II. What are the marks of our being ripe

Nothing can be more awful than the thought that a finner is ripe for everlasting misery

Yet it may be juftly apprehended that he is fo

1. When he is given over to a total infenfibility [Cuftom in finning will harden the heart, and fear the confcience

When a perfon is arrived at fuch a ftate, he is fitted for deftruction

f

This is both figuratively and plainly declared in the Scriptures-]

2. When he continues wilfully in fin against conviction [There are fome who determine to hold faft their finsThefe have reafon to think that God's Spirit will be taken from them

They may expect to be utterly given up to their own lufts —] `.

Saints, on the other hand, may be judged ripe for glory

1. When they unfeignedly rely on the Lord Jefus

[We fix upon the loweft marks of true graceFaith in Chrift is exercifed by the weakest faintYet to that is eternal happiness annexed1

Of confequence, he who poffeffes it must be fit for glory-] 2. When they unfeignedly defire to be conformed to his image

[There is a great difference in the attainments of different Chriftians

And much allowance muft be made for a difference in their refpective advantages

But all defire to be "holy as God is holy"

Veffels thus fanctified are meet for their mafter's use *—}

While fpace is yet allowed us, it becomes us to con

fider

III. What shall be done when we are ripe

When the corn has attained maturity, the fickle is put to it

Thus, when our measure of fin or holiness is complete, we shall be reaped down

GoOur exiftence in the world is entirely dependent upon

None can fhorten or protract it beyond its appointed bounds"]

The faints will be "gathered into the garner of their Lord "

[Saints, at their departure, afcend immediately to God"But in the day of judgment their bodies alfo will rifeThey fhall then be carried to their eternal home-]

The wicked will be "bound in bundles, and cast into the fire"

[They, who die in fin, immediately fuftain their just punishment

But at the laft day their bodies alfo fhall be restored to life

Then fhall they too be collected by the miniftry of angelsAnd receive their final doom in fire unquenchable-]

ADDRESS

1. Those who are ripening for deftruction

[You may easily difcern your real stateBut who can exprefs the mifery of it?— You ripen, however involuntarily, every day

Notwithstanding your fecurity, you will quickly fall— The great husbandman will eatily distinguish you from the faints

And he will most affuredly, yea eternally, feparate you from them

But, through the mercy of God, you may yet be changedThough you be tares at prefent, God can make you

wheat P

Seek then this divine change before it be too late-]

2. Those who are ripening for glory

[What thanks do you owe to God for his diftinguishing grace!

And how well may you be reconciled to the afflictions of life!

There is no event which does not promote your maturityLook forward then for the blessed period of the harvest-

Reflect

Luke xxiii. 43,

1 Pf. xxxi. 15. • Luke xvi. 23.

m Job xiv. 5.

P 2 Cor. v. 17.

Reflect on the happiness of the ftate for which you are preparing i

Still feek the fhowers of the Spirit, and the influences of the Sun of righteousness

Thus fhall you, in due season, be tranfmitted to the mansions of blifs-]

9 No wintry blasts, no scorching funs, no worm at the root, &c.

LXVI. GOD'S DWELLING IN US IS A MOTIVE TO

HOLINESS.

Rom. viii. 12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

IN the Scriptures, privilege and duty are infeparably connected

By this means we are kept at an equal distance from prefumptuous confidence and painful fervility

And the best feelings of the foul are rendered subservient to our eternal welfare

This obfervation is verified, as in many other paffages, fo particularly in that before us; which is a conclufion from very important premises

We propose to confider

I. The grounds of the conclufion

Believers have God himself dwelling in them [God is here reprefented as a Tri-une God ___ And he dwells in all his believing people →

text.

This

Rom. xii. 1. 1 Cor. vi. 20. with the two verfes before the

b The Father raised Chrift: Chrift dwells in all believers at the fame inftant; and the Holy Ghoft will raife the faints at the laft day, Can any one of these be less than God? Their diftinction and equality may be further proved from Matt, xxviii. 19. It is obfervable alio that in ver. 9. the Spirit of Chrift is called the Spirit of God.

c

2 Cor. vi. 16. 1 John i. 3. and 2 Cor. xiii. 14.-They do not indeed pretend to diftinguifh the agency of one of thefe divine perfons from that of another (for indeed no one of thefe perfons acts feparately from the others) but they exercise faith on the Father, as their protector and governor; on the Son, as their mediator and advocate; and on the Spirit, as their guide and comforter.

This is a moft ineftimable privilege to them -]

By means of this they enjoy the richeft bleffings [Their fouls are quickened from their death in trefpaffes and fins

And, by a new principle of life infufed into them, are enabled to live unto God

And this "life they have becaufe of Chrift's righteoufnefs" wrought out for them, and imputed to them

Their bodies alfo, though doomed to "death, as the penalty of fin," "will be raifed again by that very Spirit who now dwelleth in them "

And thefe fhall participate with the foul the glory and felicity of the heavenly world--]

Such being the premises from which the conclufion is drawn, we proceed to confider

II. The conclufion itself

We certainly are "debtors to the flesh" to a certain degree

[The flesh cannot fubfift without care and labourAnd whatever is neceflary for the prefervation of life, or the restoration of our health, it is our bounden duty to do-]. But we are not debtors to obey its dictates

[To" live after" the flesh, muft import a confulting of its eafe, a complying with its folicitations, a devoting of ourfelves to its interefts

To this extent we certainly are not debtors to the flesh-] This may plainly be concluded, as from many other topics, fo especially from the foregoing statement

[The privileges vouchfafed to us ftrongly prohibit a carnal life

Can the Tri-une God, who dwells in us, be pleased with our living after the fleth?

Is not the very intent of his mercies to bring us rather to live after the Spirit ?

The mercies too which we enjoy by means of thofe privileges, teach us the fame divine leffon

The quickening of our fpirit fhould lead us to "mind the things of the Spirit "

And the profpect of endless felicity and glory for the body fhould keep us from feeking its prefent gratifications to the deftruction of its eternal interefts

Far greater than that mentioned, 1 Kings viii. 27.

Το

To whomfoever we are debtors, we are not (in this extent at leaft) debtors to the flesh-]

INFER

1, How mistaken are the world in their courfe of life! [The generality live as if they had nothing to do but to confult the flesh

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And when exhorted to mind the concerns of their fouls, reply immediately, "I must attend to the interefts of my body"

But in thus oppofing the declaration in the text, they will ruin their bodies as well as their fouls for ever-]

2. How unmindful are even good people of their duty and intereft!

[The best of men find it difficult to " keep under their bodies "

And there are feasons when they are apt to yield to floth or fenfual indulgence

But let all remember their obligations and profeffionsAnd labour rather to pay what they owe to the Spirit-]

LXVII. THE COMFORT TO BE DERIVED FROM
CHRIST'S ASCENSION.

John xiv. 2, 3.

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not fo, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be aljo.

AN hope of future happiness affords strong confolation under prefent trials

The children of God, if deftitute of this, would be "of all men moft miferable

But this renders them incomparably more happy, even - under the most afflictive difpenfations, than the greatest fulness of earthly things could make them—

Our Lord opened thefe fprings of comfort to his dif confolate difciples

Being about to leave them, he not only told them whither, and for what purpofe, he was going, but that he

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would