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ruin. "For if "die."

ye

live after the flesh, ye fhall

As for you who are mourning over the remainders of corruption, and struggling to get free from them, I know that you will require no motives to engage you to go on in this op pofition to the carnal principle. I fhall, therefore, only offer you a few directions, with which I will now conclude.

Keep a strict watch over your fenfes. Let nothing enter into the foul by these avenues without a strict examination. Avoid with the utmoft caution all thofe things which may inflame your paffions, and accuftom yourselves to contradict them in their firft tendencies to evil. A fpark may easily be quenched, which, after it hath kindled a flame, will baffle all your induftry. Improve that holy ordinance, which you have been celebrating, to this falutary purpose. The contemplation of a crucified Saviour is an excellent mean to affift you in crucifying the flesh. When your appetites folicit any unlawful indulgence, remember him who had not even the common accommodations of nature. When your flesh requires eafe and pleasure, think of him who

pleased

pleafed not, or minded not himself, but for your fakes fubmitted to hunger and thirft weariness and watching, pain and reproach, and at last to an ignominious death. When riches inflame your desires, reflect on the history of Jefus, "who, though he was rich, for your fakes became poor, that ye through "his poverty might be made rich." When the defire of applause, or the fear of cenfure, from man, tempt you to defert the path of duty, then remember him who for you made himself of no reputation, gave his head to be crowned with thorns, and his body to be arrayed with the garb of derifion, and was fuspended on a cross in the company of malefactors. In all these views, let your eyes be directed to Jefus, the author and finisher of your faith. Above all, depend much on the grace of God, and pour out your fouls in fervent fupplications for the Spirit of Promife, by whofe affiftance alone you can mortify the deeds of the body, and crucify the flesh, with its affections and lufts. Principles of philofophy may restrain our evil paffions; but nothing less than the Omnipotent power of divine grace can overcome them. Plead, there

fore,

fore, earnestly, that he who is now ascended up on high, and hath received gifts for men, may grant you every needful supply in this difficult warfare: that fo, when you have fought the good fight, and overcome your enemies, both within and without you, you may be publicly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly happy in the full enjoyment of God for ever. Amen.

VOL. III.

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There be many that fay, Who will fhew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou baft put gładnefs in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.

'HE chief diftinction between a child of

THE

God, and a man of the world, lies in the prevailing tendency of their defires. Both of them are engaged in the pursuit of happinefs. But the one aims at nothing higher than the prefent gratification of his appetites, while the other rifes above this world, and afpires at the supreme felicity of his immortal nature. The one fecks information from every quarter concerning the object of his purfuit; the other asks the bleffing directly from

the

the Giver of all good. The one seeks a happiness separated from God: the whole earth, without the light of God's countenance, would appear to the other a barren wilderness, and a place of exile.I propose, in difcoursing on this fubject,

First, To make a few remarks on the Pfalmift's description of these oppofite characters.

Secondly, To illuftrate the two following propofitions, which naturally arise from the text, namely, That wordly men have little cause to rejoice in the temporal advantages which they poffefs; and that the light of God's countenance is fufficient to gladden the heart of a faint in all circumftances whatfoever.

The illuftration of these particulars will give rise to a practical improvement of the fubject. Let us,

First, Attend to the description of worldly men in the first part of the 6th verse, "There be many that fay, Who will fhew us any good?"-It is obvious, in the

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If place, That this question betrays a

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