James faith, If any Man offend not in Word, the fame is a perfect Man (u). None is a new Creature, whofe Tongue is not under this Discipline: But where the new Creation is within, all this will be familiar and genuine.

ONCE more, if you are the new Creature, you will take the Name of God into your Mouth, with an awful and religious Reverence.-Alas! for the infolent Wretches, who can trifle with the glorious and fearful Name, The Lord our God! Whether fhall we more lament the Dishonor ye do to our God, or the Ruin which is falling upon your impenitent Heads? Ye Sport of Satan! Ye Engines, which he raises up against GOD, to defy him to his Face! Whether ye be they, who bellow out mad Curfings, and call down God to

fee

your Falfhoods, Anger, Revenge, and vain Humors: Or whether they, who reverence not the Oaths ye take; either knowing that ye fwear falfly, or not carefully performing the Obligations ye have thus folemnly bound upon you. One and the other, how far muft ye needs be from GOD, who can treat him in this Manner without trembling! And ye too, who can approach this House of Worship, and speak to God with a most affronting Indifference, as if he were not worth the regarding; or with an affected Devotion, as if he could be pleased with Compliments: Merciful (u) James iii. 2.

Gop!

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GOD! How much farther wilt thou fuffer us to go? Nothing but thine own infinite Patience could poffibly endure, under fuch Infolences!-Thefe are the Provokings of the natural Man.

THE new Creature, on the contrary, treats the very Name of GOD with Refpect; doth not flightly introduce it into his ordinary Converfation, as the Manner of fome is; nor lightly worship him, with a cold and wandring Heart. He would not speak of GOD without Need; and when he speaks of him, it is with all reverent Regard. He doth not babble, he neither knows nor confiders what, when he prays:He worships, as he can, in Spirit and in Truth. He is not rafb with his Mouth; he is not hafty to utter any Thing before God: For God is in Heaven, and be upon Eurib (x).

REMARK it well: You fhall find this reverent Regard of God's Name, no small Mark of Difference between a good and ill Heart., When the Soul is poffeffed with any becoming Impreffions of the Divine Majefty and Prefence, the Tongue is holden with an awful Reftraint, nor can any longer trifle with ferious Things: The whole Man bows before GOD, and the Mouth humbly confeffes the Difference which the Soul feels to be, between the infinite GoD and finful Duft and Afbes. When a Man is brought (x) Ecclef. v. 2.

into the Prefence, however flightly he might have treated Majefty before, it now strikes and awes him, nor does he dare fpeak, but refpectfully and reverently. But the Sinner fpeaks of, and to GOD without Fear, because he is not introduced, because his Soul knows not what it is to ftand before the Prefence of the Almighty.

CAST back your Eye now, and review the Ground we have paffed. Confider the peculiar Character of the newCreature; how greatly he thinks; how exaltedly he fpeaks. Do you not approve him, however unlike him you are; wifh, that even thus you thought and fpake; yea, envy him, that he ftands in a Light fo much above you? A Chriftian indeed, is a Man, a reasonable Creature; a Light, which draws the Eye, and engages the Heart; whofe Property it is to make manifeft, and reprove the Works of Darkness. Go, ye Children of the Night, and lament your Stupidity, that ye are thus far from that Conduct which ye dare not condemn; go and learn, that amidst all the Eafe, Wealth, and Security of the World, the meanest Christian is one incomparably beyond you in every thing truly valuable; and remember, that while your Hopes fhall affuredly perish, his shall remain throughout all Generations.

BUT I leave this with you for the prefent. The folemn Tranfaction before us, demands our Attention.

I MUST hope, that all of you, who are drawing near to remember Jefus Chrift, and to partake of the Pledges of his Love, in the Ordinance now before us, have in general been able to make Application to yourfelves of the Chriftian's Character, as far as you have heard it defcribed hitherto: At leaft that ye have clearly feen that the Description of the natural Man, whether carelefs or formal, doth not fuit you; and that ye evidently find in yourselves a fincere Defire, and an earnest Purpose of Heart, to reach after that, which ye are apt to think ye have not yet attained, of the new Creature. If any one difcovers a Point of Holiness before him which he hath not reached, and yet doth not experience any ftrong Defire to come up with it, he wants one of the main Pillars of a renewed Mind, hungring and thirsting after Righteousness; and does not belong to Christ. Such an one, in the Use of the Communion, is likely to do nothing more, than blind his Eyes and harden his Heart. Suppofing therefore, that fuch as are determined for the Feaft, are in general Partakers of the new Nature, and feeking Growth and Improvement in this wonderful Change that hath been wrought upon them: I may fuitably fuggeft to them,

1. THE Fitnefs of all thankful Acknowledgment to their Head, as the Author of this their new Birth. Ye were naturally

dead

dead in Trefpaffes and Sins; had not the least Spark belonging to you of thofe gracious Difpofitions, which now adorn your Souls, and cause you to lift up your Heads with Hope. That you are now alive from the Dead is, because Chrift liveth in you: For GOD hath quickened you, through him. This ye have received out of his Fulnefs. Go then, and prefent unto him your grateful Praises, in the Way he hath appointed you. Go, with most humble Thanksgivings, with Sentiments of Acknowledgement, which labor after Proportion with the Vaftness of the Bleffing he hath bestowed upon you, in vifiting you in your low State, and turning you from Darkness unto Light, and from the Power of Satan unto God. Cold we fhall be, in the Remembrance of our Mafter's Death, if there be not fome Hope of an Intereft in the Merits of it. But if our Hope is grown up to Confidence in him, because he hath created us again, and we have found ourselves new Creatures: Then our Acts of Praise will not fail of being hearty before him, and full of the moft determined Protestations of Duty and Service to the Lord our Redeemer. And hereupon I fhall remind you,

2. THAT if you are the new Creature, Chrift is yours, and the Promises yours: So that upon this Ground, you may furely apply Christ to yourself in this facramental

Seal.