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PRAYER BEFORE OR AFTER THE SERMON.

Collect for All Saints Day.

O Almighty God, who haft knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the myftical body of thy Son, Jefus Chrift our Lord: Grant us grace, fo to follow thy bleffed faints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys, which thou haft prepared for them that unfeignedly love thee, both in this life and the life to come, [See 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10, &c.] through Jefus Christ our Lord!

Her

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PROV. iii. 17.

ways are ways of pleafantnefs, and all her paths áre peace.

Tis obfervable, that, though Almighty God effects our falvation by the power of Divine Grace, yet, it is through the influence of fuch motives as are fuited to our nature as rational beings. He addreffes him felf repeatedly, in the facred volune, to each of the feveral principles which actuate our conduct; to our reason, our hope, our

fear,

fear, our gratitude, our love, and every other principle and paffion, which he has implanted in the human breaft. While he " draws us with bonds

of love," it is ftill with the cords of a man** At one time, he fhews us the fupreme happiness which will be our portion, if we yield our hearts to him. At another time, he brings forward, under the strongest images, the dreadful flate of mifery, which will inevitably be the confequence, if we continue in a ftate of rebellion. We fometimes find him expoftulating with mankind, reprefenting how greatly they are indebted to him, and how incumbent it is on them to make a fuitable return. Now, we behold him, appealing to the fineft feelings of their hearts, and calling on them to fhew their love to him by the holiness of their lives. He alternately brings forward the present, and the future confequences, both to the righteous and the wicked. Nor can minifters do better than follow his example. We certainly err, if we dwell entirely either on the prefent or the future ftate of man, to the exclufion of the other. Eternal rewards and punishments, inafiuch as they muft neceffarily furpafs any enjoyments or fufferings within the narrow limits of time, will of course, the more frequently be urged, as the ftronger motives of action. But, then, we fhall do well to remember, that what is prefent or near, has, on that very account, peculiar force on the corrupt nature of man. With forethought capable of piercing through the boundless regions of eternity, he often: limits

Hofea xi. 4:

limits his views of happiness or mifery to a day, or an hour. For this reafon, I have endeavoured to fhew you, in the preceding difcourfe, by a confideration of the lives of various defcriptions of finners, that there is no "peace to the wicked." Permit me now to attempt a brief reprefentation of the pleafing contraft afforded in a life of religion, "whofe ways are ways of pleafantnefs, and all "whofe paths are peace.'

It can fcarcely have efcaped your notice, that the happiness reprefented in our text is attributed to wifdom, and not exprefsly to religion. Yet to every perfon, who has attentively obferved the chapter, from which our text is taken, it must appear, that the wifdom there defcribed is "the wif "dom that is from above, and is pure and peace"able t." It is the reflection of the divine mind; a cordial reception of the whole counsel of God, by which a man becomes conformed in difpofitions and life to the divine will; and is as diftinct and feparate from that wisdom which "descendeth not "from above," as light is from darkness. Of the latter, it is afferted, "In much wisdom is much "grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaf"eth forrow ;" and that God taketh the wife in "their own craftinefs f." It is the wifdom of " the "children of this world," and is earthly," fenfual, devilish. But, on the other hand, the wifdom fpoken of in our text, which is the perfection of all holiness, and is attended with peace and pleasantnefs. These comprehend within them

every

Sce, ver 13, &c, + Eccl. i. 18. ‡ Job. v. 13. . § Jam. iii, 15.

every fenfation of mind which is defirable; and if godlinefs poffefs thefe, even on earth, truly may it be faid to be, "profitable for all things, having "the promife of the life that now is, as well as that

which is to come." By peace we may underftand a perfect freedom from fuffering, anxiety, and difquietude: by pleasantnefs, the actual enjoyment of real confolation and blifs.

Thefe alone can be worthy our purfuit, either in time or eternity. In the latter, we are affured, that the rewards of the righteous fhall confift, 1ft, Of an entire release from whatever might occafion their difquiet. "God fhall wipe away tears from all 46 eyes; and there fhall be no more death, nei"ther forrow, nor crying, neither fhall there be "any more pain: and, 2dly, Of all which can gratify and delight the mind: "in God's prefence, (to which they will then be admitted) there is fulnefs of joy, and at his right hand there are pleafures for ever more t.". The reprefentation given in our text is neither more nor lefs than of the beginning of thefe, Indeed, we fhall never have right conceptions of the happiness of the religious, either in this world or the next, until we understand them both, as different ftages or periods of the fame divine life begun in the foul. « He "that believeth on the Son of God (afferted St. John the Baptift) hath eternal life." This is life eternal (obferved our bleffed Redeemer "himself, in his laft prayer to his Father) that they "might know thee the only true God, and Jefus "Chrift, Rev. xxi. 4. Pfalm xvi. 11. John iii. 36.

66

+

"Chrift, whom thou haft fent *. "We know "(obferves the apolle) that the Son of God is "come, and hath given us an understanding that

we may know him that is true; and we are in "him that is true, even in his Son Jefus Chrift. "This is the true God, and eternal life t." Thefe paffages may fuffice for the prefent; fince, to cite every one in which a prefent falvation begun in the foul is either afferted or implied, would be to transcribe a confiderable part of the facred volume.

Having thus prepared the way, we may now proceed to reprefent the enjoyments of the faithful, in this prefent life, as confifting, both of peace and of pleafantnefs, which we may proceed to confider,

1. As pofitively declared in the facred fcrip

tures.

2. As apparent from our obfervation in the world, and the nature of things.

After which, we may conclude with a brief APPLICATION of this and the preceding discourse.

1. The fcriptures plainly affert that the enjoyments of the faithful confift of peace. The peace as well as the pleafantnefs of their path, is expreffly declared, as we have feen, in the words of our But who, it may be afked, was it that made this declaration? Was it fome low and ignorant man who knew little of the enjoyments of the world?

text.

* John xvii. 3.

D

+ 1 John v. 20,

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