Many are the difficulties that you must expect; great, and possibly, for a while, increasing difficulties. It is commonly said indeed, that those difficulties which attend the entrance on a religious life, are the greatest; and, in themselves considered, no doubt but they are so; they arise from many quarters, and unite all together in the same design of keeping you from a believing application to Christ, and a resolute closure with him. In this respect, evil sometimes arises to a man in his own house; and those whose near relation should rather engage them to give the young convert the best assistance, where his most important interests are concerned, are, on the contrary, ready to lay a stumbling-block in his way; and perhaps act as if they had rather he should have no religion at all, than change a few circumstances in the outward profession of it. Worldly interest, too, is perhaps to be sacrificed; and conscience cannot be preserved without giving up the friendship of those whom, at any other expense but conscience, a man would gladly oblige. And it is no wonder if Satan make his utmost efforts, and those very unwearied too, that he may prevent the revolt of these subjects, or rather the escape of his prisoners. The Christian is therefore called upon by the Apostle to arm himself as for a combat, and that at all points, to " put on the whole armour of God, that he may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.”

Nor must you, my friends, though as soon as you have put on your harness you gain some important victory, boast as if you might securely put it off. Your whole life must be a series of exercise. Through

much opposition, as well as "much tribulation, you must enter into the kingdom of God;" and though your difficulties may generally be greatest at first, yet your encouragements then may perhaps be so peculiarly great, and your spirits under their first religious impressions so warm, that other difficulties, in themselves smaller, may press more sensibly upon you. Endeavour, therefore, to keep yourselves in a prepared posture: put on a steady resolution; and to support it, sit down and count the cost, lest, having begun to build, you shamefully desist, and "be not able to finish it;" or having put your hand to the plough, you should look back, and become “unfit for the kingdom of God:" and therefore,

10. Let every step in this attempt be taken with a deep sense of your own weakness, and an humble dependence upon divine grace to be communicated to you as the matter requires.'

Recollect seriously what I was telling you in a former discourse of the necessity of the divine agency and interposition; and remember, it depends upon God, not only to begin the good work, but also to carry it on, and "perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." If we trust in our own hearts, especially after this solemn admonition, this plain instruction, added to such frequent experience, we are fools indeed. Let us therefore "trust in the Lord, and not lean to our own understanding." And do you, my friends, who have but just listed yourselves in this holy war, every one of you say, with an humble yet cheerful heart, "In the name of our God will we set up our banners." And if thus you wait on the Lord, you shall renew your strength; and even the feeblest

soul shall be enabled, by divine grace, to mount up with wings as eagles, and to press on from one degree of religious improvement to another, while "the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.” The Apostle expresses, in the liveliest manner, his dependence on the divine Redeemer to communicate this grace in a proper degree, when he says, " Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need;" plainly implying, that it may be obtained if we have but hearts to seek for it; which, as on the one hand, it effectually takes off all idle excuses for the neglect of our duty, pleaded from our own acknowledged weakness, any further than we are supported by the divine power; so, on the other hand, it animates the heart, that, sensible of its various infirmities, desires nevertheless to go forth to the work of God, and to consecrate all its faculties to his service, using them, such as they are, for God, and humbly seeking from him the enlargement of them.

Go, therefore, my friends, into the divine presence; and, while under a sense of this, be not discouraged, though mountains of opposition may lie in your way. Those mountains shall be made low, and spread themselves into a plain before you; while you go forth under the influences of the Spirit of the Lord, who is able to make all grace abound to his people. Of this, Paul, in our text, was a most celebrated instance; who not only received, as was here promised, directions what he should do, but had strength also given him to perform it; a strength which was made perfect and illustrious in his weak

ness; and when, in consequence of this, he had attained to very distinguishing improvements in religion, and had been enabled to act up, in the most honourable manner, not only to the Christian character in general, but to that of a minister and an apostle, he acknowledges, in all his abundant labours, that it was not "he, but the grace of God that was with him."

If it be thus with you, my brethren, you will be "established and built up in your most holy faith.” The most agreeable hopes we form concerning you, when we see you under such serious impressions as this discourse supposes, will be answered; and they who have spoken to you the word of God, on such occasions as these, will have the pleasure to think that they have not run in vain.

And now, if these directions, which I have offered to you with great plainness and freedom, but with the sincerest desire of your edification and establishment in religion, be seriously pursued, I shall have the satisfaction of thinking, that though I might find you in the number of the unregenerate when I began these Lectures, I shall carry you on along with me through the only head that yet remains to be handled; and shall indeed address myself to you, as those who were sometimes darkness, but are now light in the Lord," when I proceed to address those who have been renewed by divine grace, which I promised as my last general, and with which I shall conclude my discourses on this important subject.

66

SERMON X.

AN ADDRESS TO THE REGENERATE, FOUNDED ON THE PRECEDING DISCOURSES.

JAMES i. 18.

"Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures."

I INTEND the words, which I have now been reading, only as an introduction to that address to the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, with which I am now to conclude these Lectures; and, therefore, shall not enter into any critical discussion, either of them, or of the context. I hope God has made the series of these discourses, in some measure useful to those for whose service they were immediately intended; but if they have not been so to all, and if with relation to many, I have laboured in vain, from Sabbath to Sabbath, I cannot be surprised at it.

"What am I better than my fathers?" It has, in every age, been their complaint, that they "have stretched out their hands all the day to a disobedient and gainsaying people;" that the bellows have been burnt, and the lead consumed of the fire, but the dross has not been taken away; such reprobate silver have multitudes been found. Yea, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who spake with such unequalled eloquence, with such divine energy, yet