and the very exercife of love to him, which is the means of constancy, and the fource of joy in religion.

Above all, let us fet our affections upon the things that are above, where our Redeemer fits, at his Father's right hand. As our profeffion is to be pilgrims, and ftrangers in the earth, to live by faith, and not by fight; let us ftudy, to raise our hopes of, and defire after, the heavenly inheritance. By this, we fhall not only believe, but know and feel the value of true religion, which cannot fail to make us diligent in feeking the good of others.

Oh! my brethren, what reafon have we to be inwardly ashamed at the weakness of our faith, and the coldness of our love, as they fhew themfelves, by our indifference in the duties of our office! We are often ready both to complain and wonder, that our hearers are fo little affected with the most awful confiderations; that they can hear with indifference of everlasting happinefs, and fit without fear under the denunciations of eternal wrath; that we cannot perfuade them, it is of importance to think what fhall become of them for ever. But is it not alfo to be wondered at, that we ourselves can often speak of these things with fo little emotion? Can we ever be fufficiently affected with the danger of our hearers, when we confider, that we muft either fave them by convincing and converting them now, or deliver our own fouls, by witneffing, juf

tifying

tifying, and perhaps pleading for their condemnation at the last day? However plain and fimple thefe truths are, of the final judgment of minifters and people, they are quite unfathomable in their meaning and importance to both. It is ftrange that we can think of them without the deepest concern, or even fpeak of them without

tears.

Let us pray that the Lord would encrease our faith, that believing we may speak, and that our fpeech may be with fuch efficacy, by the bleffing of God, as many finners may be thereby brought to everlasting life; that we may approve ourselves to him that fent us; and that when Chrift, the chief Shepherd fhall appear, we may receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

SERMON

SERMON II.

Man in his Natural State.

REV. iii. 17.

Because thou fayeft, 1 am rich, and increafed with goods, and have need of nothing; and knoweft not that thou art wretched, and miferable, and poor, and blind, and naked.

N order to preach the gofpel with fuccefs, it is

the great and fundamental truths, on which all the reft are built, and to which they constantly refer. Nay, it is neceffary that we fhould often look back to thefe, and fee that we be not off the foundation, or that it be not weakly, or imperfectly laid. Of this fort, I take the guilt, mifery, and weakness of our nature to be; and therefore have chofen the words now read, as the subject of difcourfe

difcourfe, in which the Spirit of God reproves the fufficiency, and felf-righteoufnefs of the church of Laodicea.

"Because thou fayeft, I am rich, and increased in goods, &c." I suppose you will all eafily underftand, that the words are figurative, and are fpoken entirely with a view to the fpiritual ftate of that church. In this light, let us confider what is precisely their meaning.

We may either fuppofe, that this charge is brought against the church of Laodicea, because there were many there, under the profeffion of the gofpel, who were notwithstanding, still in a natural unrenewed ftate-ftrangers to the power of religion; of which, their being thus unhumbled, and infenfible of their guilt and mifery, was the evidence ; and for which, the remedy is prescribed in the following words: "I counfel thee to buy of me gold, tried in the fire, that thou mayeft berich, and white raiment that thou mayeft be clothed, and that the 'fhame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-falve, that thou mayest fee.'

Or we may fuppofe, that this reproof was in a great measure applicable to them all in general, believers and unbelievers; the best of them, being exceedingly prone to trust in themselves, that they were righteous; inftead of that humble dependence on the merit and grace of their Redeemer, which ought not only to be the refuge of the fin

ner,

ner, but the confidence of the faint.

a`

And there is no question, that this is a proper caution to profeffing Chriftians in every age, to beware of splitting on the rock of self-sufficiency.

But as this difpofition reigns in the heart of every one that is yet at a distance from God, is the foundation of their fecurity and impenitence, and is what they must be brought off from before they can be reconciled to God; it is for their benefit that I chiefly defign this difcourfe, though it may alfo be ufeful, and fhall be in part applied to the children of God. It is an affecting thought when purfued to its confequences; yet, alas! it is unqueftionably true, that in every affembly, fuch as this, of profeffing Chriftians, there are not a few, who are in "the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iriquity," under the wrath of God, and liable to the condemning fentence of his law; and at the fame time, that the far greater part of them are ignorant of it, and know that they are wret ched, and poor, and blind, and naked.”

་

In difcourfing farther upon this fubject, therefore, I fhall,

I. Endeavour to prove and illustrate this truth that all mankind are by nature in a state of fin and mifery, under the bondage of corruption, and kiable to the wrath of God.

II. I fhall briefly fhew you,, that being brought to a lively fenfe, and genuine conviction of this, is the