able alone by infinite wifdom. Is it therefore any greater inftance of credulity to believe the mysteries of our moft holy religion, which are fo strongly confirmed in the facred fcriptures, than it is to believe the truths above-mentioned ?—I think it is not.-And therefore if you will but make the scriptures the rule and standard of your faith, you cannot err. Let this be the touch-ftone ;here fix your foot :-THE SACRED SCRIPTURES.-Examine difpaffionately whether fuch and fuch things as are required of you to believe and practise are clearly revealed in thofe divine writings; if they are, all have further to do, is to give your unfeigned

you

affent and to act accordingly.

Men and brethren, ARE THESE THINGS SO? Is there a God above, who fees, who knows our most fecret thoughts and actions? -Is there a life after this, where we shall dwell forever either in the most exquifite torments, or the most consummate joys?-Were the holy fcriptures dictated by the Spirit of God?-Did the bleffed Jefus lay down his life to procure eternal happiness for us?-Must not the Evangelifts and Apostles be fully convinced of the truth of those transactions which they recorded, when they chearfully laid down their lives as an everlafting teftimony of their veracity?— May not the chriftian cause then boast of the strongest evidence that ever was produced in favour of any inftitution?-If these things are fo, as I hope you are all convinced they are, and as I am_fure you have every reafon you can defire to induce you to affent to them, then be perfuaded to lend an attentive ear.-Think how nearly you are concerned to believe, think how greatly it behoves you to practise all the virtues that are recommended to you in those books, which were compofed by the infpiration of God himself.

The Lord our governor and protector requires nothing from his creatures but what will be greatly conducive to their good. He has vouchsafed to be reconciled to us after our unhappy fall; and to

promise

promise to receive us into his reft, through the merits of Chrift Jefus his Son. He has moreover given us the facred fcriptures for our rule of life; and enjoined us to meditate therein." He hath "fhewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord re"quire of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" He hath, moreover, been gracioufly pleafed to add to these inexpreffible mercies his folemn promife, that "when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness "that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall fave his foul alive.”

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You, therefore, who have hitherto, to the best of your abilities,. obferved the will of the Lord to do it, never forego fo glorious a hope, and fuch a transporting profpect as that which eternal life affords you. Continue stedfast in the paths of virtue, and you will furely meet with true contentment here, and ineffable happinesshereafter. And you who have been so unhappy, as hitherto to have been negligent of your future felicity, confider how precarious life and health are; look round and fee, how fuddenly the most blooming and vigorous of your friends drop off, and fink into eternity, and reflect with yourselves, that this night perhaps your foul may be required of you, and then-BE NEGLIGENT IF YOU CAN. Confider all your past deportment as irrecoverable; and if you look back, let it be with a view only of making your peace in heaven, by a hearty repentance, and a steady refolution to lead a new and a better life. Put your whole trust and confidence in the Lord, and doubt not of acceptance; for, he that cannot lye, has promised," that though your fins be as fcarlet, they fhall be white as fnow; though they be red like crimson, they fhall be as wool."

But if there be any still fo unhappy, as to be deaf to perfuafion; if there be any ftill fo negligent as not to concern themfelves about the truth or falsehood of the chriftian religion; let not us, who build our hopes on the promises contained in the facred fcriptures,

be

be remifs in putting up our moft fervent prayers for them, that the almighty will found the alarm and make them timely confcious of their danger. Let us point out to them, after we have demonstrated the divine authority of the facred fcriptures, thofe paffages where eternal death is denounced against all impenitent and obdurate finners. Let us fet before them the horrors of that folemn day, when the almighty Judge fhall fummon mankind before his aweful tribunal; and confign the wicked to endless, never-ceafing misery :-surely when the terrors which the damned are to feel, are fet before their eyes, they will shudder at the dreadful thought.-Surely, when they are thoroughly awakened, they will efteem the pleasures of fin but a poor compenfation for the loss of heaven; especially, as they muft exchange it for a place, where no glimpfe of joy can ever enter; where the flames of the bottomlefs pit will for ever furround them, where they will fuffer every moment for endlefs ages, the inexpreffible torments of the most agonizing death, and at last, be not one moment nearer their release; where they will become dreadful examples of God's vindictive justice, and have the gates of hell clofed upon them, never to be opened more.

That fo dreadful an end awaits such as depart this life without making their peace with God, is very evident from a thoufand places in fcripture; and therefore, fhould any be fo prefumptuous, as to flatter themselves that these things are not so, they are in the most dreadful fituation imaginable. Much rather, O gracious God, afflict us with poverty and contempt, pain and sickness, grief and disappointment than, by fuch a fatal delufion, to fuffer us to lofe our immortal fouls!

As none of my hearers, I hope, need fuch awakening scenes of horror, to call them to a fenfe of their condition, let us turn our thoughts from fuch a gloomy subject to another more engaging, where we cannot fail of filling the imagination with the most delightful and transporting ideas. Let us reflect on the indulgent pro

mifes of the Almighty, and contemplate on the pleafing profpect of a never ending ftate of blifs. For a fhort duration, indeed, we are to undergo whatever afflictions the Almighty fhall deem expedient to lay upon us however, if we bear up under them with patience and refignation to the divine will; if we do but our duty with chearful hearts, we have the beft affurance that can be of an ample recompence; an affurance equal to the greatest certainty; fince promised by an almighty, an infinitely juft, and indulgent God. To give you the leaft adequate idea of the happy ftate of the Saints in glory, would require the skill of the most enlightened genius, and therefore be a talk too arduous for me to undertake; but this we may venture to affert, that every thing we can conceive of happinefs, the most elevated hopes with which we can feed our afpiring fouls, will fall infinitely fhort of the glorious and delightful state of thofe, who tread the paths of virtue, who love juftice and mercy, and walk humbly with their God.

I have now, MOST WORTHY AUDITORS, faid all I at firft propofed on the Truth of the Christian Religion, and am fully perfuaded, that the arguments which I have collected will incline the attentive hearer to become from henceforth, if he be not already, a follower of the bieffed Jefus.—And though I am not infenfible of my inability; yet seeing that the truths I have been treating of, carry conviction along with them, and fland in no need of the weak aid and affiftance of human eloquence; all I think neceffary to add, is, that throughout the whole SERIES, I have not advanced any one pofition, but what appears, to the beft of my judgment, to be ftrictly true, and for that reason worthy of our most serious regard: accept, therefore, of my fincere, though weak endeavours; and let not the unworthinefs of the Preacher prepoffefs you against the doctrines he has recommended to your confideration, which are, doubtless, of the last importance; and if what I have faid fhould prove of the leaft benefit to my fellow-candidates for the joys of heaven, to God be VOL. III. afcribed

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afcribed all the glory. For my part, the only praise I fhall ever seek will be, to deserve the title of a faithful minister of God's holy word; and I humbly befeech the Almighty to grant me his grace, that I may always keep fuch a watchful eye over my own conduct, as never to bring the leaft reproach on that religion which has been so graciously revealed, fo wonderfully propagated, and so faithfully tranfmitted from generation to generation, that every individual may with righteous Job exulting fay, I KNOW THAT My Redeemer

LIVETH, AND THAT HE SHALL STAND AT THE LATTER DAY UPON THE EARTH. AND THOUGH AFTER MY SKIN, WORMS DESTROY THIS BODY, YET IN MY FLESH SHALL I SEE GOD: WHOM I SHALL SEE FOR MYSELF, AND MINE EYES SHALL BEHOLD, AND NOT ANOTHER. AMEN.

SERMON