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Do not think I mean to frighten you. Fear is one of the lowest passions; and though "the fear of the Lord is" in some men "the beginning of wisdom," yet it is not the whole of it. Consider God. Is there nothing in him to engage you to esteem him? Can your mind be so drenched in sin as to dislike a being of perfect wisdom, justice, goodness, and power? Hath he no right over you by creating and preserving you? Is there nothing in all the tender compassion of the Gospel worth your regard? His promises, are they not worthy of your desires? His threatenings, is there nothing in them that you ought to fear? God is the chief example, and the first reason of holiness. If we wish to please him, it must be by making him, the sovereign beauty, the first cause of all things, the chief object of our esteem; and if we esteem him, we must take pleasure in every thing that represents him. If the glorious perfections of God shine in the face of Jesus Christ, we shall reverence Jesus Christ. If the Scriptures be a , picture, so to speak, of this parent, whose face none of his children can see in this life, we shall study the Holy Scriptures. If "the heavens declare his glory," if "the earth be full of his praise," we shall see God in every thing, and in every thing shall discover a reason for obeying him. Oh how full of preachers is this well adjusted world! Had we attention equal to our means of instruction, how wise and good should we become! The twittering of a sparrow, the chirping of a grasshopper, the music of a May morning, and the whistling of winter winds, speech that showeth knowledge to the end of the world, would sound in the ears of man, make the simple wise, and compel him to say, "The statutes of the Lord are right," and "more to be desired than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, or the honey-comb." When this "God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," he commanded the “angels of God to worship him :" he said, by a voice from heaven, both to the apostles alone, and to the whole multitude of the Jews with them, "This is my beloved son, hear ye him." He declared by the mouth of an inspired man, "This is the Prophet whom the Lord your God hath raised up unto you; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever

he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul which will not hear this Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." Remark this expression, "every soul-every soul that will not hear this Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people."

Why? Is this an arbitrary command; as much as to say, you shall be Christians; and I your God will have it so? No such thing; but because the christian religion is the perfection of reason, and intended to explain and establish the three branches of the eternal and unchangeable law of nature.

The first of these is piety towards God. Doth God require us to fear, to love, to trust, to obey, to worship him? He hath displayed himself in the christian religion as most worthy of all this worship. He hath removed all the suspicions of heathens, by express declarations of his mind and will. He hath taken away all the horrors excited by apprehensions of danger, from the guilty bosoms of men, by suitable promises, and by signal proofs of his kind attachment to their being and happiness. Doth he require us to believe? It is upon evidence. Doth he require us to obey? He condescends to set us an example, by a thousand acts of justice and generosity.

A second branch of righteousness is, love to our neighbours. The christian religion is the highest reason for this just esteem; for thus it argues, "If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." If any of our fellow-creatures render themselves so odious by sin, that they cease to be objects of esteem, the Gospel teaches us to consider them as objects of pity, and sums up all morality in one word, "All things whatsoever. ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." The third part of righteousness is to love ourselves; and the christian religion, by declaring the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and the whole appointment of man to be 66 a temple of the Holy Ghost," an itation of God through the spirit," lays us under the strongest obligations to "live soberly in this present world." The christian religion, too, gives us the irresistible motives of the love of God, the example of the death of Christ, the last judgment, hell with all its horrors, and heaven with all its pleasures, as reasons why we should "work out our own

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salvation with fear and trembling." There is, therefore, in the christian religion itself the highest reason for our acceptance of it.

There are reasons in the world that surrounds you, for your attending to the christian religion. Consider four sorts of men, in a manner four worlds, more strictly four different views of the same world, and from each derive instruction. Observe, first, that great multitude of men, who live in the constant practice of sin, drunkards, liars, thieves, extortioners, and all the rest of that black list, who are expressly, by name, as it were, doomed not to inherit the kingdom of God. Is there any thing to tempt a man of sense and reason to live as they do? Is it a desirable thing to die as they die? And would you wish to be a companion of such odious monsters in a future state of punishment? The christian religion calls you out of this company, and finds you other work and different wages.

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Look next at the prosperous part of the world. with what hazard they get, with what anguish they keep, and with what agony they part with the good things of this life; the reason is, they have mistaken the nature of these things, they take them for their chief good, and part with them as if they were torn from Almighty God. Even innocent prosperity is a temptation to guilt, and the down bed of success is apt to make men sleep when they should wake, and waste that life in idleness, which was intended for action. That religion which teaches us how to use the world without abusing it, and how to "lay up treasures in heaven;" that religion which preserves the heart from taking damage by a plentiful harvest, a prosperous trade, and such other little advantages of life; that is the religion, which, if we were sure of prospering in all our undertakings, we ought first of all to embrace, lest the end of a prosperous life should be a miserable death, as that of all, who are wicked in prosperity, must necessarily be. Remark the afflicted part of the world. The poor, the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the man in prison for his debts, and the man in an hospital with his sores, the poor father reduced to live upon charity through the extravagance of his son, the grey-headed, lame, and shrivelled mother, left and forgotten, neglected and insulted by

her proud children, who have prospered in the world; look at the man afflicted with the gravel, and dying by inches, and ask what can support the spirits of all this company, except religion? What but the prospect of a future state of happiness can administer a sufficient relief to them? The christian religion is a general balm to heal all their wounds. It teaches the doctrine of Providence, that God brings good out of evil, and communicates the greatest blessings to mankind, under appearances the most mortifying to our senses. Observe, finally, the religious world, the good people gone before, and the rest now on the road. That religion, which supported Job under all his adversity; that religion which kept Joseph from losing his soul in prosperity; that religion, which held the arm of David from making an unjust use of the sword of the magistrate, and kept the fine abilities of Paul from serving the interests of sin; that religion, which saved Peter from distraction and despair; that religion, which every day suppresses so much sin, binds up so many broken hearts, produces so many just and generous actions, communicates so much pleasure through life, and "a joy unspeakable and full of glory" at the hour of death;—that is the religion, which my own reason commands me to receive. There are reasons in yourselves, in your naturein your depravity-in your condition-and in your prospects. Your nature is capable of high improvement. By becoming a good christian, you will improve your body, even here; for temperence, sobriety, chastity, industry, and, above all, the government of the temper, that calmness, which religion produces, is "the health of the countenance;" and at the resurrection of the dead, religion will change the natural into a spiritual body; "corruptible shall put on incorruption, mortal immortality, and then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." Your souls also are capable of great advancement. Have you no ambition to know more than how to manage a few acres of land, how to dispose of a little corn, or a little money? Rise, men! rise into an apprehension of your dignity. You were made in the image of God; and though the picture is dirtied and defaced, yet Christianity calls you to aspire to such noble

sentiments and worthy actions, such high enjoyments, and such duration, as become the majesty of your nature. Hear the great master: When good men "rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage;" and we may venture to add, they neither sow nor reap, buy nor sell, build nor adorn; but, far, far above all these little things," are as the angels which are in heaven."

Think of your depravity. Are you perfectly reconciled to your own sins, to wilful ignorance; would you always be a fool? To discontent; would you always be gloomy and apt to despair? Are you quite easy with anger and malice, and are you never afraid that the violence of your passions may bring you to shame here, and to hell hereaf-. ter? But without religion, they will bring you to “shame and everlasting contempt."

Attend a moment to your condition; every thing in that is a reason for religion. You are a father: would you go, at the head of a family of eight or ten children, a guide to hell? You are poor and is not a poor man without religion comfortless in himself, and offensive to others? Is there any encouragement to the rich to find you work, or to give you charity, if you consume all in the service of sin?

Such of you as are young should remember, that a youth without religion is a dangerous person: and such of you as are old should remember, that sober people always consider an old man teaching others, by his example, to sin, as a public nuisance. Such as are in health should not abuse those precious days: such as are sick should improve every moment in " preparing to meet their God," the judge that standeth before their door.

This brings us to the last article, your prospects. It was a very alarming question, which the prophet Jeremiah put to his countrymen, after he had described the wicked state in which they lived. "The prophets prophesy falsely, the priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so." There can be no worse state of a people than this. The prophets might say any thing, true or false, so that these wretched people might be released from the trouble of examining, and be left to pursue every one his own sinful pleasure. The priests might do any thing, in-`

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