their moderation be known to all men, for if we quarrel with one another, we shall only make sport for the devil, and occasion destruction. I don't care whether you go to church or meeting; I am, I profess, a member of the church of England, and if they will not let me preach in the church, I will preach any where; all the world is my parish, and I will preach wherever God gives me an opportunity, but you will never find me disputing about the outward appendages of religion; don't tell me you are a Baptist, an Independant, a Presbyterian, a Dissenter, tell me you are a Christian, that is all I want; this is the religion of heaven, and must be ours upon earth; I say, are there any of you under the gallery, or in the green seat, or any where, I will try to find you out before I have done my sermon, though you are come in the dark.

But I will just at present speak to you who understand the gospel, to you that are my brethren, though in all probability, my elder brethren in the gospel. Methinks there is something solemn in meeting in the evening, something solemn in coming to worship after we have been in the labours of the day; and I verily believe, that when weekly preaching is banished from London, that all Christianity will be banished, it cannot be very long after it, there have been such instances, you may die before to-morrow. I think a good tradesman, whether he deals largely or not, will take care to keep his day-book well, if a man will not keep his day-book well, it is ten to one but he loses a good deal when he comes to count up his things at Christmas; now I take it for granted, a good spiritual tradesman will keep his spiritual day-book well: can you say this day I hope I have died a little more to the world than yester

day, this day I hope I have been a little more lively to God than I was yesterday; and yet when I look upon my family, whether a man trades wholesale or retail, when he finds he has done but little business that day, great going out, and little coming in. I hope when you die but little daily, that you go to bed begging pardon, and begging grace, that you may die more to yourselves and the world, and live more to God to-morrow; for I am sure I can call you to witness, that you never lived so comfortably as when you lived near to God; you may as well pretend to say, that a person in a cold winter's day is warmest when he keeps from the fire, as to say, a soul can live near to God when he does not die daily to sin. O,. says one, don't tell me of your frames, don't mind them ; I will tell you of them, don't mind your frames, I don't in respect to justification, but I will to the well-being and comfort of my soul; a man that has cot but very little spirits may be alive, but there is a wide difference between having a disorder that one can hardly speak, having no spirits at all, or but very few, and having solid health God grant we may be solid Christians; the more you live to God, the more you will have health; be not angry with me; assure yourselves a lukewarm Christian does more hurt to religion, than all the open infidels in the kingdom; we have God himself asserting this, Thou art neither hot nor cold, I would thou wast either cold or hot, but because thou art neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, I will spew the out of my mouth; what an expression is that! what a nauseous thing is lukewarm water to a sick stomach! I will come and remove my candlestick from you. Therefore, I believe it is the opinion of all judicious men, that

if we should have a severe rod of correction to stir us up, it is because the lukewarmness of most Christians: my brethren, God make us all alive to Christ to night; come, come, if your soul is for Christ, to arms, to arms, put on your cockades, you that have them in your pockets, for fear you should be known to be Christ's. O you cowards; many soldiers put off their cockades, as if they were not soldiers; as many of our clergy affect to dress like the laity, that they may go to the plays, that the orange-women may not know them, and they don't care whether God sees them or no. I desire you will all appear in your proper dresses, let us see it is plated on the breast-plates of your hearts by the blessed monitor, the eternal Spirit of God; 1 dont want you to wear them as the Papists, upon your faces, no; you that are for infant baptism, were signed with the sign of the cross, for what? that you might, when you come of age, prove Christ's faithful soldiers to the end: God grant, the nearer we come to the end the bolder we may be for Christ.

If there be any of you here that are formalists, that have a name to live and are dead, the Lord grant, that our Lord Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead by the glory of his father, cause a stirring among these dry bones. Think what it will be to go to hell to-night, to want a drop of water, wherewith you was sprinkled, to cool your tongues in hell; think what it will be to go to hell by the way of heaven, which is the worst way you can take; think what it will be to be just at the threshold, and not have religion enough to take you over; my heart bleeds for you. Had you a son, a father, a mother, a relation, to be tried at the Old-Baily this session, how would you

be concerned, how carefully would you enquire when your relation would be tried, how anxious would you be to hear whether he is condemned or no; and if somebody was to come and tell you, now he is about to be tried and cast, and now the judge is going to put his cap on, to pass sentence on him, how would you bear it? I believe some of you would drop a tear, and say, O that this poor creature should be born for this; and can you blame a poor minister of Christ, a poor sinner that has been redeemed by the blood of Christ, and I humbly believe and hope, has been made a partaker of the Spirit, will you blame me for being concerned for you, my brethren and my sisters, for you and I sprung from one father and mother, Adam and Eve, the common parents of us all; can you blame me for pouring out my soul, can you blame me for speaking a little home, when the Judge is just ready to mount the throne, when the books are open, when I see the elements melting with fervent heat, when I see all'nature concurring to usher in the awful coming of the Son of God. Sinners in Zion, baptized heathens, professors but not possessors, formalists, believ ing unbelievers, talking of Christ, talking of grace, orthodox in your creeds, but heterodox in your lives, turn ye, turn ye, to Jesus Christ, and may God turn your inside out to-night; may the power of the highest overshadow you, and may that glorious Father that raised Christ from the dead, raise your dead souls. Turn the text into a prayer, go home and say, for what purpose have I lived into what have I been baptized? I have not so much as yet been baptized into Jordan ; I have never led a life one day of reformation but when I was obliged to it: bless God that you are

not now among the damned; bless God that you are not now howling in hell; bless the Lord that Jesus stands with pitying eyes, and outstretched arms to receive you now? will you go with the man? will you accept of Christ? will you begin to live now? may God say, Amen; may God pass by, not in anger but in love; may he as he hath hitherto seen you in your blood, has said to you, live, and has preserved you in your natural state, may that same God of lové, mercy, and life, pass by you, and cast the skirts of love over you, and say to you dead sinners, come forth, live a life of faith on earth, live a life of vision in heaven; even so, Lord Jesus. Amen.

SERMON XIV.

NEGLECT OF CHRIST THE KILLING SIN.

JOHN V. ver. 40.

And ye will not come to me that ye may have life.

THE

HE great apostle of the Gentiles, after he had set before the Hebrews the great cloud of witnesses of Old Testament believers, exhorts them to look higher, even to Jesus the common Saviour, and that not transiently, but earnestly and constantly, in his mediatorial character of humiliation, as enduring unheard of, unparallelled contradiction of sinners against himself; least, says he, ye be weary, and faint in your minds. If we had not such an example set before us, and brought to us by the Holy Ghost in a suffering hour, we should never hold out to the