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These several great advantages, arising from su preme care for the soul, are still more valuable, because in no instance uncertain. You may brave the thickest dangers of war, and deserve its richest rewards, yet fall an early victim in the bloody fight, or after it have your services forgotten. You may burn with unextinguishable ardour to stand high in the rank of scholars, and ruin your health by excessive study, yet die mortified at the littleness of your reputation. Your labour to succeed in trade may be incessant, yet through a thousand circumstances, out of your power, disappointment may meet you at every turn, and poverty be your lot. The favour of patrons, friends, and relations, may be assiduously courted, and appear promising as you could wish; yet you may be basely supplanted, and others receiving the benefits you were in idea grasping; the very name of patrons, friends, and relations, may be bitter to your remembrance. The world every day exhibits instances of disappointment in each of the cases above described. But if you have sought the salvation of your soul, through faith in Christ, which works by love, you stand exalted above every change incident to the things of time. You have to do with God only as your chief good, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. You may be rich, therefore, or poor, high or low in your station, beloved or slighted by friends, patrons, or relations; you may enjoy health, or be oppressed with mortal disease; whilst in each state, should you ask what method you could have best taken for your own peace, comfort, and felicity? Reason, conscience, experience, and scripture, will unanimously reply to your question, the very method you have, that of caring for your soul above all things. Like a prudent factor, in a distant land, who, instead of lavishing his gain in voluptuousness, yearly

remits it home, that, after all dangers and toils, he may enjoy his native country with ease and honour; so you will be daily growing rich and more rich, Sure, through death, to enter into that pure and blessed world, where, amidst congratulating saints and angels, you shall take possession of an inherit, ance prepared for your soul, incorruptible and unde, filed, and that fadeth not away, reserved for you.

THANKSGIVING & PRAYER,
Suited to the preceding subject.

WE thank thee, O Father of the spirits of all flesh, for breathing into man a soul capable of receiving the knowledge of thy wondrous works and infinite perfections, and dwelling in the delightful view of them for ever. Deliver us, we humbly beseech thee, from that wilful ignorance, and stupid contempt of our souls, natural to all, and generally prevailing in every place. Rescue us, with a mighty arm, from the enslaving power of this present evil world; from the enchantment of sinful pleasure and earthly comforts, and anxious care for the body: lest these things make us inattentive to the welfare of our immortal souls. By thy power and grace preserve us from the infection of unreasonable and wicked men, who have not faith; and, from being overcome with fear of their reproaches, to join in their profane neglect of salvation. Wherever we are, still sound, O blessed God! in our ears, What is a man profited. if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? and what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Continually dispose us to avoid all such things as will be hurtful, and to follow after those things which will be profitable to our salvation.

Have compassion, O God! on the vast multitude who sell their souls for nought, and are at ease, though on the point of perishing for ever. Cause the scales to fall from their eyes. Take away from them all hardness of heart, contempt of thy word, and cruelty towards themselves, that their souls may be saved in the day of the Lord. We ask it for Christ's sake our only Mediator and Redeemer, in whom we trust.-Amen.

SUNDAY IV.

CHAP. IV.

The Scripture Character of God,

THE first duty of a Christian, which must be in violably kept, is to think of God, in full agree. ment of the revelation he hath given of himself; to meditate on this with diligence, humility, and prayer, not daring to indulge fallacious reasonings, lest, forming an imaginary God, he should worship the crea ture of his own brain.

This absolute submission of the understanding to divine revelation will not be thought in the least dishonourable, if it be considered, that, in our present state of corruption, we are utterly unable to form just conceptions of God, when, leaving the guidance of scripture, we put ourselves in the condition of unenlightened heathens. Their errors on this most important subject, as universal as they were lamentable, de

cisively prove the weakness of human understanding, and the gross ignorance in man, of God his maker. I shall, therefore, lay before you what the scripture teaches on this fundamental article of belief; and, in absolute submission to it, delineate the character of the blessed God, as he himself hath drawn it; that, knowing the divine nature, we may pay unto him the honour due unto his name; and understanding his adorable excellency, may cry out, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just. and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints! who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name?”

The scripture teaches us the eternal existence of God. All other beings once were not; and the same power which gave them life could reduce them to their original nothing. He, on the contrary, from all eternity, in essence, felicity, and perfection, has been what he now is, and will remain eternally. The things which are seen compel us to acknowledge this incomprehensible truth. And agreeing with this proof is his own declaration: "I am that I am: the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity."

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Nearly allied to the eternal existence, is the immutability of God. His purposes and decrees, his love and hatred, remain the same towards their respective objects. "I am the Lord, I change not. In bim is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.' God is called a rock, to teach us, that as this continues immoveable, whilst the surrounding ocean is in perpetual fluctuation, so, whilst the whole creation is changeable, capable of new additions with respect to their knowledge, power, or degrees of felicity, God alone is absolutely the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

God is a spirit, i. e. possesses, in the highest possible degree, understanding, will, consciousness, and activity. In these properties every spirit stands ex

alted above matter, and is distinguished from it. But though this difference be sufficient to help our weak conceptions to separate between matter and spirit, as objects of a totally different nature; yet scripture teaches us, that God surpasses in excellence all created spirits, infinitely more than they do the material creation. For we are to conceive of him, not only as a living, intelligent, active being, essentially distinct from all the bodies our eyes behold, but as possessing perfections which belong to no spirit he has formed, and infinitely distant from every imperfection adhering to them; such as, their existence within certain limits, their ignorance in numberless instances, and their defects in excellency; whilst the Father of the spirits of all flesh is omnipresent, infinite in knowledge, wisdom, power, and every perfection. The universe, which entirely owes its existence to his creating power, is not only governed, but incessantly sustained by him; and the whole immeasurable frame pervaded by his all enlivening influence. Do not I fill heaven and earth! saith the Lord. This divine perfection is described with equal sublimity and force in the scripture, Ps. cxxxix. Whither shall I go from the spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven (the regions above the firmament) thou art there; I should find myself not only within the limits of thy sovereign dominion, but under thy immediate inspection. If I make my bed in hell, plunging into the unknown mansions of the dead, and the invisible world, where even imagination loses itself, behold! thou art there. If, with the swiftness of the sun's rising ray, I could convey myself to the uttermost part of the western world, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. In thee I shall exist, thy presence shall surround me; thy enlivening power shall support

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