the church of Christ!-Go believer! go, and endeavour to imitate them. As long as life and breath remain, let all be devoted to the service of your exalted Saviour. And while gratitude unites with faith and love, you will never judge you have done too much for him, who died for you. In choice and in affections you have left all for Jesus, and have openly associated with the people of God: you delight in their company, and are not ashamed of Chrift.-Perhaps some of us present have dedicated our whole lives to his immediate service in the Gospel, and given up all the flattering profpects of wealth and preferment in the world for his fake. But we have none of us fuffered perfecution, or yet refifted unto blood. We have none of us endured what many of his dear children have frequently sustained. "As for us," says Justin Martyr, speaking of the Chriftians of his day, "As for us that have entertained the religion of the holy Jesus, yourselves know very well, that there is nothing throughout the world that is able to subdue or affright us out of our profeffion. Nothing is more evident, than though our heads be exposed to fwords and axes, our bodies faftened to the cross though thrown to wild beasts, and harafsed out with chains, fire, and all other instruments of torment, yet do we not depart from our profeffion. Nay, the more these things happen to us, the faster do others flock over to the name of Jesus, and become pious and devout followers of Christ." - " Among us," says Cyprian, " there flourishes strength of hope, firmness of faith, a mind erect amidst the ruins of a tottering age, an immoveable virtue, a patience serene and chearful, and a foul always fecure and certain of its God." Instead of producing particular instances in which these declarations were abundantly verified, let me only repeat the noble anfwer which the celebrated old Polycarp made before the tribunal of the Proconful: "These fourscore and fix

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years have I served Christ, and he never did me any harm, and how then can I blafpheme my Master and my Saviour!"-In this manner Christians formerly spoke and acted; and while the fame Saviour, the same relation and grace remain, an obligation continues for the fame sentiments, and a fimilar boldness and zeal.

Are any of you, while I am speaking, conscious of having proved false to your vows, and stand chargeable with backsliding instead of growing in grace? Alas, my brethren! you have robbed your souls of many comforts; you have brought reproach upon the holy religion you profess; and it is an unspeakable mercy if you have been kept back from presumptuous fins, and not given occafion to the enemies of the Lord to blafpheme. But hear with gratitude and astonishment, ye backsliders! The exhortation to grow in grace is addressed also to you. The unchangeable Jesus is waiting to restore you. He is Jeho vah Rophi, the Lord that healeth thee; and his language to you this day is, Return ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. O let it be the language of your fouls, We come unto thee compaffionate Saviour!

We come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God! Toreturn is your first step towards growth in grace. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, ana repent, and do the first works. To yourselves take all the shame and guilt, and let none prefume to make God the author of their fin. Let no man fay when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. God forbid! You have not so learned Chrift. You are convinced, that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lufts, and enticed, and then, when luft bath conceived, it bringeth forth fin. Be deeply humbled, and confess your fins to him, who has declared that he is faithful and just to forgive us our fins. Though a sense of guilt may prompt you to say, I am caft out of thy

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thy fight; yet look, my brethren, look again to his holy temple. Look in faith to Jesus, and you will find be is the propitiation for our fins. May the blood of Chrift, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to ferve the living God!

But there are many of the children of God, whose fouls are cast down from a failure of those vigorous exereises which they once had; and who, notwithstanding they cannot charge themselves with any positive backflidings, are yet often crying out, O that it was with me as in days past! Will the Lord caft off for ever, will be be favourable no more! Ye tossed as with a tempeft, remember that this is your infirmity! The exercises of his people are not always of the same kind. Believers pass through various seasons. They are not forever on the mount rejoicing in the Lord, but often descend into the valley of affliction and trouble. They fink sometimes in deep mire where there is no ftanding, and find themselves in a fituation which may be compared to a horrible pit, and miry clay. Be not, therefore, my brethren, disheartened. These are the footsteps of the flock. Who then is among you that feareth the Lord; that obeyeth the voice of bis fervant; that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him truft in the name of the Lord, and stay upon bis God.

But darkness and want of former comforts, is not the only cafe must here be attended to. A humbling sense of indwelling fin, of small progress in holiness, and continued barrenness, often discourage the faints. They fee others, who perhaps began in the service of Christ much later than themselves, advancing far beyond them in knowledge, zeal and love. Upon the strictest examination, they appear to themselves, not only defective in growth,

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growth, but even worse than they were at first. To these, and to fimilar complaints, we answer, the Lord is sovereign in his dispensations. But after all, the judgment you form of yourselves may probably not be just. Is not the depravity which you discover in your own heart; is not a view of your deficiency in love and zeal, over which you mourn, a proof of more light, and of enlarged experience? Do not these tend to humble you, and render the blessed Jesus, in all his offices, more precious? And is not this a growth in grace? Forget not, O believer! that you must decrease, and Christ must increase ; and be perfuaded, that by these very methods of which you complain, he is emptying you of pride and remaining confidence in your own righteousness, and thus making room for his becoming all and in all to your fouls. It is thus he leads the blind by a way they know not, and in paths that they have not known. Fear not. Let faith and patience have their perfect work; and continue to wait upon the Lord, and you shall renew your strength.

Let those who are young disciples become animated with the exalted prospects which the service of the Redeemer opens to their view. Be assured, that faithfulness to God will bring its present reward, befides the glory which remains in reverfion. Remember your relation is now changed, and you are no longer your own. You counted the cost when you gave yourselves away to Chritt, and you are not to look back. Serve the Lord, then, with full purpose of heart. Flee youthful lufts, and affort with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. In every trial, in all your temptations look unto Jesus. Be not difcouraged, he is faithful, he will establish you, and keep you from evil. Little children, says the Apoftle John, I write unto you, because your fins are forgiven you for bis name's fake. And surely they, to whom much is forgiven,

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forgiven, will love much. Indulge this love, and prove it young Christians, by keeping all his commandments. Grow in grace.

And now, believers, while we excite you all to grow in grace, you cannot fail in proportion as you understand the exhortation, to mourn before God that this is so little attended to in our day. Cherish this generous sorrow, and let it deeply affect your hearts, that such faint traces of holiness are difcernible in the visible church; that so many deceive themselves and dishonour Christ, by profefsing his religion, while their lives and conduct anounce them to be baptifed infidels. But let it most affect you, that many, even of the children of Zion, appear to have departed from that strictness in piety and confcientious holiness, which always ought to characterise real believers. Alas, how is the gold changed, and the fine gold become dim!

Let all, who love the Lord Jesus in fincerity, often unite in prayer for a revival of religion, and plead fer, vently for the outpouring of his Spirit. We have been witnesses to the wonderful interpositions of Providence in the progress and issue of the late war, and the national blessings in which we are now established. The Lord bath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. We now wait for his falvation to Zion; for a day of power in his churches, when he shall bear witness to his own truths, and numerous converts submit to the Redeemer. Pray much for this. Your fervent intercessions will be a happy token, that the time to favour Zion, yea the fet time is come. Pray for ministers and people, that they may seek the glory of God, and not their own honour; and that all may unite, by holiness and growth in grace, to recommend the religion of Jesus - But whatever cloud may be still impending over Zion, and whatever may