time. We have but one life to spend on earth; and that a very short one too: Let us make our best of it; and lay it out in such kind of employments, as we do verily believe will give us most satisfaction in the closing moments of it, and when eternity is opening upon us. It is easy to form plausible excuses for a different conduct: But our own hearts and consciences would answer us, if we would seriously ask them, what that course of life in the ministerial office is, which will then afford the most comfortable review, and through the riches of divine grace, the most pleasing prospect.-I should now proceed, III. To the farther application of these things, in some practical inferences from them: But what I have already said, has been so copious, and so practical, as not to leave room to pursue such inferences at large. You have all, I doubt not, prevented me, in reflecting on the reason we have to humble ourselves deeply in the presence of the blessed God, while we Remember our faults this day * I do not, indeed, at all question, but that many of us have Set before our people, Life and death +; and have, in our public addresses, urged their return to God, by the various considerations of terror, and of love, which the thunders of mount Sinai, and the grace of mount Zion, have taught us. We have, on great occasions, visited them, and entered into some serious discourse with them; and have often, and I would hope, more or less, daily borne them on our hearts before God, in our seasons of devout retirement. Blessed be God, that in these instances, we have, in any degree, approved ourselves faithful! It must give us pleasure in the review. But, Oh, why have not our prayers been more frequently presented, and more importunately enforced? Why have we not been more serious and more pressing, in our private addresses to them, and more attentive in our contrivances, if I may so express it, to Catch them in the net of the gospel? Let us ask our own consciences, this day, as in the presence of God, if there be not reason to apprehend, that some, who were once our hearers, and it may be, our dear friends too, have perished through our neglect; and are gone to eternal destruction, for want of our more prudent, more affectionate, and more zealous care for their deliverance? In these instances, my brethren, though it is dreadful to say it, and to think it, yet it is most certain, that we have been, in part, accessary to their ruin; and have reason to say, with trembling hearts, and with weeping eyes, Deliver us from blood * Gen. xli. 9. + Deut. xxx. 15. Luke v. 10. guiltiness from the blood of those unhappy souls, Oh, God, thou God of our salvation *! And we have need, with all possible earnestness, to renew our application to the blood and righteousness of a Redeemer; not daring to mention any services of our own, as matter of confidence in his presence; how highly soever others may have esteemed them, who candidly look on the little we do, and perhaps make more charitable excuses for our neglect, than we ourselves can dare to urge before God. Let the remembrance of these things be for a lamentation: And while they are so, Let us seriously consider, what methods are to be taken, to prevent such things for the time to come. They that have perished, have perished for ever, and are far beyond the reach of our labours, and our prayers. But multitudes to this day surround us, who stand exposed to the same danger, and on the very brink of the same ruin. And besides these dying sinners, who are the most compassionable objects, which the eye of man, or of God, beholds on this earth of ours; how many languishing christians demand our assistance? Or, if they do not expressly demand it, appear so much the more to need it? Let us look round, my brethren, I will not say, upon the nation in general, but on the churches under our immediate care; and say, whether the face of them is such, as becomes the societies of those, whom the Son of God has redeemed with his own blood; and of those, that call themselves the disciples, and members, of a once crucified, and now glorified Jesus? Is their whole temper and conduct formed upon the model of his gospel? Are they such, as we would desire to present them before the presence of his glory? What is wanting, cannot be numbered; and perhaps we may be ready, too rashly, to conclude, that what is crooked, cannot be made straight +. Nevertheless, let us remember, it is our duty to attempt it, as prudently, as immediately, and as resolutely as we can. Many admirable advices for that purpose our fathers and brethren have given us; particularly Dr. Watts, in the first part of his Humble Attempt for the Revival of Religion, and Mr. Some, in his sermon on the same subject: Excellent treatises, which reduced into practice would soon produce the noblest effects. That those important instructions may be revived, and accommodated to present circumstances, with such additions, as those circumstances require, we are, this day, having united our prayers, to unite our counsels. I will not anticipate what I have to offer to your consideration in the more private conference, on which we are quickly to enter. To form proper measures will be comparatively easy: To carry them strenuously into execution, will be the great exercise of our wisdom and piety May proportionable grace be given to animate us, and to dispose them that are committed to our care, to fall in with us in all our attempts, for the honour of God, and for their edification and comfort! We shall esteem it, my friends, a very happy omen, if your hearts be with ours on this occasion; and if you help forward so good, and so necessary a design, by your prayers to God for us. If you are sincere and affectionate in them, we may humbly hope, that he, of whom we ask wisdom, will graciously impart it to us; and may assure ourselves, that you will not only bear with us in the plainest addresses to you, which fidelity may oblige us to make; but will add all the weight of your countenance and interest, to support us in our applications to others, whether public or private. And I have a cheerful confidence, that all will not be in vain; but that he, who thus powerfully awakens our minds, will so succeed our labours, that many, whom we find under a sentence of condemnation, and ready to perish by it, will receive the forgiveness of their sins; will be recovered to a spiritual and divine life; and, as the happy consequence of all, will at length be fixed with us, and with you, in the regions of everlasting security and glory. Amen. STATED, ILLUSTRATED AND URGED: A Sermon preached at a Meeting of Ministers at Creaton in Northamptonshire, January 12, 1749-50. TO THE RIGHT HON. THE COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON; THAT EMINENT EXAMPLE OF THE CHRISTIAN CANDOUR HERE RECOMMENDED, AND OF EVERY OTHER VIRTUE AND GRACE, FINDING HIMSELF (AFTER REPEATED ATTEMPTS) HAS PRESCRIBED HIM; OR TO MENTION ANY EXCELLENCE WHICH WOULD NOT HAS CHOSEN THUS MOST RESPECTFULLY TO INSCRIBE THIS DISCOURSE: INTREATING THAT HIS FARTHER SILENCE, MAY BE INTERPRETED BY HER LADYSHIP, AND BY EVERY READER, AS THE MOST SENSIBLE AND PAINFUL PROOF HE CAN GIVE of the DEFERENCE, VENERATION AND GRATEFUL AFFECTION WITH WHICH HE IS, HER LADYSHIP'S MOST OBLIGED AND OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVANT, P. DODDRIDGE. VOL. III. KA SERMON V. Phil. ii. 1, 2.—If there be therefore any Consolation in Christ, if any Comfort of Love, if any Fellowship of the Spirit, if any Bowels and Mercies; fulfil ye my Joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same Love, being of one Accord, of one Mind. IF If it indeed be, as it certainly is, a test of true eloquence that F it is suited to strike powerfully upon the minds of all, however different in genius, education or rank, I cannot but conclude that every one here present, must already acknowledge these words to be a remarkable specimen of it, even before we proceed particularly to illustrate them; and, having felt something of their pleasing energy while we have been reading them, is ready to confess that the sentiment they contain is finely conceived, and pathetically expressed. But ill shall we answer the great design of the apostle, if we rest in the mere acknowledgment of this. His views were much more worthy of him whose minister he was: He laboured to diffuse, through the breasts of his fellow-christians, that spirit of love, which was in his own, as a constant spring of living water. And what more convincing proof can be given of the deplorable disorder of men's minds, than that such addresses, proceeding from such a man; yea, I will add, the yet more forcible address of his divine Master, and ours, should have produced so little effect? That such discord and animosity should so early, so long, I had almost said so universally prevail in the christian church, amidst all the incentives, amidst all the intreaties, amidst all the tender adjurations, as well as the godlike examples which the sacred oracles exhibit to charm us into the most endeared affection. But alas these incentives, and intreaties, these adjurations, and examples, are overlooked, as not having lustre enough to detain our attention: For we too generally seem to study our bibles, if we study them at all, for amusement or ostentation, rather than practical instruction. We fix on some curious incident or high speculation, and are first ingenious to explain it where it cannot be explained, and then impassioned to defend it, as if it were fundamental truth, till we beat out the sacred gold so thin, that every breath of air carries it away: Whilst the plain things which tend to inspire an hea- |