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judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Mat. 22. 37-40. and 7. 12. Eccl. 12. 13, 14.

Have you reverenced, loved, and served Gon? Are you now desirous of doing your whole duty?

182. Who prepares the heart to love and serve God?

O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.- The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord. Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. Jer. 10. 23. Prov. 16. 1. Ps. 10. 17. Ez. 36. 37, 26, 27. || Ps. 119. 32, 65, 33. Jer. 32. 39, 40. Phil. 2. 13. Jam. 1. 16-18. Ezra 7. 27. 2 Cor. 8. 16. Neh. 2. 12.

Do you feel your entire dependance on GOD for every thing morally good? Dare you use this as an excuse for continuance in sin? Would it answer to be plead at the bar of God?

183. Do the prayers of God's people acknowledge their entire dependance on him?

The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us: That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God.- Create in me a clean heart, O GOD; and renew a right spirit within me. Kings 8. 57, 58. Jer. 31. 18. Ps. 51. 10. Heb. 13. 20, 21. 2 Thes. 2. 16, 17.

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Did you ever pray "Create in me a clean heart, O GOD?" Without feeling guilty and helpless in yourselves, have you ever prayed aright?

184. Does their language express their dependance?

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of Gon.- I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. But by the grace of

GOD I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of GoD which was with me. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Phil. 4. 13. 1 Cor. 15. 10. || Eph. 6. 10. 2 Tim. 2. 1. Is. 26. 12.

If you hope you have any measure of right views and affections, who hath made you to differ? Did you or did grace make the difference?

185. What Scripture directions manifestly imply free-agency, and require activity in the creature?

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to Gon, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to hea viness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.- Wash you, make you clean: put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GoD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.- Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfeth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our Gon, for he will abundantly pardon. Jam. 4. 7-10. Is. 1. 16, 17. Ez. 18. 30 -32. Is. 55. 1-3. 6, 7. || Hos. 10. 12. OBSERVE THE PUR

PORT OF THE SCRIPTURES THROUGHOUT.

Do you not feel yourselves to be moral agents free as creatures can be? If unable to comprehend the union of Divine

efficiency and free-agency, is there not irresistible evidence of their existing together?

186. When it is best, perhaps the only time to begin a religrous life?

Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, To-DAY if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living Gov. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.- For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: BEHOLD, NOW IS THE ACCEPTED TIME; BEROLD, NOW IS THE DAY OF SALVATION. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Heb. 3. 7, 8, 12, 13. 2 Cor. 6. 2. Ps. 2. 11, 12. || Gen. 6. 3. Heb. 4. 7. Jam. 4. 13-17.

Can any of you be so unwise, so presumptuous, as to defer your soul's concerns till to-morrow? Where would you be should you not live till to-morrow?

187. Is this life a state of probation?

Be not deceived; GoD is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Gal. 6. 7, 8. Rom. 8. 12, 13. 2 Cor. 5. 10. || Is. 61. 2. Hos. 10. 12, 13.

Are you sowing to the flesh as to the Spirit? Are you desirous of living every day with reference to a never ending eternity?

188. It is appointed unto ALL men ONCE to DIE?

Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind

passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.- The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.- There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit: neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given, to it. Job. 14. 1. 1 Chron. 29. 15. Ps. 103. 14-16. 1 Sam. 2. 6. Eccl. 8. 8. | Job 16. 22. and 30. 23. Ps. 39. 4, 5. Job 4. 12, 20. and 14. 2, 5, 10, 12, 19, 20. and 21. 23-26.

How do you feel respecting your own death? Do you try to banish from your minds the thoughts of dying? Or are you willing to render this subject more familiar to your thoughts?

189. Is the time of death EXTREMELY uncertain?

Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain; Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.- Lord, make me to know MINE END, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I AM. Jam. 4. 13, 14. Prov. 27. 1. Job 21. 23. Mat. 24. 44. Ps. 39. 4. || Gen. 3. 19. and 27. 2. 1 Sam. 20. 3. Ps. 90. 5, 6.

Do we often reflect that our mortal lives may terminate soon and suddenly? Does not death overtake most persons unexpectedly? What if our souls should this night be required of us?

190. "If a man die shall he live again?" Job 14. 14.

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.- Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,

with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. John 5. 28, 29. 1 Cor. 15. 51-53. 1 Thes. 4. 15-18. Rev. 20. 6, 13, 14. Job 19. 25-27. Acts 24. 15, 16. Ps. 16. 8, 9, 11. Dan. 12. 2. 1 Cor. 15. 12, &c.

Where is the doctrine of the resurrection taught clearly but in the Bible? How solemn, how interesting, how precious is this doctrine?

191. Who will "judge the world in righteousness ?”

For the Father judgeth no man; but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.- Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained: whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.- For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to GOD. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to Gon.- When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. John 5. 22. Acts 17. 31. Rom. 14. 11, 12. Mat. 25. 31-33. Rev. 20. 11, 12. Eccl. 12. 14, 11, 9. Jude 14. 15. Rom. 2. 3-16. Mat. 16. 27. and 24. 36-42. Luke 9. 26. Mark 13. 32-37.

Must your eyes see Christ descend in judgment? Must your feet stand before the Son of man? Must your ears hear the irrevocable sentence from his lips? Can you feel stupid?

192. What will be the sentence of the righteous?

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was a hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or raked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and

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