ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through his name."

May we be in the happy number of those who shall live before God, and in his favour!

PRAYER.

O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh; who alone livest for ever and ever; who bringest down to the grave and bringest up!

We desire to thank thee for all thy mercy and goodness towards us in our present being, and the various comforts of it; and especially to adore the methods of thy extraordinary providence by which thou didst invest the holy Jesus with high authority and power, to awaken mankind to the knowledge of thee the only true God, and to the obedience of thy holy laws which he delivered to us.

Dispose us, we pray thee, to listen to his call, and to follow him in the way that leadeth unto life.

But as it is thy method, O God, with thy creatures, not to overbear and constrain them in their compliance with thy holy will; but to make trial of them, whether they are inclined to regard thee and thy laws, and pay

obedience

obedience to thee, because it is in this way that thou exercisest thy rational creatures, and fittest them for durable happiness:

Give us teachable and upright dispositions, that we may be serious in our researches after thee and thy truth, and ready to embrace it; and at all times may be inclined to make continual improvements in all virtue.

And as thou, O holy and righteous Father, didst give to Jesus, our great lord and master, power over all nature whilst he was here, and even to raise the dead to life, that all men might know that he received his authority from thee, and believe and obey him:

And wilt also enable him, by the same power, to call the dead, small and great, to life, at the awful approaching day: those innumerable multitudes that are now asleep in their graves, and us, and all others, that are daily gathering to them:

Let the thoughts of this solemn most important scene, in which we shall all of us assuredly bear our part, alarm the guilty-sinner to turn to thee by true repentance, lest he die in his sins; and quicken the slow and tardy pace of others, to make haste to finish the work of virtue and holiness which thou hast appointed

appointed for them; that we may all find favour in thy sight, when we shall stand before thy throne of judgement, O thou sovereign judge of all! and that Jesus, our appointed judge under thee, may pronounce us the blessed of thee his Father; and receive us into that eternal kingdom, which of thine infinite goodness thou hast prepared for the faithful and virtuous of mankind.

Now, unto thee, O Father, the only living and true God, be rendered all praise, thanksgiving, and an increasing obedience, by us, and thy whole rational creation for ever and

ever!

The

grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all evermore !

April 19, 1778.

SERMON X.

MATTHEW vii. 14.

How strait is the gate and narrow the way which leadeth unto life! and few there be that find it.

and

In the verse before our Lord had said, “Enter
ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate
broad is the
way which leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat ;" upon
which he proceeds with this pathetic remark,
"How strait is the gate and narrow the way
which leadeth to life, and few there be that find
it!" For so it is put in the margin of our English
translation, and it ought to be adopted as the
true reading, being found in some of the best
ancient manuscripts, in the earliest versions of
the Scriptures, and in many ancient Christian
writers, and makes the observation more
lively and affecting.

But, not to dwell on such remarks, though sometimes proper to be mentioned,→I proceed to what more immediately belongs to this place and the present employment of our time.

Our Saviour Christ having now ended all

his

L