ance to conduct and guide us; I can fee no Manner of Reafon but to conclude, that if we used the fame Diligence and Sincerity in the Application of them to ourselves, they would have the fame happy Effects and Influences upon us. If our Eyes were as steadily fixed as theirs were, on the Recompence of Reward; if we confidered the Wonders of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God, with the fame Frequency and Attention which they did; they would doubtless, through the gracious Guidance of the Holy Spirit, bring forth in us the fame Lowlinefs and Humility of Mind, the fame univerfal Love and Tenderness for one another, the fame magnanimous Contempt of Life, when not to be retained with Innocence, the fame warm and devout. Afpirations after the Prefence of our Heavenly Father, and the fame Zeal and Earneftnefs to finish our Course with Joy, and arrive at the bleffed Manfions of eternal Glory.

Thus we fee whence, in part, it is that the Lives of the present Profeffors of Christianity are fo diffolute and corrupt; not from any Defect or Imperfection in the Gofpel, but in themselves; because they look on the Profeffion of their most holy Religion, as mere Matter of Form and Custom only; because under the facred Name of Christianity they adopt Opinions which tend to encourage Sin in one Shape or other; and because they will

not confider the Nature and Confequences of Things, and apply the Promises, Threatnings, and ftupendous Mercies of the Gofpel, to themselves. And this leads me to conclude, with obferving,

IV. The extraordinary Guilt that must be contracted, by the neglect of fuch perfuafive Calls as the Gospel offers for our Converfion, and with drawing a practical Inference or two, in Relation to the Removal of that Guilt.

As to the extraordinary Guilt of fuch a Conduct, it is plainly of fo heinous and provoking a Nature as not to admit of Aggravation. It is no less than treating the God that made us with the highest Infolence and Contempt; it is, in Effect, trampling under our Feet the Blood that redeemed us, with Scorn and Indignation. It is, in Effect, laughing at infinite Mercy, and bidding Defiance to God's Authority; it is tempting the Holy Spirit to defert us, and is little lefs than daring Almighty Vengeance to let loose its Thunders upon us. The Son of God comes down from Heaven to offer us a Place in his Kingdom, and we are too much taken up with the weighty Trifles of the World to attend to him; he earnestly folicits and intreats us to be eternally happy, but we will not hear him. He addreffes himself to us in the fame moving Language, with

which he did the Jews, O Jerufalem, Jeru falem, thou that killeft the Prophets, and Stoneft them that are fent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy Children together, even as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings, and ye would not? And every Man's Confcience will tell him, that the fame Obftinacy in us must deserve the fame Punishment at the Hands of God; and that if we will not obey his Voice, if we will have none of his Confolation, it is but just that he fhould leave us to our own Perverseness and Confufion; and that we should henceforth fee no more of him, till he comes with Power and Terror to judge the World, when we fhall be forced to cry out, in great Amazement and Anguish of Soul, bleed was he that came to us in the Name of the Lord. Lastly,

With Regard to the Removal of this mighty Guilt, I fhall only observe in general, that when the Caufe of the Diftemper, and the Remedy, is known, the Cure is easy. We have already seen in fome Measure from whence our Perfeverance in Iniquity proceeds; and confequently, that the proper Means to amend and forfake it, is to apply ourselves to the oppofite Duties.

If our Continuance in Sin has been owing to this, that our Profeffion of the beft Religion has been rather founded in Custom than Conviction, rather in the Practice of the VOL. I. B b

Age

Age and Place we live in, than our own Judgment of the Excellency of it; the Remedy is to acquire a juft Senfe of its Divine Original, and mighty Importance to our Salvation. If to this, that we have attended publick Worship, more for Form than Devotion, more out of Ceremony than Duty; it is our immediate Concern to confider, what Infults we offer to our Redeemer by Carelefnefs and Inattention in our Prayers; what Awe and Reverence ought to fill our Minds, when we approach the moft High God.

If we have unwarily embraced Principles which have helped to encourage us in any one Sin, the Remedy is to examine and reject thofe Opinions; as well knowing that no Doctrine can come from God, which in any Manner promotes or countenances Difobedience to his Laws.

If we have not enough confidered the Terrors and Attractions of those Motives to Duty, which are propofed to us in the Gofpel as the Means of our Converfion; it ought then to be our immediate Business to poffefs our Souls with the deepest Sense of both, by the most serious and moft fréquent Meditations upon them. The Happiness propofed is not the lefs defirable in itself, because we do not attend to it; nor is our Danger one Jot the lefs certain, or the farther off, because we refolve not to fee it. Whether we will hear, or whether we will forbear, the Decrees of

God

God are irreversible: Our Bleffed Lord will appear yet a fecond Time, with Vengeance on those that defpife and reject his Offers: He will judge the World in Righteousness, and minifter true Judgment unto the People. O that Men were therefore wife, that they would remember this, and that they would, in due Time and Manner, confider their latter End!