fect? that Christ and eternal salvation were freely offered to you, but were contemptuously despised and set at nought? These considerations will add a continual fuel to the tormenting flames, and will make them burn with insufferable violence. O then be wise in time! "Seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."-To conclude: Ponder the wholesome advice recorded in (Prov. viii. 33, 36.) “Hear Instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me, love death." Amen.

SERMON XXXIX.

Preached on the Evening of a Communion-Sabbath.

GALATIANS vi. 4.

Let every Man prove his own Work.

BEFORE I enter upon the subject of this text, it may not be improper to mention some of the reasons which have led me to it at this time.

1st. As many, who call themselves Christians, dis

cover so little of Christianity in their lives, that we are often at a loss to reconcile their conduct with their professions; I thought it might be of use to those who are in any degree distinguished by their religious conduct, if I could lead them into such a scrutiny of themselves as this text suggests to us; or persuade them to inquire, whether their works, which are apparently good, are such as will abide the test: whether they proceed from the Spirit of God, or from the spirit of the world: whether they are animated by a "simplicity and godly sincerity," or by the unhallowed principles of self-love, and the desire of recommending themselves to the esteem of men.

2dly. It is evident from Scripture, that a man may go far in the outward performance of his duty, and yet be actuated by such motives as afford him greater cause of grief and of shame than of that rejoicing which is mentioned in the clause following my text. I read in the preceding verse, that it is possible for a "man to think himself to be something when he is nothing." I find in fact that the Laodiceans imagined themselves to be "rich and increased with goods, and having need of nothing," when, in truth, they were "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." And there are too many reasons to suspect, that, like those, multitudes of this present generation are "pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their filthiness;" have a name that they live" while "they are dead ;" and have "the praise of men" while "their hearts are not right with God."

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3dly. I foresee the time when thousands shall wish that they had followed the Apostle's advice in my text, "Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry."-"The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archan

gel, and the trump of God; to judge the world in righteousness. In that day many shall say to him, Lord, Lord, did we not eat and drink in thy presence, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works?" But when they receive that awful reply, "Depart from me, I know you not whence ye are," with what inconceivable anguish will they then cry out, Oh! that we had tried and proved those specious works in which we trusted. We thought them good and acceptable to God; alas! too late, we find our unhappy mistake. The time was, when this discovery might have profited us; but now the doom is passed; our state is fixed; and nothing remains for us but a fruitless remorse, and the galling remembrance of our former sloth and security.—And,

Lastly. When I considered that I was to speak to communicants, who have this day sealed either their friendship or their enmity with Christ at his own table, it determined me to address to you a pressing and earnest call to prove this part of your work in particular; that such as have been properly employed in this holy service may, after trial of themselves, lay hold of the comforts which belong to them; and that others may receive such a view of their guilt and of their danger, as, by the grace of God, shall constrain them to have immediate recourse to that injured, but compassionate Saviour, whose blood, instead of crying for vengeance, pleads for mercy to the chief of sinners. On all these accounts let me intreat, not only the hearing of your ears, but the attention of your minds, whilst I endeavour, through divine aid,

1st, To explain the full meaning or import of the Apostle's exhortation-" Let every man prove his own work."

2dly. To give you some directions with regard to the

manner of conducting the inquiry to which the exhortation relates; and then to point out to you the practical improvement of the subject. I begin with the exhortation itself, "Let every man prove his own work."

There is a particular emphasis in these words, which must not be overlooked. It is his own work that a man must prove. We are sufficiently ready to examine, and to pass sentence upon the works of others. We are often abroad, but are seldom at home, where our chief business lies. Like some travellers, who are well acquainted with foreign countries, but shamefully ignorant of their own, we know more of others than we are willing to know of ourselves, and persuade ourselves, that the study of our own hearts is a dull and melancholy business, which may incite within us many uneasy thoughts, and can give us no pleasure at all.

Alas! how low are we sunk by our apostacy from God! and with what little and false consolations may a degenerate mind be soothed! Instead of looking inwards for positive evidence of our favour with God, we learn to regulate our judgment of ourselves by what we perceive in the characters of other men. If the image of the devil is more visibly formed on others than on ourselves, we have little anxiety to discover the image of God upon our own hearts. The bulk of men think it enough to know that some of their brethren are worse than they are, as if their characters would rise in proportion as the characters of others are debased. We must relinquish this false rule of judging, if we would either enter into the spirit of the exhortation in the text, or would not be fatally disappointed at last. We must learn to rejoice in ourselves and not in others; and we must call in our thoughts from the state of other men, and "prove every man his own work."-" Every man," saith the Apos

tle, "shall bear his own burden." Each of us shall give an account of his own conduct to God, and shall be judged according to his own personal behaviour, without regard to any comparative goodness or attainments which may belong to him.

But here, perhaps, some may ask the question, To what works do you refer? If they are works of a doubt. ful nature, we acknowledge that they ought to be tried, and that those are highly to blame who neglect to try them. But are there not other works, so eminently good and excellent in themselves, that the person who doth them may conclude, without hesitation, that they are certainly pleasing and acceptable to God? This, my brethren, is a rock upon which thousands have made shipwreck. It would make one sad to think what multitudes will be surprised with the everlasting burnings, who, in consequence of this very opinion, flatter themselves, while they live, with the hopes of heaven. You must therefore allow me to retort the question, and to ask, What are those works which are so eminently good and excellent, that there is no need to prove them? or rather, Are there any duties of an external nature, which an hypocrite cannot perform as well as you? Do you frequent the church, and attend upon the preaching of the word? So did the impenitent Jews in the days of the prophet Ezekiel, with as much decency, perhaps, and apparent devotion, as are seen in you. For thus said the Lord unto that prophet, "They come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness." Are you strict observers of the Sabbath? We read of some who persecuted our Saviour for working a miracle of mercy on the sabbath