proceeded so far, from one step of vice and darkness to another, till they have grown to doubt whether there was any God at all; or, if they have been forced to admit such a being, have framed him such as themselves, who little concerned himself with the moral actions of his creatures.

Knowing, therefore, the deceitfulness of sin, and the many dangers and temptations with which you are surrounded; take warning in time, and if you have unhappily been drawn. to evil, return without delay to innocence and integrity, lest you fall where so many others fall; and, like the impenitent criminal on the cross, never be recovered.

PRAYER.

O God, the Father of lights; from whom every good and perfect gift cometh down:

Who, from the benignity of thy nature, art ever disposed to give aid and instruction to those of thy creatures that ask it of thee, with a desire to improve it!

We beseech thee to impress it upon our hearts in lasting characters, that it is purity, virtue, and obedience to thy will, O Thou most holy! which alone maketh the difference

betwixt

betwixt thy creatures; and that it is by these only can we recommend ourselves to thy favour here, and become qualified for an admittance into thy nearer presence in heaven.

Enlighten our minds, during this our short pilgrimage and day of trial, with such a knowledge of thy holy truth, that we may be preserved by it from all those vices and evil passions which corrupt the heart, and indispose it to goodness and to Thee; and which render us insensible towards the virtue and happiness of others, and thereby incapacitate us for that supreme felicity which thou hast designed for us.

And when the hour appointed by thee shall come, O Thou sovereign and righteous disposer of all things; and we shall be no more in this world, but return to give an account of ourselves to thee, from whom we all came :

May we be found watchful and prepared at that uncertain moment, whenever it comes, with our evidences for heaven and thy favour, clear and certain, the testimony of our consciences, that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world:

That, by thy blessing upon us, we may experience some degree of that calm and composed spirit and confidence in thee, with which

the

the blessed Jesus and others thy faithful servants departed hence;

And may lie down in the grave, the bed of all the living, with assured and pleasing expectation of sleeping in him, and under thy protection, O God, and Father of all; and may awake at the last day, to that pure and perfect happiness of righteous men, thy servants, which, of thine infinite goodness, thou hast promised by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now unto Thee, O Father, &c.

May the God of all grace, who bath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus our Lord, make us perfect, strengthen, settle us! To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever!

June 7, 1779.

SERMON

SERMON XVIII.

JOHN i. 39.

He saith unto them; Come, and see.

In this chapter, a little before, our evangelist, in the preface to his Gospel, mentions John the Baptist, as a man sent from God to bear witness of the light, i. e. to attest, the character of Jesus as the Messiah, whom the ancient prophets had described under the emblem of light; the heavenly teacher of men, and most perfect revealer of the mind of God.

He afterwards relates, in what way John gave his testimony, when the rulers of his country sent their priests to ask, whether he himself was the great prophet, the Messiah whom they expected at that time. And also the manner in which he pointed out Jesus to the people under that character, and the divine extraordinary