and thirsting after righteoufnefs; diligent in approaching unto God; walking "in newnefs of life ;" and discovering a fpirituality of temper, a disposition for devotion, a deadnefs to the world, a benevolence, a liberality, fuch as we feldom find in thofe high toned doctrinalists, who regard themselves as the only advo. cates for free grace? And by the way, it is not a fyftem of notions, however good, or a judgment in divine things, however clear, that will constitute a chriftian. 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 holinefs;" it is walking" even as he walked.""If any man have "not the fpirit of Chrift, he is none of his."

And to pafs to the oppofite fide, we fhould alfo remember, that men do not always live according to the natural tendency and confequences of their creed. Some hold fentiments very injurious to holiness, who are not wicked men; their hearts are better than their opinions; their principles give their confciences a liberty to fin, which they refuse to take; and their practice is adorned with good works, which their fyftem by no means requires. No one can imagine that I mention this with a view to countenance, or palliate the adoption of fuch fentiments. They blafpheme every line in the bible, and are always injurious in a degree; but where they happen to fall in with a love of fin, the effect is dreadful; where fuch a poifonous infufion is imbibed, and not counteracted by a fingular potency of conftitution, the confequence 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 confidered 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 fay, "I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my fin; " "I have attained, I am already perfect." The beft of men are but men at the beft. "I am left alone." Nay, Elijah, You are not left. Even you are "a man "of like paffions as we are." With all your miraculous endowments, and religious attainments, you discovered the same natural feelings, the fame moral defects. You feared Jezebel, fled difmayed from your work, impatiently demanded to die, and drew a very erroneous and unworthy conclufion refpecting the true worshippers of God. Yea, there NEVER was one left; for to which of the faints will you turn? To Abraham ? he denies his wife in Gerar. To Mofes? he spake "unadvifably with his lips." To Job? he curfes 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 lafcivioufnefs, 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, whofe repentance they will never imitate. And "thinkeft thou, O man, who "doest fuch things, to escape the judgment of God?” Instead of raifing thee up like thefe 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."

-That we are to learn of One, who will not break a bruised reed, or quench the fmoaking 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 chriftians, 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 be 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 numberlefs imperfections, we should 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 publish, and believe that fome are in the way to heaven, whofe fafe arrival there, we trust, will never be known in this world.

My brethren, in our application of this fubject, let us FIRST remark the use the apoftle makes of it. "Even fo then at this present time also there is a rem"nant according to the election of grace." God never leaves himself without witness. 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 falt of the earth to preferve it from corruption; the light of the world to fecure it from darknefs; and as Efaias faid before, except the Lord of Sabbaoth had left us a feed, "we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto "Gomorrah." Relinquish diminishing ideas of the divine goodnefs; "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 uttermost CC 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 fhall be SATISFIED.' 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 struggles, groans, and tears. Far more than you have apprehended are on "the "Lord's fide," attached to the fame Saviour, travel

66

f

ling the fame road, heirs of the fame " "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 fhall "be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye fhall fee "Abraham, and Ifaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets "in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust "out." 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 afk, will be faved? Those who live in the world, and not like it; those who "have no fellowship with "the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove "them;" thofe who are "a PECULIAR people, zeal"ous of good works." It is the character here given them: "I have reserved to myself seven thousand - men, who have not BOWED THE KNEE TO THE "IMAGE OF BAAL." And this was the reigning fin; 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 ftream, but a live one only can fwim against it. The influence of one man another, is truly wonderful. The individual is upright; his connections give him all his wrong bias. Alone, he forms good refolutions; when he enters the world they are broken, "like as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire." It is not

D