am, that in themselves they are singular mercies and helps to salvation, which are denied to millions: so that if Plato, when he was near his death, could bless God for three things, that he was a man, and not a beast, that he was born in Greece, and brought up in the time of Socrates; much more cause have you to admire Providence, that you are men, and not beasts, that you were born in England, and brought up in gospel-days here. This is a land the Lord has "espied" for you, as the expression is in Ezek. xx. 6; and concerning it you have abundant cause to say, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea I have a goodly heritage." Psal. xvi. 6.

III. The next remarkable performance of Providence which must be heedfully adverted to and weighed, is the designation of the stock and family out of which we should spring and rise.

And truly this is of special consideration, both as to our temporal and eternal good; for whether the families in which we grow up are great or small in Israel, whether our parents were of higher or lower class and rank among men, yet if

they were such as feared God, and wrought righteousness, if they took care to educate you righteously, and trained you up "" in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," you are bound to reckon it among your chief mercies, that you sprung from the loins of such parents; for from this spring a double stream of mercy rises to you.

Hence arise temporal mercies to your outward man. As godliness entails a blessing, so unrighteousness entails a curse upon posterity. An instance of the former you have in Gen. xvii. 18-20; you have the threatening in Zech. v. 4; and both together in Prov. iii. 33, "The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesseth the habitation of the just."

But notice especially what a stream of spiritual blessings flows from this Providence, to the inner man. O it is no common mercy to descend from pious pa-rents! Some of us do owe not only our natural life to them as instruments of our being, but our spiritual and eternal life also. It was no small mercy to Timothy to be descended from such progenitors, -nor to Augustine that he had such a mother as Monica, who planted in his mind

the precepts of life with her words, watered them with her tears, and nourished them with her example. We will a little more particularly inspect this mercy; and in so doing, we shall find manifold mercies contained in it.

>What a mercy was it to us to have parents that prayed for us before they had us, as well as in our infancy when we could not pray for ourselves! Thus did Abraham, Gen. xv. 2; and Hannah, 1 Sam. i. 10, 11; and some here perhaps are the fruits and returns of their parents' prayers. This was that holy course they continued all their days for you, carrying all your concerns, especially your eternal ones, before the Lord, with their own; and pouring out their souls to God so affectionately for you, when their eyestrings and heart-strings were breaking. O put a value upon such mercies, for they are precious! It is a greater mercy to descend from praying parents than from the loins of nobles.

What a special mercy was it to us to have the excrescences of corruption nipt in the bud by the pious and careful discipline of our parents! We now under

stand what a critical and dangerous season youth is, the wonderful propensity of that age to every thing that is evil. Why else are they called "youthful lusts?" 2 Tim. ii. 22. When David asks, "Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way?" it is plainly enough implied in the very question, that his way lies through the pollutions of the world in his youth. When you find a David praying that God would "not remember the sins of his youth," and a Job bitterly complaining, that God "made him to possess the sins of his youth," surely you cannot but reflect, with a very thankful heart, on those happy means by which the corruption of your nature was happily prevented or restrained in your youth.

And how great a mercy was it, that we had parents, who carefully instilled the good knowledge of God into our souls in our tender years? How careful was Abraham of this duty, Gen. xviii. 19, and David, 1 Chron. xxviii. 9; We have some of us had parents, who might say to us, "My little children, of whom I travail again in birth till Christ be formed in you,"

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Gal. iv. 19. As they longed for us before they had us, and rejoiced in us when they had us, so they could not endure to think, that when they could have us no more, the devil should. As they thought no pains or cost too much for our bodies, to feed them, clothe and heal them, so did they think no prayers, counsels, or tears, too much for our souls, that they might be saved. They knew a parting time would come betwixt them and us, and did strive to make it as easy and comfortable to them as they could, by leaving us in Christ, and within the blessed bond of his covenant. They were not glad that we had health, and indifferent whether we had grace. They felt as sensibly the miseries of our souls, as of our bodies; and nothing was more desirable to them, than that they might say in the great day, "Lord, here am I, and the children which thou hast given me."

And was it not a special favor to us, to have parents who went before us as patterns of holiness, who could say to us, "What things ye have heard and seen in us, that do;" "Be ye followers of us, as