VI.

SERM. and envy of their equals, the impertinence of their inferiors; in a word, all the anxiety, degradation, and labour which commonly accompany the unconditional pursuit of fortune and preferment. How frequently, after all, does the pursuit terminate in disappointment, in felf-contempt, and general ridicule, instead of expected comfort and exaltation!

What is not done for the recovery of
health! Every pleasure is abandoned, con-
finement endured; naufeous potions are
fwallowed, painful operations undergone.
A limb is facrificed to preserve the rest of
the body. In order to fave life, its enjoy-
ment is loft.
What does Christianity re-

quire of
you, that can bear any comparison
with what is daily facrificed to external cir-
cumstances? It bids you practise that wif
dom whofe ways are ways of pleasantness, and
all whofe paths are peace *. When the ob-
ject of worldly fufferings and facrifices is
fully attained, what is the refult? It is to
protract the courfe of fin and perdition, and
to witness the fame courfe pursued by o-
thers!

* Prov. iii, 17.

VI.

thers! But, for happiness confummate, in- SERM. finite, and eternal, every degree of labour, of attention, of patience, of mortification, is confidered as intolerable! Can so much be done, and endured for Satan, and fo little for God! Either renounce the profeffion of Christianity, and deliver it from the dif grace which it incurs by the fhocking inconfiftency of your conduct, or evince the fincerity of your profeffion, by a conduct conformable to it.

May God, who turneth the hearts of men, as the rivers of water *, who perfectetb ftrength in weakness †, mould our fouls, by his grace, according to the precepts and fpirit of the gofpel! May he deliver us from the body of fin and death ‡, break the bond of iniquity §, and restore us to the glorious liberty of his children. May he diffipate the darkness of ignorance, and the delufive mists of error, and pour on our minds the light of divine truth, and the fplendour of immortal glory! May he give us that expanfion of foul, which can be fatisfied with nothing

† Rom. vi. 6. vii. 24. § Acts viii. 23. || Rom. viii. 21.

SERM. nothing lefs than the eternal enjoyment of VI. himself, and excite in us that vivid faith,

which, being the subftance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen *, realifes futurity! May he endue us with that perfeverance which will conduct us to the end of our career; and put us in poffeffion of its reward, the inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, referved in the heavens t.

Heb. xi. I. +1 Pet. i. 4.

SERMON

203

SERMON VII.

ON THE NATURE, THE EFFECTS, AND THE
REWARDS OF CONSTANCY, AND STEAD-
FASTNESS IN RELIGION.

[Preached after the Administration of the Lord's Supper.]

1 CORINTHIANS XV. 58.

My beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as know that your labour is not in vain in

much as ye

the Lord.

VII.

In the chapter, of which my text is the con- SERM.
clufion, the apostle delivers, and illuftrates
at great length, the important and fublime
doctrines of the refurrection of the body,
and of an eternal existence after death. He
fums
up
his whole discourse with the na-
tural and conclufive exhortation now read,

as

1

VII.

SERM. as the fubject of mine. Of all true believers, he requires, first, conftancy, and an unshaken adherence to the principles of their religion; and, secondly, the moft comprehenfive and abundant practice of its duties, Be ye steadfast,unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Lastly, he lays before them the grand motive by which they ought to be animated to a conduct fo exalted and blissful, yet frequently fo difficult; namely, their certainty of a final, and glorious reward. For as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. I fhall illuftrate each of these particulars, in the order in which they are proposed by the apostle.

I. We are required to be constant and unmoveable in our adherence to our Chriftian principles. What chiefly diftinguishes the fincere from the nominal Chriftian, is conftancy and perfeverance in that system of belief and practice, of the truth of which he has once been completely convinced. If we confider the human mind, without reference

.