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turn of mind, by keeping a steady guard upon their weak parts, and gradually, but continually, correcting their defects, applying earnestly for affiftance from above, going on from strength to ftrength, and from one degree of perfection to another, have at length arrived at a higher pitch of virtue than thofe for whom nature had done much more, and who would therefore do but little for themfelves.

Let us then never despair. If we have not from conftitution that honeft and good heart which is neceflary for receiving the good feed, and bringeth forth fruit with patience, we may by degrees, and by the bleffing of God, gradually acquire it. If the foil is not originally good, it may be made fo by labor and cultivation; but above all, by imploring our heavenly Father to shower down upon it the plentiful effufions of his grace, which he has promised to all that devoutly and fervently and conftantly pray for it. This dew from heaven, "fhed abroad on our hearts*," will refresh and invigorate and purify our fouls; will correct the very worst difpofition; will foften and fubdue the. hardest and most ungrateful foil, will make clean and pure and moist, fit for the reception of the good feed; and notwithstanding its original poverty and barrennefs, will en rich it with strength and vigor fufficient to bring forth fruit to perfection.

I have now finished thefe Lectures for the present year, and must, on this occafion, again entreat you to let those truths, to which you have listened with fo much patience and perfeverance, take entire poffeffion of your hearts. They are not vain, they are not trivial things, they are the words of eternal life; they relate to the most important of all human concerns, to the most essential interests and comforts of the prefent life, and to the destiny, the eternal destiny of happinefs or mifery that awaits you in

the next.

You have just heard the parable of the fower explained, and it behoves you to confider in which of the four claffes of men there defcribed you can fairly rank yourfelves.

Rom. 5.

Are you in the number of those that receive the feed by the way-fide, on hearts as impenetrable and inacceffible" to conviction as the hard beaten high road? or of those that receive the feed on a little loofe earth fcattered on a rock, where it quickly fprings up, and as quickly withers away? or of thofe in whom the feed is choked with thorns, with the occupations and pleasures of this life? or, laftly, of those who receive the feed on good ground, on an honeft and good heart, and bring forth fruit, fome a hundred fold, fome fixty, fome thirty? It becomes every one of you to ask yourselves this queftion very feriously, and to anfwer it very honeftly; for on that depends the whole color of your future condition here and hereafter.

There are none I trust here prefent, there are few I believe in this country, who fall under the first description of profeffed and hardened unbelievers; and amidst many painful circumftances of these awful and anxious times it is fome confolation to us to reflect, that the incredible pains which have been taken in a multitude of vile publications to induce the people of this country to apoftatize from their religion, have not made that general and permanent impreffion on their minds which might naturally have been expected from fuch malignant and reiterated efforts to shake their principles and fubvert their faith. But there are other inftruments of perverfion and corruption, much more formidable and more powerful than these. There are rank and noxious weeds and thorns, which grow up with the good feed and choke it, and prevent it from coming to maturity. Thefe are, as the parable tells us, the cares, the riches, and the pleasures of this world, which in our paffage through life lay hold upon our hearts, and are more dangerous obftructions to the Gospel than all the fpeculative arguments and fpecious fophiftry of all its adverfaries put together. It is but feldom, I believe, comparatively speaking, that men are fairly reafoned out of their religion. But they are very frequently feduced, both from the practice and the belief of it, by treacherous paffions within, and violent temptations from without, by "the luft of the flesh, the luft of the eye, and the pride of life." Thefe are in fact the most common, the most

powerful enemies of our faith. These are the weeds and the thorns that twift themselves round every fibre of our hearts, which impede the growth and destroy the fruitfulnefs of every good principle that has been implanted there, and form that third and most numerous clafs of hearers defcribed in the parable of the fower, who, though not profeffed infidels, are yet practical unbelievers, and who though they retain the form, have loft all the fubstance, all the power, all the life and foul of religion.

It is then against thefe moft dangerous corruptors of our fidelity and allegiance to our heavenly Master, that we must principally be upon our guard; it is against these we must arm and prepare our fouls, by fummoning all our fortitude and resolution, and calling in to our aid all those fpiritual fuccors which the power of prayer can draw down upon us from above. It was to affift us in this arduous conflict that the compilers of our liturgy appointed the feafon of Lent, and more particularly the offices of the concluding week, which, from the fufferings of our Saviour at that time, we call Paffion week. It was thought, and furely it was wifely thought, by our ancestors, that to fortify ourselves against the attractions of the world, and the feductions of fin, it was neceffary to withdraw ourselves fometimes from the tumultuous and intoxicating scenes of business and of pleasure, which, in the daily commerce of life, press so close on every fide of us; and to ftrengthen and confirm our minds against their fatal influence, by retirement, by recollection, by felf-communion, by felf-examination, by meditating on the word of God, and, above all, by frequent and fervent prayer. To give us time for thefe facred occupations, a small portion of every year has been judiciously set apart for them by our church; and what tiine could be fo proper for those holy purposes, as that in which our blessed Lord was fuffering fo much for our fakes? I allude more particularly to that folemn week which is now approaching, and to which I muft beg to call the moft ferious attention of every one here prefent.

In that week all public diverfions are, as you well know, wifely prohibited by public authority; and in conformity

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to the fpirit of fuch prohibition, we fhould, even in our own families and in our own private amusements, be temperate, modeft, decorous, and difcreet. Think not, how. ever, that I am here recommending gloom and melancholy, and a feclufion from all fociety; far from it. This could answer no other purpose but to four your minds and to deaden your devotions. The cheerfulness of focial converfe and friendly intercourfe is by no means inconfiftent with the duties of the week; but all those tumultuous effemblies, which are too ftrongly marked with an air of levity, gaiety, and diffipation, and may in fact be ranked with the number of public diverfions, are plainly repugnant to that seriousness and tenderness of mind, which the awful and interesting events of that week must naturally infpire. Let me only requeft you to read over, when you return home, that plain, fimple, unaffected, yet touching narrative of our Saviour's fufferings, which is felected from the Gofpels, in the daily offices of the next week; and then ask your own hearts whether, at the very time when your Redeemer is fuppofed to have paffed through all thofe dreadful fcenes for your fakes and for your falvation, from his firft agony in the garden, to his last expiring groan upon the crofs, whether at this very time you can bring yourselves to pursue the pleafures, the vanities, and the follies of the world, with the fame unqualified eagernefs and unabated ardour as if nothing had happened which had given him the flighteft pain, or in which you had the fmalleft intereft or concern. Your hearts, I am fure, will revolt at the very idea, and your own feelings will preferve you from thus wontonly fporting with the crofs of Chrift. And if from a prudent abftinence from these things your were to add a careful enquiry into your paft conduct, and the prefent ftate of your fouls, if you were to extend your views to another world, and confider what your condition there is likely to be; what reasonable grounds you have to hope for a favorable fentence from your Almighty Judge; how far you have conformed to the commands of your Maker, and what degree of affection and gratitude you have manifested for the inexpreffible kindness of your Redeemer; this furely would be an employment not inconfiftent with your neceffary occupa

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tions, and not unfuitable to humble candidates for pardon, acceptance, and immortal happiness.

Is this too great a burden to be impofed upon us for a few days; is it too great a facrifice of our time, our thoughts and our amusements to an invisible world and a reverfionary inheritance of ineftimable value? It certainly is if the gospel be all a fabricated tale. But if it contain the words of foberness and truth; if its divine authority is established by fuch an accumulation of evidence of various kinds as never before concurred to prove any other facts or events in the hiftory of the world, by evidences fpringing from different fources, yet all centering in the fame point, and converging to the fame conclufion; if even the few incidental proofs that have been offered to your confideration in the course of these Lectures have produced that conviction in your minds which they seem to have done, what then is the consequence? Is it not that truths of fuch infinite importance well deserve all that confideration for which I am now contending; and that we ought to embrace with eagerness every appointed means and every favorable opportunity that is thrown in our way, of demonstrating our attachment and our gratitude to a crucified Saviour, who died for our fins and rofe again for our juftification, and will come once more in glory to judge the world in righteoufnefs, and to distribute his rewards and punishments to all the nations of the earth affembled before him? At that awful tribunal may we all appear with a humble confidence in the merits of our Redeemer, and a trembling hope of that mercy which he has promised to every fincere believer, every truly contrite and penitent offender!

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