forth into blafphemy, aggravated by fedition, doth not always prove an unfurmountable bar in the way to any office, civil or military, which the perfon is otherwife qualified to fill, or hath interest to obtain: and therefore, though the mere profeffion of Christianity be not attended with any temporal inconveniences, yet as the want of fuch profeffion doth not exclude a man from any temporal advantages, and as neither the profeffion nor practice of Christianity can be said, in the ordinary course of things, to help any man forward in the line of worldly promotion; hence it follows, that every baptifed perfon, who hath not openly renounced "the Lord that bought him," but ftill retains the name of Christian, and would complain of abuse and injury if his. title to that appellation were either denied or called in question, must be confidered as acting from the freest choice in the profeffion he makes; and can have no reafon to be ftartled, far lefs to be offended, when we addrets him in the words of this holy Apostle, Let y un converfation be as it becometh the gofpel of Carif.-Should it be otherwife with

any

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any of us, the confequences are obvious; and upon every fuppofition we can make, must prove equally fatal to our peace and to our honour.

If we believe not the gospel, why do we profefs it?-To lie in any cafe is fhameful, how great foever the temptation may be: but to lie deliberately without any tempta tion at all, which, as I just now observed, is the prefent cafe; nay, to persist in that lie from day to day, when telling the truth could not hurt nor endanger any fecular intereft whatsoever, is a bafeness the most fuperfluous, and confequently the most contemptible, that can poffibly be imagined.

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On the other hand, if we truly believe what we profess, what an odious as well as difgraceful appearance must we make, when our converfation is fuch as doth not become the gospel of Chrift? By holding the truth "in unrighteoufnefs," and counteracting the dictates of religion, and the conviction of our own minds, we expofe ourselves to the lashes of that felf-reproach which will not fail to occupy every lucid interval betwixt

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twixt the tumultuous gratifications of paffion and appetite; while at the fame time, by continuing to profefs that gospel we counteract, we every day publish our fhame and mifery to the world around us, and virtually confefs, that we are guilty and felf-condemned before all who have an opportunity of obferving our conduct.

So that the fubject of my text is one of the most important that can employ our attention, as our practical regard to this demand of the Apoftle is abfolutely necefsary to preserve the peace and purity of our own hearts, and to fupport that character which the moft profligate reverence, and which all who can difcern real beauty and excellence will covet to poffefs; I mean, the venerable character of an upright man.

Having thus prepared the way, by fhowing, that the fame charge which was primarily addreffed to the Philippians, may, with strict justice and propriety, be extended to us, let us now proceed to examine, with attention and candour, the ftandard to which our conformity is enjoined; or, in other words, let us inquire into that gospel of

Christ to which our conversation, that is, the whole of our external conduct, as expreffing the inward temper of our hearts, ought to

be fuited.

Among the various particulars included in the gofpel of Chrift, the two following may be felected as the moft diftinguishing and comprehenfive, namely,

I. The Doctrines we are taught to believe; and,

II. The Laws we are commanded to obey. Each of these particulars I fhall examine apart; from whence we fhall discover, with eafe and certainty, what manner of converfation it is that may be said to become the gof pel of Chrift.

I. I BEGIN with the Doctrines of the gofpel, or the truths we are taught to believe. And without defcending to the peculiar tenets, or modes of expreffion, by which Christians of any denomination have chofen to distinguish themselves, I fhall confine myself entirely to thofe capital points, in which the fober and intelligent of almoft

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most every denomination will be found to

agree,

Now the gospel, ftrictly fo called, or that "word of reconciliation," the fubftance whereof the Apostle hath elsewhere expreffed in one short fentence, to wit, "That "God wa in Chrift reconciling the world "unto himself, not imputing their trefpaf *fes unto them," neceffarily fupposes, that man is in a state of distance and alienation from God, liable to punishment in confequence of his apoftafy; and fo perverted and enfeebled, that he hath neither the dif pofition nor the ability to do any thing that can be effectual for his own recovery.

It informs us, that "God who spared not the angels that finned, but hath re"ferved them in everlasting chains under "darkness to the judgement of the great "day," fo pitied the human race, "that "he fent his only begotten Son into the "world, not to condemn the world, but "that the world through him might be "faved."-The nature and dignity of this great Deliverer are thus defcribed by an infpired Apoftle: "In the beginning was

"the