"which God, the righteous Judge, fhall "give me at that day."- -He who can fay with this holy Apoftle, "To me to "live is Chrift," he, and he only, can with him fubjoin, and to die is gain." If now we live when believers ftand fast in the Lord; if to promote the honour of our Master, and the falvation of our brethren, be the objects of our keenest defires and most vigorous purfuit, death can do us no harm: we may cheerfully look beyond the grave to thofe pure regions of everlafting light, and love, and joy; where "they that be wife, fhall fhine as the

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brightness of the firmament; and they "that turn many unto righteoufnefs, as "the ftars for ever and ever." Animated by these hopes, let us henceforth go on with fidelity and zeal in performing every part of duty that belongs to us: and

though Ifrael be not gathered by our means, yet fhall we be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and our God fhall be

our strength." He who graciously accepteth according to what a man hath, will not reject "our labour of love;" but

will confefs us at laft before an affembled world; and fay, with all the indulgence of a kind and liberal Mafter, "Well done, "good and faithful fervants, enter ye into "the joy of Lord." Amen.

your

SER

SERMON II.

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PROVERBS, xv. 3.

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, bebolding the evil and the good.

N every age of the church the complaint

I

may be repeated, that "all men have "not faith." Many who think they have it, are fatally deceived; and fhall be found in the iffue to have been utterly devoid of this gracious principle. True faith determines the choice, and governs the practice according to the nature of the thing believed. It is called "the evidence," or demonstration, "of things not feen." Let the objects be ever fo remote, yet faith brings them near to the mind, and renders them as powerful and affections and will, as present and visible.

operative upon the if they were both Such is the nature and

and efficacy of this grace; from whence you may judge, whether it be fo common as men are apt to imagine.

The subject of my text will afford us a ftriking illustration of this remark.——We have already profeffed our belief, and we have done it too with fome folemnity, that the eyes of the Lord are in this place, beholding the evil and the good. This we virtually acknowledged when we celebrated his praife: but we did it most explicitly when we offered up our prayers to him; for to what purpofe fhould we pray to an abfent, or even to an inattentive being? Yet if we examine ourfelves impartially, and try our faith by the only proper teft, I fufpect we fhall find too much reafon to conclude, either that we do not seriously believe this doctrine, or, at beft, that our faith is very weak and imperfect.

Were God vifibly prefent in our affembly; were the great Immanuel, God in our nature, ftanding in the midst of us; would we praise him fo feebly, or pray to him fo coldly, or speak and hear fo unfeelingly as we do? And fhall feeing, or

not

not feeing, make fuch an odds? Did we just now behold the object of our worship, would the mere fhutting our eyes render his prefence lefs venerable, or the influence of it lefs powerful? No, my brethren our feeing God could only af fure us that he is prefent; and if an equal affurance is obtained by any other means, the influence of his prefence will in either cafe be the fame. It is not therefore to the feeing or not feeing God, that any difference in our temper or behaviour must be imputed; but to the believing, or not believing, the reality of his prefence: from which we may juftly infer, that every degree of irreverence in our minds, and every undutiful step in our conduct, is a fymptom of the weakness and imperfection of our faith; and, confequently, that a course of known fin, or the habitual indulgence of any corrupt affection, affords undoubted evidence, that whatever light we may have in our understanding, yet we do not believe with our heart, that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

When