In the kingdom of Grace, upon account of our many fins, and the utter impoffibility of our making peace with God of ourselves, we are governed by our Mediator Jefus Chrift; through the confideration of whose meritorious fufferings and effectual interceffion, God overlooks our frailties, pardons our fins and accepts of a fincere repentance inftead of a perfect obedience.

But in the kingdom of Glory, when we shall no more be liable to temptation and fin, when our corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and we bear the image of the heavenly, as we have born the image of the earthly, there will be no occafion for a mediator, but we shall be governed immediately by God himself; the mediatorial office of Chrift fhall then cease, and the kingdom be delivered up to God even the Father, and the Son alfo himself shall be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in

all.

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It

It remains for us to confider, in what fense we pray that these kingdoms of God

may come.

For the kingdom of Grace we pray, that our hearts and minds may be thoroughly subdued thereto, that we may be worthy fubjects of Christ's kingdom; that all perfons who are within the Chriftian covenant may lead their lives anfwerable thereto, and every member of Chrift's holy church may in his vocation truly and godly ferve him; that God would please to have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Hereticks, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of his word and commandment, and fo fetch them home to his flock, that they may be faved among the remnant of the true Ifraelites, and be made one Fold under one Shepherd Jesus Christ our Lord.

For the kingdom of Glory we pray, that God will of his mercy fpeedily release us

from

from the dangers and troubles of this life, and inftate us with himself in joy and peace, that he will fhortly accomplish the number of his elect, and receive his bleffed Saints into everlasting happiness.

To make us worthy repeaters of this petition, it is neceffary that we fhould have a 'due fenfe of God's goodness in establishing a kingdom amongst us, which is founded upon fuch mild and eafy conditions as that of Grace, and ftrengthened with fuch great and glorious promifes as that of Glory; we should acknowledge the great privilege of being under his government, whofe every action is dictated by infinite mercy, and guided by unerring wisdom for the benefit of his crea-. tures; we should entertain all thofe affections for God which good fubjects have for their kings, and perform all thofe duties. which they pay to them in as much greater a degree, as God is fuperior to the greatest Monarch.

We ought also, in ufing this petition, to have an univerfal love and charity for all men, a due fenfe of the corruption of manners, of the prevalence of infidelity and vice, an holy forrow for all who knowing the truth live not up to it, and for all who know it not, but walk in ignorance and in the fhadow of death.

And these charitable affections should upon all occafions break forth into action, infpiring us with a fincere zeal to inftru&t the ignorant and reclaim the wicked.

A glorious employment this for a reasonable creature, and a neceffary qualification to make us true subjects of that kingdom which was founded and is governed by Christ, who spent his whole life in doing good, in converting the Sinner from the evil of his ways, and bringing him to the knowledge of of God.

Christianity

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Christianity was never intended to be kept in a corner, or confined, like the doctrines of the philofophèrs, to any particular school, but to spread itself over the face of the whole earth. No one therefore can be a worthy fubject of Chrift's kingdom, who does not endeavour to advance and propagate it.

It is not to be expected that we should, like the Apostles, vifit remote and barbarous nations, fince we have not, as they had, the credentials of Miracles to produce; but furely it is our indispensible duty to plant and propagate the Chriftian religion in our own colonies, and as we reap their temporal things to which we have I know not what right, to fow in them fpiritual things, to which our religion entitles them, without any other confideration.

Had we been more careful to perform our parts in this refpect, had we endeavoured to civilize thofe rude nations, and inftil into them the principles of the Gofpel, we had L 3

not