urged and preffed, as it were, on every side, with theid almighty motives and confiderations, well might the love of Christ, the love of fouls, and a fenfe of duty and obligation, constrain the Apoftles;-well may they constrain us their unworthy fucceffors, to the moft ardent zeal and unwearied diligence in promoting the glory of God, the intereft of Christ, and the falvation of finners;-well may they caufe us to look down with fovereign contempt on that fear and favor of men, which bring a fnare, in the discharge of our duty, and engage us to be stedfast and immoveable, always abounding in the work of the LORD, knowing that our labor fhall not be in vain in him;well may they fteel and fortify our hearts againft all the oppofition of men and devils, and caufe us to cry out, with our ftedfaft, magnanimous Apoftle, in the face of bonds, imprisonments and death itfelf,- None of these things move us, neither count we our lives dear unto ourselves, fo that we might finifh our courfe with joy, and the miniftry which we have received of the Lord Jefus, to teftify the gospel of the grace of GoD."*.

When the great Shepherd and Bishop of fouls was about to afcend into heaven, hethrice interrogated Peter, in the fame terms; Simon, fon of Jonas, lovest thou

me more than these? To which, when the great Apostle had thrice answered in the affirmative; Yea, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knoweft that I love thee.' His Lord charged him to testify his love to him, by feeding his lambs and his sheep.* Do we therefore love the Lord Jefus Christ ? Let us give proof of our love, by feeding his lambs and his fheep, and nourishing up in the words of faith and found doctrine, thofe fouls whom he hath redeemed with his precious blood. And Q that they who hear us might learn to be wife to falvation; that, laying afide all malice, and guile, and hypocrifies, and evil-fpeakings, as new-born babes, they might defire the fincere milk of the word, and grow thereby. Amen and Amen,

+

*. John xxi. 15, &c.

ESSAY LX.

CHRISTIANS, LIGHTS IN THE WORLD;

OR, THE

BEAUTY and EXCELLENCY of the CHRISTIAN LIFE:

A SERMON.

FROM PHILIPPIANS II. 15, 16.

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of GOD without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, bolding forth the word of life.

THE

HE Chriftian character, my brethren, is a moft lovely and amiable character; although, alas! it is a moft rare and uncommon one in the world, even in the Christian world, where, as all are Chriftians by name and profession, fo all ought to be fuch in deed and in truth. "He is not

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a Jew, (fays the Apostle) who is one out"wardly, neither is that circumcifion which "is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, "which is one inwardly, and circumcifion "is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not "in the letter, whofe praife is not of man "but of God."*-So may we fay with re

Rom. ii. 28, 29.

gard to christianity: He is not a Chrifti

an who is one merely in name and out'ward profeffion; but he only who has the heart, the spirit, the temper, the principles, and the conduct of a Chriftian, whose praife is not of man only, but of GoD alfo.' To be Chriftians indeed and in reality, my brethren, is to be lights in the world, to be harmless and blamelefs; unrebukeable and unreproveable, in the midft of a crooked and perverse generation. And not only fo; not merely to be thus negatively good; but alfo positively so; fhining as lights to direct others in the way of life and happinefs-Holding forth the word of life.... Holding forth our good examples, as luminous torches or flambeaux, to conduct the feet of erring, wandering, benighted travellers, into the path of peace and felicity.

As natural light is the most pleasing and comfortable object to the eye and to the mind;....as it reveals all natural objects to us;...directs our steps in this world;...points out the dangers of our way, and enables us to diftinguish between that which is pleafant and eligible, and that which is hurtful and pernicious. "For

truly, (as Solomon obferves) the light is "fweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the fun." So truth and Eccles. xi. 17 VOL. II.

R

virtue, which anfwer much the fame purpofes in the moral and intellectual worlds, as material light does in the natural, are beautifully termed the light of the mind, in a figurative and metaphorical fenfe. Hence alfo, Gon, the great fource and examplar of all truth and virtue, is called light. Gop is light, and in him thereisno darkness at all.' And Christ, who is the "brightness of the Fa"ther's glory, and the exprefs image of "his perfon," is called, by way of eminence, "The light of the world;- and "that light which lightethevery man which "cometh into the world," The fcriptures alfo, which are the pureft channels of truth and virtue to a benighted world, are called, "Lights in a dark place ;-a light to our "feet, and a lamp or lanthorn to our "paths."

Agreeable to all this;-when finners are converted, or turned from error and vice, to truth and virtue, they are faid to have their eyes opened; their understandings enlightened, and to be brought from darkness to light, and from the power of fatan to GoD: And God is faid to bring them out of darkness into his marvellous light. "Ye were "fometime darknefs, (fays the Apoftle) "but now are ye light in the Lord."

And hence, true Chriftians are called children of the light,...and commanded to walk in the light; to shine as lights in the