appearance of evil. No fin will be indulged, nor permitted to dwell in that heart, where love to God is predominant. If we do indeed love Chrift, we shall keep his commandments. These will not be grievous, but most pleasant and delightful:-Ob! bow I love thy boly law; it is my meditation all the day, faid pious David; and St Paul fays, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. And who can help loving and delighting in the law of God, when he confiders that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and juft, and good?

2. The knowledge, affection and profeffion of perfons who walk not before the Lord, are all in vain. For those things will be fo many evidences against them, will render them the more inexcufable, and aggravate their fi nal judgment. I confess that the knowledge of God, an esteem of him, and an outward profeffion, are all neceffary and ufeful. For a religion without knowledge muft needs be preposterous and erroneous; without affection, mere hypocrify; and without an open and free profeffion, no better than cowardice. But though these things are neceffary, yet they are not fufficient, and the truth of them all may be justly questioned, where they are not ratified and confirmed by an answerable conduct.

3. That walking with God, in the external duties of religion, will beft ftop the mouths of the adversaries of the truth. The enemies of our religion take the more occafion to flander it when they fee Chriftians walking carelessly, and untenderly. Oh! take heed that you give no occafion to the enemies of Chrift to blafpheme. Make confcience of good works; ftudy to live foberly, righteously, and godly, in this prefent evil world.

4. Laftly, we learn from what has been faid, that those who walk not before the Lord in the land of the living, are expofed to the moft dreadful ruin. O finners! de

niers of God! deniers of Christ the Saviour of the world! rejecters of heaven, and travellers to hell! what can be faid to you to stop you in your dangerous career to ruin? What can be done, what would I not do, to fnatch you from the strokes of Almighty vengeance? O ftop for a moment, and look forward to that gulph of despair into which you are just ready to plunge! Methinks I fee fome of my hearers already tottering on the brink of damnation, and yet fearless, yet unconcerned! Awake thou that fleepest, arife from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Fly, poor thoughtless foul, from the wrath to come; inftantly fly, left wrath come upon you to the very uttermoft, and your never-dying foul be for ever loft! The God of the fpirits of all flesh is your enemy; devils are your enemies, and the whole herd of the ungodly will fhortly become mutual tormentors. Not a fingle friend will you meet with, in all the regions of mifery-no, nor in heaven itself, fhall fo much as one be found to pity or relieve you; but you must lie down in overwhelming forrows, and welter in flames unquenchable for ever! But alas! the forlorn condition of careless difobedient mankind, fhall exceed all the powers of description! Perhaps nothing but the groans of the damned, which may none of you, dear brethren, ever hear, could give even a faint view of their wretched ftate, whom Chrift the Lord will difown and caft off for ever! Be entreated, therefore, to come to God through Jefus Chrift. Caft off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light, and thus glorifying your Father in Heaven, you may hope, in due time, to dwell for ever with the Lord. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to prefent you faultlefs before the throne, be afcribed all honour, praise and glory, henceforth and for ever. Amen.

SER.

SERMON XIX.

A CAUTION AGAINST DECLENSION IN
THE WAYS OF PRACTICAL PIETY.

BY

JOHN RODGERS, D. D.

One of the Ministers of the United Presbyterian Churches, in the City of New-York.

GAL. vi. 9.

Let us not be weary in well-doing; for in due season we fball reap, if we faint not.

HE intimate knowledge of human nature, that fhines through the whole religion of Jefus, deferves to be numbered among the evidences of its divinity,

It hereby appears, that its Author is none other than the Author of our nature. This knowledge is confpicuous among other things, in that aptitude there is in the doctrines, the precepts, the promises, and the threatenings of the Gospel, together with the facts recorded in the facred oracles, to govern the will and regulate the paffions, as well as inform the understanding. For this purpose, every

power

power of the human mind is addreffed, and every principle of action in the foul is touched in the manner beft calculated to accomplish these ends.

Among these principles, none more powerful and operative than the defire of happiness. A principle planted by the Author of nature in every human breaft; and which, therefore, is a rational and fcriptural fource of action. It is not, indeed, the principle from which true love to God flows, nor ought it to be the primary fource of our obedience. These are the transcendent excellence of the Divine character, and a confcientious regard to God's governing authority.

But though a regard to our own happiness ought not to be the primary fource of our obedience, yet it is a fource, and we may, we ought to be influenced by it in the whole of our Christian deportment. It ought to have a chief place among the motives of our conduct, though not the chief. This is evident from the address to it in the words of our text. Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due feafon we shall reap, if we faint not.

There are two things in the text that deserve our special notice.

An evil againft which we are guarded. Be not weary in well-doing. And the argument whereby we are guarded against this evil; and the contrary temper and conduct recommended and enforced, which you have in these words; for in due feafon we shall reap, if we faint not : Reap a harvest of eternal joy. There is a manifeft allufion in our text, and the two preceding verfes, to thofe remarkable seafons of the year, feed-time and harvest. Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatfoever a man foweth, that shall be alfo reap. For be that foweth to his flefb, fhall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that foweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And

let

let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due feafon we fball reap, if we faint not.-Here the Apoftle compares this life to the feafon in which the farmer fows his feed, and the future ftate to the fucceeding harveft. He hereby teaches us this important truth, that our temper and conduct in this life, bear the fame relation to a coming judgment and an eternal ftate, that the farmer's fowing his feed does to the following harvest. This life is the feed-time, eternity the season for reaping the fruit of our doings, whether they be good or bad.

What I propofe from the words, by the aids of the Spirit of grace, is,

I. Briefly explain the evil against which we are guarded in the text.

II. Shew why we should guard against this evil, and purfue a contrary line of conduct.

Let us enquire, firft, what is the nature of the evil against which we are guarded in the text-Be not weary in well-doing. And for this purpose it is not improper we should briefly touch upon the nature of the well-doing here intended, that we may be enabled the more eafily to understand what it is to be weary of it.

By well-doing here, we are to understand, in general, the duties we owe to God, our neighbour, and ourselves. These are of great extent; they are many in number, and important in their nature. There is not a fingle relation we fuftain to God, or to each other, but what is fruitful of a variety of thefe duties. You will not expect I should enter into a particular confideration of them in this place. This would conftitute a system of practical divinity. Let it fuffice, at prefent, to obferve, that they include all that the facred oracles mean by piety towards God; by justice, benevolence and humanity towards our neighbour,

and