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light, and the warmth, We look in vain to the

ness, and coldness, and sin, upon the and the faithfulness of former days? past, as furnishing any evidence of a gracious estate, if such review, leaves us still in a state of insensibility and indifference. If it awakens us; if it brings us to renewed repentance; if it makes our sorrows bleed afresh; if it makes us feel a spirit of self-condemnation; and excites in us a holy sympathy with our Lord and master, when we look at his wounded honour; then indeed, may we hope, that our past experience was of the operation of the Spirit, and that there is, even now, some good thing in us towards the God of our salvation.

Christians may quench the Spirit, by the cold and heartless performance, or neglect of family prayer; by the unsteady observance of duty; by satisfying themselves with light and trifling excuses for the neglect of duty; by neglecting to cultivate their minds, and to improve in a knowledge, and understanding of the great truths of the gospel; by not labouring to keep the heart; by resisting the intimations of the Spirit, when he urges duty upon them; by forsaking the assembling of themselves together; by seldom conversing with each other on the love of Christ, on the condescensions of the Spirit, and on the wisdom and benevolence of the Godhead, as displayed in the matchless scheme of pardoning mercy; and finally, by not labouring to maintain a constant spirit of prayer, so as to meet the injunction of the apostle, "Be instant in season and out of season. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you"--.

We speak

III. OF SOME OF THE RESULTS CONSEQUENT ON QUENCHING THE SPIRIT.

Of these we can merely enumerate a few.

Little or no evidence of piety will be furnished either by individuals, or by a church, who have quenched the Spirit. The professed friends of Christ, will differ very little in their walk and conversation, from the mere men of the world.Duty will become burdensome to them. Christ will look less amiable and lovely. His cause will not appear so important. There will be serious misgivings of heart, on the subject of the great benevolent operations of Christ's friends. A reluctant coming up, in the offering of worldly goods, to further the designs of benevolence. The souls of sinners will not appear so valuable. Neither heaven, nor hell will seem so real: Whilst the world, and the joys which it has to offer, will both seem, more important, and command more attention. The fashion of the world will look fascinating; its pleasures, its wealth and its honours will become objects of supreme concern, and God, and Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and all that is great in wisdom, and lovely in benevolence, and tender and melting in mercy, will either be passed by and neglected, or will be treated with the slight attentions of a chilling formality, even by those for whom the blood of Jesus has streamed forth, that they might be washed, that they might be sanctified, that they might be fitted for the society, and employments, and felicities of the world of glory.. Our beauty will fade away, sinners will go on in impenitency, and

fall, and perish; and fewer jewels, composed of ransomed souls, shall sparkle in the Redeemer's crown, if we quench the influences of that heavenly Agent who seals us to the hope of eternal life.

I ask you now, children of the hope of redemption, what say your closets? What say your family altars? What say the whisperings of conscience? What would the Saviour say, should he break upon us with his heavenly presence, in this moment of our devotions?

Quench not the Spirit. Put not out this light from heaven. Extinguish not the last spark on which the hope of mercy gleams.

I would exhort and entreat you too, my dear impenitent friends, that you resist not, that you quench not, that you grieve not the Holy Spirit. Remember that it is the peculiar and appropriate office-work of the Holy Spirit to apply the redemption purchased by Christ, to the souls of sinners. He is God's last, best gift to man. To treat contemptuously the Holy Ghost, and speak lightly of his influences, is opposing the combined and concentrated efforts of the Godhead to save a rebel world. It is with one presumptuous, daring act, pouring contempt upon the high heavens, and directing the malignancy of all your passions, towards that manifestation. of benignity and grace, in which we see united, infinite in means, extent, and energy, the wisdom, and the mercy, and Quench not the Spirit. Put not out this Extinguish not, dying immortal, the last

the power of God.

light from heaven.

spark on which the hope of pardon gleams.

SERMON XII.

"God be merciful to me a sinner.”
LUKE Xviii. 13.

THIS impassioned and affecting cry to God for mercy, was uttered by one of two men, who went up to the temple to pray. The account that is given of them when they reached the temple, and of the manner in which they respectively performed the duty before them, is adapted both to interest, and to instruct.

We have here an exhibition of the heart of man, when he does not see his own vileness and impurity, but feels as if he were righteous; and also, when he is brought to a discovery, and sense of his moral character, as it is in fact, and as it must appear in the sight of God. We see too, how very differently men feel, both towards God and themselves, in the performance of one and the same duty. One may address God with great confidence and boldness, as if conscious of his own worth and excellency. Another, may come, with the profoundest sense of his vileness, and a deep conviction of his desert of wrath. One may treat the Almighty, almost

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as if he were an equal.

Another may approach him, with solemn, reverential awe. One may be ready to dictate a Gourse to his Maker, that it would be proper for him to pursue, and treat with him on the principles of ordinary courtesy between equals. Another will throw himself into the hands of gracious sovereignty, and rest all his hopes, on the hitherto neglected, and abused mercy of his God. In the parable of which our text is a part, the remarks which we have now made, are exemplified with peculiar force and interest.

Of the two men who went up to the temple to pray, the one was a Pharisee. The sect to which he belonged were distinguished for their austerities, and for their numerous formalities in religion. They felt themselves not warranted to hold communion and intercourse with others of their nation, and both in their dress, and in some peculiarities in the externals of their devotion, set themselves up as the nearest, if not the exclusive favourites of heaven. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others." They were in the habit of wearing phylacteries, certain words of the Law of Moses, written on parchment, and folded in a peculiar manner, upon their foreheads, and on their left arm. They also appeared in publick, in long flowing robes, different from those in common use. These peculiarities, designated the sect to which they belonged. 10

We see now, an individual of this sect going up to the temple to pray; and the inquiry addresses itself with force to our mind: What is the temper of heart, with which a man, holding these views of exclusive favouritism with heaven, and

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