will, and not remember that we ourselves also were sometimes foolish and disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures; and not ask who made us to differ from others; and what have we that we have not received?-How can we see the vileness of sin in its ugly tempers and detestable practices, and not be excited to abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good?-How can we contemplate the miseries of the sinner, and not have our faith confirmed in the testimony of the Scripture that assures us the end of these things is death; the way of transgressors is hard; there is no peace to the wicked ?— And when we behold them blind and deaf, and madly rushing on to destruction, will not all the compassion of our souls be moved, will not all our zeal be inflamed, to endeavour to save them?

V. In the World he is in a sphere of USEFULNESS.

We principally mean religious usefulness. We would not indeed limit your exertions. Do all the good that is in your power. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, administer to the sick, visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction-But forget not, that charity to the soul is the soul of charity. There is no evil from which you can deliver a fellowcreature to be compared with sin; and there is no good you can obtain for him like that grace whose fruit is holiness, and whose end is everlasting life.

And fix in your minds, my Christian friends, not only the importance of the object, but the possibility of accomplishing it. David did not despair of success when he said, "Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee."

And what says the Apostle James?

"Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." God works by means; and it is by his people that he principally carries on his cause in the world. They are his witnesses. They are his servants. He first makes them the subjects of his grace, and then the mediums. He first turns them from rebels into friends, and then employs them to go and beseech others to be reconciled unto God. For they know the wretchedness of a state of alienation from him. They know the blessedness of a return. They have "tasted that the Lord is gracious." Their own experience gives them earnestness and confidence in saying to those around them, "O taste, and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him."

Let us enter more fully into this most essential part of our subject.

The persons for whom you are to be concerned are represented as without; and your object is to bring them in. They are ignorant, and you must inform them. They are prejudiced, and you must remove their objections. They are full of aversion, and you must subdue this dislike. The Scripture calls this "gaining" them; "winning" them. In order to this, address is necessary, as well as zeal: "He that winneth souls is wise." Hence the Apostle requires you to "walk in wisdom towards them that are without." The question is, what this wisdom includes. Here I wish I had more time to enlarge and particularize. I know nothing concerning which the con

duct of many religious people needs more correction. I will therefore venture to exceed a little the limits allotted to this exercise; though, after all, we can only throw out a few hints for your observance.

If then you would bring in those that are without, show nothing like a contemptuous superiority or distance. Avoid every air of the Pharisee, who says, "Stand by thy thyself; come not near me; I am holier than thou." Convince them that you love them, and have no object in view but their own welfare. And therefore be kind, and tender, and ready to serve them. Especially be attentive to them in trouble; for nothing affects persons more deeply, than the notice you take of them in distress. It will look disinterested; and will not fail to form in their minds a striking contrast between you and the people of the world, and lead them to say, "How these people differ from others! Other friends drop us in adversity; but then these take us up. They are not meanly governed by advantage, but love their neighbours as themselves."

Learn to distinguish things that differ. What fisherman would employ the same bait for every kind of fish, and at every season of the year? Who, wishing to convince, would seize the moment of passion and irritation; and not wait the return of calmness and reason? Who, having to reprove, would not administer the rebuke privately, rather than mortify and exasperate by publick exposure? "Tell him his fault between him and thee alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." How different are the conditions, the habits, the principles, the tempers of men! And who was it that said, "Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to ed

ification ?" And did not his own example enforcé his advice? Though I be free from all men, yet have made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more." "And this I do for the Gospel's sake." "Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved."

-Never begin in a way of attack. This puts you into the posture of an enemy, and provokes a feeling of defence and resistance. Recommend what is right, rather than oppose what is wrong; and let them, by the perception of the one, discover and condemn the other. The best way of effecting the expulsion of evil, is by the introduction of good. What is it to tear people away from their amusements, before any superior source of pleasure be opened to their minds? Their hearts are still after their idols. They only act the hypocrite in their abstinence; and hate the religion that forbids their happiness. Let something better be substituted; and the soul is even as a weaned child.

-And do not attempt every thing at once. "There is," says Henry, "not only an underdoing, but an overdoing; and such an overdoing, as sometimes proves an undoing." When the disciples of John asked our Saviour, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not ?"-he said unto them, "Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment; for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles; else

the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved." Now what you have here to consider, is, not so much the imagery of the comparisons, as the principle. His meaning is, that some things, proper in themselves, are yet not seasonable; and that we may do hurt rather than good, by endeavouring to effect too much.

Look to his life

Did he despise

say

for an illustration of his doctrine. the day of small things? Did he break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax? Did not he to his disciples, "I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now ?" How unlike him are they who force upon the mind every difficult sentiment, regardless of any preparation made by experience for the reception of it. "How unwise," as an old writer has it, "is the conduct of those how send their pupils to the university of predestination, before they have entered the grammar-school of repentance." How injurious is it, when the tenderness of age requires only milk, to feed babes with strong meat,-yea and even to furnish them with the bones of controversy.

-Do not attach great importance to little things. This is the way to make people think that your religion consists of whims or trifles; and that your integrity and firmness are but squeamishness and obstinacy. Show that though you have a tender conscience, you have not a weak one. Show that your convictions are not opinions, but principles. Show that your object is not to make proselytes to your party, but converts to the cause of real Christianity. -Beware of every thing in your conduct that would prove a scandal. They who see, can get over