2:16 FAITH IN ITS LOWEST DEGREES. who are the vilest of sinners, utterly unholy, and without God in theworld. Are that have nothing of grace or religion in you, look unto Christ andhe saved, for he came to save -the sinners of the Gentiles, and the vilest of mankind. 2. Ye that have not known the blessing ofholy parents, but were bred like heathens, who know not God, and born in families that call not on his name : Ye that never were trained, up in re- ligious education, that were never brought, near to God by a father that was in his covenant, or a mother that believed in his gospel : Ye that were never solemnly devoted to God, nor ac- knowledge any relation to him, he calls you this day to accept his salvation. Or, 3. Ye that have broke the bonds of a pious education, and ran away fromGod and his house, and his worship, as the Gen- tiles had done from the religion and instructions of Noah their ancestor. Ye that have wanderedafar off from your Father's house, even to the ends Ofthe earth, and are perishing with the prodigal son, at a dreadful distance from God and heaven: Come, look unto Christ andbe saved. 4. Ye that are mourning in darkness, as it were at the ends or the earth, and on the very borders of hell, without hope, as the Gentiles were ; Eph. ii. 12. almost giving up ál1 for lost, yield- ing to final despair, look to Jesus the Saviour, layhold on the hope that is set before you, and live. And while I am preaching in this place*, I may add also, 5. You that dwell in dark corners of this our land, far from any place of religious worship: Ye who live by the sides of the forest, or on bare and solitary commons, -in a poor ignorant vil- lage, or in lonesome cottages, where letters and reading are not known, and a bible is a strange thing, where boóks are seldom seen} and the word of God never sounds : Ye that have lived ' hitherto like wild heathens in the ends of the earth, if any such are present in this assembly, remember you are this day called as it wefe by the prophet from heaven, and by the word of the living God, from the lips of his ministers on earth, to look to God in Christ, as reconciling the world to himself; to look to Jesus the Saviour, in whomall thefulness of the god- head dwells. The third enquiry proceeds thus : What is this salvation to which.we are invited? It is the, same salvation that Israel shall enjoy, the Israel of God, the people of his love : They shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation ; ver. 17. In . general, it is a salvation from sin, and all the dismal conse- quences of it. 'Phis is the reason of the. name Jesus, or the This was delivered in a village in thecountry.
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