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tidings, while they made them the fubject of their own delightful meditation, would likewife take pleasure in imparting them to others, efpecially to thofe with whom they were most intimately connected? that parents in particular would rehearse and commend them to their children; and that in every family, the God of all grace, and the Saviour of a loft world, would be prefented with the morning and evening. facrifices of humble adoration, of fervent prayer, and of thankful praife?

How would they behave, do you think, to fuch of their brethren, if any fuch there were, who neglected the great falvation, and ftill remained in their natural ftate of diftance and alienation from God? Would they regard them with fupercilious contempt, or treat them with harfh feverity; would they lay aside all concern for their recovery, and leave them to perifh in their folly? or rather, would they not look upon them with an eye of the tendereft pity; and, regarding them as criminals, who, though at prefent under an awful fentence of condemnation, may nevertheless obtain mercy, even as they themselves have obtained mercy, would they not take hold of every favourable opportunity, nay, may we not conclude, that they would even feek out opportunities, of awakening them to a fense of their guilt and danger, that they might feel themselves conftrained to implore the protection of that good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep, and came from heaven to earth to feek and to fave that which was loft?

View them once more in their intercourfe with those who have obtained the fame grace,

and

and are become co-heirs of the fame incorruptible inheritance.--Would you not take it for granted, that they could not be long together, without talking of thofe matters that moft nearly concerned them?-Surely none could fufpect, that in a company of fuch perfons, it would ever be reckoned a breach of good manners to introduce any thing that related to their Father in heaven; to his houfe 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 occafional converse upon fubjects of fo interefting a nature, they would choose to fet apart fome portions of time for the fole purpose of " comforting themselves together, "and edifying one another," according to the carly practice of the Chriftians at Theffalonica, which our Apoftle fo highly commends, I Theff.

V. 11.?

THUS have I given you my cool deliberate fentiments upon the practical influence of the great doctrines of the gofpel, and that kind of converfation towards God and man which is beft fuited to the belief of them. Should any indeed be fo perverse as to refift the influence of thefe doctrines, and counteract their native and moft obvious tendency, while at the fame time they acknowledged the evidence of their truth, it would not at all furprise me, to fee them crowding, from day to day, the public theatres, that the regularity and decorum of a fictitious representation might draw their attention away from that

real

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 noife, to conceal the lapfe of time, and to bear down the clamours of an accusing conscience. It would not even furprise me, to fee 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 could expect to fee: but for none of them could I find any place at all in the natural and orderly state of reafonable creatures, whofe temper and conduct, as I have all along fuppofed, were formed and regulated by the doctrines of the gofpel.

How far my reafoning upon this branch of the fubject hath been juft, will more fully appear afterwards. It no doubt exhibits to our view a ftate of things widely different from that we at prefent behold; which, I am aware, may furnish us all with matter of humbling and painful reflection. This, however, fhall not difcourage me from proceeding in my inquiry; as I well know, that if," by the fadnefs of the countenance, the "heart be made better," we fhall in the iffue be infinite gainers, and obtain from him who is "the comforter of thofe that are caft down, the "oil of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for the spirit of heavinefs.'

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MAY God difpofe and enable us all to " judge righteous judgment." Amen.

SERMON

[74]

SERMON V.

PHILIPPIANS i. 27.

Only let your converfation be as it becometh the gofpel of Chrift.

WE have already confidered the most effen

tial doctrines contained in the gospel of Chrift, and the influence that the cordial belief of fuch interefting truths might be expected to have our temper and practice.

upon

I am not fenfible that any of the conclufions I drew were ftrained, or even obfcure. To me they appeared, and, after the moft ferious and impartial examination, ftill do appear, fo reasonable and obvious, and withal fo moderate, that I cannot think they are liable to any just objection.

At the fame time, as they prefent to our view a state of things fo widely different from that which daily paffeth before our eyes, I shall 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 extensive subject, I muft beg your attention to a few remarks I have to make upon the precepts or laws of the gofpel in general.

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With regard to their authority, there can be no doubt. He who enacted them hath an unqueftionable 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 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 live and "move." Nay, all that we poffefs is so neceffarily dependent upon him, that with regard to foul, and body, and outward eftate, we have nothing but what we daily receive from his liberal hand. Befides this original and unalienable right to govern us, there is another title, which, as Chriftians, we profess to acknowledge, and ought always to do it with the warmeft and moft humble gratitude; I mean, the right he hath obtained by redemption and purchase. As his natural fubjects, we are bound to serve him to the utmoft extent of the powers he hath given us and this original obligation, instead of being relaxed or impaired, is rather confirmed and ftrengthened by the mercy he hath fhewn us as the objects of his grace: "We are not our own, "we are bought with a price," and are therefore bound, by the united ties of gratitude and juftice," to glorify our Redeemer, both with "our bodies and fpirits, which are his." But what I would chiefly lead your attention to, is the nature and properties of thofe laws to which our fubjection and obedience are required.

They

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