32 conversation be such as becometh the Gospel; that whether I come and see you, or be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind; not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, working out your own salvation, with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And may the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.33 32 Phil. i. 27. 33 Heb. xiii. 20. NOTES. SERMON I. P. 2. It is a question, &c.] "Christianity being supposed to be either true, or credible, it is unspeakable irreverence, and really the most presumptuous rashness, to treat it as a light matter. It can never justly be esteemed of little consequence, till it be supposed positively false. Nor do I know a higher and more important obligation which we are under, than that of examining most seriously into the evidence of it; supposing its credibility; and of embracing it, upon supposition of its truth." Bp. Butler's Analogy, p. 226. See Sermon IX. p. 150. P. 12. "Even those Christians, to whom, upon their faith, the Holy Spirit is promised and bestowed, are, by previous operation of God's grace, (opening their minds, inclining their hearts, and tempering their affections,) induced to embrace Christianity, faith itself being a gift of God, and a fruit of the Holy Spirit."—"We may discern and show very conspicuous footsteps of divine grace, working in part, and producing no despicable fruits of moral virtue, of justice and honesty, temperance and sobriety, benignity and bounty, courage and constancy in worthy enterprises; meekness, patience, modesty; prudence and discretion; yea, of piety |