in heaven. If riches could free men from hell, O then how few rich men would be damned? He that knocks at the creatures door, will find but an empty house kept there. O beloved, what is darkness to light? what is gold to grace? what is earth to heaven? that you thus neglect the great and weighty things, and bufy yourselvs about toys and trifles, when you have a crown to look after. I befeech you, labour more for inward holinefs, than far outward happinefs; more for the feed of grace, than for the bag of gold; more for the inward piety, than for the outward plenty; more for an heavenly converfation, than for an earthly poffeffion.

VIII. Let your love Chriftians, be fincere, and not selfish, Gal. v, 14. Love thy neighbour as thyfelf. How dearly doft thou love thylelf? Why, fo you must love your neighbour. A carnal man may embrace his friend, but it's a chriftian man that loves his enemies. He that loved us when we were enemies, commands us to love them alfo, Mat. v. 44. Love your enemies, (faid our Lord bless them that curfe you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them who def pitefully use you, and perfecute you. Ofirs, I remember the God of love hath commanded us to love one another. Therefore, either lay your malice afide, or elfe God will lay you afide, as he hath done too many of

us

us in this day, to our forrow. While you are with God, he is with you, 2 Chron. xv. 2. O that I could but fpeak out how much I defire the love of one another! O it will be a happy day, when all the people of God are knit together in love, union, and affection..

Set out for God at your beginning, and hold out with him until your ending. As there are none too old for eternity, so there are none too young for mortality, Remember thy Creator now in the days of thy youth, Eccl. xii. 1. There is no obtaining of what is promiled, but by fulfilling what is commanded. The neglecting of the race of holinefs, will be the obftructing of the price of happiness. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which none shall see the Lord, Heb. xii. 14. Beloved, there are many young men, who are very wicked in the world, they walk in darknefs, and do the works thereof; they are young in years, but old in fin; Eccl. xi. 9. Rejoice, O young man in thy youth, and let thy heart chear thee, and walk in the ways of thine own heart. O this is brave indeed, if it would always last; but after the flash of lightning, comes the clap of thundering; mark what follows, But know for all these things, God will bring thee to judgment; See firs, were it not for this [but,] how brave were it for wicked men! [But,] know after all these things

things God will bring thee to judgment; for all thy wantonnefs, pride, profaneness and prodigality, thou fhalt be brought to judgment. After all your present receiving, you must be brought to a future reckoning; therefore let nothing be done in this world, which cannot be anfwered in another. Let me beseech you, who are young men and women, To remember your Creator in the days of your youth;-to love, honour, and ferve God in your youthful days. If God's to day be too foon for thy repentance, thy to-morrow will be too late for his acceptance. Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life, Rev. ii. 2. O hold on, and hold out to the end. He that draws back from profeffion, fhall be kept back from Salvation. He that departs in the faith fhall be faved, but he that departs from the faith fhall be damned. If any man draw back, my foul fhall have no pleafure in him, Heb. x. 38. Be fedfaft, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, Jeeing you know, that your labour is not in vain in the Lord, 1 Cor. xv. 58. If he gives that grace that is due to us, fhall we deny him that glory that is due to him? If he makes our natures gracious, we fhould make his name glorious. O be ftill with God; fo was. David, Pfal. cxxxix. 18. When I awake I am fill with thee.Amen.

SERMON

SERMON

XI.

FOLLOW THE LAMB.

REVEL, XIV. 6.

Thefe are they which follow the Lamb, whitherfoever he goeth.

THE HE command of this book is fet forth, chap. i. 19. Write the things that are, and the things that shall be hereafter. And into these two parts it is divided.

1. A revelation of the things that are referred to the feven churches of Afia., (2. The general ftate of the church to come; and that from John's time, unto the fecond coming of the Lord.

The fubject of this book fo much concerns the good of the church, that Jefus Christ commandeth every one that hath an ear to hear, to hearken what the fpirit of God faith unto the church; and to fhew how earnest he is, to have all his members, and fervants acquainted with the things that are revealed in it: A blefiing is likewife pronounced upon the reader, hearer and doer of the things written in this facred record, chap. i. 3. Oh! what can be faid more, to

ftir

till Jefus Chrift Father's hand to The bleffed St.

ftir us up to hear and read, than bleffednefs? And bleed is he that keepeth the word of the prophecy of this book, chap. xxii. 7. but how fhall we keep them, except we know them? and how fhall we know them except we read them? None in heaven or earth, or under the earth, was found worthy fo much as to look into it, went and took it out of his open it to us, chap. v. 3. John could not but weep for fear, left it fhould have been kept close from him and the church:-But Jefus Chrift bestowed it upon her in the latter days; and it is our duty to look into it, read and expound it, that all the people may be acquainted with it: For in these latter ages, is, and shall be the very heat of war, betwixt God and Belial; Chrift and Antichrift; the Lamb's followers, and the beaft's; the righteous and the wicked. Now this book plainly tells us what fhall be the iffue, and fuccefs in the day of battle which fide fhall have the victory, and which fhall go down, chap. xvii. 19, and certainly the fons of Belial fhall not prevail : the date of their reign is almoft out, and the time draweth on a-pace, wherein they shall Lid in the duft. It further fheweth us the forrows, fufferings, afflictions and tribulations, which the church was to meet withal in the latter times, cap. xi. 7, &c. With the true flate of the church upon earth:

what