we can attribute to them nothing better, can we grant to these the praise of a religious character? Can we say of them that they are working the works of him that sent them? that they are fulfilling the great purpose for which they were born? that they are striving to enter in at the strait and narrow gate which leadeth unto life? that they are faithful servants of God, sincere disciples of the gospel, hopeful heirs of immortality? Nay, they have applied their precious time to most frivolous uses; they have been extravagant spendthrifts of their valuable lives; and were they to be summoned to judgment now, all their past years would rise up in witness against them, and condemn them. For, although their consciences may not reproach them with wilful transgressions, although they may have been guilty of no excesses, not even of any immoralities and indecencies, although they may have been diligent and faithful in the exercise of their several callings, although calumny may not have had a word to whisper against the general integrity and justice of their dealings, yet I will not hesitate to say, that if religious motives have had nothing to do in influencing their conduct, they have hitherto lived in sin;-for our whole life is but one continued course of sin, however respectable in the eyes of the world, if the love of God,

the desire to please him and do his will, be not the presiding and pervading principle of our conduct. It is this alone which sanctifies our employments, and the very same occupations may be sinful or innocent, according as religious views have furnished the motives by which we have been habitually directed. In this sense, "whatever is not of faith, is sin." For is it not in truth, a perversion and profanation of the name, to call those christians, whose minds have received no impression, and exhibit no feature of christianity? Is it not a mockery of the gospel, to number the mere man of business, and the mere man of pleasure, however free from human censure in their general conduct, among its disciples? To admit them to an equal participation in its privileges? To suppose them equally warranted to entertain the hope of salvation? We need no gospel, if this religion will suffice, for then heaven may be attained without repentance, without faith, without prayer, without the love of God and Christ, without christian charity, without humility, without the setting of the affections on things above, without the influence of the Holy Spirit, without self-denial, without conquering the evil inclinations of our corrupt nature, in a word, without believing any of the christian doctrines, or acquiring any of the christian graces. But, my breth

ren, either the gospel is false, or heaven cannot be so attained; for it prescribes all these things as necessary to salvation. Will the merits of the Redeemer, do you suppose, avail to cover, and compensate for, all these deficiencies? He is no Redeemer but to those who believe in him, and love him, and obey him. Alas! how often is his excellent and consoling doctrine, the only hope of the sincere christian, abused by those who want a plea for their carelessness and indolence!

But the doctrine of redemption, in fact, carries with it the strongest obligation, and gives the most forcible impulse, to all the warm emotions and active duties of religion; so far from being a substitute for religion, it is the strongest motive to it; it is because we are "bought with a price," that we are therefore "not our own;" it is because "Christ died for all," that "they which live should (therefore) not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him, which died for them, and rose again;" it is because "God first loved us," that we ought therefore to "love him" in return; it is because "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men," that we ought therefore to "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present evil world; looking for that blessed hope, and

the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us,” (not that we might live in unconcern about our salvation, or in neglect of the principles and duties of religion, but) "that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Depend on it, that whoever is a hearty believer in the efficacy of our blessed Saviour's atonement and mediation, that man is not content with merely acknowledging this doctrine, but loves him as his greatest benefactor, confides in him as his firmest friend, attends to him as his best instructor, follows him as his safest guide, and obeys him as his most kind and supreme master.

My brethren, the object of my discourse has been to convince you that religion is the grand business of life, and that those who have not kept that end steadily in view, in whatever way they may have been employed, have wholly wasted their time in pursuits foreign to the purpose for which they were born. And in speaking of the perversion of life's great use, when it is entirely devoted to other occupations, to the neglect and exclusion of religion, I have designedly addressed myself to those, whose engagements may be of a creditable, or at least not discreditable nature, on this account, because I

suppose that persons who have lived in the state, which we commonly understand by direct and decided sin, cannot, if they ever reflect for a moment, flatter themselves with the thought that their lives have not been egregiously and woefully misemployed, whereas those to whom we cannot impute flagrantly vicious conduct, but who have on the contrary led decorous and perhaps useful lives, in a worldly sense, and who have rather lived without religion than in wilful opposition to it, may easily delude themselves with a belief that they cannot be charged with a misuse of that time, which they have so profitably and innocently employed. I hope, if there are any such present, they will begin to entertain different sentiments; I hope they will be brought before it be too late, to a serious and practical conviction of the worthlessness, nay sinfulnes, of every, even the most respectable, pursuit in life, when unconnected with, and disjoined from religious principles and motives. I hope they will yet learn, that man was made to worship and serve God, and to work out his own salvation, that every thing else is but secondary to these most important objects, and that if God is not their chief good, his will their principal study, and heaven their highest aim, the greatest success and the most perfect happiness that they