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lieve it, that those who truly fear God neither CAN nor WILL ever conclude that their state is gracious, merely because a fellow creature fays fo. They go to God himself, and cry, Lord, fay thou to my foul, I am thy falvation.

7. Or it may be that thou relieft upon FORMER CONVICTIONS, and SUPPOSEST in confequence, that these have wrought a change in thine heart. But this is delufive hope; for perhaps thou wert before openly wicked and profane, or thou hadft been guilty of fome fin, the atrocity of which has greatly alarmed thy confcience, and hence thou haft been induced to determine upon leading a better life. Befides, it may be that these convictions have not been lafting; that they have not been accompanied by faving converfion, and thou haft become far worse than before: and hence, inftead of hoping that falvation and eternal glory will ultimately be thy portion, thou haft reafon to fear that thy condemnation will be the more fevere. Is it then true that thou haft never builded on the Rock CHRIST? What mifery and wretchedness awaits thee! Haft thou any right to the Lord's Supper? Under prefent circumftances oughteft thou not to be exhorted not to approach the table of the Lord? Rather go to God in Chrift; mourn before him thy guilt, and the breach which fin hath made between thee and him; and plead, with earneftness plead, that HE whose work it is, would lead thee in the way everlafiing before thou openest thine eyes in hell, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

But, PEOPLE OF GOD, ye who have NEVER yet attained to an affurance of faith, to your cafe

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this lecture is particularly adapted. Seek to be affured that ye are in the faith; and now, when you

are about preparing to meet your Redeemer at his table, let not your fouls be oppreffed by doubts and fears. We have laid down principles felected from the word of God for felf-examination. Although you find not in yourselves ALL the marks of grace, endeavour to see whether you have experienced the chief of them. Do you diftruft your former exercifes, that they have not been genuine and evangelical? Examine now whether you do not feel fincere defires after Chrift; whether you do not purpose in your heart to live before God in the light of the living, and to renounce the service and flavery of fin. Can ye appeal to him who feeth in fecret, and who knoweth all things, and fay, Lord Jesus, thou art all our defire, and the full purpose of our heart is, as thou fhalt enable us to die unto fin, and to live unto righteoufness? Then, though ye feel not an affured confidence, yet ye are those whom Jefus hath loved with an everlasting love; and it is your privilege not only, but your duty, to draw nigh to his table, and with his followers to commemorate his dying love. Will not, O believers! your Jefus be with you as he hath faid, and give you, with the external figns, the internal feal of his Spirit?

And ye WHO ARE ASSURED Of your interest in the precious Redeemer, O how far paffing all description the happiness of your state! Ye have not only grace, but ye know that ye have it. have it. And is not this GRACE for grace? How pleasant to walk in the light, while fo many proceed on their journey furrounded by darkness! Praise the triune God, your covenant God, for what he hath of free, fovereign, and unmerited grace, done for you. Seek, in the use of every appointed mean, and in the strength of your Jefus, to preferve the affurance which he

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hath given you of your union to him. Do all in your power to become inftrumental of binding up the broken in heart, and of encouraging thy fellowChristians, whose souls, as David expreffes it in the forty-second pfalm, are disquieted within them. Go with the confidence of children to the table which your Father in heaven, your Jefus, hath prepared for you. Long for the returns of those seasons when it fhall be spread, and when you fhall fit down thereat, and in the eating of bread and drinking of wine, devote yourselves to your Saviour God. Long too for the arrival of that glorious day when with Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob you shall enjoy the sweet repast which is prepared for all the followers of the Lamb; when, feated at his table above, your affurance will no more be interrupted; when you enter into yonder blifsful regions, where your Jefus appears exalted at the right hand of his Father. Then it will be your employment throughout eternity, to serve the Eternal in infinitely more exalted strains— Then hope will be changed into fruition, and faith for ever be loft in fight.

AMEN.

THE

PIOUS COMMUNICANT.

Lecture IV.

IN WHICH THE REASONS ARE ASSIGNED WHY SO MANY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD, ON THEIR WAY TO HEAVEN, ATTAIN NOT TO THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH; AND THE GROUNDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT ARE EXHIBITED, WITH A VIEW TO AFFORD SUPPORT AND COMFORT TO THEIR DESPONDING SOULS.

HAVING, in the preceding lecture, expressed

our fentiments on THE NATURE OF ASSURANCE, and URGED it as a DUTY upon the people of God TO SEEK to attain to it: we conceive it now to be proper, to lay before you fome of the principal reafons, WHY fo many true believers, on their way to glory, remain WITHOUT AN ASSURANCE of their having a faving intereft in Chrift; in full confidence that, the Eternal fmiling upon our feeble attempt, our ENDEAVOURS to remove the DESPONDING thoughts which they entertain of themselves, and to promote their joy and peace in believing, will not be fruitless.

In the present lecture we propofe,

I. To fhew that DOUBTS and FEARS may be ex

perienced by those who are in a gracious ftate, and that it is no uncommon thing for real believers to be exercised by them.

II. To point out the principal sources whence those doubts and fears proceed.

III. To mention fome of those MEANS, in the ufe of which fouls which are in doubt, and filled with diftrefs with refpect to their eternal concerns, may be brought to enjoy divine confolation on their journey through this wilderness to the heavenly Canaan.

IV. The lecture will conclude with fome ADVICE and DIRECTIONS as to the manner in which true Chriftians, under fuch diftreffing circumftances, ought to conduct themselves, that they may approach the table of the Lord acceptably to God and profitably to themselves.

FIRST. That the children of God who are truly in a gracious ftate MAY DOUBT and be oppreffed BY FEAR, left Christ be not their Saviour, and they may have never favingly believed in him, and that MANY of them are found in a fituation so peculiarly diftreffing, is demonftrated by the following argu

ments:

1. There are PLAIN DECLARATIONS in the word of God, which teach us, that the way that leadeth unto life is narrow, Matt. vii. 13, 14; that the righteous are SCARCELY faved, 1 Pet. iv. 18; and that we muft ftrive to enter in.-Then faid one unto him, Lord, are there few that fhall be faved? and he faid unto them, Strive to enter in at the ftrait gate, for many, I fay unto you, will feck to enter in, and fhall not be able, Luke xiii. 24.

2. The fame oracles of divine Truth INFORM US, that in fome believers faith is weak, in others ftrong;

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