tures should have any reward, is an act of pure bounty; and that they should have fuch a reward as eternal and perfect happiness, is an act of bounty great beyond all conception. Well therefore is eternal life called in holy fcripture the gift of God. Our wages, what we have deferved, is death; but having peace with God thro' our Lord Jefus Chrift, and having access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

ALL this hath Chrift procured for us; all this is he ready to give us in return for a fhort imperfect obedience-peace, light, ftrength, and eternal blifs. And in order to accomplish this wonderful dispensation of love, our ever gracious Redeemer, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet took upon him the form of a fervant, and submitted to the loweft offices of human nature;

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nature; nay he defcended ftill lower, even to die an ignominious and painful death upon the cross, becoming himself a curfe to redeem us from the curfe of the law, the juft for the unjuft. What a condefcention is this? and how far beyond the power of words to defcribe? Scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man fome would even dare to die; but God commendeth his love to us, in that whilft we were yet finners, Chrift died for us. The eternal Son of God became man, that he might taste death for all men, and raise them from the depths of mifery and despair, to the heighth of bliss and heaven. With what grateful joy then ought we to receive these gracious proofs of God's goodness and mercy, and how earnest should we be to show forth our gratitude by every act of praise and thankful obedience?

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If we drew our being, and derive every thing around us from his all creating hand: if that being be fupported and every comfort and neceffary of life be supplied by his fatherly providence; is it poffible that we can live in neglect of him, and what is worse, that we can live in wilful difobedience to his commands: but if we can forget that power and goodness which created and preferves us, furely we cannot forget that mercy which hath redeemed us; miferable finners, confcious of guilt and fearing punishment, cannot forget that love which offers them pardon. Ignorant creatures, conscious of their blindness, and walking in darkness, cannot forget that light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world: frail creatures, confcious of weakness, and fearing the dangers which furround them, cannot forget that interceffion which procures them ftrength: unprofitable and perishing creatures, conscious

of their defects, and fearing death, cannot forget those merits which have gained them eternal life. Thus might we fairly reason, did not fad experience prove the contrary: did we not fee men who cannot only forget God, but ufe that Being which he hath given them to counteract his gracious defigns; who can abuse every bleffing his providence affords, and who can even tread under foot the Son of God; count the blood of that covenant, wherewith he was fanctified, an unholy thing; and do defpite unto the fpirit of grace: but God forbid that this should be true of any of us! May God give us fuch a sense of all his mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we may fhew forth his praife, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to his service, and by walking before him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life, thro' Jefus Chrift our Lord.

SERMON

SERMON VIII.

66

HEB. Ch. xiii. V. 7

WHOSE FAITH FOLLOW."

THE faith which the Hebrews were re

quired to follow was the faith of the first preachers and profeffors of christianity. And if it was incumbent upon them to follow this faith, it is incumbent also upon us; for the fame reasons neceffarily apply to both. But neither did the Apoftle require from his converts a blind acquiefcence in the religion he taught, nor do the prefent preachers of christianity feek to be "Lords over your faith." It is our practice,

as