is praise-worthy and of good report, to make their bosoms a fit receptacle for that best and purest of all inhabitants, who only can fit them for an admission into those blessed mansions where nothing that defileth can enter. Secondly, They will not despair if, in the course of these virtuous endeavours and sincere pursuits of moral improvement, they should be impeded, by the manifold surrounding temptations, from running the race set before them; but, in case of any lapse, will, by sincere repentance, (and its sincerity can only be shewn by immediate reformation,) endeavour to atone for what they have done amiss, and make their present remorse for their crime a safeguard against their committing it in future. Thirdly, They will be frequent in imploring the divine Mercy to send them that heavenly Comforter whom he has promised to send to the faithful in all ages of the world, that is to all possessed of that true Christian humility, which feels and owns the want of his assistance; yet will they ever accompany these prayers and supplications with a zealous, diligent, and unceasing endeavour to discharge those very duties for which they implore the assistance of the Divine Power, being assured that if they do not on their own part constantly strive to work out their own salvation, the grace of God, or, in other words, the operation of his Spirit, will not be superadded to make their less strenuous endeavours effectual; and for this plain reason, because they have not striven to carry them so far as it was in their own natural power to carry them. Lastly, They will resolve to grow in grace from the present moment. They will not continue in sin that grace may abound; God forbid that they should: but, convinced from the passages of Scripture here adduced, that the influence of the Holy Spirit proceeds progressively and gradually, keeping pace with their own moral endeavours, they will not delay those endeavours, not even for a moment. They will never flatter themselves that if, on any future day, they shall determine to commence a temporary course of mental abstraction, accompanied by severe acts of external contrition, abstinence, and mortification, this grace will be shed upon them in so abundant a manner as to occasion a total change in their tempers, inclinations, and passions. On the contrary, knowing how intimate a connection there is between the mind and the body, they will be wisely cautious of making any extreme experiments on the latter, lest, by so doing, they should irreparably injure the former. They will be fearful (and both the past and present history of Enthusiasm will give them too good cause to be so) that such corporeal exertions and severity may, while they produce an imaginary regeneration in the fancy, occasion a real degeneracy of the understanding. And, finally, being fully convinced that the service which their God requires from them is a reasonable service, they will take the greatest care possible to keep the light of Reason, which that God has given them, clear and undisturbed, that so the light of his Holy Spirit may mingle its divine flame with it, and produce every salutary effect which the Scriptures, rightly understood, have promised to the true Believer, as the fruits of its blessed illumination. |