brethren, who even in youth have, thro' grace, attained to that ftate and character, which fo many other perfons, tho' advanced in years, are yet far from! But,

3. BE not high-minded, but fear. A fober mind, is always an humble one. Boaft not of your religious attainments, as the shameful and hypocritical manner of fome is: And if you ever glory even in tho't, let it be only in the Lord.

For what haft thou, that thou didft not receive?" Be fenfible of your imperfections; and beware of a relapfe into any finful courfes-" The juft fhall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my foul fhall have no pleasure in him."† There is ftill ample room in the best of you, for improvement; for increase of sobriety, knowledge, ftrength, and all christian virtues. Endeavour therefore, to make progrefs in the ways of wisdom and holinefs: For he that ftands ftill, inftead of preffing forward in the christian race, is on the point of going backward. And it were doubtlefs "better for any not to have known the "way of righteoufnefs, than after they have "known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them."‡

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4. As to thofe of you, my young brethren, who cannot pretend to be feber-minded according to thefe fcriptural marks and rules of fobriety; you have no reason to be fatisfied with prefent condition, or to think it fafe. For there is no real fafety in any ftate below that of true christianity; or in any thing short of that repen

your

tance,

tance, faith, and renewed state of mind, with which eternal life is connected by the promises of the gofpel. If you fhould die fhort of this, you would die in your fins; unpardoned, uninterested in the redemption wrought out by Christ: And what the confequence of this wouldbe, you need not, furely, to be now informed! But,

5. LEST I should be misunderstood, I must tell you, I do not mean hereby, that if you are deficient in any of these respects, or fall short of fuch a truly chriftian ftate, you are of confequence deftitute of every degree of fobriety that is of any confideration; and fo are to be ranked in the fame clafs with the most profligate and abandoned finners. God forbid! The holy fcriptures, in numberless places, fuppofe a measure of knowledge, conviction of fin, feriousness of mind, and defire to know the will of God and the way of life, antecedent to a faving illumination and repentance, faith and regeneration; and yet preparatory thereto; which things, being confidered in this view, are truly valuable and important. And indeed, they are the effects of God's gracious influences upon the heart; in conformity to what is faid of Lydia in the Acts, "That the Lord opened her heart to ATTEND to those things "which were fpoken by Paul." Our Saviour alfo tells fuch a serious, inquifitive person, that he was "not far from the kingdom of God." Nor do the holy fcriptures leave us any room to doubt, but that all perfons living under the gofpel, who are fo far convinced of their finful state, and fo defirous

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I 3

defirous of obtaining eternal life, as fincerely and perfeveringly to feek God's face and favor, fhall actually attain to a faving knowledge of him. If any of you are in fuch a state of mind as this, there is just and great reafon to hope, that being already near to God's fpiritual kingdom, you will ere-long be actually tranflated into, and become the happy fubjects of it forever. But, as was faid before, this is not a ftate to be refted in. You may, without all doubt, relapfe into your finful courses after fuch a partial reformation : In which cafe," the latter end will be worfe with you than the beginning." It highly concerns you therefore, to befeech the God of all grace, both" to keep you from falling," and to "give

you repentance to the acknowledging of the "truth;"-the truth as it is in Jefus; that knowing him, and the only true God in and by him, you may obtain eternal life.

6. IF even fuch thoughtful and serious young men as were laft mentioned, are not yet, however, in a state of fafety, or at prefent entitled to glory, honor and immortality; how far, alas! are those from being fo, who do not at all confider their ways, nor fo much as make the important inquiry, "What they fhall do to be faved?"

-those who live in the allowed gratification of their lufts; and, inftead of feeking after God, if haply they may find him, rather "fay to the Almighty, Depart from us; for we defire not "the knowledge of thy ways!" Alas! my young brethren, if there are any prefent, to whom

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this

this character justly belongs; (for I neither patticularly know, nor accufe any ;) your condition is truly deplorable. For is it not fo, to be in a state of enmity against God your Creator? against Him, in whom you live, move and have your being; Him, from whom you can neither fly, nor effectually hide yourselves in any fecret place, not even in the dens and rocks of the mountains, or tho' the rocks and mountains should, at your entreaty, fall on you and cover you;—and against whom you can make, no refistance; Him, who is at once omnipotent, omniprefent and omnifcient, as well as infinite in holiness and righteoufnefs! It is dreadful indeed, to be "enemies to fuch a Being in your minds, by wicked works!”

BUT left the very thought hereof should too much overwhelm you; left the " spirit should fail before God, and the fouls which He hath made;"† let me remind you, that God is no lefs good and merciful, than he is holy, great and powerful. He" will not contend forever, neither will he be always wroth :" He is even now waiting to be gracious to you;-to every one that will attend to the voice of love, and turn at his reproof, how numerous foever your fins have been. His mercy is at once higher than the heavens, and lower-" deeper than hell;" as it faves thofe who are deferving of it! The blood of Jefus, that hallowed fountain, in which fo many millions of polluted fouls have been cleansed and healed, has not yet loft its purifying, falutary virtue; nor will it do fo, while there are any finI 4

† Ifai. LVII. 16.

ners

ners on earth willing to be cleansed and saved by it; nor even after there are none! The Holy Spirit of God is, I doubt not, now striving with your hearts, and, if I may fo express it, moving upon the face of the chaos, ‡ towards the production of the new creation in Chrift, as it once did at the time of the old, to the perfecting thereof. O then, my young brethren, let not this be your condemnation at the great day, That you at once despised the riches of God's goodness, leading you to repentance;-accounted the blood of the covenant wherewith you might have been fanctified, an unholy thing;-and did despite unto the Spirit of grace, by which you would otherwife have been fealed to the day of redemption!

Gen. I. 2.

SERMON IV.