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fix on him the anchor of your hope; if there has not been this unreserved dedication of yourself to be at all times, and in all respects, the faithful servant of God through him; and if you do not with all this acknowledge that you are an unprofitable servant, who have no other expectations of acceptance or of pardon, but only through his righteousness and blood, and through the riches of divine grace in him, I repeat it again, that all your hopes are vain, and you are building on the sand." (Matt. vii. 26.) The house you have already raised must be thrown down to the ground, and the foundation be removed and laid anew, or you, and all your hopes, will shortly be swept away with it, and buried under it in everlasting ruin.

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The Soul submitting to Divine Examination, the Sin cerity of its Repentance and Faith.

"O LORD GOD, thou "searchest all hearts, and triest the reins of the children of men." (Jer. xvii. 10.) "Search me, O Lord, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm cxxxix. 23, 24.) Does not conscience, O Lord, testify in thy presence, that my repentance and faith are such as have been described, or at least that it is my earnest prayer that they may be so? Come, therefore, O thou blessed Spirit, who art the author of all grace and consolation, and work this temper more fully in my soul. O represent sin to mine eyes in all its most odious colours, that may feel a mortal and irreconcileable hatred to it. O represent the majesty and mercy of the blessed God in such a manner, that my heart may be alarmed, and that it may be melted. "Smite the rock, that the water ray flow;" (Psalm lxxviii. 20:) waters of genuine, undissembled, and filial repentance. Convince me,

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hou blessed Spirit, "of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." (John xvi. 8.) Shew me that I have ruined myself; but that my help is found in "GoD alone,” (Hosea xiii. 9.) in God through Christ, in whom alone he will extend compassion and help to me. According

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to thy peculiar office, "take of Christ, and shew it unto me. (John xvi. 15.) Shew me his power to save. Shew me his willingness to exert that power. my faith to behold him as extended on the cross, with open arms, with a pierced bleeding side; and so telling me in the most forcible language, what room there is in his very heart for me. May I know what it is to have my whole heart subdued by love; so subdued as to be "crucified with him;" (Rom. vi. 6.) to be dead to sin, and dead to the world, "but alive unto God through Jesus Christ." (Rom. vi. 11.) In his power and love may I confide. To him may I without any reserve commit my spirit. His image may I bear. His laws may I observe. His service may I pursue. And may I remain, through time and eternity, a monument of the efficacy of his gospel, and a trophy of his victorious grace.

"O blessed God! if there be any thing wanting towards constituting me a sincere Christian, discover it to me, and work it in me. Beat down, I beseech thee, every false and presumptuous hope, how costly soever that building may have been which is thus laid in ruins, and how proud soever I may have been of its vain ornaments. Let me know the worst of my case, be that knowledge ever so distressing; and if there be remaining danger, O let my heart be fully sensible while yet there is remedy.

"If there be any secret sin yet lurking in my soul, which I have not sincerely renounced, discover it to me, and rend it out of my heart, though it should have shot its roots ever so deep, and should have wrapped them all around it, so that every nerve should be pained by its separation. Tear it away, O Lord, by a hand graciously severe. And by degrees, yea, Lord, by speedy advances, go on, I beseech thee, to perfect what is still "lacking in my faith." (1 Thess. iii. 10.) Accomplish in me "all the good pleasure of thy goodness:" (2 Thess. i. 11.) enrich me, O heavenly Father, with all the graces of thy Spirit. Form me to the complete image of thy dear Son: and then, for his sake, 66

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anto me, and manifest thy gracious presence in my soul,” (John xiv. 21, 23.) till it is ripened for that state of glory for which all these operations are intended to prepare it. Amen."

CHAPTER XIV.

A MORE PARTICULAR VIEW OF THE SEVERAL BRANCHES OF THE CHRISTIAN TEMPER; BY WHICH THE READER MAY BE FARTHER ASSISTED, IN JUDGING WHAT HE IS, AND WHAT HE SHOULD ENDEAVOUR TO BE.*

WHEN I consider the infinite importance of eternity, I find it exceedingly difficult to satisfy myself in any thing which I can say to men, where their eternal interests are concerned. I have given you a view, I hope I may truly say, a just, as well as faithful view of a truly Christian temper already. Yet for your farther assistance, I would offer it to your consideration in rarious points of light, that you may be assisted in Judging of what you are, and what you ought to be. And in this I aim, not only at your conviction, if you are yet a stranger to real religion, but at your farther edification, if by the grace of God, you are by this time experimentally acquainted with it. Happy you will be, happy beyond expression, if as you go on from one article to another, you can say, "This is my temper and character." Happy in no inconsiderable degree, if you can say, "This is what I desire, what I pray for, and what i pursue, in preference to every opposite view, though it be not what I have as yet attained."

Search then, and try "what manner of spirit you are of." (Luke ix. 55.) And may Ile that searcheth all hearts direct the inquiry, and enable you so to "judge yourself, that you may not be condemned of the Lord." (1 Cor. xi. 31, 32.)

N. B. This Chapter is almost an Abridgment of that excellent book of Dr. Evans, entitled, The Christian Temper, so far as it reiates to the Description of it. For particular arguments. to enforce each part of this temper, I must refer the reader to the book itself.

Know in the general, that if you are a Christian indeed, you have been "renewed in the spirit of your mind;" (Eph. iv. 23.) so renewed, as to be regenerated, and born again. It is not enough, to have assumed a new name, to have been brought under some new restraints, or to have made a partial change in some particulars of your conduct. The change must be great and universal. Inquire then whether you have entertained new apprehensions of things, have formed a practical judgment different from what you formerly did; whether the ends you propose, the affections which you feel working in your heart, and the course of action to which, by those affections, you are directed, be on the whole new or old?* Again, If you are a Christian indeed, you are 66 partaker of a divine nature;" (2 Peter i. 4.) divine in its original, its tendency, and its resemblance. Inquire therefore, whether God has implanted a principle in your heart, which tends to him, and which makes you like him. Search your soul attentively, to see if you have really the image there of God's moral perfections, of his holiness and righteousness, his goodness and fidelity; for "the new man is after GOD created in righteousness and true holiness," (Eph. iv. 24.) and "is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him." (Col. iii. 10.)

For your farther assistance inquire, whether "the same mind be in you which was also in Christ;" (Phil. ii. 5.) whether you bear the image of God's incarnate Son, the brightest and fairest resemblance of the Father, which earth or heaven has ever beheld. The blessed Jesus designed himself to be a model for all his followers: and he is certainly a model most fit for our imitation: an example in our own nature, and in circumstances adapted to general use; an example recommended to us at once by its spotless perfection, and by the endearing relation in which he stands to us, as our Master, our Friend, and our Head; as the person by whom our everlasting state is to be fixed, and in a resemblance to whom our final

*The reader may see these thoughts illustrated at large in the three first of my Sermons on Regeneration.

happiness is to consist, if ever we are happy at all. Look then into the life and temper of Christ, as described and illustrated in the gospels, and search whether you can find any thing like it in your own life. Have you any thing of his devotion, love, and resignation to God? Any thing of his humility, meekness, and benevolence to men? Any thing of his purity and wisdom, his contempt of the world, his patience, his fortitude, his zeal? And indeed all the other branches of the Christian temper, which do not imply previous guilt in the person by whom they are exercised, may be called in to illustrate and assist your inquiries under this head.

Let me add, If you are a Christian, you are in the main spiritually minded, as knowing, that that "is life and peace, whereas to be carnally minded is death." (Rom. viii. 6.) Though you "live in the flesh, you will not war after it;" (2 Cor. x. 3.) you will not take your orders and your commands from it. You will indeed attend to its necessary interests, as matter of duty; but it will still be with regard to another and a nobler interest, that of the rational and immortal spirit. Your thoughts, your affections, your pursuits, your choice, will be determined by a regard to things spiritual, rather than carnal.-In a word, "you will walk by faith and not by sight." (2 Cor. v. 7.) Future, invisible, and in some degree incompre hensible objects, will take up your mind. Your faith will act on the being of God, his perfections, his providences, his precepts, his threatenings, and his promises. It will act upon "Christ, whom having not seen, you will love and honour." (1 Pet. i. 8.) It will act on that unseen world, which it knows to be eternal, and therefore infinitely more worthy of your affectionate regard than any of "those things which are seen and are temporal (2 Cor. iv. 18.)

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These are general views of the Christian temper, on which I would intreat you to examine yourself: and now I would go on to lead you into a survey of the grand branches of it, as relating to God, our neighbour, and ourselves; and of those qualifications, which must attend each of these branches, such as sincerity, constancy,

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