We are exhorted and excited by this relation, as Obedient children, to be Blameless and Harmless, the fons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverfe generation, fhining as lights in the world. The promises being conditional, render it abfurd to fuppofe, that any fhould be gainers by them, or have any intereft in them, except Juch as are Purified by faith, and do by Patient continuance in well doing, feek for glory, Honour, Immortality and Eternal life. Whatever men's imaginations may be, without the strictest performance of moral duties, and the religious exercise of these chriftian graces, they reproachfully build upon the fand, and can have no folid foundation, or rational hope to depend upon. The use we should make of these exceeding great and precious promifes is, to fhun the infectious difease of fin; to cultivate heavenly mindedness, and the efficacious feeds of divine grace, that we may participate of the divine nature, and efcape the pollutions of the world, through the urgent charms of luft, and its bewitching and inticing inducements. But if the means are indolently neglected, or we apply them to other. purposes, than God in his wisdom intended and appointed, we fhall certainly miss of heaven and happiness, and with the flothful Servant, who hid bis Lord's talent in the Earth, be doomed to the infernal pit of mifery, and to inexpreffible woe. Gofpel threatnings are to the fame purport, and formed to roufe men out of carnal fecurity, and that lethargick ftate of infenfibility, which apoftate creatures have inadvertently contracted, and shamefully brought upon themselves, by op pofing pofing the friendly reprimands of confcience, God's vicegerent in the foul, and cherishing the deformed and filthy habits of fin. Perfons of this volatile fpirit, and malevolent caft, are, through the tender mercies of God, and the fympathizing bowels of love, acquainted with the terribleness of that punishment, which will be inflicted on fuch, as defpife thofe fearful denunciations, and will not be brought to correct and mend their horrid and deteftable evil courfes. The intention of which was, to put the thoughtless and inconfiderate upon thinking, that they may prepare for that decifive event, when the Judge of quick and dead, the Creator of men and angels, fhall appear in full luftre, in the fplendor and brightnefs of God's infinite Majefty. These awful menaces and intimations of unavoidable ruin, are not revealed to terrify the virtuous, but to make the vicious fenfible of their danger, and their mournful defection from God, from whom they receive life and being, breath, and every other fpiritual and temporal bleffing. By thus feeing their mifery, and the vanity of indulging human paffions, the rebellious are often brought to conviction, and seriously to bemoan their former wretchedness, and to invoke that omniscient deity for mercy, against whom they have grievously tranfgreffed, and before whom they stand felf-condemned. Upon this folemn confeffion of their fins, and the falutary affiftance received from above, contrite fouls, who are inftructed from heaven, and have tasted that the Lord is gracious, are fo aware of the arts of deceit, that they no longer grafp the empty E 2 cloud: cloud; but live as, thofe, who live not according to the Flefb, but according to the Spirit, and do mortify the Deeds of the Body. So that whoever continues these commendable exercises, and strives to acquire that compos'd and heavenly frame of fpirit, which the people of God poffefs, when quitting their clayey tabernacle, will not be mocked with fhadows, nor be disappointed of their hope; but have an eternal rest with God, through our Lord Jefus Chrift. They will then have new defires and ferene conceptions, and all those harmonious tempers, and fedate holy qualities, with which the foul is delighted, and are effential to permanent fatisfaction, and the enjoyment of ftable bleffednefs. These religious difpofitions, influenced by the divine fpirit, meliorate the heart, perfuade the most obftinate and most perverfe, not to rifque the lofs of their fouls, nor the deprivation of divine favour, for the prefent fruition of fome frothy diverfion, or the painful flutter of fome momentary pleasure. Because these irrational and fenfelefs amufements, though they may please for a while, and footh our animal defires, and vain hopes and expectations, yet thofe falfe delights foon vanish, but the terrible fting will remain, and without real reformation, torment our fouls in this world, as well as in the world to come. But notwithftanding these severities are due, to the violation of undefiled reason, and oppofition to the principles of religion, we have no caufe to be intimidated, nor to dread the execution of them, if we will return to our allegiance, and fuffer clemency and diffufive benevolence, to cor rect rect our lives, and complete the defireable work of reformation. Thefe are the darling attributes and perfections of God, which he takes the greatest complacency in, as being most agreeable to, and infeparable from, his pure and unblemished nature. And therefore he had much rather be difplaying mercy and love, than in taking vengeance on fuch, as will not conform to the divine plan, nor obey the blessed Gospel of bis fon, whofe Righteousness is from everlasting to everlasting; and whofe Loving kindness endures throughout all Generations. So that if fuch engaging promises, as the revelation of Jefus proclaims, will not operate on our hopes, and incline our hearts to goodnefs, nor its threatnings, which are of the longest duration, and of the most terrifying nature, will not work upon our fears, nor deter us from affronting infinite Majesty, I know not what will. For in them are contained and applied every motive, in its full extent and latitude, that can difpofe men to fubmiffion, and to yield unfeigned and chearful obedience to the fupreme Lord, and only lawgiver. The drift and tenor of almost all our Saviour's parables, is to make us act reasonably, and confiftently with our rational natures, and that fuperior rank of beings in which providence has placed us, and constantly preferves us. They are defigned to make us love God, and to love one another, and to abhor immorality and profanenefs to revive and propagate juftice and honefty in all their feveral branches, throughout the different and moft diftant parts of the globe. To inforce piety and fincerity, charity and generosity, nerofity, and all those tender and feeling fentia ments, which prompt us at all convenient feafons, to relieve the wants of the indigent and neceffitous; to redress the miseries of the injured and afflicted; Or to prefs the obfervance of par ticular duties, fuch as kindness and compaffion, long fufferance and mutual forbearance, and all other profitable virtues, which are of eminent fervice to fociety, and of fingular utility to individuals. Or elfe to difcourage prevailing vices, fuch as Idleness and Lewdness, Extravagancy and Prodigality, Diffimulation and Hypocrify, fraud and injustice, things prejudicial in their nature, and injurious to public peace and tranquility. The practice of these grofs enormities, and an endeavour to humour voracious and greedy appetites, makes men neglect the rational and focial duties of religion, and wholly thoughtless of their main concern, and of making timely preparation for futurity, and their unchangeable ftate in eternity. The removal of these epidemical evils, and the performance of these flighted virtues, when they fpring from love to God, and are actuated by his free fpirit, will not only fortify our mind, against all the affaults of the deceiver, and the violent attacks of that implacable enemy; but also preserve in us, a lively fense of all thofe divine and moral excellencies, which brighten every part of our conduct, and render us ferviceable in our several stations, and in our different capacities. The method our divine teacher took, to reprove and convince the contumacious and incredulous, the fupercilious and imperious, the haughty, and arrogant, was by |