Shine on, ye stars in the hands of your God! Ye are the light of the world—take no notice of the slanders of Legalists, moderate Divines, Arminians, Baxterians, Arians, Deists, and Socinians. By your preaching, praying, and living, shew that one is your master, even Jesus!—Permit me to introduce an Eastern Fable, as it is calculated to illustrate this point: “The Owls and Bats once joined in a petition to Jupiter, against the Sun; humbly shewing, that his beams were so troublesome that they could not fly abroad, for at least twelve hours out of the twenty-four. Jupiter seeing Phœbus shortly after, informed him of the petition he had received, adding, I shall, however, take no notice of the petition; and be it your business to revenge yourself, by shining.” You that preach the Gospel, “go, and do thou likewise:” Suppress no truth—keep back no part of the price, through the fear of men, or to procure the favor of men. Be bold for truth—the blood of souls stains deep! Remember the Apostle’s language, “Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel—yea, woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel.” Lastly.—May not the pitcher, lamp, and trumpet, be an emblem of God’s saints, the teachings of the Spirit, and the happy consequence of the same?—The earthen pitcher may be figurative of our bodies—although, through grace, they are the temples of the Holy-Ghost, yet they are of the earth, earthy: the body is called an earthly house, because it is from the earth, is supported by earthly things, has its present abode on the earth, and will quickly return to it—the first man was of the earth, earthy—so are all his descendents—this shews how frail we are, and how little reason to be proud of ourselves, seeing we came from the dust, and must return to it. Man was formed out of the earth—“The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground;”—the word there used signifies Red earth.—Josephus says, that the first man was called Adam, which in the Hebrew tongue signifies Red; because he was made out of Red earth—for such, he says, is the true and virgin earth. Man, in consequence of the Fall, was doomed to return to it again—his sin and fall had such an awful influence, as to make himself and posterity sensual, earthly, and devilish—to mind, affect, and cleave to earthly things—this is bearing the image of the earthy. But it hath pleased God our Saviour to confer an honor upon our nature, by taking it into personal union with his Godhead; and his mysterious assumption of human nature is, indeed, the wonder of heaven. Here was heaven and earth joined together—God and Man—but how this was done we cannot form any idea; even Solomon, with all the wisdom God gave him, declares of Four things, they were too wonderful for him; and this subject was one of them, “The way of a man with a maid;” or, as Mr. Romaine says, it is in the original, “The way of the Almighty in the virgin, when he took part of the children’s flesh and