XXI. SERM. which were bidden, shall taste of my supper. If we refuse to accept the terms of mercy offered to us, he will fend for other guests more worthy of his table, even the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. Chrift may one day adopt into his flock all thofe barbarous and favage nations who are yet strangers to his word: they perhaps will gladly accept that falvation which we refuse, and eagerly embrace that knowledge which we thus impioufly and ungratefully despise. Even if we should hereafter be ever fo defirous of coming to his feast, his table may be filled without us; his doors, which are now open to receive, may then be shut against us, and none of us who are now bidden may be permitted, however earnestly we follicit for it, to taste of his fupper. Let us then, my brethren, make the proper use of the parable before us. We are invited to the XXI. the feast let us immediately haften to SERM. partake of it: let each of us put on the wedding garment of righteousness, without which we must by no means appear before our Sovereign. If we do not come as soon as we are called, if we are not cloathed as we ought to be, and if we do not behave ourselves when there in a manner fuitable to the occafion, we had better never come at all. And lastly, let us remember that this feaft is but preparatory to a better, even a feast of joy and happiness in the manfions of the blest, where we shall celebrate the marriage of the King's Son with fongs of thankf giving a feast where the appetite will never pall, the enjoyment never fatiate, and the converfe never tire; where we fhall meet and affociate with the fpirits of good men made perfect, where out of the many that are called we shall fee the few that are chofen, thofe happy and exalted VOL. II. H |