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and thirsting after righteousness; diligent in approaching unto God; walking "in newness of life;" and discovering a spirituality of temper, a disposition for devotion, a deadness to the world, a benevolence, a liberality, such as we seldom find in thofe high toned doctrinalists, who regard themselves as the only advocates for free grace? And by the way, it is not a system of notions, however good, or a judgment in divine things, however clear, that will constitute a christian. It is a transformation by the renewing of the mind; it is a putting "off the old man with his deeds, "and putting on the new man, which after God is "created in righteousness and true holiness;" it is walking, "even as he walked."-" If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his."

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And to pass to the opposite side, we should also remember, that men do not always live according to the natural tendency and consequences of their creed. Some hold sentiments very injurious to holiness, who are not wicked men; their hearts are better than their opinions; their principles give their consciencies a liberty to sin, which they refuse to take; and their practice is adorned with good works, which their system by no means requires. No one can imagine that I mention this with a view to countenance, or palliate the adoption of such sentiments. They blaspheme every line in the bible, and are always injurious in a degree; but where they happen to fall in with a love of sin, the effect is dreadful; where such a poisonous infusion is imbibed, and not counteracted by a singular potency of constitution, the consequence is certain death.

FINALLY; many are excluded from the number of the righteous by PRACTICAL IMPERFECTIONS.→→ There is a blemish in every duty, a deficiency in every grace, a mixture in every character; and if none are to be considered as the people of God, who are not free from infirmity, you will easily be induced to take up the language, "I am left alone;" for who can say, "I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my "sin;""I have attained, I am already perfect." The best of men are but men at the best. "I am left alone." Nay, Elijah, you are not left. Even you are "a man "of like passions as we are." With all your miraculous endowments, and religious attainments, you discovered the same natural feelings, the same moral defects. You feared Jezebel, fled dismayed from your work, impatiently demanded to die, and drew a very erroneous and unworthy conclusion respecting the true worshippers of God. Yea, there NEVER was one left; for to which of the saints will you turn? To Abraham ? he denies his wife in Gerar. To Moses? he spake "unadvisably with his lips." To Job? he curses the day of his birth. To Peter? he abjures his Lord. I know I tread on dangerous ground. The Antinomian drunkard may call in Noah as his companion; and the unclean, who turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, may plead the example of David's adultery. They may hope where they should fear; take for encouragement what was only given for caution; and resemble those in their fall, whose repentance they will never imitate. And "thinkeft thou, O man, who

doeft fuch things, to escape the judgment of God?" Inftead of raifing thee up like these good men, as a

monument of mercy to future generations, he will harden thee into a pillar of falt.

God forbid we fhould plead for fin; but let us not fhun to declare a truth, for fear of a poffible abuse of it. Severe in judging ourselves, let us endeavour to judge favourably of others, and place before our minds every confideration tending to aid that charity which" thinketh no evil, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things.".

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-That we are to learn of One, who will not break a bruifed reed, or, quench the smoaking flax, till he bring forth judgment unto victory.-That there is a day of small things, which we are not to defpife. That grace corrects, but does not eradicate nature; fubdues, but does not extinguish the paffions; forms us christians, but leaves us men.-That there are inequalities among the righteous; that the good ground yielded in varied proportions, fome a hundred fold, fome fixty, fome thirty.-That a prevailing holy difpofition may have exceptions, and that a fingle action is not to pleaded against a long continued practice.-That perfons who would abandon an unlawful purfuit, the moment they were convinced of its impropriety, may continue in it for a time, for want of knowledge or reflection. That as we entertain a confidence in our own falvation, though confcious of numberless imperfections, we fhould not require perfection of others. -That our failures, though not as grofs, may be as guilty as thofe of our brethren;-and, that we may fometimes entertain a hope which we are afraid to publifh, and believe that fome are in the way to hea ven, whofe fafe arrival there, we truft, will never be known in this world.

My brethren, in our application of this fubject, let us FIRST remark the use the apostle makes of it. "Even fo then at this prefent time alfo there is a rem. "nant according to the election of grace." God never leaves himself without witnefs. He has always inftruments to carry on his caufe, and a people to fhow forth his praise. These are the pillars of a ftate to keep it from falling; the salt of the earth to preferve it from corruption; the light of the world to fecure it from darkness; and as Efaias faid before, "except the Lord of Sabbaoth had left us a seed, "we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto "Gomorrah.". Relinquifh diminishing ideas of the divine goodness; "his mercies are over all his works.” Look back to Calvary, and fee Jefus bearing the fins of MANY; fee him rifing from the dead to receive "the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermoft 66 parts of the earth for his poffeffion." "The pleasure "of the Lord fhall profper in his hand;" "he fhall "fee of the travail of his foul, and shall be fatisfied." Look forward, and behold "a great multitude which "no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, "and people, and tongues." Behold even now "the Captain of your falvation bringing MANY fons "unto glory," and no longer imagine there is any danger of your being "left alone." Rejoice, ye friends and followers of the Lamb; you belong to no small family; you do not approach the throne of grace alone; you are not alone in your hopes and your pleasures, or your ftruggles, groans, and tears. Far more than you have apprehended are on "the "Lord's fide," attached to the fame Saviour, travel

ling the same road, heirs of the same "grace of eter"nal life."

SECONDLY, are you of the number? For, my dear hearers, it is of little importance for you to know that many will enter in, if you are excluded: "there shall "be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see “Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets "in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust "out." As As you all hope to escape this dreadful doom, it behoves you to examine whether your confidence be well founded, and whether, living as you live, the scripture justifies your hope of heaven. Who then you ask, will be saved? Those who live in the world, and not like it; thofe who "have no fellowship with "the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove. "them;" those who are "a PECULIAR people, zealσε ous of good works." It is the character here given them: "I have reserved to myself seven thousand. eserved to "men, who have not BOWED THE KNEE TO THE cc IMAGE OF BAAL” And this was the reigning sin; the court, the city, the country, all followed Baal ; his worship was univerfal. My brethren, the best evidence you can give of your integrity, is freedom from the prevailing, fashionable vices and follies of the times and places in which you live, A dead fish can swim with the stream, but a live one only can swim against it. The influence of one man over another, is truly wonderful. The individual is upright; his connections give him all his wrong bias. Alone, he forms good resolutions; when he enters the world they are broken, "like as a thread of tow "is broken when it toucheth the fire." It is not

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