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SEWN'''.
VIII.]
CHRISTIAN DILIGENCE,
&C.
111
Exhortation
V.
"
Be
very watchful to answer all
the
engagements
of
your christian
baptism, to
guard your-
selves
from every
defilement
of
flesh
and spirit, and to
grow
up
into
greater
degrees of holiness
and purity."
It
was
a happy and
successful
defence,
against
temptations
in
the
primitive
days, when
the christian could
say,
"
I
am
baptized."
Let
this also be the
constant
language
of
our
souls
;
"
I
am washed
in
the sacred laver
of regene-
ration,
how
shall
I
defile myself
again
?
I
am
devoted
and consecrated
to Christ, how shall
I
estrange myself
from him?
Forgive, O
Lord,
all
my
shameful
pollutions,
since
I
have been washed in
the christian baptism,
.
and
guard
me, O blessed-
Spirit,
against
every
new
de-
filement,
that
I
may
be
presented
at
last before
my
God
and
my
Saviour
without spot or
blemish
in
the day
of
his
public
glory and
of
my
complete joy. Now to him
who
is
able to
keep
us
from falling, and to
present
us
faultless before the presence
of
his
glory with
exceeding
joy,
to
the
only
wise
God our
Saviour, be glory
and
majesty,
dominion
and
power both
now and
ever."
Amen.
SERMON VIII.
CHRISTIAN
DILIGENCE, WITH THE
BLESSINGS THAT ATTEND
IT,
IN
OPPOSITION
TO SLOTH,
SECURITY,
BACI
{SLIDING,
&c.
PROV.
xiii. 4.
The
soul
of
the sluggard desireth and
bath
nothing
;
but
the
soul
of
the
diligent
shall be
made
fat.
SHOULD
we
apply
these words
to'
labour or learning,
to
trade or
religion,
to
the
concerns
of
this
life,
or that
which
is
to corne, still
we
shall
find
this
sentence
of
So-
lomon
true
and useful
;
it
is
a
remark
well
worthy
of
our
attention and our
best improvement.
The
son
of
dili-
gence considered
either
as
a
man or a christian,
is
in
a
fair
way
to
obtain the good
things he seeks
:
His desire
shall be satisfied, his
soul shall
be
made
fat,
or
filled
with
them, he shall
increase
in
earthly
possessions, he skull