indeed, when we shall feel ourselves in the midst of the posses sion of those joys which we are firmly assured shall have no interruption, no end.

Let us mediate on such a heaven as this is, which our Lord Jesus Christ proposes to all his disciples. There is no such recompence of virtue, no such refined and noble delights to be found among all the fables of the heathen poets and priests, or the dark reasonings of heathen philosophers. They are but very poor, imperfect and foolish stories, that the best of those philosophers tell us, conceruing the happiness of souls in the future state: Mean and low pleasures some of them have proposed for virtuous minds in the other world: Others of them tell you, that these delights shall have an end by an universal revolution of all things, and the souls of the blessed coming to act their parts again in this world, after a long distance of years: And the best of these reasoners have sometimes owned themselves at a loss, whether there be any state of futurity, or no; whether, there be any reward for the righteous beyond the grave. It is the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, that has not only discovered to us the eternal purposes of divine love, and the grace which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began, but it is he also, who has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light, through the gospel. And it is in the virtue of these things, that the apostle Paul rejoices in his present sufferings, and is not ashamed of them; 2 Tim. i. 9-12. For I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day.

If we would stand fast in the faith of Christ, let us imitate this blessed man: Let us think much and often of the final prize of glory: Let this incorruptible crown be kept ever in our eye, and it will have a sweet and powerful influence upon us, to keep close to the rules of the sacred contest, in order to attain the crown and prize. The glories promised in the gospel to overcomers, will sweetly constrain us to run this holy race, and to fight the good fight of faith, till we obtain the crown.

VII. "As God hath set forth the mediation of Christ, and the influences of the Spirit, for the life of our souls in his gospel, so let us daily live upon Christ, and his Spirit, by holy dependence and resignation of soul." Let your trust in him be constant and explicit: Never address the great God in worship without a direct eye to the Mediator. Live upon his atoning sacrifice, and his powerful intercession under a continual sense of your sins and defects: Let the name of Christ be ever dear to your thoughts, and rest on it, as the only foundation of your hope of acceptance: Apply yourselves constantly to seek the influences of the good Spirit, under a sense of your own weakness and insufficiency. I have been often thinking, that the great neglect of

these two doctrines and blessings, viz. the proper atonement of Christ, and the promised assistances of the Spirit, among some of those who profess to believe the gospel, has been one considerable occasion of the growth of deism among us. For when christians themselves shall make these peculiar privileges and chief glories of our revealed religion needless, a sceptical person is ready to fancy, that the light of nature is sufficient to teach us all the rest, and then what need is there of revelation? Remember the sacred names into which you are baptized: Surely the great and blessed offices of the Son and Spirit, are designed to run through our holy religion in the practical parts of it, to the end of the world. Ever follow this method of access to God the Father, by the mediation, death and intercession of his Son, and through the aids of the blessed Spirit. Let this form of religion be wrought into the very temper of your spirits, in an habitual manner, till you feel your soul live by the faith of the Son of God, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, as you feel and find the animal life of your body preserved by the constant repeated, appetites of hunger and thirst, and the satisfaction of them by proper meat and drink St. Paul was in no danger of

departing from the doctrine of the gospel while he could speak from his own inward experience, and say, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me, and given himself for me; Gal. ii. 20. And this naturally leads me to the next advice.

VIII. "Though, you have attained never so clear an evidence of the truth of christianity by reason and argument, yet, never rest satisfied without the power and pleasure of religion wrought deep in your hearts." Never content yourselves with the mere outward forms of a christian, and a cold round of duties, according to the dictates of the gospel: Such a circle of formal practices, even of the best religion, will be but a poor drudgery, and a heavy task, which you will be ready to relinquish in a hour of temptation, if the power, the love, and delight of this religion be not rooted in your souls. This is what the apostle means; Eph. iii. 13-19. when he entreats the Ephesians, not to faint at the tribulations which attend the gospel, and therefore he prays for them thus, viz. That God would grant according to the riches of his glory, that ye be strenghtened with might by the Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth and length, and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. When you find your faith in Christ, as you high-priest, giving a glorious relief to your soul, under a sense of guilt, and imper

fections; when you feel the doctrines of his grace, speaking peace to your conscience, and pardon through the blood of the Son of God; when you experience a divine and universal change, wrought in the very temper of your spirit by the influence of the precepts and the promises of the bible; when you find such a sacred love to God and men, as the gospel recommends, wrought in your hearts by this gospel; when your perverse appetites and sinful passions are mortified by the power of this religion, and your souls are made holy and heavenly, and fit for converse with God, you will then have an inward, settled and comfortable evidence within yourselves, that this is a divine religion indeed; 1 John v. 10. He that believes has the witness in himself: And you will not easily be turned aside from the belief and profession of this gospel, for you have felt it to be the power of God for the salvation of your souls.

IX. "When you are satisfied of the truth of christianity, upon just and reasonable grounds, make it your constant prayer to God the Father of spirits, to establish you in this faith, and to preserve you from every temptation to infidelity." As we must invoke the divine assistance, to lead us into all truth, in our first enquiries in religion, so we must be constant addressers at the throne of grace, that the same divine Spirit, the enlightener and instructor, may dwell with us, to establish our souls in the truth; and especially, in such a day of temptation as this is, we have need to be more constant and importunate in our petititons to heaven on this account. It is the Spirit of God that enlightens us in the knowledge of the gospel, and he seals our souls unto the day of redemption. He continues the communications of his own light to those that seek it. He is promised to abide with the disciples of Christ for ever, and to dwell in them as a spring of light and holiness. If we begin to grow self-sufficient, we begin to depart from the gospel, and we lay ourselves open to the power of every temptation. Solomon, the wisest of men, assures us, he that trusts in his own heart, is a fool; Prov. xxviii. 26. And the man that presumes upon his own understanding, or his own strength, is very near to apostacy. Peter was a terrible instance of this folly He boasted of his courage above the rest of the disciples, and he was the only man that denied his Lord.

X. "When you are once established upon just grounds, in the faith of the gospel, do not rashly expose yourselves to temptation." Do not run into free conversation with infidels and apostates, without a plain call of providence. A needless indulgence of dispute, and fondness of controversy upon this subject with subtle men, who lie in wait to deceive, has too often exposed young christians, and shaken their faith. Though there be various and abundant proof of the truth of the gospel, and it may be well defended upon the foot of right reason, yet every

one is not fit to enter into these debates with men of wit and learning, who are engaged on the side of infidelity. Common plain christians should rather abstain from such sort of conferences, as will fill their minds with cavils against the scripture, and objections against the gospel. You know not what unhappy impressions a profane jest, or a shrewd cavil may make upon your spirits: And as the devil is an enemy to the doctrine and kingdom of Christ, so we have just reason to believe, that he is ever ready to assist the infidel party. Where the gospel is published with sufficient evidence, St. Paul tells us, that it is the God of this world that blinds the minds of those that believe not; 2 Cor. iv. 4. And he is ever ready to help them to raise a dust, and to blind others.

A witty scoff thrown out against the truth, may pierce the mind deeper, and stick longer than a solid argument to support the truth. How well soever you fancy yourself settled in the principles of your holy religion, yet perhaps you may hear some new subtle objections, or some witty turn upou the sacred history of the bible, that may weaken your belief, when you have not an answer ready at hand, to ward off the force of it. Some have been taken and ruined in our age by these snares of the devil, who have thought themselves as safe as you. If the providence. of God plainly call you into an infected house, and evident duty require you to venture your life in the midst of the pestilence, you may humbly hope for divine preservation and security: But if you venture without a call, you have reason to dread the event. A sincere and humble christian may be led by the course of his duty into such dangerous company, and he may hope for the assistance of the Spirit and the grace of God, to fill his mouth with arguments, and enable him to defend his faith with holy skill and courage: But if he mingle himself in such sort of conversation at every turn, without any evident call of providence, and out of a mere idle curiosity of spirit, or from a presumption of the strength of his own faith or arguments, he has but little reason to hope for divine protection from these dangerous and fatal snares.

XI. "When you see just reason to believe the gospel of Christ, and have your faith confirmed in it by solid evidence, let not every objection and cavil which you cannot answer, shake your stedfastness, and cast you into doubts again." This is the common practice of infidels, whereby they deceive themselves, and it has been part of their craft in all ages, in order to deceive others; they turn away their eyes from the bright evidence which is given to the gospel, and wink at the glorious lights that surround it, while they dwell on some little darknesses that attend it. They call off the eyes of others from the rational and convincing evidence, in order to fix them upon some of these obscurities and

difficult passages in scripture, which are not so easy to be explained or accounted for, by reason of our great distance from the times, when those affairs were transacted, and those parts of scripture were written. And it is by these subtle methods, that they obtain their chief success, and deceive unwary and unstable souls. It is your safest way therefore, to keep your minds intent upon the plain force of argument, drawn from miracles and prophecies, and gifts of the Spirit, as well as from the inward excel lencies of christianity, whereby it is sufficiently proved to be a divine religion; and let not any little cavils which are raised against particular passages in the bible, entangle your thoughts or shake your faith, which is built upon such firm and rational foundations. While reason itself stands on the side of christianity, let not a few puzzling questions make you forget the force of that reason which establishes the gospel.

-The venerable and pious Doctor Owen spake excellently well on this point, at the end of his little treatise on the "Doctrine of the Trinity." " It is a rule among philosophers, that if a man on just grounds and reasons, had embraced any opinion or persuasion, he is not to desert it merely because he cannot answer every objection against it. For if the objections wherewith we may be entangled, be not of the same weight and importance with the reasons on which we embraced any opinion, it is a madness to forego it on the account thereof." And much more must this hold amongst the common sort of christians, in things spiritual and divine. If they will let go and part with their faith in any truth, because they are not able to answer distinctly some objections that may be made against it, they may quickly find themselves disputed into atheism.

When we have taken a just survey of the arguments whereby the religion of Christ is supported, when we have seen and felt the united and convincing force of them, let us rest established in our faith: It is not an advisable thing for private christians, out of a curious or wanton humour, to hearken after the cavils of infidelity, no more than to frequent such company. It is unsafe for them to attend to the quarrels which the men of profane wit have raised against the word of God: Nor should they do it unless divine Providence calls them to it as part of their uty, and gives them time and leisure to enter anew into the controversy, to lay open the objections, and to search out sufficient answers to them. Where any of these objections hang about the mind of a humble christian, let him speedily propose his scruples to a skilful minister or a learned friend, that he may get rid of them as soon as possible by clear and just solution of the difficulty that perplexes them.

Avoid the first workings of apostacy in the bottom of your heart: Take heed, says the apostle to the converted Hebrews, VOL. IIL,

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