fingular Opportunity for exerting fuperior Goodness, and acquiring proportionable Hohour; to this alfo the Word of God, far from discountenancing an Ambition so laudable, excites and encourages in the Text. Here then every one is called forth, by the Voice of Heaven, to every Thing great and good, that shall at any Time lie in his Power: to ferve his Creator, and benefit his Fellow-creatures, the most eminently that he can, by all the Means, that his Knowledge and Wealth, his Example and Perfuafion, his Influence and Authority, can furnish out: And blessed is that Servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, fhall find fo doingi.

These then are the Things, on which the Apostle directs us to think: and the general Obfervation which I would make upon them, in the fecond Place, is, that we cannot think of them in earnest, as enjoined by our Religion, without honouring it highly, and being strongly moved by it to every Part of right Temper and right Conduct. Such Precepts evidently prove, that Christianity is not a Contrivance to make Men, by Faith in Speculations, and Exactness in observances, happy in another World, without being good in the prefent. Articles of i Matth. xxiv. 46. Luke xii. 43.

Belief, and Institutions of Worship, are Inftruments only: proper indeed, and appointed ones: and we must never hope to be amended or accepted, unless we take the Way to be fo, which God hath marked out. But neither must we hope, that a formal Use of the Means will be fufficient, without ferious Care to attain the End. Now the End of the Commandment is Charity, Love to God and Man, out of a pure Heart, and of a good Confcience, and of Faith unfeigned; which Words express the very. fame Temper with those in the Text.

If then these be the Things, which Mankind have Need to learn, and God expects; it should be remembered, that they are taught in Perfection by the Scripture Revelation, and the Methods of acquiring them too: that neither the one, nor the other, were ever taught, without Revelation, either generally, or ftatedly, or without grofs Defects and Errors: and that they, who reject this Way of Inftruction and Worship, have not pretended to substitute any other; but shewn, by neglecting the Commands, and tranfgreffing the Restraints, of natural Religion, that their Difregard to Christianity proceeds from bad Motives; and will produce,

very

in Proportion as it increafes and spreads, the worft Effects. Whoever, therefore, is indeed concerned for true Virtue and moral Piety, will affectionately esteem those incomparable Leffons of each, which the Gospel affords him: and whoever hath at all a due Sense, how very often he hath violated, on one Occafion or another, the Dictates of both, will rejoice from his Heart in those Affurances and Means of Forgiveness for what is past, and Affiftance in what is to come, with which nothing but the Gospel can blefs him. For, however thoughtlefs Offenders may flatter themselves, every confiderate Mind must see and feel, that Sin deferves Punishment, and Repentance is not Innocence; that Pardon and Grace are not Debts, but voluntary Favours; and God alone can inform his Creatures with Certainty, on what Terms he will bestow them, and to what Degree. Now he hath accordingly informed us, that only Faith in Chrift, working by Love, availeth any Thing', and that shall intitle us to every Thing.

But then Faith is not mere Belief; nor is Love mere Admiration, of the Advantages and Promises of the Gospel: but being moved by

these to an uniform Practice of its Laws is the fingle Evidence which proves their Genuineness and unhappily is the very Attainment of which the Generality of Men fall fhort, Some there are, who retain the Name of Christians, and seem to think it their Due, though perhaps they scarce remember the Time, when they performed any one Act of Christian Devotion, at least in private. On public Worship, it may be, or fome Part of it, they do attend fometimes, to fave Appearances, or in Hope of Entertainment, or from a confused Notion of its being, they scarce know why, a Duty: but without the leaft Conception, almoft, of any further Difference, between having Religion, and having none. Others, that make a Confcience, fuch as it is, of Part of what they are commanded, have no Regard at all to the reft: but they will be pious without Virtue, or virtuous without Piety; or they will chufe, just as they fancy, which of the Laws of either they will obey, which they will not, Even the more truly good feldom think of afpiring to Eminence of Goodnefs and they, who in many Refpects attain high Perfection, often fail, moft unhappily, of adding the Beauty of Holiness to the Reality

of

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of it, by an amiable and obliging Deportment and Converfation. Thus it comes to pafs, that fome despise Religion, as useless; and others are disgusted with it, as harsh and disagreeable that not a few of its Profeffors will find it contribute only to their heavier Condemnation; and and many of those who are intitled to Reward will obtain a much inferior Reward to what they might have done; and all owing to the Neglect of thinking, as they ought, on the important Virtues recommended in the Text. We give much Attention to low and tranfitory Things; too much, it may be feared, to finful and forbidden ones. must know these excellent Qualifications to be the worthiest Objects of our Thoughts: why - fhould they not alfo be the most constantly prefent to them? But fuppofe they were, it is of no more Use to think with fpeculative Delight on the Precepts, than the Privileges of the Gospel: but we must so consider both them and ouríelves, as diligently to examine, and faithfully bring to Account (for this the Word thinking on ftrictly denotes in the Original) our Duty and our Practice under each Article; and compute the Goodness of our Condition, not by the Share that we poffefs, C 4 either