statements of these books, that they can be employed to the giving sanction to some of the worst errors of Popery. But this is not to prevent our giving to the Apocryphal books their due measure of respect, extracting from them historical information, and venerating the noble maxims with which they abound. Surely the history which we have given you of the mother and her sons is one which is well adapted to nerve to constancy in a righteous profession. We cannot do better, in concluding our discourse, than exhort to imitation of the faith so signally displayed. Yes; such is faith, such its power, and such its reward. And though we do indeed feel that the crown of martyrs, the crown won at the stake, or on the scaffold, may be a crown of extraordinary lustre, we will not suppose that, because our days are days of peace, and not of persecution, we may not ourselves attain distinguished glories at the resurrection of the just. There is a martyrdom, less conspicuous, indeed, but hardly less real, than that undergone by the mother and her sons, and in which we, as Christians, are all summoned to have share. It is a martyrdom in which we are not only to be the sufferers, but also the executioners. I call it martyrdom, that, if the right hand offend us, we must cut it off; if the right eye, we must pluck it out; that the flesh must be crucified with its affections and lusts, and the body be presented, a living sacrifice, unto God. And I know not whether there may not often be required a more active and energetic faith for this slow and protracted immolation of ourselves, than for the going boldly to the place of execution, and there enduring cheerfully all that malice can

devise. The dying daily, the perpetual self-mortification, the patient submission to injuries, the incessant effort to promote God's glory, these may be, at least, as arduous, and ask as much moral strength, as the facing an oppressor, and the surrendering even life, rather than abjure our religion.

I know not, then, why we, too, may not share the better resurrection. At all events, by making greater sacrifices for God, by attempting a more rigid self-denial, by striving after higher and higher degrees of Christian virtue, we may undoubtedly outstrip others who are running the same race, and thus obtain a nobler portion from the Judge of quick and dead. Christian men, and Christian women, parents and children, ye are not called to stand before Antiochus, and to choose between denying your God, and surrendering your lives. But, "holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," have told you that ye are called to witness in the face of a scornful world, and to choose between losing your souls, and mortifying evil passions. We conjure you to accept not deliverance. Be ye bold, as were the mother and her sons, of whom ye have now heard; and resolve, in the strength of the Lord, that nothing but death shall set you free from warfare and suffering. Binding yourselves to the altar, and offering up yourselves by daily and hourly sacrifices, in obedience to God, ye may gain honours, like those which martyrs are to wear, and rise, at last, in that better Resurrection, which shall include those who are to shine as stars in the firmament.

LECTURE VI.

A Man a Biding-plare.

ISA. xxxii. 2.

"And a man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."

THERE is little or no debate amongst commentators, as to the personage described in these words. It is probable, indeed, that the prophecy, in which they occur, had a primary reference to Hezekiah, who, as successor to the iniquitous Ahaz, restored the worship of God, and re-established the kingdom of Judah. The very signal deliverance, vouchsafed by God to his people, in the reign of this monarch, when the swarming hosts of the Assyrian fell in one night before the destroying angel, may justly be considered as having been alluded to by the Prophet, in strains which breathe high of triumph and redemption. And when a king is spoken of as reigning in righteousness, and there is associated with his dominion all the imagery of prosperity and peace, we may undoubtedly find, in the holy and beneficent rule of Hezekiah, much that answers to the glowing predictions. But the destruction of the army of Sennacherib may itself be regarded as a figurative

occurrence; and Hezekiah, like his forefather David, is but the type of the Lord our Redeemer. There are to be great and fearful judgments, ere Christ shall finally set up his kingdom on the earth; and the Assyrians, miraculously slaughtered, ere Jerusalem could be at rest under its pious monarch, may but vividly foreshow how the wicked shall consumed by the brightness of Christ's coming, and thus way be made for the universal reign of righteousness and truth. If, in our text, Hezekiah is to be understood by the "man," of whom such great and glorious things are affirmed, you will unavoidably feel as if the employed language were too bold and comprehensive: you will have to explain it in a reduced and qualified sense, interpreting it as full of Eastern metaphor, which must not be too rigidly understood. But apply the words to our blessed Saviour, and there will be found nothing of strain or exaggeration: in their largest sense, they come short of the greatness and preciousness of his offices; and the effort of the interpreter must be, rather, to prove them in any measure adequate to what they describe, than to bring up what they describe to their compass and extent.

When, indeed, the prediction has thus been interpreted of that righteous King, in the describing of whom language, the most magnificent, is necessarily weak, you may apply it, in a very qualified sense, to Hezekiah; but we ought not to think that Hezekiah is primarily intended; for this is to accuse the prophecy of exaggeration; and exaggeration is too nearly akin to falsehood to be ever found in the word of the Lord. We shall not, then, think it needful, in our present discourse, to give heed to any interpretation of the text, but that which refers it altogether