language is too plain to be misunderstood; the meaning too awful to be trifled with. Decide, and decide immediately. "Withdraw yourselves from these men," before a common perdition involves you all. If with them you will sin, with them you must suffer. They who followed the multitude rather than Noah, were drowned in the flood. They who followed the multitude rather than Lot, were destroyed in the cities of the plain. They who followed the multitude rather than Joshua and Caleb, perished in the wilderness; and as it was then, so it is now; "as for such as turn "aside to their crooked ways, the Lord will lead them "forth WITH the workers of iniquity."

THIRDLY, Let those who have been "reserved,' consider the Author and the End of their distinction. Remember By whom you have been secured; God is the author; hence he says, "I have reserved." "For "who maketh thee to differ from another, and what hast "thou that thou didst not receive ?" Had you been left to yourselves, and "given up to your own counsel," you would have been carried along by the same evil tendency" in the course of this world." But his grace, equally free and powerful, interposed in your favour; it gave to ordinances their efficacy, and to the dispensations of Providence their sanctifying influ ence in turning the mind, and restraining the life from sin; and boasting excluded, you are indulging yourselves in language used by all the redeemed before you-" not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto "thy name be glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's "sake :" by the grace of God I am what I am not "I, but the grace of God which was with me."

cr

Re

member also FOR whom you have been secured.

God

is the end; hence he says, "I have reserved UNTO "MYSELF"" they are to be my reprefentatives on "earth, to wear my image, to maintain my cause, to be "employed in my service." "This people have I "formed for myself, they fhall fhew forth my praise." "They fhall be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.""The Lord hath fet apart him that is godly FOR HIM"SELF." Chriftians; it is an high, an awful destiny. It fheds a facredness over the whole character, which you should always feel. It hallows you. It confecrates your persons and your poffeffions. All you have, all you are, is his; and all is FOR him. This end determines, and fimplifies your work; to this you are to make every thing fubordinate and fubfervient. "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatever ye "do, do all to the glory of God." "FOR NONE OF

"US LIVETH TO HIMSELF, AND NO MAN DIETH TO FOR WHETHER WE LIVE WE LIVE UN

"HIMSELF:

TO THE LORD, OR WHETHER WE DIE WE Die unto tr THE LORD ; WHETHER THEREFORE WE LIVE OR DIE, WE ARE THE LORD's."

SERMON II.

THE TRIUMPHS OF PATIENCE.

Rev. xiv. 12.

HERE IS THE PATIENCE OF SAINTS.

DID you ever obferve my dear brethren, the exclamation of David? "Mark the perfect man, "and behold the upright, for the end of that man is

peace." A religious character is an object truly wonderful and interefting; there is fomething in him worthy of peculiar notice and regard. David indeed fixes the mind on one article only, and calls upon us to confider his "end ;" but his way is as remarkable as his end; his life is as deferving of attention as his death; and it is pleafing and useful to observe him în every relation, to pursue him through every condition, and to admire thofe excellencies which unfold them. felves, and operate as proofs of his origin, and pledges of the “glory, and honour, and immortality," to which it tends.

Hence we endeavour to excite you to contemplate succeffively his various features. Sometimes we have placed him before you as convinced of fin. At other times as exercifing faith on our Lord Jefus

Chrift. You have lately seen him "rejoicing in the "hope of his calling." This morning he appears

among his "brethren and companions in tribulation," distinguished by the poffeffion and triumphs'of patience. "Here is the patience of the saints." We fhall,

I. DELINEATE THE CHARACTER OF SAINTS.

II. EXPLAIN THE CONNECTION THERE IS BETWEEN

SAINTS AND PATIENCE.

III. AND SPECIFY SOME CASES IN WHICH THEIR PATIENCE IS TO BE RENDERED ILLUSTRIOUS, SO AS TO PRODUCE THE EXCLAMATION" HERE IS THE PATIENCE OF THE SAINTS."

PART I. God has always a people for his name; he owns them to be SAINTS; and they are often found where we should little expect to find them. Thus we read of saints at Corinth, of saints at Ephesus, of saints at Rome, and of saints even "in Cæsar's household."

The title is applied to persons, because they are HOLY ONES; and such are all real christians, though encompassed with infirmities; as a child full of weakness is human, having the nature, though not the stature of a man. They are called holy for two rea

sons.

The first is taken from their DEDICATION TO GOD. Thus the temple was holy; the vessels of the sanctuary were holy; the first fruits were holy; the sacrifices were holy. Hence christians are called the temple of God, vessels of honour, the first fruits of every creature, "a sacrifice holy and acceptable." "The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for "himself." He is sacred to the divine service and honour;

and if he takes his talents, and ufes them for purpose, he is guilty of facrilege.

VATION.

any other

The fecond is derived from their PERSONAL RENOThe inftruments under the law were only holy by appropriation; no change paffed upon them; no change was neceffary. It is otherwise with us; for fince God finds us in a state wholly unfuited to his fervice, we must be "made meet for the great Mafter's "ufe." Hence regeneration is neceffary, by which we are "renewed in the spirit of our minds," and "made "partakers of the divine nature." God may call an angel into his prefence, and immediately employ him without a change; he will love the command, and be equal to the work. But does he determine to employ in his fervice an unregenerate finner? He is unqualified; he has neither ability nor inclination; and is destitute of the fpirituality which the work of God requires. Hence the promife, "a new heart alfo will I give you, " and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take "away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give

you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within 66 you, and cause you to walk in my ftatutes, and ye "fhall keep my judgments, and do them." And with this agrees the declaration of the apoftle; "we are his workmanship, created in Chrift Jefus "unto good works, which God has before ordained "that we fhould walk in them." View him then as he comes from the hands of his new Creator. There is nothing by which he is fo much diftinguifhed, as an unconquerable concern for holiness. What does he love?" I delight in the law of God, after the inner "man." What is his grief?" O wretched man