290 CHRISTIAN MORALITY. are conformable tomy heart, and express the honest sense of my soul ; Do I speak nothing but what I believe to be true, and set a continual guard upon the door of my lips, lest they utter deceit and falsehood ? Do I neither flatter my neighbour, nor spread a false report of him ? Am I watchful to make no promises, but what. I mean sincerely to fulfil ? And am I as careful to per- form my vows andall my engagements ? Am I sincere in thepro- fession ofgodliness, and constant in my practice of it at all time and circumstances, in all places and companies whatsoever ?" Let us ask our hearts again, " While we have heard this discourse, how many ofus have sat here judging our neighbours, and not ourselves : Have we beendistributing abroad the shame- ful characters ofinsincerity, falsehood, unfaithfulness, and incon- stancy, among our acquaintance ? Orhave we -applied the words as a test to our own souls, as a trial of our christianity ? Have we taken a secret and maliciòus pleasure in fixing these scandals upon others ? Or have we beggedof God to fix the conviction upon ourselves if we are guilty ? And whichof uscan standup and say in the face of heaven,We are innocent, entirely innocent of all these charges ?" Omay the blessed Spirit, the Convincer and the Sanctifier, shew each of us our own concern in this ser- mon, awaken eachof us to a sense of our own iniquities, and by his almighty grace work in us repentance, and restoreus to truth and holiness !
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