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final account constrain you. Shall he who claims your first regards be last in your thoughts? Shall his works, word and ways, his mercies which are new every moment, be forgotten, or thought upon with indifference? Would you, as Adam when he had finned, think to hide yourselves from him, and wish to banish him from your mind? Or would you be as those who, having been guilty of the basest ingratitude to an eminent human benefactor, are pained at the fight of him, and are troubled to think of him?

No enquiry is of equal or comparable moment with that upon which the young man came to Christ"What fhall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" Our Lord, beholding him thoughtful on fuch a subject, loved him. Such a fubject cannot employ your thoughts too foon, or too clofely. Eternal life muft be accepted as the gift of God through Chrift, and upon his terms. He is "the way, and the truth, and "life: No man cometh unto the Father, but by❞ him.

The difcourfe will be clofed with recommending to the attention of young people the following things.

First, prayer. Without this you must be fo far from seeking God, that you will live without him in the world. To reftrain prayer is to caft off the fear of God. He will be enquired of to give you a new heart. In all your ways acknowledge him, that he may direct your paths.

Secondly, fearch the fcriptures. They make wife to falvation. They contain plain directions for every ftation and relation of life-in every duty you owe to God, your neighbor or yourselves. They are the only rule of faith and practice.

Let me next recommend to you the obfervation of the LORD'S-day, and public worship. These are the principal means of upholding religion in the world. In his fanctuary he recordeth his name. There he meeteth with his people.

Further, meditate on what you read and hear. This

makes religious fubjects habitual and familiar, guards and fuccours in temptation, and fupplies armour from the word of God against the foes of religion.

Again, fuffer not amusements to occupy too much of your time. This they certainly do, when they call you off from any duty of life or godlinefs. Let them be innocent in their kind, and adapted to your station and circumftances.

Be induftrious, temperate and frugal.

Abftain from all appearance of evil. Shun the begin, nings of fin-the allurements by which others have been feduced, or you yourselves endangered.

Beware of those, who, in converfation or writing, abuse the powers of language to corrupt you. They put deformity for beauty, and beauty for deformity. They transfer to vice, the charms of virtue. "There "is," as one obferves, "a mighty power of feduction "in the talent of declamation and of fine writing, "which feldom fails to impofe upon young perfons "who have not a more than ordinary degree of judg "ment or fagacity. And the finer a perfon's tafte is, "fo much the greater is the danger of his being en"chanted out of his reason-What is finely faid," may not" be justly faid." Whatever you" meet with, in "books or converfation," against religion and good morals, proceeds from the foes of truth and mankind. "There is a fort of vanity, which has furnished the "world with fceptics in every science, and in religion "above all others. Other sciences are the attainment "of but a small part of mankind, and to triumph "over their errors is at beft but a limited glory: "Whereas religion being the general perfuafion of the "world, to conquer in this caufe looks like univerfal "monarchy, and feems to be the very empire of rea"fon and knowledge, rifing out of the ruins of univer"fal ignorance and fuperftition."

How fatal are the effects of fceptical principles ? They give the reins to the appetites and paffions, de

throne reason, and coolly recommend as an eligible course, what Solomon undoubtedly intended as an irony: "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and "walk in the way of thy heart, and in the fight of "thine eyes." They fcoffingly demand, Where is the promife of his coming to judge the world? The wifer Solomon has affured you, that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. None can be your friend, who would feduce you into paths deftructive of your peace, and of your fouls-who would make void the labors, and counfels, example and prayers, of parents and guides, and deftroy their hopes from you. Thus faith the Lord, Afk for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your fouls.

SERMON VIII.

SELF-DEDICATION.

ROMANS, vi. 13.

---------- YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD, AS THOSE THAT ARE ALIVE FROM THE DEAD

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DISCOURSE on SELF-DEDICATION will properly fucceed to that which I laft addreffed to the younger class of my hearers. Their particular attention is therefore now requested to this important subject—a fubject highly interesting to all ages and orders. Yield yourselves unto God, as thofe that are alive from the dead.

The apostle defcribes the disciples of Chrift as dead to fin, in confequence of their baptifm, and raised to a spiritual life. "Our old man is crucified with "him, that the body of fin might be destroyed, that "henceforth we should not ferve fin. For he that is "dead is freed from fin. Now if we be dead with "Chrift, we believe that we fhall alfo live with him.

Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, "dieth no more. For in that he died, he died unto "fin once"; or, as the sentiment is otherwife expreffed, "Christ was once offered to bear the fins of many. "But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise "reckon ye alfo yourselves to be dead unto fin, but "alive unto God through Jefus Chrift our Lord"Yield yourselves unto God, as thofe that are alive "from the dead."

Under the economy of grace, the love of the Father and Son in redemption-the faith witneffed in baptifm-the example of a fuffering and rifen Saviour, and our hope through him, forbid that we should ever be forgetful of the mighty fum paid for the ranfom of apoftates; or that we should take occafion to fin, because grace hath abounded. "Ye are bought with a price: Therefore glorify God in your body, and in c your fpirit, which are God's. Yield not your mem"bers as inftruments of unrighteoufnefs unto fin; but " yield yourselves unto God, as thofe that are alive from the dead, and your members as inftruments of righteousness unto God."

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It is propofed, first, to offer fome explanations on the duty of felf-dedication, and to ftate the gofpel motive

to it.

Secondly, To fuggeft various confiderations with a view to imprefs on the minds of our youth the importance of an explicit profeffion of religion.

I am, FIRST, to explain this duty, and ftate the gofpeł motive to it.

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The words, chap. xii. 1. are parallel to those before us. "I befeech you therefore, by the mercies of "God, that ye prefent your bodies a living facrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable fervice." The fame argument or incentive to felfdedication, you obferve is used in this paffage as in the text-even the riches of mercy in redemption.

The original inftitution of facrifice fignified that God was propitious, and prefigured the great atonement in the blood of Chrift. Under the Jewish inftitution, various kinds of beafts were ordered to be flain with the fame view. That people were instructed, at the fame time, that thofe facrifices, unless accompanied with contrition and faith in the promises, were vain. "I dwell with him who is of a contrite and humble fpirit." Inftead of animal victims, the apostle inftructs us to prefent our bodies a living facrifice, holy, ac

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