2S AS i1V1nBtE ATTEMPT, &c. more than they who do not hear of him so often as you? Are yonbrought nearer to the throne of God, in more frequent and delightful performance of the duty of prayer, and in more bum- ble, holy and intimate converse with God ; you who hear s® much of Jesus Christ, the High-priest, of atonement and inter- cession, and of his readiness to bring you into the favour and presence Of God do you hate sin more than your neighbours, sinceyou are so often taught what it cost the on of God to re- deem you from it ? is the frame of your spirit and the course of your life more agreeable to the divine pattern that the holy Jesus has set you, and to the strict rules of his religion ? Yon who are taught more of the ruin and impotence of nature, and . the necessity of divine grace, are you more self-abased under a sense of your degeneracy and weakness, and do you seek the assistances of the Spirit of. God with inure importunity and holy fervonrs of devotion, that he -may subdue sin, and raise you to higher degrees of holiness ? What use do you make of the spiritual and evangelical preaching which you profess to attendupon, if the great ends of the gospel of Christ are not attained in and upon you, if you do not honour him more than others, if you are not tirade more like him, moreholy and biame- 3ess before him ? Examine yourselves strictly, my friends, are you sowatch- 41u1, so exact in all the virtues of temperance, sobriety, justice, truth, faaitltfulness, charity,- meekness, forbearance, forgiveness, and all instances of :brotheuty love, as becomes those that profess much acquaintance with the blessed Jesus, whose soul was di- vine truth and love, and whose life Was all virtue and piety, and goodness in perfection? Do you never give occasion to your neighbours. to reproach yourselves and your ministers together, thatyou practise se little morality, ;becauseyou hear so little of it preachedy Have your not by . titis means exposed the preaching of the, ,name of ,Christ to scandal, and tite glorious doctrines of the gospel to infamy., as though they indulged the hearers of them in licentious practices 2 Your own consciences ,must .bear witness that we have en- deavoured to declare amongst you the whole counsel of God, and neither kept back the doctrinesnor the duties which-our Lord has sent us to publish to men : we have taught you, that the great design of all the glorious transactions of God and :Christ for your salvation is, that you might be holy and without blame before hirn in. love; L' ph. i. 3, 4. We have assured you, that the grace of ,god which, brings salvation to men, teaches you to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righte- ously and religiously ; and if you are purchased to be a peculiar people to (,od by the blood of his Son, it is, that you might he 5seulous of good works: Tit. ii. 11, 12, 14. 'Have you ever felt
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