by experience, and therefore it is probable that you rate them far below their real value. Not having ever felt the joys and comforts of religion, you account them to be little. But they are not little: they are great; beyond your conception great. The peace of God that peace which God gives to his people, and which they only know is a peace which passeth all understanding; a peace which the workers of wickedness can never know, for there is no peace to them. A conscience void of offence, a sense of God's favour and love, a wellgrounded hope of eternal glory, are causes of delight and joy, with which all the pleasures of sin are not to be compared. Would the servants of God be so repeatedly said in the Scriptures to be happy and blessed if they had not a happiness and a blessedness peculiarly their own? Could you but be persuaded to make trial of their ways, you would find them to be ways of pleasantness and peace. Could you but be persuaded to forsake the service of sin, you would soon be sensible of. the present happiness which you are losing by obstinately persisting in that service.

Besides, the longer you continue in the ways of sin, the greater unhappiness you are laying up for yourselves hereafter. You have seen that shame must follow sin. Here, or hereafter, either in this world, or in the next, you must be brought to shame for every sin which you commit. If If you should live to repent of your transgressions, and to sorrow for them with a godly sorrow, yet every additional sin which you commit will embitter that repentance, and make that sorrow deeper. The greater is your guilt, the greater will be your shame and self-reproach, whenever God, in his mercy, may bring you to a penitent feeling of your sins. But if this should never be the case, if the Lord, provoked at your past and present impenitence, should never grant to you repentance unto life, what, in that case, will become of you? what, in that case, are you doing?

You are sealing your own destruction; you are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. By every additional sin, you are adding fuel to that fire which will torment your soul for ever.

Consider these things; may they work in you a holy resolution to forsake the service of sin, and to choose the service of God! Surely you mean to do this at some time. Why delay the doing of it? Why delay to be free from the bondage of the devil, from the guilt of sin, from the wrath of God? Is sin so profitable? Is the state of a sinner so safe, so happy, that any should be loth to leave it? Can you be happy too soon? too soon be a child of God and an heir of heaven? too soon be delivered from the danger of dying eternally? Would you gratify and please your worst enemy a little longer before you quit his service? Would you fix sin a little deeper in your heart before you try to root it out? Is your life too long? Are you afraid of having too much time, and of beginning the great work of repentance too soon? Believe it, Satan is not idle in destroying your soul, though you are negligent in saving it. Time is not standing still. You, together with it, are hastening fast towards eternity. When a few more days, or weeks, or years at furthest, shall be past, your time of trial will be gone; your day of repentance over; your doom for ever fixed. What mean you then by delaying to flee from the wrath to come? "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." Do you say, "We will repent to-morrow?” This night your souls may be required of you. hold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. While it is called to-day, harden not your heart." Lie not down on your bed this night till you have begged of God to enable you to renounce the service of sin, and to yield yourselves servants to righteSo shall you have your fruit here unto holiness, and in the end everlasting life.

ousness.

"Be

231

SERMON IV.

ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER.

1 THESS. v. 17.

Pray without ceasing.

It is the manner of St. Paul in his Epistles after he has discussed doctrines to propose rules, in the observance of which the life of a Christian consists: these he ranges not in any formal manner, but freely scatters them as they are suggested by the Holy Spirit which guided him.

"Pray without ceasing!" For understanding these words I will first consider what is meant by praying, then what is meant by the qualification adjoined, of praying without ceasing.

The word prayer in its usual meaning, comprehends every sort of devotion. It includes the praise we yield to God, implying our admiration of his perfections, of his works, of the wise dispensations of his providence and grace; it includes that thanksgiving by which we express an affectionate remembrance of our obligations to God for numberless benefits; it includes acknowledgment of entire dependence, of subjection to his power and pleasure; it includes possession of faith, and avowal of service; it includes humble acknowledgment of guilt and misery due from grievous sinners. We must ask in prayer supply for our wants, succour for our distress, direction for our undertaking, pardon for our offences. All these religious performances prayer com

prises; according to which, our whole body of divine service is called prayer, and temples consecrated to the performance of all holy duties, are called houses of prayer.

"Praying incessantly" cannot be understood as if we were obliged at every point of time to apply our minds to this practice: to do this is impossible, and can therefore be no matter of duty. Praying incessantly may mean, a ready disposition to devotion, that which in Scripture is termed the spirit of supplication: this in common language amounts to a continual practice, a man being said to do that to which he is ever prompt, as it is said of the righteous man that "he is ever merciful, and lendeth;" because he is constantly ready to supply his neighbour with needful relief. "My heart," says David, "is fixed: I will sing and give praise;" fixed—that is, readily prepared, and steadily inclined to devotion. So should ours constantly be! If there be from coldness, from sluggishness, from distraction, any aversion to prayer, we should by consideration and care labour to remove them, rousing in our spirits, and kindling in our affections, fervour towards spiritual things.

Praying incessantly may denote a vigilant attendance with an earnest regard and firm purpose employed upon devotion; such attendance as you bestow in your affairs, where, though the prosecution sometimes stops, the design always proceeds: as we say that such a person is building an house, or writing a book, or occupying land, though he is at the moment following some other business, his main design never sleeps, and his purpose continues uninterrupted. This is that which is so often enjoined under the phrase of watching about prayer. "Watch ye, therefore, and pray," says our Lord. "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same," saith St. Paul. "Be ye sober, and watch in prayer," saith St. Peter. Which expressions impart constant and careful attendance upon this duty, that we do not

make it a matter of small consideration or indifference, of curiosity, or chance, to be transacted faintly, and with slight endeavour, just as the humour takes you; but that, accounting it a business of choice nature, and weighty moment, you adhere to it immovably, regard it without distraction, and pursue it with diligence unwearied.

Praying incessantly may signify that you embrace all fit seasons for devotion; as a tree is said to bear that fruit which it produces in the season, and a man is accounted to work in that trade which he exercises whenever he is called upon. "Pray," says St. Paul, "in every season." "Every one," says the Psalmist, "that is godly will pray unto thee when thou mayest be found. My prayer is made unto thee in an acceptable time." Thus when you have received any singular favour or notable blessing from God, when success has attended your honest enterprises, when you have been happily rescued from danger, when you have been supported in any difficulty or relieved in want, then it is highly seasonable to render sacrifices of thanksgiving to the God of mercy; to celebrate him who is our strength and our deliverer, our faithful refuge in trouble, our fortress, and the rock of our salvation. To omit devotion under such circumstances is base ingratitude or stupid sloth. In surveying the glorious works of nature, or the awful events of Providence,—then is a proper occasion to send up hymns to the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of the world's Creator and Governor.

When you undertake any business of special moment and difficulty, then is it expedient to sue for God's aid, to commit your affairs into his hands, to recommend your endeavours to the blessing of Him by whose guidance all things are ordered, without whose consent nothing can be effected, upon whose disposal all success depends. When you fall into doubt and darkness, not knowing what course to steer, or which way to turn,