That many are called but few are chosen. And that many will miss of their salvation, who seem to have taken some pains to obtain it. As in these words, Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

Here our blessed Lord commands us to strive to enter in; because many will fail, who only seek to enter. By which we are plainly taught, that religion is a state of labour and striving, and that many will fail of their salvation; not because they took no care or pains about it, but because they did not take pains and care enough; they only sought, but did not strive to enter in.

Every Christian, therefore, should as well examine his life by these doctrines, as by the commandments. For these doctrines are as plain marks of our condition, as the commandments are plain marks of our duty.

For if salvation is only given to those who strive for it, then it is as reasonable for me to consider whether my course of life be a course of striving to obtain it, as to consider whether I am keeping any of the command

ments.

If my religion is only a formal compliance with those modes of worship that are in fashion where I live; if it cost me no pains or trouble, if it lays me under no rules and restraints, if I have no careful thoughts and sober reflections about it, is it not great weakness to think that I am striving to enter in at the strait gate?

If I am seeking every thing that can delight my senses and regale my appetites; spending my time and fortune in pleasures, in diversions, and worldly enjoyments, a stranger to watchings, fastings, prayers, and mortifications, how can it be said that I am working out my salvation with fear and trembling?

If there is nothing in my life and conversation that shew me to be different from the Jews and Heathens; if I use the world and worldly enjoyments, as the generality of people now do, and in all ages have done, why should I think that I am amongst those few, who are walking in the narrow way to heaven?

And yet if the way is narrow, if none can walk in it but those that strive, is it not as necessary for me to consider whether the way I am in be narrow enough; ́.

or the labor I take be a sufficient striving, as to consider whether I sufficiently observe the second or third commandment.

The sum of this matter is this: From the above-mentioned, and many other passages of Scripture, it seems plain, that our salvation depends upon the sincerity and perfection of our endeavors to obtain it.

Weak and imperfect men shall, notwithstanding their frailties and defects, be received, as having pleased God, if they have done their utmost to please him.

The rewards of charity, piety, and humility, will be given to those whose lives have been a careful labour to exercise these virtues in as high a degree as they could.

We cannot offer to God the service of angels; we cannot obey him as man in a state of perfection could; but fallen men can do their best, and this is the perfection that is required of us; it is only the perfection of our best endeavors, a careful labour to be as perfect as

we can.

But if we stop short of this, for aught we know, we stop short of the mercy of God, and leave ourselves nothing to plead from the terms of the Gospel. For God has there made no promises of mercy to the slothfui and negligent. His mercy is only offered to our frail and imperfect, but best endeavours to practice all manner of righteousness.

As the law to angels is angelical righteousness, as the law to perfect beings is strict perfection, so the law to our imperfect nature is the best obedience that our frail nature is able to perform.

The measure of our love to God seems in justice to be the measure of our love of every virtue. We are to love and practice it with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. And when w cease to live with this regard to virtue, we live below our nature, and instead of being able to plead our infirmities, we stand chargeable with negligence.

It is for this reason that we are exhorted to work out our salvation with fear and trembling; because unless our heart and passions are eagerly bent upon the work of our salvation; unless holy fears animate our endear,

ours, and keep our consciences strict and tender about every part of our duty, constantly examining how we live, and how fit we are to die, we shall in all probability fall into a state of negligence, and sit down in such a course of life as will never carry us to the rewards of heaven.

And he that considers that a just God can only make such allowances as are suitable to his justice, that our works are all to be examined by fire, will find that fear and trembling are proper tempers for those that are drawing near so great a trial.

And indeed there is no probability that any one should do all the duty that is expected from him, or make that progress in piety which the holiness and justice of God requires of him, but he that is constantly afraid of falling short of it.

Now this is not intended to possess people's minds with a scrupulous anxiety, and discontent in the service of God, but to fill them with a just fear of living in sloth and idleness, and in the neglect of such virtues as they will want at the day of judgment.

It is to excite them to an earnest examination of their lives, to such zeal, and care, and concern after Christian perfection, as they use in any matter that has gained their keart and affections.

It is only desiring them to be so apprehensive of their state, so humble in the opinion of themselves, so earnest after high degrees of piety, and so fearful of falling short of happiness, as the great apostle St. Paul was, when he thus wrote to the Philippians.

"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect-but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." And then he adds, "Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded."

But now, if the apostle thought it necessary for those, who were in his state of perfection, to be thus minded; that is, thus labouring, pressing and aspiring after some degrees of holiness, to which they were not then arrived; Surely it is much more necessary for us, who are born

in the dregs of time, and labouring under great imperfections, to be thus minded; that is, thus earnest and striving after such degrees of a holy and divine life, as we have not yet attained.

The best way for any one to know how much he ought to aspire after holiness, is to consider not how much will make his present life easy, but to ask h.mself how much he thinks will make him easy at the hour of death.

Now any man that dares be so serious as to put this question to himself, will be forced to answer that at death, every one will wish that he had been as perfect as human nature can be.

Is not this therefore sufficient to put as not only upon wishing, but labouring after all that perfection which we shall then lament the want of? Is it not excessive folly to be content with such a course of piety when we shall so want it as to have nothing else to comfort us?— How can we carry a severer condemnation against ourselves, than to believe that at the hour of death we shall want the virtues of the saints, and wish that we had been amongst the first servants of God, and yet take no methods of arriving at their height of piety, whilst we are alive?

Though this is an absurdity that we can easily pass over at present, whilst the health of our bodies, the passions of our minds, the noise, and hurry, and pleasures, and business of the world, lead us on with eyes that see not, and ears that hear not; yet at death, it will set itself before us in a dreadful magnitude, it will haunt us like a dismal ghost, and our conscience will never let us take our eyes from it.

We see in worldly matters, what a torment self-condemnation is; and how hardly a man is able to forgive himself, when he has brought himself into any calamity or disgrace, purely by his own folly. The affliction is made doubly tormenting, because he is forced to charge it all upon himself, as his own act and deed, against the nature and reason of things, and contrary to the advice of all his friends.

Now by this we may in some degree guess how terrible the pain of that self-condemnation will be, when

a man shall find himself in the miseries of death, under the severity of a self-condemning conscience; charging all his distress upon his own folly and madness, against the sense and reason of his own mind, against all the doctrines and precepts of religion, and contrary to all the instructions, calls and warnings both of God and

man.

Penitens was a busy notable tradesman, and very pros perous in his dealings; but died in the thirty-fifth year of his age.

A little before his death, when the doctors had given him over, some of his neighbours came one evening to see him; at which time, he spake thus to them:

"I see, says he, my friends, the tender concern you have for me, by the grief that appears in your countenances, and I know the thoughts that you now have about me. You think how melancholy a case it is to see so young a man, and in such flourishing business, delivered up to death. And perhaps, had 1 visited any of you in my condition, I should have had the same thoughts of you.

But now, my friends, my thoughts are no more like your thoughts, than my condition is like yours.

It is no trouble to me now to think that I am to die young, or before I have raised an estate.

For

These things are now sunk into such mere nothings, that I have no name little enough to call them by. if in a few days, or hours, I am to leave this carcass to be buried in the earth, and to find myself either forever happy in the favour of God, or eternally separated from all light and peace, can any words sufficiently express the littleness of every thing else?

Is there any dream like the dream of life, which amuses us with the neglect and disregard of these things? Is there any folly like the folly of our manly state, which is too wise and busy to be at leisure for these reflections?

When we consider death as a misery, we only think of it as a miserable separation from the enjoyments of this life. We seldom mourn over an old man that dies rich; but we lament the young, that are taken away in the progress of their fortune. You yourselves look upon