the church of Christ!-Go believer! go, and endeavour to imitate them. As long as life and breath remain, let all be devoted to the fervice of your exalted Saviour. And while gratitude unites with faith and love, you will never judge you have done too much for him, who died for you.-In choice and in affections you have left all for Jefus, and have openly affociated with the people of God: you delight in their company, and are not ashamed of Chrift.-Perhaps fome of us prefent have dedicated our whole lives to his immediate fervice in the Gospel, and given up all the flattering profpects of wealth and preferment in the world for his fake. But we have none of us fuffered perfecution, or yet refifted unto blood. We have none of us endured what many of his dear children have frequently fuftained. "As for us," fays Juftin Martyr, fpeaking of the Chriftians of his day, "As for us that have entertained the religion of the holy Jefus, yourselves know very well, that there is nothing throughout the world that is able to fubdue or affright us out of our profeffion. Nothing is more evident, than though our heads be exposed to swords and axes, our bodies fastened to the cross; though thrown to wild beafts, and haraffed out with chains, fire, and all other inftruments of torment, yet do we not depart from our profeffion. Nay, the more these things happen to us, the fafter do others flock over to the name of Jefus, and become pious and devout followers of Chrift."-" Among us," fays Cyprian, "there flourishes ftrength of hope, firmnefs of faith, a mind erect amidst the ruins of a tottering age, an immoveable virtue, a patience ferene and chearful, and a foul always fecure and certain of its God." Inftead of producing particular inftances in which thefe declarations were abundantly verified, let me only repeat the noble anfwer which the celebrated old Polycarp made before the tribunal of the Proconful: "Thefe fourfcore and fix years

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years have I ferved Chrift, and he never did me any harm, and how then can I blaspheme my Master and my Saviour!"-In this manner Chriftians formerly spoke and acted; and while the fame Saviour, the fame relation. and grace remain, an obligation continues for the fame fentiments, and a fimilar boldness and zeal.

Are any of you, while I am speaking, confcious of having proved falfe to your vows, and ftand chargeable with backfliding inftead of growing in grace? Alas, my brethren! you have robbed your fouls of many comforts; you have brought reproach upon the holy religion you profess; and it is an unfpeakable mercy if you have been kept back from presumptuous fins, and not given occafion to the enemies of the Lord to blafpheme. But hear with gratitude and astonishment, ye backfliders! The exhortation to grow in grace is addreffed alfo to you. The unchangeable Jefus is waiting to restore you. He is Jeho vah Rophi, the Lord that healeth thee; and his language to you this day is, Return ye backfliding children, and I will beal your backflidings. O let it be the language of your fouls, We come unto thee compaffionate Saviour! We come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God! To return is your firft ftep towards growth in grace. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, ana repent, and do the firft works. To yourselves take all the shame and guilt, and let none prefume to make God the author of their fin. Let no man fay when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. God forbid! You have not fo learned Chrift. You are convinced, that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lufts, and enticed, and then, when luft hath conceived, it bringeth forth fin. Be deeply humbled, and confefs your fins to him, who has declared that he is faithful and just to forgive us our fins. Though a fense of guilt may prompt you to say, I am caft out of

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thy fight; yet look, my brethren, look again to his boly temple. Look in faith to Jefus, and you will find he is the propitiation for our fins. May the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without fpot to God, purge your confcience from dead works, to ferve the living God!

But there are many of the children of God, whose fouls are caft down from a failure of thofe vigorous exercifes which they once had; and who, notwithstanding they cannot charge themselves with any pofitive backflidings, are yet often crying out, O that it was with me as in days paft! Will the Lord caft off for ever, will be be favourable no more! Ye toffed as with a tempeft, remember that this is your infirmity! The exercises of his people are not always of the fame kind. Believers pass through various feafons. They are not forever on the mount rejoicing in the Lord, but often defcend into the valley of affliction and trouble. They fink fometimes in deep mire where there is no ftanding, and find themselves in a fituation which may be compared to a horrible pit, and miry clay. Be not, therefore, my brethren, disheartened. These are the footsteps of the flock. Who then is among you that feareth the Lord; that obeyeth the voice of his fervant ; that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let bim truft in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.

But darkness and want of former comforts, is not the only cafe muft here be attended to. A humbling fenfe of indwelling fin, of fmail progrefs in holinefs, and continued barrennefs, often difcourage the faints. They fee others, who perhaps began in the fervice of Chrift much later than themselves, advancing far beyond them in knowledge, zeal and love. Upon the ftricteft examination, they appear to themfelves, not only defective in growth,

growth, but even worse than they were at firft. To thefe, and to fimilar complaints, we anfwer, the Lord is fovereign in his dispensations. But after all, the judgment you form of yourselves may probably not be juft. Is not the depravity which you discover in your own heart; is not a view of your deficiency in love and zeal, over which you mourn, a proof of more light, and of enlarged experience? Do not these tend to humble you, and render the bleffed Jefus, in all his offices, more precious? And is not this a growth in grace? Forget not, O believer! that you must decrease, and Christ must increase ; and be perfuaded, that by thefe very methods of which you complain, he is emptying you of pride and remaining confidence in your own righteousness, and thus making room for his becoming all and in all to your fouls. It is thus be leads the blind by a way they know not, and in paths that they have not known. Fear not. Let faith and patience have their perfect work; and continue to wait upon the Lord, and you fhall renew your strength.

Let those who are young difciples become animated with the exalted prospects which the service of the Redeemer opens to their view. Be affured, that faithfulness to God will bring its prefent reward, befides the glory which remains in reverfion. Remember your relation is now changed, and you are no longer your own. You counted the coft when you gave yourselves away to Christ, and you are not to look back. Serve the Lord, then, with full purpose of heart. Flee youthful lufts, and affort with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. In every trial, in all your temptations look unto Jefus. Be not difcouraged, he is faithful, he will establish you, and keep you from evil. Little children, fays the Apostle John, I write unto you, because your fins are forgiven you for his name's fake. And furely they, to whom much is forgiven,

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forgiven, will love much. Indulge this love, and prove it young Chriftians, by keeping all his commandments. Grow in grace.

And now, believers, while we excite you all to grow in grace, you cannot fail in proportion as you understand the exhortation, to mourn before God that this is fo little attended to in our day. Cherish this generous forrow, and let it deeply affect your hearts, that fuch faint traces of holiness are difcernible in the vifible church; that fo many deceive themselves and dishonour Chrift, by profeffing his religion, while their lives and conduct anounce them to be baptifed infidels. But let it most affect you, that many, even of the children of Zion, appear to have departed from that strictness in piety and confcientious holiness, which always ought to characterise real believers. Alas, how is the gold changed, and the fine gold become dim!

Let all, who love the Lord Jefus in fincerity, often unite in prayer for a revival of religion, and plead fer, vently for the outpouring of his Spirit. We have been witneffes to the wonderful interpofitions of Providence in the progrefs and iffue of the late war, and the national bleffings in which we are now established. The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. We now wait for his falvation to Zion; for a day of power in his churches, when he fhall bear witness to his own truths, and numerous converts fubmit to the Redeemer. Pray much for this. Your fervent interceffions will be a happy token, that the time to favour Zion, yea the fet time is come. Pray for minifters and people, that they may feek the glory of God, and not their own honour; and that all may unite, by holiness and growth in grace, to recommend the religion of Jefus. But whatever cloud may be ftill impending over Zion, and whatever

may