3$S Religious Converfátion recommended. SERM. refpefts as happy, as the molt pious and vir- KV tuous men. '" It was at fuch a time as this when a flood of impiety overfpread the land, when irre- ligion became fo univerfal and fo rampant, bidding open defiance to Almighty God, when the godly ceafid, and the faithful failed from among the children of men ; it was then, I fay, that the righteous few, inftead of fal- ling down the popular ftream, and going with the multitude to do evil, diftinguifhed themfelves more eminently, and became more affe %ionately zealous for God ; they that feared him, thought on his name, and fpake often one to another ; which, far from treating it with negle ±, he was at- tentive to, honoured it with his acceptance and a proportionable reward. Thefe are the remarkable heads of difcourfe contained in the text, and I will confider them di- ftinly. Firfi, the difpofition and behaviour of theft, and which becometh all pious perfons in a time of prevailing irreligion. Secondly, the diftinguifhing regard God íhews to them ; i,e obferves them atten- tively,
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