OF GOD-REDEEMER. 295 do you not rather take wrong, and suffer yourselves to be defraud- ed, than to wrong and defraud, and that your brethren ? 1 Cor. vi. 7 -9. To conclude: I earnestly entreat you all, that have heard me this day, that, when you go home, you will betake yourselves to a sober consideration of tho claim that God bath laid to you, and the right he hath in you, and all that you have ; and resolve, without any further delay, to give him his own ; and give it not to his ene- mies and yours. When you see the judgment set and the prison- ers waiting to receive their sentence, remember with what incon- ceivable glory and terror your Judge will shortly come to demand his due ; and what an inquiry must be made into the teñor of your lives! As you see the eclipsed sun withdraw its light,* so remem- ber how before this dreadful final judgment, the sun and moon, and the whole frame of nature, shall be dissolved ! And how God will withdraw the light of his countenance from those that have neglected himin .the day of their visitation ! As ever youwould be his, then see that you be his now ; own him as your absolute Lord, if you expect he should own you then as his peo- ple. Woe to you that ever you were born ! ifyou put God then to distrain you for his due, and to take that up in your punish- ment, which you denied to give him in voluntary obedience. You would all be his in the time of your extremity ; then you cry to him as your God for deliverance. Hear him now, ifyou would then be heard: live to himnow, live with him forever. A Popish priest can persuade multitudes ofmen and women to renounce the very possession of worldly goods, and the, exercise of their out- ward callings, in a mistaken devotedness to God. May Got I, then, hope to prevail with you to devote yourselves, with the fruit of your callings and possessions, to his unquestionable service ? Will the Lord of mercy but fasten these persuasions upon your hearts, and cause then to prevail, what a happy day will this prove to us ! God will have his own, the church will have your utmost help, the souls of those about you will. have the fruit of your diligence and good examples, the commonwealth will have the fruit of your fidel- ity, the poor will have the benefit of your charity, I shall have the desired end of my labor, and yourselves will have the great and everlasting gain. This sermonwas preached at the time of the eclipse.
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