those victories ye have already obtained, that I would fain have you press onward through the field of battle, fulfil the warfare, and receive the crown.

The ministers of the gospel look upon you with concern and pity: We love you because you have proceeded thus far in religion; but ye shall not be the beloved of God, if ye stop here, or go back again to sin and folly. We had a hopeful prospect of you once, and said to our Lord in proyer, "Surely these shall be one day the inhabitants, and the supports of thine house; these young plants shall one day be fruitful trees in thy vineyard; they shall be pillars in thy holy temple." But alas! there is a death upon our hopes, there is a darkness and a lethargy upon your souls: We look upon you in all these your endowments, we mourn over you with compassion, and with zeal we express our grief and our love: "Awake, ye young sinners, who have deserved our love; awake, that ye sleep not to everlasting death."

5. To those that are rich in this world, and are furnished with the former good qualities too. I am well assured, while I address myself to this assembly, I speak to many persons of this character. Ye are wealthy and condescending, like the young man in my text: ye are often uncovered, and ye pay reverence to the ministers of the gospel, as he did; ye give us honours and civilities beyond our merit or wish; ye come and ask of us the same question, "What shall we do to inherit eternal life?" And we tell you from the word of God, "Love not the world, nor the "things of the world; for where the love of the world is, the "love of the Father is not. If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. Mortify your affections that are upon the earth, "and deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow Christ:" Become his disciples, without reserve, in faith, and love, and universal holiness. While we propose these paths to eternal happiness, shall it be said concerning you, they went away sorrowful, having great possessions?

Your condescending and affable deportment, looks brighter by all the rich lustre of your habits; and the bigger your circumstances are, the more lovely is your humble attention to the ministers of Christ, and your readiness to hear our words is the more commendable: But will ye be hearers only, and never practice? The time is coming, and the hour makes haste upon you, when ye shall stand upon the borders of the grave, and look into that world of spirits, where all the honours and distinctions of this world are known no more. Ye shall be stripped of those vanities which ye loved above God and heaven. Think how mean and

*This discourse was delivered at Tunbridge-wells.

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despicable a figure your souls will make amongst fallen angels, if the love of this world, and neglect of God should bring you into that dreadful company. What gay and swelling figures soever you have made on earth, you will make but a poor wretched one in that world, if ye are found destitute of the riches of grace; and it will be a mournful inscription written on your tomb, "This rich man died, and he lift up his eyes in hell;" Luke xvi. 23. But, beloved, we hope better things of you, though we thus speak, and things that accompany salvation"; Heb. vi. 9. Thus I have finished the first general exhortation, to those who have any valuable qualities attending them, but through the love of this world are tempted to neglect heaven.

The second exhortation is addressed to those who are weaned, in some good degree, from this world, and have treasures in heaven, but are defective in those good qualities which might render them amiable upon earth. I confess I have no direct commission from my text to address you here: But I am unwilling and ashamed that a rich young man should go to hell with some more lovely appearances upon him than you have, who are in the way to heaven.

You have chosen God for your eternal portion, and your highest hope; you have chosen his Son Jesus for your only Mediator, and your way to the Father: you have chosen the worship and the ordinances of God as your dearest delight; ye are the chosen objects of the love of God, and his grace has inclined you to love him above all things. Methinks I would not have any blot cast upon so many excellencies. Be ye advised therefore to seek after that agreeable temper and conduct which may make you beloved of men too; that the wisest and best of men may chuse you for an honour to their acquaintance and company. This will render your profession more honourable, and make religion itself look more lovely in the sight of the world.

What a foul blemish it is to our christianity, when we shall hear it said, "Here is a man who professes the gospel of grace, but he does not practise the decencies that the light of nature would teach him! He tells us, that he belongs to heaven; but he has so little of humanity in his deportment, that he is hardly fit company for any upon earth." Shall it be said of any of you, "Here is a man that pretends to the love of God, but he is morose in his disposition, rude in his behaviour, and makes a very unlovely figure amongst men? Let him fill what station he will in the church, he bears but a disagreeable character in the house, and disgraces the family or the city where he dwells. What his secret virtues or graces are, we know not, for they shine all inward; he keeps all his goodness to himself, and never suffers his light to shine out amongst his neighbours.”

Can I bear that it should be said concerning me, "He seems indeed to have something of the love of God in him, but he is so rough in his natural temper, and so uncorrected in his mauners, that scarce any man loves him? He may bend his knees to God in prayer, but he has not common civility towards men. His morality and honesty appear not upon him with honour His virtue does not seem to sit well about him, and his religion is dressed in a very unpleasing form." Is this the way to give reputation to the gospel? Is this to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things; Tit. ii. 10. When we become christians, we put away bitterness, and wrath, and clamour, and evil-speak-. ing, and filthiness, and scurrilous jests; Eph. iv. 31. and v. 4. We are commanded to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers; but to be gentle, and shew meekness to all; Tit. iii. 2. to prefer one another in honour; to bless, and curse not; to rejoice with them that rejoice, and to weep with them that weep; to condescend to men of low estate; and, if possible, to live peaceably with all men ; Rom. xii. 14, 15, 16—18.

Are there any souls here of this unpleasing character and carriage! Did you ever read these words in your bibles? Do ye think these are the commands of Christ, or no? You profess to love him above all, but what care have you taken to obey these precepts of his? or do you think the sublime practices of faith and adoration will make those lower duties needless? Have ye found the sweetness of being at peace with God, and tasted of the pleasures of his love; and can ye disregard all the practices and pleasures of love and peace among men ?

We are not required indeed to sell truth for peace, nor strict godliness for the forms of civility. There is no need that we should conform ourselves to any of the sinful practices of this world, in order to fulfil the law of love. But wheresoever the customs of the place where we dwell are consistent with the strict and holy rules of Christ, we should practise them so far, as to render ourselves agreeable to those with whom we converse, that we may shine in the world as the honours of Christ, and that unbelievers may be won by our conversation, to come and hear our gospel, to learn the same faith, and embrace the same hope: Not only the things that are true, and honest, and just, and pure, but the things that are lovely in the sight of men, and things that are of good report, must be the subjects of our meditation, our learning, and practice; Phil. iv. 8. St. Paul, that great apostle, did not think these things unworthy of his care; he enjoins them upon the primitive christians from his own example, and promises them the presence of the God of peace. These are the things which I have taught you, saith he, these ye have heard and seen in me; conform your manners to these rules, and the God peace shall be with you; ver. 9.

Believe me, friends, the natural habit of christianity is all decency and loveliness: We put the religion of our Saviour into a disguise, and make it look unlike itself, if our temper be sour and fretful, if our carriage be coarse and rude, and our speech savour of roughness and wrath. A Jew might make a better apology, for a harsh and severe deportment, than a christian could do; he might put on a morose air with better countenance, and plead the dispensation he was under, the bondage of the law, and the terrors of mount Sinai. But we under the gospel, are free-born; Gal. iv. 26–31. and our carriage should be ingenuous in all respects. John the baptist, in his garment of hair, may be indulged in a roughness of speech; he was but a forerunner of the gospel, and can hardly be called a christian: but the followers of the Lamb should have a mild aspect, a pleasing manner, that every one who beholds us may love us too; that the Son of God, if he were here upon earth, might look upon us and love us in both his natures, with a divine and human love.

Thirdly, The last address. I would make to those who are furnished with every good quality, and every divine grace, who are beloved by God and men. Such a one was our Lord Jesus Christ in the days of his flesh: He, from his very childhood, grew in wisdom, and in stature, and in favour with God and man; Luke ii. 52. He had further discoveries of divine love made to him daily and as his acquaintance increased in his younger years, so did his friends too, till his divine commission made it necessary for him to oppose the corruptions of his country, and reform a wicked age, and thus expose himself to the anger of a nation that would not be reformed. There was something lovely in his human nature, beyond the common appearance of mankind; for his body was a temple, in which the godhead dwelt in a peculiar and transcendant manner, and his soul was intimately united to divinity. I cannot but think, that, in a literal sense, he was fairer than the children of men, and that there was grace in his lips, and a natural sweetness in his language: Psal. xlv. 2. If the Jews beheld no comeliness in him, if his visage was marred more than the sons of men, it was because he was a man of uncommon sorrows, and acquainted with grief; which might cast something of heaviness or gloom upon his countenance, or

wear

out the features of youth too soon. But surely our Lord, in the whole composition of his nature, in the mildness of his deportment, and in all the graces of conversation, was the chiefest of ten thousands, and altogether lovely. How amiable are those who are made like him?

Such was John the beloved disciple; you may read the temper of his soul in his epistles: What a spirit of love breathes

in every line? What compassion and tenderness to the babes in Christ? What condescending affection to the young men, and hearty good-will to the fathers, who were then his equals in age? With what obliging language does he treat the beloved Gaius, in his third letter; and with how much, civility, and hearty kindness, does he address the elect lady and her children, in the second? In his younger years, indeed, he seems to have something more of fire and vehemence, for which he was surnamed Ason of thunder; Mark iii. 17. But our Lord saw so much good temper in him, mixed with that sprightliness and zeal, that he expressed much pleasure in his company, and favoured him with peculiar honours and endearments above the rest. This is the disciple who was taken into the holy mount with James and Peter, and saw our Lord glorified before the time; this is the disciple who leaned on his bosom at the holy supper, and was indulged the utmost freedom of conversation with his Lord; John xiii. 23, 24, 25. This is the man who obtained this glorious title, The disciple whom Jesus loved; that is, with a distinguishing and particular love. As God, and as a Saviour, he loved them all like saints; but as man, he loved St. John like a friend; Jolin xxi. 20. and when hanging upon the cross and just expiring, he committed his mother to his care; a most precious and convincing pledge of special friendship.

O how happy are the persons who most nearly resemble this apostle, who are thus privileged, thus divinely blessed! How infinitely are ye indebted to God your Benefactor, and your Father, who has endowed you with so many valuable accomplishments on earth, and assures you of the happiness of heaven? It is he who has made you fair, or wise; it is he who has given you ingenuity, or riches, or, perhaps, has favoured you with all these; and yet has weaned your hearts from the love of this world, and led you to the pursuit of eternal life: It is he that has cast you in so refined a mould, and given you so sweet a disposition, that has inclined you to sobriety and every virtue, has raised you to honour and esteem, has made you possessors of all that is desirable in this life, and appointed you a nobler inheritance in that which is to come. What thankfulness does every power of your natures owe to your God? that heaven looks down upon you, and loves you, and the world around you fix their eyes upon you, and love you: That God has formed you in so bright a resemblance of his own Son, his first-beloved, and has ordained you joint-heirs of heaven with him; Rom. viii. 17.

Watch hourly against the temptations of pride; remember the fallen angels, and their once exalted station; and have a care lest ye also be puffed up, and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Walk before God with exactest care, and in deepest hu