322 NONE EXCLU ED PROM HOPE. [SERM. XIX. saved, Is. xiv. 22. It is no matter, O sinner ! what thy' father was, or what thy kindred are ! if thou art"but a, believer in Christ, thy soul is happy, thy sins are par- doned, the gospel is the power of God to thy salvation. 2. It is not confined to one' sex only, or to one age. The children are called as well as the fathers, and men and women are invited 'to partake of this blessing toge ther in Christ. There is neither male nor female, neither young*nor old, neither Greek nor Jew, that have any distinction put upon them, to exclude them from this grace ; they are all one in Christ Jesus, Gal. iii. 28. Children have you seen the evil of your sins, and the danger of hell? Do you long for pardoning and saving grace, and are you willing that Christ should make your peace with God, that he should enable you to serve him upon earth, and prepare you for heaven ? Come then; trust'in this gospel, give up yourselves to Jesus Christ the Saviour, in the manner I have spoken, and the sal- vation is yours. Nor let old sinners thrust away this mercy from them, under a pretence that they have long abused it. You are now under thejoyful sound of the gospel; you sit now under the languageof inviting love : Are you willing tobe made new creatures befòre you die, and to accept of a deliverance from hell, though you are upon the very borders of it ? Behold power enough in this gospel to deliver you : The blood of Christ can wash out stains of the longest continuance ; the Spirit of Christ can change the skin of an old Ethiopian, and create an old inveterate transgressor into holiness. This gospel could save the thief upon the cross, and insure paradise tohim. It can rescue a dying rebel from eter- nal death; for it gives life and salvation to every one that believes. . It is not limited to one rank or conditionof men in the civil life, but reaches to persons of every circum- stance. The rich and the poor, the master and the servant, the prince and the peasant, must partake of salvation by the same faith in the Son of God. The barbarian and the Scythian, who seem to be born for slaves, and the, Romans who are lords of the earth, the bond and the free, have all an equal call to receive this salvation; Col. iii. 11. Ye are all rich enough to ob- tain it: There is no purchase of these blessings by any
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