portance, and excellency of divine things. I fear these warm paffions have no effectual tendency to make you better; that is, to fubdue your favourite fins in heart and life, to make you more watchful against them, and to long and labour after univerfal holiness. I am afraid they have no tendency to humble you, to degrade you in your own eyes, and make you appear mean and vile to yourselves, but on the other hand, that they tend to fet you off to advantage in your own view, and to make you think highly of yourselves. I am afraid they are fhallow and fuperficial, and never reach deep cnough to transform the fettled temper of the whole foul, and give it a prevailing, habitual bent towards God. I am afraid, among your various exercises of heart, you have none of those humbling heart-breaking fenfations which a poor believer often feels, when lying helpless before God, and cafting his guilty foul upon Jefus Chrift. I am afraid your exercifes are of a more selfish, haughty and prefumptuous kind. I am afraid of fome of you, my dear people, in this refpect, because this has been, in fact, the case of multitudes, and therefore it may be yours. I alfo ftand in doubt of fome of you, that you have worn off your religious impreffions before they ripened to a right iffue. This is a very common cafe in the world, and therefore it may be yours. I am afraid fome of you are farther from the kingdom of God today, than you were fome months or years ago. Formerly you were serious and thoughtful, but now you are light and vain; formerly you had fome clear, affecting convictions of your fin and danger, which made you penfive and uneafy, fet you upon the use of the means of grace with unusual earneftnefs and diligence, and made you more watchful against fin and temptation. Had you but perfevered in this course, your cafe would have been very hopeful; nay, you might ere now have been fincere christians, happy in the favour of God, and the joyful expectation of a bleffed immortality. But, alas! now you are become more more thoughtless and secure, more negligent and carelefs, more worldly-minded, more bold and venturous as to temptation, and particularly enfnaring company; lefs fenfible of your fin and danger, lefs afraid of the divine displeasure, lefs folicitous for a Saviour, and lefs affected with eternal things. I ftand in doubt of you that this is the cafe of fome of you; and if it be, it is very difmal: the last state of that man is worse than the firft. Perhaps your religious impreffions went fo far, that yourselves and others too began to number you in the lift of fincere converts. But, alas! you have relapsed, and now your cafe is difmally dark; it is very doubtful whether ever you had one fpark of true piety. Like the Galatians, you did once run well ; but the corruptions of your own hearts, the cares of the world, the influence of bad company, and the temptations of the devil have hindered you, and made you turn back, and now you are got into the easy, flippery, descending road of apoftacy; from whence, as from a precipice, your feet will, ere long, flide, and let you fall into the fiery gulph below. You are every day running farther and farther from God and heaven, and fo much nearer to the chambers of eternal death. Your confciences, by repeated violences, will be stunned into infenfibility, your hearts will harden more and more, like moistened clay in the fun. Your corruptions are gaining the victory in repeated conflicts, will grow more strong and infolent, like veteran troops inured to war and conqueft. In fhort, your cafe grows every day more and more difcouraging; and I stand in doubt of you, left you should never recover your religious impreffions, nor enter into the kingdom of God. I am alfo in doubt of fome of you, that the world has your hearts: your thoughts feem to be engroffed by it, and your affections fixed upon it as your fupreme good, and hence your mouth is full of it; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth Speaketh. Now if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in VOL. III. H him. him. Covetoufnefs is idolatry; and you know that no idolater has eternal life. I fear this is the character of fome of you. Is there not alfo reafon to doubt of fome of you, from the discoveries you give of an unchristian spirit towards mankind? You may perhaps make a fpecious profeffion of religion, and punctually attend upon divine ordinances; but do you not difcover infufferable pride, and unchriftian refentment, and an unforgiving fpirit under injuries, a difpofition to over-reach and take the advantage in your dealings? Such a temper, when predominant, is utterly inconfiftent with the fpirit of chriftianity, and proves you entirely deftitute of it; and the appearances of the prevalence of fuch a temper render your cafe very fufpicious. Let me add farther,* Suppofe that in this day of blood and flaughter, when the Lord of Hofts calls you to weeping, and mourning, and girding with fackcloth; when the wounds of your bleeding country, and the ftreams of blood that are running by fea and land, call for your forrowful fympathy; when your everlasting ftate stands in a dreadful suspense, and you know not whether heaven or hell will be your residence, if you fhould die this night; or, when the evidence lies against you, and you have good proof, that you are utterly unprepared for eternity in your present condition, when the fpirit of God feems withdrawn from us; and confequently but few are preffing into the kingdom of God, and general languor and inefficacy run through the miniftrations of the gospel; when your conduct may encourage others to run into extravagancies, and forget God and their fouls, as well as throw yourfelves caufelefsly into the way of temptation, and cherish that levity of mind which directly tends to wear off your religious impreffions; when at a time in which you pretend to commemorate the birth of the holy Jefus, who came to deftroy the works of the devil and the flesh, and particularly revellings, and to make This Sermon is dated Hanover, January 8, 1758. make you fober and watchful to prayer, and to fhun all appearances of evil; when in your tranfition from the old year to the new, in which you may die, and never fee the close of it; and when one would think it would better become you folemnly to recollect how you have spent the year paft, and devote yourselves to God for the future with new vows and refolutions ;Suppofe, I fay, that at fuch a time, and in fuch circumftances, you indulge yourselves in feafting and caroufing, that perhaps you profecute and chace the diverfion from houfe to house, in order to prolong it, and guard against the returns of ferious, retired and thoughtful hours; as if laughing, dancing and frolic, were proper expreffions of gratitude for the birth of a Saviour, and as if there was nothing in time or eternity of sufficient moment to make you ferious, and check your growing levity-What fhall I fay of fuch a practice? The mildest thing I can fay is, that I ftand in doubt of you, who promote or willingly tolerate, or join in such entertainments. I have no bufinefs at prefent to determine, whether music, dancing and feafting be lawful in themselves. Granting them to be as lawful as you could wish, I am fure that, at fuch a time and in the circumftances that generally attend them, they are utterly unlawful to every chriftian, and have a natural tendency to banish all serious religion from among us. You are but little acquainted with me if you think I fay this as a four afcetic, or an enemy to the lawful pleasures of mankind, or that I place religion in morofe, mopish, melancholy aufterities. Such of you as are acquainted with me must know the contrary. But after all I muft declare, I shall have very little hopes of the fuccefs of the gofpel among you, if once I fhould have a congregation of dancing, frolicking chriftians.` Alas! they are not like to dance and frolic themselves into heaven.-It is with great reluctance I touch upon fuch a fubject, though with a gentle hand; but duty commands, and I must obey: and I wish the admonition may be fo effectual, as to prevent all occafion to repeat it in time to come. Thus Thus I have delineated fundry dubious characters, and now I leave you to judge whether there be not many fuch among you. Examine yourselves thoroughly, that you may have the judgment of God in your favour; for by that you must stand or fall. Some of you, perhaps, may think it strange I have omitted fo many characters that are frequent among us. I have faid nothing of the profane finner, the drunkard, the fwearer, the whoremonger, the thief, the knave confeffed: I have faid nothing of the infidel and fcoffer, who affect to disbelieve the religion of Jefus, and relapfe into heathenifi; and who openly make a mock of things facred: I have faid nothing of the careless creature, who lives in the general neglect of even the forms of religion: I have faid nothing of the stupid, thoughtless creature, who never troubles his head, as he may affect to speak, about religion; and whose heart has hardly ever received any impreffions from it; but who lives like a brute, merely for the purposes of the present life: I have faid nothing of fuch as thefe, because they do not come under the clafs of doubtful characters: I have no doubt at all about fuch; I am fure they are utterly deftitute of all true religion, and muft perish for ever, if they continue in their prefent condition. If you would know how I come to be fure as to them, I answer, Because I believe my reafon and my Bible; for both put the character and the doom of such beyond all doubt. Common fenfe is fufficient to convince me, that fuch are unholy impenitent finners; and I am fure, both from reafon and revelation, that an unholy impenitent finner, while fuch, can never enter into the kingdom of heaven. Let fuch as harbour a wider charity for them, point out the grounds of it. Indeed there is one thing lamentably doubtful as to fuch; it is very doubtful whether ever their prefent condition will be changed for the better. The most promifing period of life is over with them; and even in that period they continued impenitent under all the means of grace they enjoy ed; |