and even in the awful crifis of their diffolu tion.

In the first topic propofed by our method, we have feen, with what foul-confuming agonies, what keen anticipations of ineffable horror, the man of guilt and diffipation expires. Inftead of that dreadful object, (for an object more dreadful God's creation cannot prefent), let us now obferve with what triumph and exultation the real Chriftian, whofe life has been uniformly devoted to the fervice of God and man, resigns his pure and immaculate Spirit into the arms of its Creator. See on his countenance the fmile of confcious peace; behold his eye, though on the verge of abso Jute extinction, yet relumed with happy prefages of that eternal and infinite joy into which his foul must immediately enter. Liften to his feeble, yet animated accents, how much they breathe of heaven, how nearly they refemble the voice of angels: Weep not for me, he cries, my dear deploring friends; weep not for me the living, not the dead, demand your tears.

Alas! how much has the newborn infant to fuffer from the accidents of nature; from the caprice and cruelty of fortune; from the indifference, contumely, or treachery of his fpecies; from the lofs of thofe who have been long endeared by choice or nature, and from the fad and mortifying review of his own guilt and errors. Gracious God what numberlefs acknowledgements, what eternal and infinite gratitude are due to VOL. II. M thee,

thee, for having conducted me in this manner through the tempefts of a tumultuous and fluctuating life, to the harbour of everlasting tranquillity and happiness! With what inexpreffible tranfport, amidst the debility of nature, the ftruggles of departing life, do I contemplate my approach to that immortal glory and felicity which was the beneficent deftination of my being; to these refined and inconceivable enjoyments, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath the capacious foul of man, even in its utmost exertion, been able to comprehend! O Sovereign mercy! O redeeming love! how boundless, how inexhauftible, how ineftimable the treasures of fupreme and eternal beatitude, which you have prepared and accumulated for those whofe lives have been one effort of love and obedience to God, or of justice and benevolence to man! The fands that conftitute the fhore; the drops that form the profound and expanfive ocean; the rays of light, which, from her earliest birth, have invested Nature with a robe of effulgence,—may be numbered: but who fhall eftimate the quantity or duration of thofe intenfe and inceffant delights, which for ever flow from thee, O eternal fource of being and enjoyment! whofe propitiated countenance I fhall foon behold, to be eclipfed or intercepted no more. There too fhall I recognise the friends of my bofom, whose depature from life I have so long furvived and lamented. They did not finally perish, but were refumed by the Friend and Father of

the

the universe, for ever to worship in his temple above. There fhall I behold in their native fplendour, the original forms of beauty, truth, and good, infeparably united in the bofom of their parent. Weep not for me, my friends, but congratulate, if you do not envy, my approaching felicity. Farewell; we part but for a moment, to refume and enjoy an eternal and uninterrupted intercourfe. Farewell, ye ra diant luminaries of heaven; farewell earth, with all thy variegated profpects; farewell every fublunary object. Hail paradife! Hail ye cherubin and feraphim! Hail ye fpirits of juft men made perfect! How fublime, how delightful your intercourfe! Welcome to my foul, O my Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. When the prefent forms of creation fhall vanith, when a new nature shall emerge, when other planets circling other funs, fhall in their glarious revolutions, have measured numberlefs fucceffions of ages; ftill fhall the joys of heaven be new to my foul; ftill fhall they be as far from end or interruption, as at the mo ment when they first began.

The temper, character, and duty, of a Minifter of the Gospel.

By WILLIAM LEECHMAN, D. D.

ITIM. iv. 16.

Take heed unto thyself, and unto thy doctrine and continue in them: for in doing this, thou halt both fave thyself, and them that hear thee.

Preached before the fynod of Glafgow and Ayr, at Glafgow, April 7. 1741.

TH

HE wifer and more confiderate part of mankind, generally complain of the unfuccefsfulness of the gofpel, and the low state of religion, notwithstanding the public eftablishments for religious inftruction. It must be acknowledged, that there is but too much reafon for the complaint. But on whom must the blame be laid? on the obftinate folly and depravity of the hearers? or on the ignorance, careleffnefs, and worldly lives, of us the teachers? Tis in vain either to deny or diffemble the matter; a great share of the blame may juftly be charged on ourselves. It certainly then concerns us, greatly concerns us, as we are the established instructors of the rest of mankind, "to keep ourselves pure from the blood of all 66 men,"

"men," by hearkening to this important admonition of the Apostle in the words of the text, to take heed unto ourselves, and unto our doctrine; to continue in them: for in doing this, we fball both fave ourselves, and them that hear us.

In difcourfing on this fubject, it is hoped, it may not be improper, nor unfuitable to the prefent occafion, to endeavour, by the divine affiftance, in the first place, To explain and illuftrate. thefe great rules of the Apoftle, in the fame order in which they lie in the text and then, Jecondly, To confider the motives by which the obfervation of them is enforced: For in doing this, thou shalt bath fave thyself, and them that hear thee..

Firft, THE Rule, Take head to thyself.

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I. THE meaning of this precept, in the lowest fense of it, is, that thofe who pretend to be the inftructors and guides of the reft of mankind,, fhould take care that their own behaviour be blameless and inoffenfive, Tim. iii. 2. "A "bishop must be blameless." We know the world expects an high pitch of purity from us, and examines our conduct with great feverity,; therefore we ought to watch over it with equal. severity ourselves: and that we may in fome measure answer the expectations of the world,, let us abftain not only from all evil, but from all appearance of it too; not venturing fo much as to approach near the boundary that fepa-- rates virtue and vice; but in all cafes where there can be any difpute about the precife point: where

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