engage in his service? Surely they would all cry out, that the longest life on earth is much too short to shew their zeal, affection, and gratitude to so divine and glorious a friend. Think of this, O my soul, and remember, if thou ever arrive save at heaven, thou wilt wish thou hadst done more for thy beloved Lord here on earth.

Is this mortal life continued to me that I may spread a savour of piety amongst my fellow creatures, and set a religious example to men? Lord, suffer me to do nothing that may lead sinners astray from thee. Pardon all the evil examples I have ever given, and let my future conduct shine in holiness, as a pattern to those that are round about me. Methinks, I would convince the world that religion has something excellent and divine in it, and encourage them to the practice of strict godliness.

Is life prolonged that I may be profitable to mankind, and have I lived thus long already to so little purpose ? Though my goodness extends not unto thee, O Lord, yet I entreat that my fellow creatures may be the better for me while I continue amongst them. O may the God of Abraham bestow on me that rich favour which Abraham received in those divine words of promise. I will bless thee and I will make thee a blessing. I would fain live useful and beloved, that I may die desired and lamented. What a shameful thing is it when I go out of the world that my acquaintance should say, he is gone, but there is no loss of him.

Have my days been prolonged thus far that my hopes of heaven might be daily encreasing, that my evidences of adoption might grow stronger daily, and my soul be more prepared for heaven; look inward then, O my soul; hast thou acquired a more divine and heavenly temper than in years past? Art thou wrought up to a greater meetness for the inheritance on high? Are thy desires, thy appetites,

and all thy powers more fitted for the business of heaven, and attempered to the blessedness of the upper world? Art thou growing fitter still for the sight of God, for converse with Christ, for the company of saints and holy angels ? How are thy days, and months, and years run out to waste, if thou art so much nearer death, and yet art not so much riper for heaven?

And is it possible that a length of life should be so improved, as that my crown of glory, and my portion of happiness may be enlarged hereafter ? Let my holy ambition awake at such a hint as this, and let me aspire to a superior rank among the blessed, by employing every part of life to the most noble and excellent purposes for which life is grantLet me ever abound in the work of the Lord, ed. of grantsince I am assured that no part of my labours shall be in vain in the Lord, or want its proper-recompence. Though it is the blood of my Redeemer that has purchased all the prizes and crowns in heaven; yet if I am a swift runner in the Christian race, and the race itself be long, I am fitted to receive the fairer prize; and if I am an active and victorious soldier in the army of Christ, and have served faithfully through a tedious war, I may have reason to hope for a brighter crown. We may humbly wait for a reward in proportion to the work, according to the encouragements of the Bible, while we still acknowledge, that it is free and sovereign grace both enables us to hold out working, and bestows the rich reward. Amen.

Shall I not then prepare to be
A fitter heir for heav'n?

I'll never let these moments pass,
These golden hours be gone:
Lord, I accept thine offer'd grace,
I bow before thy throne

Now cleanse my soul from ev'ry sin
By my Redeemer's blood:
Now let my flesh and heart begin
The honours of my Go d

Let me no more my soul defile
With sin's deceitful toys :
Let cheerful hope encreasing still
Approach to heav'nly joys.

My thankful lips shall loud proclaim
The wonders of thy praise,
And spread the savour of thy name
Where-e'er I spend my days.

On earth let my example shine:
And when I leave this state,

May heaven receive this soul of mine
To bliss divinely great

SERMON XVIII.

THE PRIVILEGE OF THE LIVING ABOVE THE DEAD.

1 CORINTHIANS iii. 22.

-Whether life or death-all are yours.

WHE

HEN these words were explained, this doctrine was drawn from the first part of them, viz. When life is given or continued to the saints it is for their advantage.

The first thing proposed in our meditations of this truth, was to make it appear by a variety of instances, that life is designed for the benefit of Christians.

I proceed now to the second, viz. To amplify and confirm this doctrine yet further, by representing what various graces may be exercised on earth, which can have no place in heaven; and to discover in what respects a living Christian may be said to have some advantage over the saints that are dead.

1. The first grace I shall mention, which belongs only to this life, is, faith of things unseen, whether present or future, for in heaven this sort of faith. is

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ended and lost; it vanishes into sight. 1 Cor. v. 17. Here in this world we walk by faith, not by sight; but in the world above, we shall live by sight and not by faith. Blessed are those souls on earth who have not seen and yet have believed.

Hereby the living Christian doth much honour to God, and offers him a revenue of such glory, as can never be offered to him among all the saints and angels on high. To believe that there is a God who made all things, among a world of atheists that deny him that made them; to carry it toward an unseen God with a solemn awe of his majesty, and deep reverence and submission to his will, in the midst of thoughtless sinners who deride religion, and live without God in the world; to believe that the Bible is the word of God, notwithstanding all the difficulties contained in it, and all the bold and subtle cavils that infidels have raised against it: to make this word the ground of our religion, the rule of our practice, and the foundation of our hopes, in the midst of an age of deists and heathens, that laugh at our Bible and our belief together; these are noble instances of a militant faith in a world of infidelity. To believe that Jesus of Nazareth, who was hanged upon a tree without Jerusalem, and died there, is the only begotten Son of God, the maker and the Saviour of the world; to believe that he now lives and governs all things at the right hand of his Father, and to trust in him who died upon the cross to give us a crown of eternal life; these are such exercises of the grace of faith, as have no place in the world of sight, where every saint beholds him face to face; such acts as these, are only suited to our present state of absence from the Lord, and yet they are highly honourable to God and our Redeemer, whom having not seen we love, and in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable, 2 Pet. i. 8.