grave, methinks you may recollect the epitaph which a minister wrote for his own tomb-stone >

"If all my life I tried in vain to save,

"Hear me, oh! hear me crying from the grave.”

But, alas I know that even this alarming voice will not awaken impenitent sinners, unless God bear it home to their hearts by his almighty power. And oh ! that that divine agent would begin to work among us! Then, sinners, you would soon see, that the account I have been giving you of your guilt and danger is not at all aggravated. But,

Secondly, Turning to God, supposes a full conviction of the necessity of turning to him immediately, without delay. Brethren, if God should begin this work upon your hearts this day, you would no longer stand hesitating and loitering. We should no more hear from you that there is no need of so much ado, or that it is time enough as yet. You would have such clear views of your own vileness, and the disaffection of your souls to God and holiness, that nothing could be more evident to you than that you are utterly unfit for heaven, in your present condition, and that you are fitted for destruction, and for nothing else. You would not stand disputing, and hoping, and flattering yourselves in the matter, but you would come to this peremptory conclusión, "If I continue in my present condition, I am as certainly lost forever, as ever I was born: I shall as surely be in hell in a little time, as I am now upon earth. The matter will admit of no debate. It is as plain as that a beast cannot enjoy the pleasures of reason; or a sick man the pleasures of a feast." This, sirs, is a very alarming conclusion; and you may be very unwilling to admit it: but, terrible as it is, you will be forced to believe it, if ever you be converted. It is indeed one of the first steps towards your conversion for can it be supposed you will turn to God, while you think it unnecessary, or while you are not convinced, that you are turned from him, and going the opposite road? No, it is impossible. And therefore, such of you as have never been convinced of this, may be assured you are so far from being converted, that you have not taken one of the first steps towards it.

This, I was informed by Mr. Gibbons, of London, from whom I had the story, was the famous Dr. Trapp, the translator of Virgil, &c.

But this is not all you will be not only convinced of the ab solute necessity of turning to God in general, but of turning to him immediately without delay. You will see, that you are so far from having time to delay, that it will wound your heart to think this work was not done many years ago. You will see, that your having delayed it so long already, was the most desperate madness in the world and that if you put it off any longer, you may be lost beyond recovery: for oh! you will see you stand in slippery places, ready to be cast down into destruction every moment. You will apprehend yourselves held over the pit of hell, in the hand of an angry God, by the slender thread of life; just as we hold a spider, or some poisonous insect, over a fire, ready to throw it in immediately. Now, while I am speaking to you, you would immediately set about this great work: you would pray and hear at once. And upon your returning home, instead of trifling, and chattering about the world, you would retire to cry for mercy, and meditate upon your miserable condition-you would fly to your Bibles, and other good books for direction and I should expect the pleasure once more of seeing you come to your poor minister, anxiously inquiring what you shall do to be saved? Oh! when will the crowds of unconverted sinners among us be brought to this? When will they give over their delays; and see they must engage in this great business immediately? I am sure the sickness and mortality among us have a tendency to bring them to this. Can you imagine, that conversion may be put off to some future time, when you see so many in health and youth around you seized with sickness, and hurried into the grave in a few days? This has been the doom of sundry vigorous youth, and even of little children among us and my dear surviving youth and children, shall this be no warning to you? Alas! will you dare to sin on still as thoughtless as ever? Will you any more pretend that you may safely delay your conversion to a sick-bed or a dying hour? But ask those that have made the trial, and what do they say? Do any of them tell you that that is the most proper time for this work? What do sinners say when the time comes? Oh, (they cry out) what a fool was I to put it off till now! Oh, how bitterly do I now repent that I did not attempt it sooner!' What do those say who made it their business in health and prosperity? Do they repent of it, as premature? No: they all cry out, I should be in a sad case, indeed, if it were left undone till now: now I have enough to do

tö struggle with my pains. But, blessed be God, that work is not now to be done!' And dare any of you loiter and delay still, in opposition to the joint testimony of those who have arrived at and made trial of that period which you allot for turning to God? If the declaration of dying men have any weight or credibility, the present time is the most fit season: therefore, oh! improve it while you have it. But,

Thirdly, If afflictions should prove the happy means of turning you to God, they will rouse you to the most earnest persevering endeavours. You would immediately set about the work, and use all the means God has instituted for that purpose. You would pray without ceasing you would pray in secret places : and if you have hitherto had prayerless families, they should be so no more you would consecrate them to God with prayer this very evening. Nay, you would keep your souls always in a praying posture you would waft up your desires to God while you are in business or at leisure, in solitude or in society, at home or abroad; and your prayers would not now be a dull, spiritless form: you would cry as for your life, and exert all the vigour of your souls. You would find frequent errands to the throne of grace; and you would cry there, like a condemned criminal pleading for a pardon, or a drowning man calling for help. When Paul was awakened, Christ himself remarks upon him, "Behold, he prayeth!" He had prayed many a time before; but no notice is taken of it, because there was no life in it. But now he puts life and spirit into his prayers, like one in earnest to be heard; therefore they are taken notice of in heaven. Thus, my brethren, will you also pray, if ever you turn to God. You will also accustom yourselves to deep and solemn meditation. You will seriously attend to the gospel and its ordinances. Your Bibles will no longer gather dust by you; but you will find use for them-there you will eagerly search for the words of eternal life. You will also love and frequent the society of those who, you hope, have experienced that happy change you are seeking after; and you will catch all the instruction you can from their conversation. short, you will leave no means untried: you will set yourselves in earnest about the work with as much earnestness as ever a miser pursued the world, or a sensualist his pleasures. Oh! sirs, if such a concern to turn to the Lord should spread among us, how would it change the aspect of things? How different

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would be the desires, the labours, the pursuits, and conversation, of mankind! Believe me, sirs, there is need for such an alteration among us and wo, wo to many of us, if things run on as they have done if the world continue to usurp the pre-eminence of God and eternal things-if you are still more solicitous to lay up earthly treasure, than to lay up treasure in heaven--if you abandon yourselves to business or pleasure, to the neglect of religion and the concerns of eternity; I say, wo unto you, if things still continue in this course! Believe me also that it is better worth your while to labour to turn to God, and secure a happy immortality, than to lay out your labour on any thing else. Need I tell you that you shall not live here always, to enjoy the things of this world? Go, and learn this truth at the graves of your friends and neighbours. Need you be told that the enjoyments of this life are no suitable happiness for your immortal souls? Do you not learn it from the uncertain, transitory, unsatisfying nature of these enjoyments? You can carry none of them with you to your eternal home; and what then will you have to make you happy there?

Farther: As you will zealously use all endeavours to promote your conversion, so you will carefully guard against every thing that tends to hinder it. You will immediately drop your wicked courses-you will have done forever with drinking, swearing, and all the vices you were wont to practise-you will moderate your pursuit of the world, and endeavour to disengage yourselves from excessive hurries, which allow you neither leisure nor composure to mind the great business of your salvation-that business, which, whether you regard it or not, is of infinitely greater importance than all the affairs of life, and for which alone it is worth your while to live-you will shun the company of the wicked, the vain, and secure, as much as possible; yes, you will shun them as much as you now do the families that are infected with the epidemical disorder, and with much better reason; for they are infected with a much more fatal disease-the disease of sin, which is so deadly, and which your souls are so apt to catch. In short, you will avoid every obstacle to your conversion, as far as you can; and till you are brought to this, it is in vain to pretend that you have any real inclination to turn to God and such of you as have never been brought to it, may be sure you have never been converted...

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Oh when shall we see such earnest endeavours among us! When shall we see sinners thus vigorously striving to enter in at the strait gate? When will their dead sleep be over? When will the delusive dream of their false hopes vanish? When will they begin to conclude that they have sinned long enough-that they have delayed turning to God long enough-that they have been secure and careless, on the slippery brink of destruction, long enough? When will they begin to think it is high time to work out their salvation with fear and trembling? My dear people, I long to see such a time among you once more! And unless such a time come, I expect sundry of you, even as many as are unconverted, will perish forever! Yes, unless such a rousing time come, and that speedily too, I fully expect that some of you will burn in hell forever! Oh! the shocking thought! What shall be done to avoid so dreadful a doom? Come, holy Spiritcome and work upon the hearts of these impenitent sinners; for thou only canst perform the work. Oh! come speedily, or they will be removed out of the sphere of thy sanctifying influences out of the region of vitality, into the territories of eternal death! Brethren, till the Spirit be poured out upon us from on high, the work of conversion will never go on prosperously among us! We have had sufficient trial to convince us of this. We have had preaching, and all the means of grace, long enough to make us sensible that all will not do, without the holy Spirit therefore, let us earnestly cry for this blessing. For, Fourthly, If afflictions are followed with so blessed an effect upon you as to turn you to God, you will be made deeply sensible of your own inability to turn to him, by the best endeavours you can use; and of the absolute necessity of the influences of the holy Spirit, or the power of divine grace. While you are ignorant of yourselves, and have not put the matter to trial, you may flatter yourselves that you are able to turn to God when you please but when you make the experiment in earnest, you will soon be undeceived. You can indeed abstain from outward acts of gross sin-you can attend upon the means of grace, and perform the outward duties of religion; and this is your duty: but, alas! this is far short of true conversion. All this you may do, and yet the heart be so far from being turned to God, that it may be strongly set against him. You will find, when you attempt the work in earnest, that, beside the draw-backs from the world, and the temptations of Satan, your own hearts will refuse to re