cacy on the minds of men; next to the affiftance of the Spirit of God, the Chriftians, in thofe ages, found no greater fupport under all their trials than what they derived from their mutual encouragements and exhortations of one another. Doubtlefs this is a fpecies of public devotion which God would gladly accept from us, and which would be as well pleasing to him as that which we offer up to him in the closet or the temple. How can we more fully convince the world of the excellency of religion; how can we more effectually promote the love of it in others, than by fhewing them, that it has taken poffeffion of our thoughts, words, and actions; that it has purified our conduct, and refined our converfation? whereas on the other hand, if religion hath no part in our discourse, we fhall foon learn to think and act with the fame liberty we talk: that which never enters into our mouths will scarce ever fink deep into our hearts; and if we always converse with men that never think of God, it is moft probable that we shall live like them alfo.

To conclude-As our reputation, health, and happiness in this world, and what is infinitely more valuable, our eternal falvation in that which is to come, depends fo much on the choice of thofe whom we affociate with, permit me most earnestly to recommend to you the ftricteft care and caution in this important particular: above all it will be incumbent on us to be upon our guard in our earlier intimacies and connections, becaufe the habits and

friend

friendhips of our youth will always maintain their influence over our riper age: and if we fuffer the fpring of life to be corrupted by loose and vicious company, we fhall fcarce ever be fond of fober and virtuous fociety in the autumn and winter of our days: if therefore any of us are already linked with the vicious and profane: if we have already learned uncleannefs from the unclean, and frowardnefs from the froward, let us immediately diffolve the guilty bond, and free ourselves at once from the fhackles of folly and intemperance; let us no longer hold fellowship with the deceitful; let us not know a wicked perfon; no worldly advantage whatfoever can make us amends for incurring the wrath of God; no temporal pleafure, if any fuch we find in it, can compenfate for the lofs of eternal happinefs. Laftly, let us call to mind that, as the prophet Malachi fays, The book of remembrance is written; that a time will come when we fhall be called to account for every idle word, when it will be demanded of us, what friendfhips we have cultivated, what converfation we have been engaged in, whether we have been clean with the clean, or with the froward have learned frowardness: little will it then avail to produce the rich as our affociates, the great and mighty of the world as our friends and companions; at that tribunal their affluence will no more paliate our vices, than they can excufe their own; little regard will be paid to their influence, and little refpect to their authority; by our own words and by our own

actions

actions we must then ftand or fall; as our converse has been in this world, fo will it be alfo in the next; if we have long affociated with the froward and unclean, to the fociety of fuch, and fuch alone, we shall be affigned, to lament with them our folly; and to be punished with them for our guilt: whilft on the other hand, if we have always attached ourselves to the good, the virtuous, and the religious, there we fhall reap the bleffed fruits of it, and be rewarded by our admiffion to the spirits of good men made perfect, refined from the drofs of fenfual objects, from all frowardness and uncleannefs, from every taint of human error and corruption, where we fhall be pure even as they are pure, and holy as they are holy."

To this bleffed converfe and exalted fociety may we all be one day admitted, through the merits and mediation of our great Saviour and Redeemer; to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghoft, be ascribed, as is most due, all honour, might, majesty, and power, both now and ever.

SERMON

ON A FUTURE STATE.

SER MON

XXXIX.

I CORINTH. XV. 19.

If in this life only we have hope in Chrift, we are of all men moft miferable.

THE

HERE is nothing which the foul of man doth reflect on with greater pleasure, or contemplate with more real fatisfaction, than the dignity of its own nature, and the delightful, though diftant profpect of its own immor. tality.

To have our felf-love gratified in fo high a degree by the continuation of our being, and our ambition by the exaltation of it, cannot but be the most natural object of our wishes, the great and ultimate end of all our hopes and defires; to cherifh and encourage thefe hopes, and to animate us in the cause of truth and virtue, a fecret consciousness is implanted in the breast of every man, which never fails in his calmer moments to fuggeft to him, that though the grofs and earthly part of him, his corporeal frame, may be liable to change, decay, and diffolution; there is ftill within him a more refined portion, which feems, by its fuperior qualities, capable of much greater per

fection,

fection, points out its divine original, and afpires to immortality.

The partial and unequal diftribution of things in this ftate, the uncertainty and imperfection of all human bleffings, the diftreffes and calamities, the vanity and fhortnefs of life, are among the most powerful arguments which have been made ufe of ever fince the beginning of this world to fupport the belief of another.

But the conviction of this folemn and important truth, was too great a conqueft for mere unaffifted, unenlightened reafon to attain unto: the heathen world therefore could form but poor and imperfect notions of it: they had indeed the ftrong and repeated fuggeftions of their own minds in its favour, but who could inform them whether thofe fuggeftions were not merely the delufive flatteries of felf-love?

The councils and determination of the Divine Being, in regard to a futuré ftate, could be known by none but himfelf, and of confequence by him, and him alone, muft be declared; and to this end, in the fulness of time, God of his mercy thought fit to difclofe this great fecret to mankind by the mouth of his beloved Son, who defcended from the bofom of his father, to bring life and immortality to light by the gofpel.

But at the fame time, that the beneficent Saviour of mankind conferred this illuftrious privilege on his faithful fervants and followers, he required of them in return for fo incftimable a benefit, and fo comfortable an affurance, an implicit obedience to his will, and a ftrict con