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SERM.
XXIL7
TRUTH, SINCERITY,
á&C.
369
integrity
;
and
to give
some
directions
how
we
may keep
the
whole
course
of our
life
consistent
with itself,
and
agreeable
to
our
profession.
.
I.
Fix your great and
general
end,
your
chief
and
everlasting
design,
and
keep it ever
in
your
eye
:
then
you
will
certainly
be
more
regular and
uniform
in
all
your
particular
practices. Set
your
face
towards heaven
be-
times.
Let it
be
the most solemn and
unalterable busi-
ness
of
your
lives to
please
God
on
earth,
in
order
to
enjoy him
in
heaven, and then you
will
not
be
easily
tempted aside
by
the flatteries or the
terrors
of
this world,
to
go
astray and
w=ander
in
the
paths
that
lead
to
hell.
Give
yourselves up
to
Christ
both
in
secret and
in
public.
Devote
yourselves
to
him, to his fear,
and
love,
and
service, in
your private retirements, and
solemnize
your
obligations to
him
among the churches
of
his
saints.
See
that
you
are
an
inward christian,
and declare
to
the
world,
that
you
are
a
follower
of
Christ. Mix
with
the
sheep
of
his flock,
and
you
will
find
many
advantages
thereby
to
secure your
truth
and
constancy.
When
a
temptation
comes to
make
you
act
like the sinners
of
this
world, tell the world, and tell
your
own
heart,
that
you are a christian, and you must pursue heaven.
II.
Get
above the
fear
of
the
world,
and
the
shame
of
professing strict
godliness.
It
is
sinful shame,
or
sin-
ful fear,
that
has a thousand times tempted the
profes=
sors
of
the name
of
Christ,
to
be
false to
their profes-
sion, to
act unbecoming
their
character, and inconsist-
ent
with
christianity.
It
is
from a
certain
feebleness
and cowardice
of
soul
that
they desire,
at
any
cost,
to
keep
well with
all men,
and are
afraid, sorely afraid;
to
be
out
of
the
fashion,
or unconformable
to
this
world
:
therefore
they
venture upon
some
practice
in
company,
that their hearts
would
abhor,
if
they
were
alone
:
There-
fore
they indulge many
sinful
compliances; sometimes
they
countenance
the
lewd
and'the
profane, they
join
in
a
jest
upon
things sacred, they
make
the
ministers
of
Christ their
objects
of
ridicule
;
and sometimes
they
fall
into sensuality, luxury, and
excess,
because they
must
do
as
their company
does,
and have
not
courage enough
to refuse.
If
we
would
be
true to Christ
we
must
live
above the
world,
and
be
dead to
all.
its
threatenits
and reproaches.
VOL.
I.
2
B