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Life is the only time of such work and service. portunity, (saith a writer on this subject) is like a golden instrument to dig for heavenly treasure: Do not wear it out as many have done in digging for pebbles, and at your latter end become a fool. Plead not your mean capacity: Kings of the earth, and all people, old men and children may praise the Lord; Ps. cxlviii. 11, 12. Serve your age according to your talent; Mat. xxv. 15. He that had but one talent, but a single capacity, was called to account for it, and cast into outer darkness. Think how many opportunities you have out-lived, which will never have their resurrection: Redeem lost time, by improving what remains. Project improvements of life, since your light is near extinguished. Make up in affection what may be wanting in action. If you cannot do much, yet love much. If our servants should work no better for us than many have done for God, we should turn them out of doors. Stir up others to work for God, that you may do by their hand what you cannot do by your own." Thus this pious author.

Let us consider what glorions services have been done for God, by the long continuance of saints in this world. Survey the labours and the sufferings, the ministry, the zeal and the success of the blessed apostles, who planted the first christian churches. What monuments of honour did they raise among Jews and strangers, among Greeks and barbarians, the savage and the polite heathens, to their crucified and exalted Saviour! What multitudes of subjects were brought to bow the knee to Jesus by their preaching! What a large harvest of souls was gathered unto Christ, when the apostle scattered the seed of the gospel all round the countries, from Jerusalem, through the provinces of the lesser Asia, and through the southern parts of Europe, as some have supposed, as far as Spain! And the Redeemer was glorified by his labours where the name of the true God the Creator was hardly known before. What an extensive blessing to the world was the life of Paul? It is to this, that the following ages of christianity, as well as the primitive saints, owe the unspeakable benefit of his writings; and it is to this, that Great Britain owes the blessing of his divine epistles. How honourable was it for St. Paul himself, and how happy for us, that he was made an instrument of such service to Christ, such a glorious service, as spread itself around the nations, and reached to distant ages of mankind. His long life was an illustrious bles sing both to himself and to the christian world.

III. Life is yours, O'christians, for it allows many a proper season for giving examples of holiness to mankind, And it is a honour to a saint, to be made an example of religion amongst a nation of sinners, or a pattern of holiness, among the churches of

believers. Herein you become followers and imitators of the blessed Lord your Master: He is the first pattern, he is the most glorious example; for in all things he must have the preeminence.

If you become a public and a shining example of virtue, and piety, and goodness, you may attain these four very valuable ends at once :

1. By this means you pay great and just honours to the blessed gospel whereby you are saved, and confound and silence the impious accusations and slanders of the wicked: And especially if your station and rank in the world make you the object of more public notice, either in a city, in a village, in a neighbourhood, or in any society of men, then like a candie or a torch set on a hill, you diffuse light and honour far around you, and God and the gospel are glorified on your account. And not only in the higher stations of life, but even servants of the lowest character, if they are but saints, may adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things; Titus ii. 10. It is greatly for the credit of our holy religion, when the men of this world seeing our good works, are forced to confess that there is something divine in christianity, that God is amongst us of a truth; and by these means they are constrained to glorify our Father, and our Redeemer, and our holy religion. This is the command of Christ; Mat. v. 16.

2. Hereby sinners are not only convinced that there is a power and glory in the doctrine of Christ, but many a soul has been converted to the faith of Jesus, by beholding the pious conversation, the heavenly graces, the holy love, the divine zeal, the constancy, the patience, and the sufferings of christians. The good women in St. Peter's days were exhorted to invite and draw their unbelieving husbands to the faith and love of the gospel, "by beholding their chaste conversation, coupled with religious fear, and the ornament of a meak and a quiet spirit; I Pet. iii. 1-4. Look forward, O christians, to the last great day, and think with what a pleasing joy you shall hear those who have been converted by your example, and reformed from a licentious course of life, declare this to your public honour before men and angels: Your holy example though buried long in silence, shall have a glorious resurrection in that day, and the Judge himself shall proclaim it to your praise, that he used your piety here on earth, as an instrument of his grace to enlarge his kingdom.

3. Hereby christians of a lower form, and those that are babes in Christ, are awakened to a holy imitation of your supe rior virtues and graces. It was the continuance of St. Paul in

this life, through the various stages of it, that recommended him as a pattern to the believers of his day, in all the various circumstances of their lives; and the longer he lived, the more glorious example he left behind him, for the benefit of the saints, that they might be followers of him as he was of Christ; 1 Cor. xi. I. And I may add in the

Fourth place, Where a christian of shining virtues and of diffusive goodness is blessed with a long life, the memory of his example, and the sweet savour of his graces, remain the longer on earth, after his own departure to heaven. It is like a rich perfume that has lain some considerable time among garments, is communicates a pleasant frragrancy to the apparel long after the perfume itself is removed. Thus many a saint, by the sweet odour of his name, has done honour to the gospel in the place where he lived, while his bones are mouldering in the dust: The history of his various virtues has dwelt long on the lips of the surviving neighbours, and perhaps, hath awakened others to an imitation of such a pattern many years after his deccase.

Whether example be of any use in heaven, or whether the saints of lower rank there may be excited to holy imitation, by the superior graces or glories of more eminent saints, is not so well known to us; but this we may be well assured of, that the example of christians can have no use in that happy world, to guard the doctrine of Christ from profane reproaches, or to convince or convert sinners and infidels. It is the living, and the living alone, that can do this service for Christ, and glorify his gospel in such instances as these:

But I proceed to another advantage of our continuance in this world.

IV. Life is yours; for it gives opportunity for abounding in good works to the great benefit of mankind. The longer a saint lives, if he maintains his character with honour, he becomes so much a greater blessing to the world. But what a deal of good ceases with the life of a good man !

Christians, ye are required to maintain good works for the honour of your Father, and for the glory of your Saviour, who hath purchased you to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works: But there is another reason for them too, and that is, "these things are good and profitable to men;" Titus ii. 14. 'compared with the third chapter, verse 8. Every day of life opens some new scenes, wherein you may be serviceable to your neighbours, your relatives, your fellow-creatures, and so make the world the better for you.

The days and years of life should be numbered by the

multitude of good works, as much as by the revolutions of the sun and moon: For lost and wasted time should not come into the account of life. But if this were our way of counting, what should we say of thousands, who have lived to no other purpose but to eat and drink, and to make up the number of mankind? O it is a mean and pitiful thing only to be old in time, and not in duties to God, or benefits to men. And, as an author speaks on this subject," All the good works of many who are stricken in years will lie in a very little compass: To be an ancient man or woman of two or three years old, sounds like a contradiction, and it is, indeed, a matter of great shame, and ought to awaken deep repentance.

How many are there that live to no purpose at all, and the world will not miss them when they are gone? How many that live to wicked purpose, and the world is glad to be rid of them? Some are mere cumberers of the ground, and some are perfect nuisances, and public mischiefs. Such should never pretend to the name of christians. Let us remember it was the character of our blessed Lord, that he went about doing good; and he was willing to work those works while it was his day of life; for the night was coming on him wherein he should have no such sort of work to do; John ix. 4. O may our Saviour be our pattern, and let us be followers of the holy Jesus! Alas! what a noble pattern! what slow and distant followers.

It was this desire of service to the world, that put the great apostle into a strait betwixt two, as in Philip. i. 23. He knew not what to ask for; Shall I pray for death and glory, my heart hath a wish that way? It is far better for me to depart, and to be with Christ: Or shall I desire to continue in life? This is for the service of your faith, and furtherance of your joy; therefore I am content, saith he, to have my crown and glory deferred, that my longer life may be your advantage. O what an illustrious spirit of zeal and love reigned in the heart of this apostle!”

Ye are the light of the world, saith Christ to his disciples; Mat. v. 13, 14. What a dark dungeon would this world be, if it had never a saint in it? Ye are the salt of the earth; What corruption of manners would overspread the face of the earth! What vile communications, and odious practices would defile the "world in a few years, if every christian were dead! What shameful and abominable works had over-run the heathen nations, before Christ and his gospel appeared, and the idolaters were made christians! A saint in a family, is like the ark of God in the house of Obed-edom; 2 Sam. vi. 12. For the Lord blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that pertained to him, because of the ark of God. A pious soul is a Joseph in the family of Potiphar; Gen. xxxix. 5. When the Lord blessed the Egyp

tian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was all that he had in the house and in the field.

upon

A number of saints in a city, or a nation, are many times like Noah, Daniel, and Job, in the midst of them. They guard the public by their prayers from mighty ruin and wide desolation. Sodom itself had been saved, if there had been ten righteous souls in it. And I am persuaded, Great-Britain had been a kingdom of idolaters and slavery, or a heap of confusion and slaughter, and a field of blood long ago, because of the provoking wickedness in the midst of it, had it not been for the few righteous that have always stood in the gap: There have been always some powerful pleaders at the mercy seat, when the wrath of God and the destroying angels have been breaking in like a flood upon us, some Moses and Samuel to withhold the desolation, when popery and tyranny have been just at our gates, and ready to overwhelm us.

O how many unknown blessings do these sinful nations enjoy, because of the lives and the prayers of the saints that are in it! Holy souls, who though they are divided into different parties, and practise their different forms, yet worship the same God, through the same Mediator, and by the same Spirit, who are ever welcome to the throne of grace, who are all saints in the esteem of God, and in the language of scripture. Strange, that the name of a saint should be used as, a term of reproach amongst us, and cast upon one party in a way of scorn, when these are the persons of every party who are the most excellent in the earth; these are the guards and walls of defence to the nation, the chariots of our Israel, and the horsemen thereof; 2 Kings ü. 12. xiii. 14.

V. Life is yours; for it affords means for brightening your evidence for heaven, and improving your own preparation for glory. Surely you are not willing to depart from this world, till you have good hope of an interest in a better state, and a comfortable expectation that it shall be well with you for exer. Does God prolong your days on earth? See then, that the principles of piety and goodness be well rooted in your hearts, and that your graces grow up under the influences of heaven. See that they bud and blossom with fair flowers, to the honour of your profession, and to the joy of your own consciences. Let the sacred fruits of your love and zeal break out upon all just occasions Shine brighter in holiness every day of your mortal life, and bring forth fruits meet for life everlasting, that ye may know and be assured that the seeds of glory. are sown within you, such divine, seeds as will bear a rich and blessed harvest in the great day.

He that has this hope will purify himself as Christ is pure ;