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JESUS CHRIST will then give thee ftrength; he will put his Spirit within thee; thou shalt find he will be thy wifdom, thy righteousness, thy fanétification, and thy redemption. Do but try what a gracious, a kind, and loving Mafter he is; he will be a help to thee in all thy burdens and if the burden of fin is on thy foul, go to him as weary and heavy laden, and thou fhalt find reft.

Do not fay, that your fins are too many and too great to expect to find mercy: No; be they ever fo many, or ever fo great, the blood of the LORD JESUS CHRIST will cleanse you from all fins. GOD's grace, my brethren, is free, rich, and fovereign. Manassah was a great finner, and yet he was pardoned; Zaccheus was gone far from God, and went out to fee CHRIST, with no other view but to fatisfy his curiofity } and yet JESUS met him, and brought falvation to his house. Manaffah was an idolater and murderer, yet he received mercy; the other was an oppreffor and extortioner, who had gotten riches by fraud and deceit, and by grinding the faces of the poor: fo did Matthew too, and yet they found mercy.' Have you been blafphemers and perfecutors of the faints and fervants of GOD? So was St. Paul, yet he received mercy: Have you been common harlots, filthy and unclean perfons? fo was Mary Magdalene, and yet the received mercy! Haft thou been a thief? the thief upon the crofs found mercy. I despair of none of you, however vile and profligate you have been; I fay, I despair of none of you, especially when Goo has had mercy on such a wretch as I am.

Remember the poor Publican, how he found favour with GOD, when the proud, felf-conceited Pharifee, who, puffed up with his own righteousness, was rejected. And if you will go to JESUS, as the poor Publican did, under a sense of your own unworthinefs, you fhall find favour as he did there is virtue enough in the blood of JESUs, to pardon greater finners than he has yet pardoned. Then be not difcouraged, but come unto JESUS, and you will find him ready to help in all thy diftrefies, to lead thee into all truth, to bring thee from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.

Do not let the devil deceive you, by telling you, that then all your delights and pleasures will be over: No; this is so far from depriving you of all pleasure, that it is an inlet unto

unfpeakable

unfpeakable delights, peculiar to all who are truly regenerated. The new birth is the very beginning of a life of peace and comfort; and the greatest pleasantnefs is to be found in the ways of holiness.

Solomon, who had experience of all other pleasures, yet faith of the ways of godliness, "That all her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are paths of peace." Then fure you, will not let the devil deceive you; it is all he wants, it is that he aims at, to make religion appear to be melancholy, miferable, and enthufiaftic: but let him fay what he will, give not ear to him, regard him not, for he always was and will be a liar.

What words, what entreaties fhall I ufe, to make you come unto the LORD JESUS CHRIST? The little love I have experienced fince I have been brought from fin to God, is fo great, that I would not be in a natural ftate for ten thousand worlds; and what I have felt is but little to what I hope to feel; but that little love which I have experienced, is a fufficient buoy against all the ftorms and tempefts of this boifterous world and let men and devils do their worst, I rejoice in the LORD JESUS, yea, and I will rejoice.

And O if you repent and come to JESUS, I would rejoice on your accounts too; and we should rejoice together to all eternity, when once paffed on the other fide of the grave. O come to JESUS. The arms of JESUS CHRIST will embrace you; he will wash away all your fins in his blood, and will love you freely.

Come, I beseech you to come unto JESUS CHRIST. O that my words would pierce to the very foul! O that JESUS CHRIST was formed in you! O that you would turn to the LORD JESUS CHRIST, that he might have mercy upon you!

I would speak till midnight, yea, I would speak till I could speak no more, so it might be a means to bring you to JESUS : let the LORD JESUS but enter your fouls, and you fhall find peace which the world can neither give nor take away. There is mercy for the greatest finner amongst you; go unto the LORD as finners, helpless and undone without it, and then you fhall find comfort in your fouls, and be admitted at last amongst thofe who fing praises unto the LORD to all eternity,

Now

Now, my brethren, let me fpeak a word of exhortation to thofe of you, who are already brought to the LORD JESUS, who are born again, who do belong to GOD, to whom it has been given to repent of your fins, and are cleansed from their guilt; and that is, be thankful to GOD for his mercies towards you. O admire the grace of GOD, and bless his name for ever! Are you made alive in CHRIST JESUS? Is the life of GOD begun in your fouls, and have you the evidence thereof? Be thankful for this unspeakable mercy to you: never forget to speak of his mercy. And as your life was formerly devoted to fin, and to the pleasures of the world, let it now be fpent wholly in the ways of God; and O embrace every opportunity of doing and of receiving good. Whatfoever opportunity you have, do it vigorously, do it speedily, do not defer it. If thou feeft, one hurrying on to deftruction, use the utmost of thy endeavour to stop him in his courfe; fhew him the need he has of repentance, and that without it he is loft for ever; do not regard his defpifing of you; ftill go on to fhew him his danger and if thy friends mock and despise, do not let that difcourage you; hold on, hold out to the end, fo you shall have a crown which is immutable, and that fadeth not away.

Let the love of JESUS to you, keep you alfo humble; do not be high-minded, keep clofe unto the LORD, obferve the rules which the LORD JESUS CHRIST has given in his word, and let not the inftructions be loft which you are capable of giving. O confider what reason you have to be thankful to the LORD JESUS CHRIST for giving you that repentance you yourselves had need of: a repentance which worketh by love. Now you find more pleasure in walking with GOD one hour, than in all your former carnal delights, and all the pleasures of fin. O the joy you feel in your own fouls, which all the men of this world, and all the devils in hell, though they were to combine together, could not deftroy. Then fear not their wrath or malice, for through many tribulations we must enter into glory.

A few days, or weeks, or years more, and then you will be beyond their reach, you will be in the heavenly Jerufalem; there is all harmony and love, there is all joy and delight; there the weary foul is at rest.

VOL. VI.

B

Now

Now we have many enemies, but at death they are all loft; they cannot follow us beyond the grave: and this is a great encouragement to us not to regard the fcoffs and jeers of the men of this world.

O let the love of JESUS be in your thoughts continually. It was his dying that brought you life; it was his crucifixion that paid the fatisfaction for your fins; his death, burial, and refurrection that compleated the work; and he is now in heaven, interceding for you at the right-hand of his Father. And can you do too much for the LORD JESUS CHRIST, who has done fo much for you? His love to you is unfathomable. O the height, the depth, the length and breadth of this love, that brought the King of glory from his throne, to die for such rebels as we are, when we had acted fo unkindly against him, and deserved nothing but eternal damnation. He came down and took our nature upon him; he was made of flesh and dwelt among us; he was put to death on our account; he paid our ransom: furely this should make us love the LORD JESUS CHRIST; fhould make us rejoice in him, and not do as too many do, and as we ourselves have too often, crucify this JESUS afresh. Let us do all we can, my dear brethren, to honour him.

Come, all of you, come, and behold him ftretched out for you; fee his hands and feet nailed to the crofs. O come, come, my brethren, and nail your fins thereto; come, come and fee his fide pierced; there is a fountain open for fin, and for uncleannefs: O wafh, wash and be clean: come and fee his head crowned with thorns, and all for you. Can you think of a panting, bleeding, dying JESUS, and not be filled with pity towards him? He underwent all this for you. Come unto him by faith; lay hold on him: there is mercy for foul of you every that will come unto him. Then do not delay; fly unto the arms of this JESUS, and you fhall be made clean in his blood.

O what fhall I fay unto you to make you come to JESUS: I have fhewed you the dreadful confequence of not repenting of your fins and if after all I have faid, you are refolved to perfift, your blood will be required at your own heads; but I hope better things of you, and things that accompany salvation. Let me beg of you to pray in good earnest for the

grace

grace of repentance. I may never fee your faces again; but at the day of judgment I will meet you: there you will either blefs GOD that ever you were moved to repentance; or elfe this fermon, though in a field, will be as a swift witness against you. Repent, repent therefore, my dear brethren, as John the Baptift, and as our bleffed Redeemer himself earneftly exhorted, and turn from your evil ways, and the LORD will have mercy on you.

Shew them, O Father, wherein they have offended thee; make them to see their own vilenefs, and that they are loft and undone without true repentance; and O give them that repentance, we befeech of thee, that they may turn from fin unto thee the living and true GOD. These things, and whatever else thou seeft needful for us, we entreat that thou wouldst bestow upon us, on account of what the dear JESUS CHRIST has done and fuffered; to whom, with Thyfelf, and holy Spirit, three perfons, and one GOD, be afcribed, as is most due, all power, glory, might, majefty, and dominion, henceforth, and for evermore. Amen.

now,

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