our great Almighty God, what can we expect but his wrath? And that wrath who can bear? "It is a fearful thing," says one of Christ's Apostles, "to fall into the hands of the living God."

ment.

I proceed now to the tenth command"Thou shalt not covet nor desire thy neighbour's house: thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's." God Almighty knew, my friends, that breaking this commandment leads his creatures to break many more. Coveting your neighbour's property leads on sometimes to theft: coveting your neighbour's wife, to adultery: coveting either, to murder. We read of a very bad man in the Bible, who once coveted a a small piece of land belonging to another person, and adjoining his own grounds. And in order to get possession of it, his wife caused the man who owned it to be

put to death. But God saw and punished the wicked, unjust, and oppressive deed. For as we read, in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, who was killed, in the same place dogs licked the blood of them who killed him. We read also in the Bible of another man, a king, in other respects a good and religious man, but in this instance, guilty of a very bad thing. He coveted his neighbour's wife. And in order to get the wife he killed the husband. And sorrow enough came upon him for it.

Now, my brethren, these two wicked acts proceeded from an evil covetousness

-an evil coveting of what belonged to another. And though coveting your neighbour's goods may not always lead to sins like these, yet it is always sinful;always displeasing to God. And remember again, God forbids it. That is enough. Thou shalt not covet any thing that is thy neighbour's. Our blessed Saviour Jesus

Christ says, "that a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." And therefore, he bids us to beware of covetousness. And certainly, people who have little and are contented, are happier than they, who have a great deal and are wishing for more. To be discontented is to be miserable. Let me therefore advise you to be contented with your station in life. Contentment will make your humble dwellings the abodes of peace. Contentment will make your labour and your toil easy. Contentment will make your cup of refreshment sweet-your plainest food palatable. To be wishing to be what you are not, will lead you on to sin and misery. Covet not therefore nor desire other men's goods, as the catechism most admirably teaches you, but learn and labour to do your duty in that state of life to which God has called you. If you do so, God's blessing will go along with you: your Saviour will be your mediator between God and you, and when

this world is at an end, your contentment will be changed into joy and happiness.

I have now finished lecturing on the ten commandments. You see that they teach you your whole duty to God, your neighbour, and yourselves. And I cannot conclude, without telling you, that God, who gave the commandments has provided a method for enabling you to keep them. On the account of Jesus Christ dying for us all, God has sent his Holy Spirit into the world and that Spirit dwells in the hearts of all well-disposed Christians. Spirit will make you able to keep all the commandments. You must pray for this Spirit, pray that he may be always with you and He, who sanctifies all the elect people of God, will make you holy here, and lead you on to be happy hereafter.

And now to God, &c.

That

LECTURE LIX.

ST. MATTHEW, xx. 1.

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.

I HAVE in many Lectures given you an account of the making of the world by God Almighty, of the sin and disobedience of Adam and Eve, our first parents, of that sin bringing death into the world. For, if Adam and Eve had not sinned, neither, they nor we should have died. I have also given you an account of the deluge or flood, when all the people of the earth were drowned, except Noah and his fa