Sixthly. It is a fault, peculiar to men actuated by an intemperate zeal, to consider some sinners, who seem insensible to their instructions, negligent of their advice, and deaf to their remonstrances, as in a state of inevitable perdition; and the more solicitous they are for the salvation of those unhappy people, the less hope they entertain of promoting it. They imagine, that they see God's seal of reprobation engraven on the hearts of those infatuated men the warmth of their language confirms the temerity of their thoughts; they loudly lament over them, as men already judged; and, as though they were acquainted before hand with the counsels of Heaven, or the Lord's mercies were not more abundant, than their uncharitableness; they look upon those as lost, whom God is, it may be, about to receive into his favour, and bless with his protection. To entertain such sentiments is an outrage, committed against the power of his grace; it is to regard the atonement, made by the blood of his Son, as ineffectual; it is to make the time of this life, which is the period of repentance and mercy, a season of his wrath and vengeance. The children of the kingdom may be cast out; and God may, of very stones,— of hearts, the most hard and insensible,―raise up children unto Abraham. The conversion of Satan alone, and of his angels, are the only things we are forbidden to hope for; but as to our brethren, who live still among us, and for whom Christ died, however sinful, and however wicked-the blood of the true Abel may cry for them towards heaven, and supplicate, not their punishment, but their salvation and their deliverance. And you, who judge your brother before God has passed sentence upon him, how know you, whether, strong as you may appear in the power of the Lord, you may not fall upon your own stedfastness, never to rise again; and whether your brother, whom you consider as fallen, everlastingly, from the favour of God, may not rise, to fall no more? Who hath revealed to you the unfathomable depths of the mercy and justice of God, towards men! "Judge nothing," says the Apostle, "before the time :"-May we all work out our own salvation, with fear, and labour to promote that of others, with diligence! Let us never forget, my Brethren, that the zeal of charity, "like charity itself, suffereth long, and "is kind; that it envieth not; that it vaunteth "not itself; is not puffed up; is not easily pro"voked; thinketh no evil." Let us banish all odious characters from our zeal; let us humble our own spirit; and may the spirit of God, alone, work and act in us! Zeal hath vanquished the world, in the mouths of the first Preachers of the Gospel; it will again in ours, if the Spirit of God inspire us with what we shall think, and what we shall speak. The world shewed a greater repugnance to the truth, when first proclaimed by the Gospel the severity of laws, the rage of superstition, the wisdom of philosophy, all, with their united force, opposed to it, and all acknowledged its irresistible power; and it would, again, be honoured with the same triumphs, were it entrusted with the same Ministers. Let us enter into the spirit of our holy predecessors, and we shall enter into the success of their labours: let. us imitate the same zeal, and we shall gather the same fruit from it: the world is not more vicious; -No! the ministers of the Gospel are less holy, and less diligent. Let us render ourselves worthy of being the preachers of the truth, and we shall once more be enabled to deliver the world, by the power of its evidence, and the efficacy of its per suasion. CHARGE VIII ON A GOOD EXAMPLE. THE character by which the Clergy ought to be distinguished from other men, is not a spirit of dominion, but a principle of love. "We are not It is chiefly "to be lords over God's heritage, but examples of "the flock, entrusted to our care." in becoming" an example, in word, in conversa❝tion, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity," that we support the high title we have the honour to bear. Christ himself, the great "Shepherd, "and Bishop of our souls, left not the glory which "he had, with the Father, before the world was," in order to receive honour from men. No! he was to become our example; an example of labour, of sorrow, of meekness, of charity, of suffering. "I have given you," says he, to his disciples, "an example." He has left us, in his place, for the very purpose of becoming, as is expressed by the Apostle, "an example of the believers;" that we should do to others, as he hath done to us. Example is, then, the ground-work of a Clergyman's character; without which, all the duties of our station, however engaging, and eloquent, we |