find the advantage. This method, though it seems but a small circumstance, might be a means of great piety. It would constantly keep it in your mind, that softness and idleness are the bane of religion. It would teach you to exercise power over yourself, and to renounce other pleasures and tempers that war against the soul. And what is so planted and watered, will certainly have an increase from God."

III. 1. It now only remains to inquire, in the third place, How we may redeem the time? How we may proceed in this important affair? In what manner shall we most effectually practise this important branch of temperance?

I advise all of you who are thoroughly convinced of the unspeakable importance of it, suffer not that conviction to die away, but instantly begin to act suitably to it. Only do not depend on your own strength: if you do, you will be utterly baffled. Be deeply sensible, that as you are not able to do any thing good of yourselves, so here in particular, all your strength, all your resolution, will avail nothing. Whoever trusts in himself will be confounded. I never found an exception. I never knew one who trusted in his own strength that could keep this resolution for a twelve month.

2. I advise you, secondly, cry to the strong for strength. Call upon him that hath all power in heaven and earth: and believe that he will answer the prayer that goeth not out of feigned lips. As you cannot have too little confidence in yourself, so you cannot have too much in him. Then set out in faith: and surely his strength shall be made perfect in your weakness.

3. I advise you, thirdly, Add to your faith, prudence: use the most rational means to attain your purpose. Particularly begin at the right end, otherwise you will lose your labour. If you desire to rise early, sleep early secure this point at all events. In spite of the most dear and agreeable companions, in spite of their most earnest solicitations, in spite of entreaties, railleries, or reproaches, rigorously keep your hour. Rise up precisely at your time, and retire without ceremony. Keep your hour, notwithstanding the most pressing business: lay all things by till the morning. Be it ever so great a cross, ever so great self denial, keep your hour, or all is over.

4. I advise you, fourthly, Be steady. Keep your hour of rising, without intermission. Do not rise two mornings, and lie in bed the third; but what you do once, do always. "But my head aches." Do not regard that. It will soon be over. "But I am uncommonly drowsy; my eyes are quite heavy." Then you must not parley; otherwise it is a lost case; but start up at once. And if your drowsiness does not go off, lie down for awhile, an hour or two after. But let nothing make a breach upon this rule, rise and dress yourself at your hour.

5. Perhaps you will say, "The advice is good; but it comes too late: I have made a breach already. I did rise constantly for a season, nothing hindered me. But I gave way by little and little, and I have now left it off for a considerable time!" Then, in the name of God begin again! Begin to morrow; or rather to night, by going to bed early, in spite of either company or business. Begin with more self diffidence than before, but with more confidence in God. Only follow these few rules, and my soul for yours, God will give you the victory. In a little time the difficulty will be over: but the benefit will last for ever.

6. If you say," but I cannot do now as I did then; for I am not what I was. I have many disorders, my spirits are low, my hands shake : I am all relaxed." I answer: All these are nervous symptoms; and they all partly arise from your taking too much sleep: nor is it probable they will ever be removed, unless you remove the cause. Therefore, on this very account, (not only punish yourself for your folly and unfaithfulness, but,) in order to recover your health and strength, resume your early rising. You have no other way: you have nothing else to do. You have no other possible means of recovering, in any tolerable degree, your health both of body and mind. Do not murder yourself outright. Do not run on in the path that leads to the gates of death! As I said before, so I say again, in the name of God, this very day, set out anew. True, it will be more difficult than it was at the beginning. But bear the difficulty which you have brought upon yourself, and it will not last long. The Sun of righteousness will soon arise again, and will heal both your soul and your body.

7. But do not imagine that this single point, rising early, will suffice to make you a Christian. No: although that single point, the not rising, may keep you a heathen, void of the whole Christian spirit; although this alone, (especially if you had once conquered it,) will keep you cold, formal, heartless, dead; and make it impossible for you to get one step forward in vital holiness; yet this alone will go but a little way to make you a real Christian. It is but one step out of many; but it is one. And having taken this, go forward. Go on to universal self denial, to temperance in all things; to a firm resolution of taking up daily every cross whereto you are called. Go on, in a full pursuit of all the mind that was in Christ, of inward and then outward holiness: so shall you be not almost, but altogether a Christian: so shall you finish your course with joy you shall awake up after his likeness, and be satisfied.

SERMON XCIX.-On Family Religion.

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," Josn. xxiv, 15.

1. In the foregoing verses we read, that Joshua, now grown old, gathered the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges and officers, and they presented themselves before the Lord," verse 1. And Joshua rehearsed to them the great things which God had done for their fathers, verses 2-13; concluding with that strong exhortation; "Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side the flood, (Jordan,) and in Egypt," verse 14. Can any thing be more astonishing than this! That even in Egypt, yea, and in the wilderness, where they were daily fed, and both day and night guided by miracle, the Israelites, in general, should worship idols, in flat defiance of the Lord their God! He proceeds: "If it seemeth evil to you to serve the Lord, choose ye this day whom ye will serve: whether the gods your fathers served on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord

2. A resolution this worthy of a hoary headed saint, who had had large experience, from his youth up, of the goodness of the Master to whom he had devoted himself, and the advantages of his service. How much is it to be wished that all who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, all whom he has brought out of the land of Egypt, out of the bondage of sin,—those especially who are united together in Christian fellowship, would adopt this wise resolution! Then would the work of the Lord prosper in our land; then would his word run and be glorified. Then would multitudes of sinners in every place stretch out their hands unto God, until "the glory of the Lord covered the land, as the waters cover the sea.'

3. On the contrary, what will the consequence be, if they do not adopt this resolution?-If family religion be neglected?—If care be not taken of the rising generation? Will not the present revival of religion in a short time die away? Will it not be as the historian speaks of the Roman state in its infancy, Res unius ætatis? An event that has its beginning and end, within the space of one generation? Will it not be a confirmation of that melancholy remark of Luther's, That "a revival of religion never lasts longer than one generation ?" By a generation, (as he explains himself,) he means thirty years. But blessed be God this remark does not hold, with regard to the present instance: seeing this revival from its rise in the year 1729, has already lasted above fifty years.

4. Have we not already seen some of the unhappy consequences of good men's not adopting this resolution? Is there not a generation arisen, even within this period, yea, and from pious parents, that know not the Lord? That have neither his love in their hearts, nor his fear before their eyes? How many of them already "despise their fathers, and mock at the counsel of their mothers!" How many are utter strangers to real religion, to the life and power of it! And not a few have shaken off all religion, and abandoned themselves to all manner of wickedness! Now, although this may sometimes be the case, even of children educated in a pious manner, yet this case is very rare: I ave met with some, but not many instances of it. The wickedness of the children is generally owing to the fault or neglect of their parents. For it is a general, though not universal rule, though it admits of some exceptions, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

5. But what is the purport of this resolution, "I and my house will serve the Lord ?" In order to understand and practise this, let us, first, inquire, What it is to "serve the Lord ?" Secondly, Who are included in that expression, "My house ?" And thirdly, What can we do, that we and our house may serve the Lord?

I. 1. We may inanire, first, What it is to "serve the Lord," not as a Jew, but as a Christian? Not only with an outward service, (though some of the Jews undoubtedly went farther than this,) but with inward; with the service of the heart," worshipping him in spirit and in truth." The first thing implied in this service is faith; believing in the name of the Son of God. We cannot perform an acceptable service to God, till we believe on Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. Here the spiritual worship of God begins. As soon as any one has the witness in himself, as soon as he can say, "The 'ife that I now live, I live by faith in

the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me," he is able truly to serve the Lord."

2. As soon as he believes, he loves God, which is another thing implied in "serving the Lord." "We love him, because he first loved us;" of which faith is the evidence. The love of a pardoning God is "shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Indeed this love may admit of a thousand degrees: but still every one, as long as he believes, may truly declare before God. "Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." Thou knowest that " my desire is unto thee, and unto the remembrance of thy name."

3. And if any man truly love God, he cannot but love his brother also. Gratitude to our Creator will surely produce benevolence to our fellow creatures. If we love him, we cannot but love one another, as Christ loved us. We feel our souls enlarged in love towards every child of man. And towards all the children of God we put on 66 bowels of kindness, gentleness, long suffering, forgiving one another," if we have a complaint against any, "even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us.

4. One thing more is implied in "serving the Lord," namely, the obeying him; the steadily walking in all his ways, the doing his will from the heart. Like those " his servants" above," who do his pleasure, who keep his commandments, and hearken to the voice of his words;" these, his servants below, hearken unto his voice, diligently keep his commandments, carefully avoid whatever he has forbidden, and zealously do whatever he has enjoined; studying always to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man.

II. "I and my house will serve the Lord," will every real Christian But who are included in that expression,

say.

is the next point to be considered.

my house?"

This

1. The person in your house that claims your first and nearest atten tion, is, undoubtedly, your wife: seeing you are to love her, even as Christ hath loved the church, when he laid down his life for it, that he might "purify it unto himself, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." The same end is every husband to pursue, in all his intercourse with his wife: to use every possible means, that she may be freed from every spot, and may walk unblamable in love.

2. Next to your wife are your children: immortal spirits whom God hath, for a time, entrusted to your care, that you may train them up in all holiness, and fit them for the enjoyment of God in eternity. This is a glorious and important trust; seeing one soul is of more value than all the world beside. Every child, therefore, you are to watch over with the utmost care, that when you are called to give an account of each to the Father of spirits, you may give your accounts with joy and not with grief.

3. Your servants, of whatever kind, you are to look upon as a kind of secondary children: these, likewise, God has committed to your charge, as one that must give account. For every one under your roof that has a soul to be saved, is under your care: not only indented servants, who are legally engaged to remain with you for a term of years; not only hired servants, whether they voluntarily contract for a longer or shorter time; but also those who serve you by the week or day for these too are, in a measure, delivered into your hands. And

it is not the will of your Master who is in heaven, that any of these should go out of your hands, before they have received from you something more valuable than gold or silver. Yea, and you are in a degree accountable, even for "the stranger that is within your gates." As you are particularly required, to see that he does "no manner of work" on the Lord's day, while he is within your gates; so by parity of reason, you are required, to do all that is in your power, to prevent his sinning against God in any other instance.

III. Let us inquire, in the third place, What can we do, that all these may 66 serve the Lord ?”

1. May we not endeavour, first, To restrain them from all outward sin? From profane swearing; from taking the name of God in vain; from doing any needless work, or taking any pastime, on the Lord's day? This labour of love you owe even to your visitants: much more to your wife, children, and servants. The former, over whom you have the least influence, you may restrain by argument or mild persuasion. If you find that, after repeated trials, they will not yield either to one or the other, it is your bounden duty to set ceremony aside, and to dismiss them from your house. Servants also, whether by the day, or for a longer space, if you cannot reclaim, either by reasoning, added to your example, or by gentle or severe reproofs, though frequently repeated, you must, in any wise, dismiss from your family, though it should be ever so inconvenient.

2. But you cannot dismiss your wife, unless for the cause of fornication, that is, adultery. What can then be done, if she is habituated to any other open sin? I cannot find in the Bible, that a husband has authority to strike his wife on any account: even suppose she struck him first; unless his life were in imminent danger. I never have known one instance yet of a wife that was mended thereby. I have heard, indeed, of some such instances; but as I did not see them, I do not believe them. It seems to me, all that can be done in this case, is to be done partly by example, partly by argument or persuasion, each applied in such a manner as is dictated by Christian prudence. If evil can ever be overcome, it must be overcome by good. It cannot be overcome by evil: we cannot beat the devil with his own weapons. Therefore, if this evil cannot be overcome by good, we are called to suffer it. We are then called to say, "this is the cross which God hath chosen for me. He surely permits it for wise ends: 'let him do what seemeth him good.' Whenever he sees it to be best, he will remove his cup from me. Meantime continue in earnest prayer, knowing that with God no work is impossible; and that he will either in due time take the temptation away, or make it a blessing to your soul.

3. Your children, while they are young, you may restrain from evil, not only by advice, persuasion, and reproof, but also by correction; only remembering, that this means is to be used last not till all other have been tried, and found to be ineffectual. And even then you should take the utmost care to avoid the very appearance of passion. Whatever is done should be done with mildness; nay, indeed, with kindness too. Otherwise your own spirit will suffer loss; and the child will reap little advantage.

4. But some will tell you, "all this is lost labour; a child need not to be corrected at all. Instruction, persuasion, and advice, will be suf