cannot but be displeased with every thing that is wicked or impure; but then, I have no right to be believed when I fay this, if I am not careful to keep at the greatest distance from all temptations to fins of impurity.

We call God OUR FATHER; but then we may depend upon it, he will not own us for his children, if in our lives and works, we resemble the devil; if we dare not trust in his fatherly love and care for us; if we will not fubmit to what he ordereth for our good; if we will not mind what will please him; never afk him for what we want, nor thank him for the life which he has given us, and the means of preferving it. By doing this, we disown him for our Father; we difinherit ourselves; and the knowledge and the belief of God the Father will only be a curfe to us.

This being the case of all those who profess to know God, but in works deny him: who are not to be diftinguished by their lives and actions from the very heathens who know not God; and who neither fear, nor love, nor worship him as they ought to do; let us confider the cause of this malady, and endeavour to apply a proper remedy.

Now, FAITH being the foundation of all true religion, of all other graces and qualifications for happiness, let every man who hopes for happiness, in the first place, beg of God this moft neceffary grace, and an in

crease

crease of it daily; a grace without which it is impoffible to please God.

In the next place, that we may lead a life worthy of the faith we profefs, and of the hopes we all have of being happy; let us endeavour to have the feveral articles of our Creed always present, as much as possible, in our minds.

For, most certainly, the only reason why Christians live without uneasiness in the practice of any known fin is, because they forget, they do not attend to, the truths they pretend to believe. For, would Chriftians (as holy David profeffes he did) fet God always before them; they would, as he did, bitterly repent of the fins they had committed; and, by an holy example, make amends for the offence they had given.

Let us therefore not be afraid to confider, and to keep in our minds, what it is we believe of God; and we shall soon see the good effects of doing fo. It will not only put us in mind of our duty and of our interest, but will be a most powerful means of leading us to close with and to practise it.

For inftance:-I believe in God the Father, who made me and all the world. Let me not only fay, but calmly confider this. Why then I ftand indebted to God for my being; for every thing I have, or value, or hope for. If I ftood half fo much obliged to any man living, I fhould highly value him, I fhould love him,

• Pfalm xvi. 8.

him, I should strive to please him, I fhould take all occafions to thank him for his favours, and I fhould never willingly offend him. And why not this to Thee, my God, my Maker, my Benefactor?

But what did God make me for? Not fure to lead an idle ufelefs life; I cannot believe that: that would not be for his honour. No. But he made me to manifeft in me—his glorious perfections, his power in creating me, his providence in preferving me, his bounty in providing for me, his wifdom in giving me the very beft rules to live by, his goodness in promifing to reward my poor endeavours to please him, and his holiness and juftice in punishing the breach of his moft righteous laws.

This is what every Chriftian profeffes to believe to be the end of his creation; to glorify God, by living as becomes a creature of fo great, fo juft, fo holy, fo good, fo bountiful a Creator.

And it must be great unthoughtfulness, when any Christian acts contrary to these ends. For let but a man confider with himfelf, The life which God has given me, is not mine to difpofe of; it is the Almighty God, who fent me into the world, there to stay just as long as he shall think fit; I dare not therefore, for my foul, attempt to leave my station, till he commands me; I will not fhorten that life which God has given me, by debauchery and intemperance; I will not, I

dare

dare not, run the hazard of lofing my life on any account whatever, but only when it shall be for the glory of my Maker.

And then when I confider, as I ought very often to do, That I was made to glorify God, by doing good in my generation, and by living as becomes the relation I have to him, calling him my Father, as often as I fay my prayers, or repeat my Creed: when I remember this, I fhall be ashamed and blush to be found doing any thing which may difhonour my Father and my God.

But if this confideration does not hinder me from doing a base or vile thing, there is another which fure ought to restrain me:The God whom I fhall provoke by this wicked action, I believe him to be almighty, and that he can destroy both body and foul in hell. There is no paffion, no pleasure, no defire of gain, of revenge, no temptation whatever, which this confideration, if attended to, will not damp and deaden.

It is true, temptations are fometimes too fudden and too violent to permit us to make the comparison betwixt the pleasure of fin, and the eternal punishment that is to follow it: but then it is as true, that it is our own fault, that we do not fufficiently think of this when we are in a temper for doing it; and that we do not seriously beg of God to deliver us from evil; of God, who is almighty to fave, as well as to punish.

Our

Our faith furnisheth us with another motive to abstain from evil, and to be doing good, because our Maker has his eyes continually upon us; for good, if we do well; for evil, if we do otherwise. And happy would it be for us, if we would be careful to live and act as having God the conftant witness of our conduct.

We fhould then reason thus with ourselves: I will not do this evil, though none but God fee me; my fin will furely find me out, if I do it; I will faithfully discharge this duty, as in the fight of God, because from him I expect my reward; I will not speak irreverently of God, who hears every word I fay; nor will I harbour any evil in my mind, because God knows the very thoughts of my heart: I would not dare do this in the presence of a man like myself, and shall I not fear to do it in the prefence of that God, who can confound and destroy me the moment I fin against him?

A man may be fo weak as to think that he has power, and friends, and wisdom, to carry on any design he has in his thoughts, without calling in God to his affiftance:, he does not confider what God himself has declared, That there is neither wisdom, nor understanding, nor counfel, against the Lord. If he did confider this, he would ask his leave, his help, his bleffing.

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