much, to escape, if poffible, or to get rid, as foon as may be, of so grievous, so afflict. ing a Condition as this must needs be, even tho' all these Fears were idle and vain and never should come to pafs? But fince This Dread is but the Forerunner and Harbinger of that black Defpair, that fhall feize the Soul hereafter and prey upon it to all Eter nity; what Folly, what Stupidity, what Mad nefs is it, to defer but One Moment, the cafting out this Disturber at once of all our prefent Quiet, and the Earnest of Eternal Horror to come? And there is but One way to effect this: If thou prepare thine Heart and stretch out thine Hands towards Him; If Iniquity be in thy Hand, put it far away, and let not Wickedness dwell in thy Tabernacle: For then fbalt thou lift up thy Face without Spot, Tea, thou shalt be stedfaft and shalt not Fear. Job 11. 13, 14. Let us therefore now begin to be Wife and Happy, let us immediately fet upon a Work of fo mighty Confequence, let us wash away by Repentance that Guilt, which is our perpetualTormentor here; and, if not remov❜d, will continue exercifing the fame Tyranny over us to all Eternity. And having made a Reconciliation with our Confciences by a Reformation of our Lives, ever after remember, to treat this great Principle within us with all Reverence and Awe, Liftning always to its firft Stirrings and Intima

Intimations, its firft hints and whispers in our Hearts, Left from a friendly, tho' faithful Monitor, it turn first an accufing and aggravating Witnefs, and proceed to be a Severe and Inexorable Judge. And if our Heart Condemn us, God is greater than our Heart and knoweth all things. But Beloved, if our Heart Condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God, then may we lift up our Heads with Joy and Triumph at the great Day; and in the mean while,all guilty and distracting Fears being banisht, enjoy a Taft of that Peaceful Blifs here, which we hope to be fully fatisfy'd with hereafter. Then we shall to our unfpeakable Comfort find, that both as to our Present and Future State, what is Foretold by the Prophet shall be verify'd,The Work of Righteousness ball be Peace, and the Effect of Righteousness Quietness and Affurance for Ever.

Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant thro' Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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SERMON XV.

SERMON XV.

I JOHN II. 4, 5.

He that faith, I know Him, and keepeth not HisCommandments, is a Liar, and the Truth is not in Him.

But whofo keepeth his Words, in Him verily is the Love of God perfected.

T

HE two commanding Faculties of the Reasonable Soul, and which diftinguish it from that of the Brutes that perish, are the Underftanding and the Will; and of these two Noble Faculties the Nobleft Acts are Knowledge and Love, the One fhining like Light in the Understanding, the Other burning

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like

like Fire in the Will; and of these two, the One has Truth, and the Other Goodnefs, for its proper Object; in which it is exquifitely delighted, and continually em ploy'd. Now God being Original Truth, and Effential Goodness; Truth in fo Eminent a manner, that Nothing else is True, but as it is conformable to the Primitive Ideas, which are ever present in his Eternal Mind; and Goodness fo abfolute, that nothing befides is Good, but by participation of That which is ever ftreaming forth from his inexhaustible fulness; it unavoidably follows, that to Know God is the highest Excellence of our Understanding, and to Love him the utmost Perfection of our Will. To aspire therefore to the attainment of these chief accomplishments of a Rational Being; and in order to that, to enquire into the Nature of them, is without question both our greatest Priviledge and moit bounden Duty. Now both of these are here treated of by the Apostle in my Text, And who fo qualify'd to inftruct us in the Knowledge of God, as St. John the Divine? Who lo fit to explain to us the Nature of Love, as the Disciple whom Jefus lov'd? and it is he, that tells us, that the Only True Knowledge, and the Only Perfect Love is Obedience. Obedience is fo much the Perfection both of the Knowledge and Love of God, fo properly the

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