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into solemn vows; but all have quickly been forgotten. How many slighted opportunities, solemn warnings, tender sermons. and powerful convictions will come into the account at the last day!

SKETCH OF A SERMON,

Delivered at the opening of the New Baptist Meeting-House, at Boston, Lincolnshire, June 25, 1801.

THE GOOD MAN'S DESIRE FOR THE SUCCESS OF
GOD'S CAUSE.

Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands es tablish thou it.

Psalm xc. 16, 17.

In every undertaking we have an end or ends to answer, to which all our labours are directed. It is no less so in religious undertakings than in others; and as these are pure, and worthy of pursuit, such is the good or evil of our exertions. What are, or

at least should be, the great ends of a Christian congregation in rearing a place for divine worship? What are the main desires of serious people among you now it is reared? If I mistake not, they are depicted in the passage I have read:-That God's work

may appear among you in your own time—that it may be continued to posterity-that God would beautify you with salvation—and prosper the work of your hands.

The psalm was written by Moses, probably on occasion of the sentence of mortality passed upon the generation of Israelites which came out of Egpyt, on account of their unbelief, as recorded in the xixth chapter of Numbers. It was a heavy sentence, and very affectingly lamented by the holy man; but he discovers a greater concern for the cause of God, than for the loss of temporal comfort. He prays that they may be taught to make such a use of this awful providence as to apply their hearts unto wisdom; and that however God might afflict them, during forty years wandering in the wilderness, he would bless them with spiritual prosperity.

This prayer was answered. That generation which was trained in the wilderness, was perhaps, the best that Israel exhibited during their existence as a nation. It was of them that the Lord himself spake, saying, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel then was holiness to the Lord. May our prayer for the prosperity of God's cause among us be thus answered!

All I shall attempt will be, to review the objects desired, and show the desirableness of them.

The objects desired, though expressed by the Jewish lawgiver, have nothing in them peculiar to that dispensation; but are equally suited to our times as to others. They prove that the cause of God is one, through every dispensation, and is directed to one great end the establishment of truth and righteousness in the earth.

The first branch of this comprehensive petition is, that God's work might appear unto his servants. All God's works are great. Creation is full of his glory: providence is no less so and each is sought out by them that have pleasure therein. But it is evident that by the work of God, in this connexion, is meant the operation of his grace. When the Almighty took Israel to be his

people, he bestowed blessings upon them of two kinds; temporal and spiritual. He gave them the promise of a good land, and of great prosperity, in case of their obedience to his will. But this was not all he set up his cause among them. They were his visible people, by whom true religion was practised, and its interests promoted. It was the carrying on of this cause that is here intended. It was begun from the time when God made promise to Abraham their grand progenitor, and was carried on during the lives of the patriarchs. When they were brought out of Egypt with a high hand, and formed into a people for himself, it became more apparent, and wore a more promising aspect: but when they were doomed to die in the wilderness, it seemed as if it must sink. Hence Moses, who was tenderly affected with what concerned the honour of God, pleads as he does. Thus he pleaded his great name on a former occasion: and thus the prophet Habakkuk pleaded when Judah was going into captivity and the cause of God was likely to be ruined: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years; in the midst of the years make known: in wrath remember his mercy.

The work of God may be said to appear among us when sinners are converted to himself. Conversion is not confined to Jews and heathens; but extends to sinners of all ages and nations. It is not enough that we are born and educated under the light of revelation, nor that we yield a traditional assent to it. Nicodemus could boast of all this, and more: yet he was told by the faithful and true Witness, that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. Conversion work is peculiarly the work of God. Ministers and parents may be the instruments; but God is the proper cause of it. None but he who made the heart of man can turn it from its rooted aversion to the love of himself. Ministers and parents know this by painful experience; and therefore can each adopt the prayer here presented as their own. Wherever this work is, it will appear by its holy and happy effects. The drunkard will become sober, the churl liberal, the unclean chaste, and the malignant persecutor of Christ's people an humble sufferer for his name's sake.

The work of God will also appear among us if Christians grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The power of divine grace is no less apparent in the carrying on of God's work, than in the beginning of it. Nothing short of an almighty arm can preserve creatures, so prone to fall away, from falling, and present those who are so faulty, faultless before the presence of his glory. And where this part of the work is, it will appear also by its holy and happy effects. Such Christians bear the most impressive testimony to the world, of the reality and importance of religion.

A second branch of the petition is, that God's work might so appear as that there might be an illustrious display of his glory. All God's works display his glory; but the work of grace in the salvation of sinners most of all. Other things manifest his wisdom and power; but this, his holy nature. The carrying on of his cause in the world, by the conversion and sanctification of sinners, gives a kind of visibility to the divine character. It is seen, and even felt, by the most abandoned of men. God is said to have appeared in his glory in building up Zion, after it had been broken down by the Chaldeans. Even the heathen, when they saw what he had wrought, could not forbear to acknowledge, the Lord had done great things for them! But the building up of the gospel church, by turning the captivity of those who were the slaves of Satan, is still more glorious. The Lord could accomplish the former merely by his providence; but the latter is the effect of the travail of his soul.

It is requested, thirdly, that God would impart to them his beauty: Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us!-A!! God's works are beautiful; but saints, who are his workmanship, are the subjects of a holy beauty, or of the beauty of holiness. They are comely through the comeliness which he puts upon them. Conceive of the camp of Israel after they had been humbled, and taught to fear the Lord their God. Two or three hundred thousand godly young people, following him implicitly in the wilderness, and trembling at the idea of repeating the iniquities of their fathers! This was a sight at which even a wicked prophet was struck with awe, and could not forbear exclaiming, How goodly VOL, VIII,

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are thy tents," Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! Powerful are the charms of genuine piety. There is something in it that disarms malignity itself, and extorts admiration even from those who hate it. Milton represents the devil himself, on his approaching paradise, as awed by innocence, as staggered, as half inclined to desist from his purpose, and feeling a kind of perturbation within him, composed of malignity and pity. Something like this existed, methinks, in Balaam. He wanders from hill to mountain, seeking for curses, but scattering blessings; sometimes half inclined to unite with God, and concluding with a vain desire to die the death of the righteous. Powerful, I repeat it, are the charms of genuine piety. Conceive of a society of Christians drinking into the spirit of Christ, and walking according to his commandments! What an amiable sight! Beautiful as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, and terrible as an army with banners ! So much as we possess of the spirit of true religion, so near as we approach its original simplicity, so far as our doctrine is incorrupt, our discipline pure and impartial, and our conversation as becometh the gospel, so much of the beauty of the Lord our God is upon us.

A fourth branch of the petition is, that God would set his seal to their undertakings, and establish the work of their hands. Establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. It was the work of Moses and Joshua, and the rest of God's servants, to mould and form the people, especially the rising generation; to instruct them in the words of the Lord, and impress their hearts with the vast importance of obeying them. And this has been the work of God's servants in every age. This is our object in our stated and occasional labours; in village-preaching, and in foreign missions; this is the object in the present undertaking: but all is nothing unless God establish the work of our hands. Except the Lord build the house, the builders labour in vain. As we must never confide in God to the neglect of means; so we must never engage in the use of means without a sense of our dependence on God.

It is requested, finally, that these blessings might appear both in their own times, and be continued to their posterity : Let thy work appear unto thy servants, who are now alive and thy glory unto their children, when they are no more. It is desirable that true

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