SO AN HUMBLE ATTÉMIT, á'C. providence, a just God may suffer some unrighteous and cruel faction to arisehi the land, which may prevail to the ruin of our liberties, to the destruction of our peace, and to the shame and scandal of aprotestant kingdom. I might upon this head address myself particularly to those of every party who enjoy any special advantages above their fellows, and neglect to improve them. What if God should be reave us of the advice of religious parents, the assistanceof pious friends, the affecting and happy ministry of useful preachers, the conveniences of retirement and a closet, leisure and seasons for religious worship, or any other privileges what- soever, whereby our souls might have made advancement in their way to heaven ? What if in the course of his dispensations in the world, he should bring us into circumstances of powerful temptation ? What if he should cast our lot in wicked families, or take away all opportunities of public worship ? What if he should confine us to beds of sickness, and visit its with a variety of distresses of every kind ? Such sufferings may give us a painful remembrance and bitter resentment of our criminal abuse of former mercies. Or what if our rebellion against the dictates of conscience, and our frequent resistance of the good motions of God's holy Spirit, should provoke him to withdraw all those kind and hea- venly influences, and to give us up to the hardness of our own hearts ? What if conscience should grow stupid and senseless and reprove no more ? What if the word and Spirit of God should call and invite us no more? What if we should be left to our own folly and madness, abandoned to the power and ty- ranny of our own iniquities, and run on without restraint or remorse to the dreadful precipice of eternity, till we fall into the pit of fire and darkness whence there is no redemption ? 1V. If you neglect to live answerable to the privileges which you enjoy, and the bonds which lie upon you, your guilt will be aggravated, and your final condemnation enhanced in proportion to these neglected obligations, and to these abused advantages. Thus it was with the towns of Chorazin and Ca- pernaum, wherein our Saviour had preached his divine doctrine, and wrought many mighty works, Mat. xi. 20 -24. It shall be more tolerable for 1;yre and Sidon, two heathen cities, and even for Sodom and Gomorrah, those places of abominable wickedness, in the day ofjudgment, than for the inhabitants of Galilee, who had abused suchheavenly privileges. Think of this, O christian; there is a day coming when every advantage thou hast enjoyed, shall appear to have been a talent that thou must account for ; every obligation, that thou liest under to vir- tue and godliness shall be brought into the account : and how terrible will that scene be, if all these privileges, trusts and
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