our ears, and its light been exhibited before our eyes ; " for many prophets and kings have in vain desired to see and hear these things," which we so richly enjoy.
We have all, more or less, been made the subjects of re- straining grace : and O, what a tribute of praise does that demand ! How many of our fellow-creatures have brought themselves to an untimely end, either by their excesses, or by the hands of the public executioner! How many unhappy females protract a miserable existence by the wages of prosti- tution ! How many, either to conceal their shame, or to avenge a quarrel, have committed murder ! How many, to rid themselves of their present troubles, have madly rushed on smcide ! Whence is it, I would ask, that we have not fallen into one or other of these evils? Are we made of better materials than they? " Have we not all one father?" Did they, previous to the commission of their evil deeds, imagine themselves more likely to lall than we? Let us acknowledge " the good hand of God upon us:" it is God who alone has made us to differ : and if he had not preserved us by his re- straining grace, we should at this moment have been numbered with the most miserable and abandoned of the human race.
Some amongst us, we trust, have been made to experience converting grace. And what cause for thankfulness have they ! Look around, and see how few even of those who statedly hear the Gospel are savingly converted by it! What then do they owe to God, who have been quickened from the dead; who have had their sins blotted out by the blood of Jesus; who have been made partakers of a divine nature, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven! Should not they raise an Eben-ezer to the Lord?
Nor have they less cause for thankfulness who have received establishing grace. Consider how many have " begun to run well, and afterwards been hindered:" some waxing cold in their regard to religion ; others " turning aside to vain jangling;" some drawn into infidelity; and others making re- ligion itself hateful and abominable, by their hypocrisy or open impiety. Never does a year pass, but some instances of grievous backsliding occur, to the great dishonour of God, and the grief of all his people. And why are not ive the persons that have been left to fall ? Have we felt no secret inclination to sin? Have we on no occasion yielded to the suggestions of our great adversary, so that nothing but Omnipotence, snatching us like brands out of the burning, coiild have pre- served us? Have we never inwardly backslidden, so that if God had not for his own mercy's sake restored us, we must have departed for ever ? Let us only examine the records of our own hearts, and call our ovm ways to remembrance ; and there is not one of us who will not be ready to look upon
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