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by difcourfing well upon the duties that belong to felf-government and righteousness, may correct many outward disorders in the life, and produce fuch a change in the heart itself, as to convert thofe into men, who formerly were depraved to fuch a degree, that they differed very little from the brutes that perifh. But after they become men, the greateft change doth still remain: thofe men must be converted into faints; they muft be changed into the divine image; their very nature must be renewed, before they can be meet for the enjoyment of. God: "Except a man be born again, he cannot "enter into the kingdom of heaven;" and it is the gospel alone which the Spirit renders powerful for producing this effect. Morality grows out of faith in Christ, as the branches grow from the stuck. This, and this only, is the principle of that holiness, without which no man fhall fee God. Whofoever, therefore, would preach morality with any hope of fuccefs, muft begin here, and lay the foundation of it in that faith which purifieth the heart, and worketh by love; otherwife his fermons may fupply

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fuel to pride and vain-glory, but shall never be the means of faving one foul. In vain do we attempt to improve the fruit, till the tree be made good. Let finners be first ingrafted into Chrift, and then works of righteoufnefs will follow in courfe; as our bleffed Lord hath taught us,

"Abide in me, and I in you.

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John xv. 4, 5.

As the branch

cannot bear fruit of itfelf, except it abide

" in the vine; no more can ye, except ye "abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the "branches: he that abideth in me, and I "in him, the fame bringeth forth much « fruit; for without me [or feparated from

me] ye can do nothing." Accordingly we find, that the preaching Chrift, or the peculiar doctrines of the gofpel, hath in every age been the means of convincing and converting finners, and of building them up in holinefs and comfort, through faith unto falvation and in the fame proportion that this hath been neglected, the power of godlinefs hath declined and languifhed, till a cold formality hath at length given way to the open profeffion of infidelity itself. It was the obfervation of a judicious and pious

writer upon this fubject, "That where a

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great and universal neglect of preaching "Chrift hath prevailed in a Christian na"tion, it hath given a fatal occafion to the growth of Deism and infidelity: for when

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people have heard the fermons of their "ministers for many years together, and "find little of Chrift in them, they have "taken it into their heads, that men may "be very good, and go fafe to heaven, with"out Christianity; and therefore, though

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they dwell in a land where the gospel is

profeffed, they imagine there is no need,: they should be Chriftians."-To which I may add, that it is no lefs obfervable, on the other hand, that wherever there has been any revival of religion, it hath uniformly been introduced and carried on, through the bleffing of God, by preaching the peculiar doctrines of Christianity. Thefe, and thefe alone, have been, and ever will be, "the wisdom and power of God unto fal"vation."

THE application of what hath been faid to the ministers of religion, is fo direct and obvious,

obvious, that I need not enlarge upon it; and therefore any further improvement F am to make of the fubject, fhall be addreffed, not to them that preach, but to those that bear. And what hath been delivered, may ferve to inform them what fort of preaching they ought chiefly to value. I am afraid, that by many the great and effential truths of the gofpel are too little regarded: like the Athenians of old, they require fomething new, fomething that may gratify an itching ear, and furnish matter for a vain imagination to work upon. But this, my brethren, is equally perverfe and foolish. Who fhould regard what a fervant faith, if he doth not deliver the mind of his mafter? And yet I have often obferved, that the greatest number of hearers never feem fo well pleafed, as when ministers speak of those things that are most foreign to their inftructions. Did we come upon a difagreeable errand; were we charged with an embaffy in which they to whom we fpcak have little or no concern; fuch conduct might be accounted for: but when the meffage we bring is not only most gracious,

but

but likewife treats of matters in which they are immediately and moft deeply interested, what words can exprefs the folly and perverfeness of thofe who fhut their ears against it, while they greedily open them to every thing else? Hear what the angel faid to the fhhepherds at Bethlehem, Luke ii. 10. "Be

"hold I bring you good tidings of great joy, "which fhall be to all people." And what were these tidings which an angel was fent to publish, and introduced with such a high commendation of their importance and worth? They are recorded, verfe 11. "Unto f6 you is born this day, in the city of David, "a Saviour, which is Chrift the Lord." "And fuddenly," as it follows, "there was "with the angel a multitude of the heavenly "hoft, praifing God, and faying, Glory to "God in the highest, on earth peace, good "will towards men.' And yet, be aftonished, O heavens! blufh, O earth! this gofpel-fermon, which angels reckoned themfelves honoured to preach, and delivered with fuch rapturous exultation and joy, is, by multitudes in our day, thought trifling, and ftale, and unworthy of their attention.

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