immortality! having faithfully anfwered the boundless love of Christ to his church, whose peculiar relation to himself he expreffeth in this endearing language, "A garden inclofed is my fifter, my fpoufe, a fpring fhut up, a fountain fealed." A Prayer after the foregoing Discourse. WE approach thy prefence, O Father of infinite kindness, and make mention of thy name, in a deep and awful sense of thy mercy, who haft followed us from time to time, and moft graciously encouraged us, even to open our hearts before thee! the Lord of heaven, and the whole earth! We were caft upon rocks, and there left in a deftitute and perishing state; when thou manifefted thy tender regard, stretched forth thy delivering hand, and fed and sustained us by thy watchful providence! Thou waft pleased to look upon us in mercy, in the days of our temporal calamities! to reveal to us the faving arm of thy power, and to cause thofe very calamities to turn to our folid advantage! Thou, who art encircled with light, didft enlighten our darknefs; and gave us clearly to understand the great things of thy law; fuch of them as thou in thy wisdom faw neceffary for us. In the day of our utmost need, thou waft pleased to appear for us, and to speak comfort to our afflicted states! We earnestly beg, that the grateful sense of all these thine unutterably kind dealings with us may be imprinted on our hearts in characters never to be obliterated! What more have we to ask, but that thou may ever continue to guide and direct us! that fuch a fenfe of thy unmerited mercies may be to us, as often heretofore it hath been, an enlivening comfort, and. a strong support in the day of trouble: and we befeech thee, O bleffed Father! to remember all in the like fituation: fend forth "thy light and thy truth," even amongst those who have never known or have long forgotten thee. We pray thee, draw them into thy holy houfe; plant them in thine inclosed forever beautiful, and moft excellent garden! their hearts becoming hereby powerfully inclined to attend with a fixed and unlimited fubmiffion, to the falutary discipline of thine omnipresent, and unerring wisdom! If thou fee any caft upon the bed of languishing do thou be pleased, we humbly pray thee, to afford them the visitation of thy love: let thy divine confolation be their continual attendant, whereby they may be endued with perfect refignation to thy blefled will! O thou! that haft poured into our hearts, the fresh and reviving fenfe of thy unbounded love; accept we beseech thee, our prayers for our own prefervation, and the lifting up of our hands for one another, for the gathering together of many to thyfelf; who art, and haft been, the restorer of many that have been fcattered abroad, that have gone aftray, being feduced by various temptations, from thy facred truth. For thy great name's fake, for thy dear Son's fake, and for the fake of thy glorious caufe of righteousness! we pray thee, remember the offspring of thy people; incline and ftrengthen them more and more, to turn towards thee; and "to run the race that is set before them ;"* that in the place of the honourable fathers, removed to thy kingdom, may fucceed their fons; steadily walking in their footsteps, to the glory of thy name; that generation to generation may tell thy acts, and age to age pronounce thy goodness and marvellous power; who, through manifold temptations and trials, preferveft "unfpotted from the world," them who trust in thee, and adhere to the dictates of thy grace! Be with the people affembled here at this time; and in a particular manner with those that are thine in heart, and dedicated to thy fervice. Endue, we pray thee, with the spirit of found judgment, "those that fit in judgment" and strengthen those who are enlifted in thine army, "engaged under thy banner, and that turn the battle to the gate," that they may fo act, and "fo fight the good fight of faith," as to lay hold on eternal life! which thou art now in this the day of thy mercy, freely offering unto all! May the ministers and stewards of thy word, cheerfully proceed in thy glorious caufe, fpeaking powererfully in wifdom to all, that many may become through their calls, yet more and more ardently inclined to listen to the doctrine of thy Son, and to be instructed in thy law immediately from his internal voice in their own hearts. O holy and infinite father of all our mercies! grant, we beseech thee, that being preferved in our stations, as those who are "rifen with Chrift, our affections may be fet on things which are above," and our life hid with them in thee our God, that "when he who is our life shall appear, we also may appear with him in glory!" * May all our faculties, and all that is within us blefs thy great and excellent name; 'may we perpetually approach thy throne with confidence, to offer thee the oblation of humble prayer, and grateful praise and thanksgiving, now, henceforth, and forever, world without end. Amen. Coloff. iii. 1, 2, 3, 4. The following Difcourfe was delivered at Horfleydown Meeting, 1768. THE HERE is a paffage in facred writ, which has been revived in my remembrance during the filence of this meeting, and the train of reflections which it excited, has fealed inftruction to my mind, and furnished me with renewed cause of humiliation and gratitude; "Men and Brethren, what shall we do to be faved ?" * No person who seriously believes in the existence of a God, in a future ftate, and in the awful doctrine of rewards and punishments, can be indifferent respecting what may be his lot, when he shall be difpoffeffed of this frail tabernacle of clay which he now inhabits, and which is approaching to the period of its diffolution; it cannot be a matter of indifference to him, whether he fhall finally receive the irrevocable fentence of "go ye curfed into the regions of irremediable mifery ;" + or "come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for the righteous, enter ye into the joy of your Lord, and into your Master's reft." This concern has prompted many to inquire what is effentially neceffary for them to believe and *Acts ii. 37. + Matt. xxv. 41. Matt. xxv. 34• |