would perfuade yourself that you are the new Creature, Why will you not fufpect a Moment, that it is poffible, you may be mistaken? I can do no more than intreat, that you will bring your State to a fair Trial; that you will prove yourself, if you be in the Faith. Lay afide the Prejudices you have conceived in your own Favor, take it into your Account, that you are not to be determined by your Difference from others, but by the Rule of God's Word; and remember, how Chrift hath affured us, the Way of Life is ftrait and narrow, and that there be few that find it. O THAT you would fubmit to a fair In quiry! Truly, your very pitiable Cafe conftrains me to be urgent with you. If you are right, it can do you no Harm to prove yourself, if you be in the Faith: If you are out of the right Way, how needful is it, that you should know it! Will you allow me to help you: I will propofe this leading Question to you, for a ferious Examination to be made upon it. "Are you heartily "fenfible, that you are a miferable, and "(in yourself) a loft Sinner ?" If you have never been deeply convinced of this, you have been building without a Foundation. I know you have had Expreffions in your Mouth, which fignify fuch a Senfe of your Sinfulness and Mifery: Bus, hath your Heart felt felt what you have fpoken? After the folemn reading of the Ten Commandments, you have called upon GOD to bave Mercy upon you, as a Breaker of them all, one after another. Not only, that the Lord would incline your Heart to keep thefe Laws, but that also he would have Mercy upon you, and forgive the Guilt which lies upon you by your paft Tranfgreffions of them, even every one of them. But now have you lifted up this Cry for Mercy, from an evident Sight and Senfe of your Guiltinefs and Mifery, as having tranfgreffed every one of these Commandments, in the fpiritual, if not the literal Sense? In the daily Confeffion, and the Litany, you have been calling for Mercy; especially in that Confeffion of Sins at the Lord's Supper, you have "acknowledged, "and bewailed your manifold Sins and Wick"edness, against God's Divine Majefty," declaring that hereby you have been “ pro"voking most justly his Wrath and Indig"nation against you," expreffing yourself in the most penitential and felf-abafed Manner, as if, "the Remembrance of your Sins *The Rubric before the reading the Commandments in the Communion Office, is, "The Prieft fhall rehearfe "diftinctly all the Ten Commandments; and the People "ftill kneeling, fhall after every Commandment afk "GOD Mercy for their Tranfgreffion thereof for the "Time past, and Grace to keep the fame for the "Time to come." ❝ were "were grievous unto you, and the Burden "of them were intolerable," and crying, again and again, for Mercy. Yet, after all, you have never found yourfelf to be, do not this Day believe that you are, this miferable Sinner. And, if you have never found yourfelf a poor loft Sinner, how can you have come to Chrift to be faved; or feel within you the renewing Influence of redeeming Love? Here, here the Work must begin, in an humble Senfe of your Sinfulness and Mifery. You are indeed a Stranger to this; feek it, I beg you, without Delay: Then, I truft, you shall quickly find the Difference between Formality and Christianity, and wonder how you could have been fo ftrangely. deceived. IT is time now to addrefs a Word to thofe of you, who are new Creatures. I could with Pleafure refume the Employment of, a former Difcourfe, and difplay the delightful Bleffings ye enjoy, and are Heirs to. But, ye bleffed of the Lord, who made Heaven and Earth, I rather call upon you to bew forth the Praife of him, who hath called you out of Darkness into his marvellous Light (q). SEE that ye live unto him who died for you, and rofe again. Carry the conftraining Influence of the Love, which Jefus bears you, ever upon your Hearts; carry it with (g) 1 Pet. ii. 9. you, you, wherever you are, and whatever you do. Approve your Heart before him; let your Confcience witnefs to you, that you are heartily his Servant; that you are not afhamed of him, and of his Words, in this adulterous Generation (r); that you are willing to fuffer Reproach, for his Name's Sake; that you defire only Chrift fhould be magnified you, in Life and Death. Go, and let your whole Conduct be in Correfpondence with the grand Defign of GOD; To this End, Cbrift both died, rofe, and revived, that be might be Lord both of the Dead and Living (s). ESPECIALLY put on Charity in all your Demeanor. So fhall all Men know that ye are Chrift's Difciples (t). So fhall the World know, that God bath fent him: Because they fhall fee him doing in you, the Works which none other hath done, or can do. Works evidently Divine; the Work which the Devil hath wrought in you, Selfifhnefs, Pride, Conceit, diffolved; and you, like your heavenly Father, patient, forbearing, forgiving, loving. That they all, faith your Lord, may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; That the World may believe that thou haft fent me (u). Walk in Love (x), let all your things (r) Mark viii. 38. (s) Rom. xiv. 9. (a) John xvii. 21. be be done with Charity (y) towards them that are without, and one towards another, and the World shall own that God is with you of a Truth. By your meek, gentle, and charitable Carriage, you fhall do your Lord greater Honor, and bring more to the Knowledge of the Truth, and the Obedience of the Gofpel, than by a thousand Reasonings and Difputings; which, if cong fidered to the Bottom, will be feen to fpring from Pride, Conceit, and Party-Zeal. And how fhall you poffibly fucceed, while you receive Weapons from Satan to fight against him! How fall his Kingdom fail, when in truth it is not divided? HOLD forth the Word of Life. Ye are the Light of the World, ye only; all the rest lie in profound Darkness, bewildered by the Mifts of Luft, Pleasure, Intereft, pompous or learned Pride. Never was a Generation fo refined, and fo ignorant; fo wife, and fo faithlefs, fo oppofite, every Way to the true Word of Life, as this wherein you live. O let a generous Compaffion rest upon your Soul! Rarely you fhall meet a Man, who doth not need it. O let a facred Zeal for your despised Master reign within you. In the united Force of Zeal and Pity, let your Light Shine before Men, every where and in all Things, that they may fee your good Works (z). () 1 Cor. xvi. 14. (x) Matth. v. 16. Alas, |