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in their most fimple and obvious meaning; than they formerly were upon those to whom they were primarily addreffed.

One thing further I would recommend to your notice, viz. that the laws I am fpeaking of are the laws of Him "who loved us, ❝ and gave himself for us, an offering and "facrifice to God of a sweet-smelling fa66 vour;" and therefore we may rest affured, that they are kind as well as righteous, and fuited with perfect wisdom to be the means of promoting our trueft interest. They are laws which he himself hath magnified and made honourable; not only by anfwering all their demands, fo far as his high character would permit, or his peculiar circumstances afforded occafion; but likewife by expiating the guilt incurred by the tranfgreffion of them, and bearing in his own perfon the punishment that was due to the offending creature.

This laft confideration fets the obedience required of us in a moft endearing point of light. It is not the fervile task of a hireling who labours for his wages, but the ingenuous and grateful fervice of a loving

child. Christ hath purchased the glorious inheritance; and to all who believe on him, eternal life is the free gift of God through the merit of his blood: fo that nothing is required of thein, but what tends to purify and perfect their natures, that, by a growing resemblance to the Father of their spi rits in this state of discipline, they may be rendered meet for the full and everlasting enjoyment of him, when death, by diffolving the earthly tabernacle, fhall pull down all that remains of the first Adam, and bring a final release from the body of fin.

HAVING premifed thefe general remarks, I shall now proceed to remind you of those particular precepts to which our conformity is required by the gofpel of Chrift. And we are happily furnished with a short, but most comprehensive, fummary of them, by this fame Apostle in his epiftle co Titus, chap. ii. 11. 12. The grace of God that bringeth falvation, hath appeared to all men; teaching us, that denying ungodliness, and worldly lufts, we should live foberly, righteously, and godly in this prefent world.

VOL. II.

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be reckoned a breach of good manners to introduce any thing that related to their Father in heaven ;-to his house with many manfions, where they all hoped to dwell; -or to that precious Redeemer, who hath gone before to prepare a place for them. Might it not rather be expected, that befides pccafional converfe upon fubjects of fo interesting a nature, they would choose to fet apart fome portions of time for the fole purpose of comforting themselves toge"ther, and edifying one another," according to the early practice of the Chriftians at Theffalonica, which our Apostle fo highly commends, 1 Theff. v. 11. ?

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THUS have I given you my cool deliberate fentiments upon the practical influence of the great doctrines of the gospel, and that kind of converfation towards God and man which is beft fuited to the belief of them. Should any indeed be fo perverfe as to refift the influence of thefe doctrines, and counteract their native and moft obyious tendency, while at the fame time they acknowledged the evidence of their truth,

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it would not at all surprise me, to fee them crowding, from day to day, the public theatres, that the regularity and decorum of a fictitious reprefentation might draw their attention away from that real and ill-conducted medley in which they themselves acted their difgraceful parts. I fhould not wonder to behold them flying with eagernefs to cards and dice, and seeking aid from every engine of diffipation and noise, to conceal the lapfe of time, and to bear down the clamours of an accufing confcience. It would not even furprise me, to see them rufhing headlong into the haunts of riot and debauch, that the intoxicating cup might either ftupify or madden their reafon; which, if left to its fober exercise, would anticipate the evil day, and torment them before the time. Such things as thefe I should expect to fee: but for none of them could I find any place at all in the natural and orderly state of reasonable creatures, whofe temper and conduct, as I have all along fuppofed, were formed and regulated by the doctrines of the gospel.

How far my reafoning upon this branch

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from that which daily paffeth before our eyes, I fhall now proceed to confider the LAWS or precepts of our holy religion; that, from the review of thefe, we may difcover, with ftill greater certainty, what the converfation is that may be faid to become the gospel of Chrift.

BUT before I defcend to particulars upon this extenfive fubject, I must beg your aftention to a few remarks I have to make upon the precepts or laws of the gospel in general.

With regard to their authority, there can be no doubt. He who enacted them hath an unquestionable right to our most perfect obedience: "In the beginning was the "Word, and the Word was with God, and "the Word was God: all things were made

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by him, and without him was not any "thing made that was made." We are therefore his property in the most absolute and unlimited fenfe of that expreffion. He called us into being when as yet we were not, and every moment he fuftains that existence which he gave us; for "in him we

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