posed to virtue and goodness; so that you would not do any thing vicious, false, or dishonest, to gain the whole world, but have an utter abhorrence to all evil :

Then may you take comfort that you have truly repented, that you are the disciples of Jesus; and, dust and ashes as you are, the objects of the divine complacency and kind regards, by his power who made you what

you are.

And better, far better is it to perceive and experience this salutary change made in your thoughts, dispositions and actions, than for a messenger from heaven to reveal to you, that your name was written there among the blessed: because you might be deceived and imposed on by the latter, through the effects of a heated imagination: but in the other we cannot be deceived; in what passes within our own breasts, in our inward principles, habits, and tempers, which are ourselves; which being the fairest workmanship of the Creator, will be preserved by him through the shock of our frame at death, and survive the grave; and which will be the foundation of heaven's happiness.

For what is heaven itself? (not a place or company,

VOL. I.

H

company, though both most enraptured and delightful: but it is an enlightened mind, a purified conscience, a sanctified benevolent heart, full of God and good works, desiring earnestly nothing but to please him and promote the common happiness. And whoever possesses these dispositions hath already a foretaste and earnest of heaven's bliss.

may

Some be able to relate the exact time when this happy virtuous change was begun in them:when, perhaps, through some sudden alarm and turn given to their minds by the holy spirit and power of God, upon the loss of a tenderly beloved child or friend; on being surprised with some great calamity; on reading the word of God, more piercing than a two-edged sword, or hearing some powerful awakening discourse of the infinite danger of continuing in habits of sin, and the necessity of holiness and the space requisite for it. By these or similar methods of the all-governing providence of our heavenly Father, men are sometimes excited and awakened out of a state of sinful security, darkness and ignorance: when, seared with the gloomy thought of being lost and cut off from God and all goodness for ever, they are brought to lay hold of his promised

promised mercy by Christ, and truly to repent and turn to him, in a life of holy vigilance and godliness, in strict integrity and brotherly love towards all men, and the practice of sobriety and all virtue; and go on thenceforwards improving in these and all other christian graces and tempers.

Others may not distinctly recollect any thing of the date of the pious and virtuous change which they find made in themselves. Nor, indeed, need it to be regarded; as too often a superstitious use has been made of this merely accidental circumstance; and what has happened to a few has been made a necessary mark of a true conversion in all.

In short, all may know their inward dis positions; how far they love and prefer what is pious, honest, sober, just, charitable; whether their chief delight is in the thought of God and his goodness to them, and their most prevailing desire to know him more, that they may still love and serve him better, and live before him for ever. And happy are all those who have attained these pious, holy, and virtuous dispositions, or who are in earnest seeking to attain them! Their lives will be pleasant, and their end peace.

PRAYER.

O God, merciful, long-suffering, and of great goodness!

Who art not willing that any of us, the children of men, thy reasonable offspring, should perish; but that all should come to eternal life:

We thank thee, O heavenly Father! for those good and gracious terms of securing thy favourable regards, which thou hast proposed to us by our Lord Jesus Christ: that upon a single fall and sinful transgression, thou dost not reject us from among thy children; nor cast us away entirely from thee, even for a long series of continued violation of thy holy laws; though such continuance is always most hazardous. But thy mercy is above all things, and is always to be found by those who seek it in time, with true repentance and an entire change of heart and life.

Suffer none among us to withstand thy calls to repentance, and thereby to render our case dangerous and our recovery difficult. Make us deeply sensible, how fast do time and the precious hours glide away, which thou, God of all mercy, allottest for this great, this necessary work! that we may has

ten

ten our pace, and regain lost opportunities, lest any become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. And, of thy goodness, cause all our past sins to be blotted out of thy book of remembrance, by a timely forsaking of them, that we may become the objects of thy mercy; and by a holy and entire obedience to thy laws, for all time to come, may at length attain to that eternal life, which our Saviour Christ came to reveal from thee, and which of thine infinite unmerited goodness thou hast promised to bestow upon us!

Now unto Thee, O Father, &c.

January 25, 1778.