of his flesh, was willing to entertain, with the most tender affection, little children that were brought unto him; and when his difciples would have kept them away, he rebuked them, and then said, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and for bid them not, for of fuch is the kingdom of heaven, and he took them up in his arms, and put his hands on them, and bleffed them, Mark x. 14, 16. And I can affure you, he is no less kind now, than he was then: for he is the fame yesterday, to day, and for ever. Now, if he was fo kind to children that were brought to him, what will he be to thefe who themselves do come to him? O if ye knew how good he is, you would never be at rest till ye got notice where he is to be found; and then ye would go to him, and I dare promise you welcome. (4.) That I may have done with you, I tell you for your encouragement, that if ye will begin early, and feek God, ye fhall be amongst thefe children of whom the kingdom of heaven is. God will blefs you, and all his people will bless you; yea, all generations fhall call you blessed.

Thus far my love to your fouls has led me. I would fain have you faved: and therefore, I travail in birth till Christ be formed in you. O make glad my heart, make glad the heart of my great Master, make glad the heart of all the people of God; and rejoice your parents hearts, in complying with their wholfom counfels, which I am fure your parents will defire, if they be not worfe than very beafts. In a word, feek God, and fave your fouls.

Now, we have done with the first fort of perfons, with whom we undertook to deal. The tenderness of their capacity has obliged us to digrefs from our method which we did lay down in

the

the entry upon this use, and which, by the Lord's affiftance, we fhall closely follow in what remains.

It may be, fome of these who are come to age, may look upon this as tedious and unpleasant, which we have been upon, because there has been nothing here but what they, it may be, knew be fore; and what, it may be, they judge parents might inform their children in. But we must

tell fuch, that the defign of preaching is not to gratify itching ears with new difcoveries, but to reform hearts by the old, yet new truths of God, which will never wear old to them who are acquaint with the power of them; that children have fouls as well as they; that their fouls are no lefs precious than those of adult perfons; that we have the charge of the one as well as the other; that the Lord has fometimes been pleased to reach the heart of children by fuch familiar applications; that we are obliged to be all things to all men, that fo we may win fome to Christ. In fine, we muft tell fuch, that we are particularly obliged, by our Lord's command formerly quoted, to encourage children to come to him, and therefore we could not but endeavour to deal with them, and that in a way fuitable, in fome measure, to their capacities: what is old to you may be new to them and a new drop of the influences of God's fpirit, would even make these very truths which formerly you have known, have a new and better relifh than formerly they had.

I fhall now proceed, in the fecond place, to you who have stept out of childhood into youth, or into middle age, and fhall endeavour to fix guilt upon you. Hitherto we have made it appear, that you are guilty: now we come to tell and to you, condefcend on fome particulars whereof you are guilty.

guilty. We told, nay proved, that you were defiled: now we fhall, as it were, point to the very spot. We have made it appear that ye have finned: now we shall take you to the places, as it were, where ye have finned, that ye may get no way of fhifting the challenge. And because now We find you in the houfe of God, we fhall,

1. Examine you a little in reference to your conduct there. You have frequently come here; you have frequently prefented yourselves before God as his people; but I fear, if your carriage in this matter be narrowly fcanned, you shall be found finners before the Lord in reference to this. I fhall, in the name of that God in whose courts ye tread, put three questions to your confciences.. (1.) What brings you ordinarily here? Come ye to facrifice to the world's idol, cuftom, because they are ill looked upon who stay away? Or come ye to stop the mouth of a natural confcience, that would give you no rest if ye ftaid away? or come ye to fee and be feen? or to gratify curiosity merely? I fear thefe be the defigns on which not a few of you come: and if fo, then you are found guilty before God, who requires you to come upon other defigns; even to wait upon him, that ye may fee his power and his glory in the fanctuary, as his people have seen him heretofore. (2.) What do ye here, when ye are come? Do ye hear the word of God merely as an idle tale? Do ye put truths by yourselves, and apply them to others? Do ye fuffer your minds to roam up and down upon the mountains of vanity, looking at this or the other thing or perfon? Do ye obferve more the way of the truth's being spoken, than the truth of God itfelf? Are you more intent in obferving the inftrument than in liftening to G the

the voice of God? Let your confciences fpeak, and I am fure a great many of these evils ye will find yourselves guilty of. (3.) I would pose you, as to the fruit of these approaches. What good get ye for your coming? Do ye get convictions, and fhift them? Do ye get calls, and fit them? Do ye hear reproofs, and hate them? Do ye hear inftrutions, and forget them? Who of you can clear yourselves of thefe fins? Sins done in the very pre'fence of God, fins wherein his honour and glory is in a more than ordinary manner concern. ed, because they do extremely reflect upon it.

2. We fhall next follow you to your employ ments, and enquire, a little what your carriage is there. I take it for granted that all of you have fome honeft occupation or other. If there be any who have not, these perfons, as they fin in wanting, because thereby they idle away God's talents; fo they ly open to all fins. Now, fuch of you as have employments, I fhall defire you to anfwer me a few questions in reference to your deportment in them. And, (1.) I would know if ye did confult God in the choice of them? Did ye make it your endeavour to understand what God was calling you to? God, either by giving a man fpecial endowments, a peculiar genius, with other congruous circumstances, or by hedging up the way to all other employments, or fome one fuch providential way or other, calls every one to a particu lar employment. And therefore, when we engage in any, we should endeavour to understand God's mind in it, what it is our duty to do; for we are commanded, in all our ways, to acknowlege God. Prov. iii. 6. In all thy ways acknowlege him, and he fhall direct thy paths. Now, did ye, in this step of your way, acknowlege God, I mean, in

the

the choice of your employments? I fear few dare Tay that they bowed their knee to God to crave his direction. Well then, here your iniquities have found you out. (2.) Do ye fer God before you in following your employments? Do ye make it your business to know how ye may glorify God in them? Whatever we do, we are obliged to do it to the glory of God. Let confcience now fpeak, and it will tell many of you, That to this very day ye never had a thought of promoting the glory of God by your employments. So that here you are found guilty, not of fome one fin only, but of a tract of fin, and that even from the morning of your day, continued till now. (3.) Do ye depend upon God for a bleffing upon the work of your hands? Who of you dare fay, That however ye do ufe means diligently, yet, it is to God ye look for the bleffing? And are ye earneft in dealing with God that he may fucceed the works of your hands, and make you profper in them? (4.) To whom do ye attribute the fuccefs of them? When the Lord fucceeds the work of your hands, do ye heartily blefs God for it? Dare ye fay, That this leads you to praife the God of your mercies, and to walk humbly before him, who deals kindly even with the unthankful and finners, and has given a proof of this, in giving you fuccefs in thefe employments? (5.) When ye are fuccessful in them, what use make ye of your fuccefs? Does it engage you to the ways of God, and make you walk more' humbly ? or are ye lifted up, and forget yourfelves, and forget the Lord? And do ye fpend upon the service of fin what the Lord has graciously given to you? Sure, ye confcientiously put thefe queftions home to

if

G 2

your