tice, that they might flee from the danger. Is the danger of fin lefs real? Is it lefs terrible? Juft the contrary. The lofs of fubftance, or the lofs of life, by fire in our dwellings, is not once to be compared with having foul and body for ever tormented in the fire of hell.

Agreeably to this, we find frequent mention of this duty both in the Old and New Testament. It is a precept in the Levitical law, Lev. xix. 17. Thou 'fhalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou fhalt * in any wife rebuke thy neighbour, and not fuffer • fin upon him. Prov. ix. 8. Rebuke a wife man, and he will love thee. Phil. ii. 4. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Heb. x. 24. And let us confider one another to provoke unto love, and to good • works.'

There is no doubt, at the fame time, that this duty, however general, lies with peculiar and heavier obligations on fome than on others, and varies a little according to the different relations we stand in to one another. You will eafily be fenfible how much it is the duty of thofe who have the ministry of reconciliation committed to them, who are entrusted with the charge of precious fouls, to be urgent and earnest in their exhortations, to all without exception; to be at all proper pains to fit them. felves for awakening the attention, enlightening the understanding, and convincing the confciences: of their hearers. It is their duty to do what in them lies, to trace the fubtil workings and windings of the human heart, and to know the depths of Satan,

as the scripture expreffes it, to declare the whole counfel of God, and keep back nothing that is profitable for their hearers. It is not to be denied that you ought to hear them with patience and attention; that they have a right to speak with freedom and boldness to perfons of every rank and character; and that there ought to be a particular fire and edge in their exhortations, fince they watch for your fouls as those who must give an account unto God.

There is also a particular obligation upon fuperiors of all forts, whether in office, as magiftrates; in ftation, as perfons of wealth and opulence; in years, as those whom time and experience fhould have enriched with folid wifdom; in relation, as parents and mafters of families, to be frequent in exhorting others, and warning them of the deceitfulness of fin. It is laid upon them, and expected of them, that they fhould not live to themfelves, that they should not fatisfy themselves with exacting and looking for the refpect and deference which is their due; but that they ought to exert themselves, in giving useful inftruction or falutary admonition to all who are within their sphere. Is fin fo deceitful? Are the unwary and ignorant fo eafily misled, and fo hardly recovered? Then furely thofe who ought to excel others in knowledge, fhould be careful to impart it for the benefit of the weak. Undoubtedly, my brethren, it is not only a Christian, but a noble and amiable character, for those who are exalted above others, to be full of compaffion to their inferiors, and in their whole converfation breathing a defire after their spiritual good.

But it is alfo plainly a part of Christian friendship, even for equals to exhort one another, and kindly to communicate their mutual experience in the fpiritual life.

The lips of the righteous (we are told by, • Solomon) feed many.' O how rare and difficult a duty! But wherefore fhould it be either difficult or rare? The Love of God leads to it. The state of your brethren requires it. And furely it is neither unpleasant nor hurtful to him that performs it. I am fenfible where the difficulty lies. We fuppofe there are few who will hear it with patience, or receive it with profit. Alas! my brethren, it is too true, we hear, on all hands, complaints, that people will not take advice; that they are but offended, instead of being reformed. Perhaps, indeed, this is as much owing to the manner of giving, as to the backwardness of receiving counfel. However, we fhall allow the objection; and, fince the duty is mutual, I hope it will not be reckoned wandering from the subject, if I beseech you to fubmit to one anothers exhortation, We all stand in need of it; we may all be the better for it. What though it be adminiftred imprudently or harshly for the manner; nay, though it may flow from envy, pride, or malice, as the principle; you will lofe nothing by hearkening to the counsel? I do not remember any thing recorded more truly glorious for a monarch, than what we are told of Philip of Macedon, that he heard reproofs not only with patience, but with pleasure: and I am fure, there is nothing more like a Christian, than to profit, not only by the admonitions of friends, but by the reproaches of enemies. If they are juft, reform what

is amifs; if they are probable, abstain from the appearance of evil: if they are neither the one nor the c ther, fubmit to them with patience, as a part of the will of God.

2. I come now to confider the feafon in which the duty of mutual exhortation is to be performed, Exbort one another daily, while it is called, to-day. By which we are to underftand, that it is to be done frequently, and without delay. This, my brethren, will perfectly accommodate the subject of this difcourfe to our prefent fituation, when entering on another year. We have many admonitions of the quick paffage of time; and all thefe ferve to enforce the exhortation of the wife man, Ecclef. ix. 10. Whatfoever thy hand findeth to do, do it

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with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wifdom, in the grave, whither thou goeft.' If any hearer has received a conviction of the deceitfulnefs of fin, or the duty of mutual exhortation, he ought seriously to confider, that the prefent time only is his; that he knoweth not what a day or a night may bring forth; and that delaying or poftponing what he may do at present, is at the poffible or probable hazard of its being left undone for ever. I befeech you, my brethren, to make this ofe of the commencement of another year. There is no difference, in one fenfe, between one day and another, as much of life is fpent, and as much of our dying frame is wasted in one day as in another; but our computation and reckoning of revolving years, by the principal feafons, only helps us to mark the conftant, though filent paffage of time, which, like

a flowing river, is bearing us all down into the ocean of eternity. Has any of us then a relation, friend, or child, to whofe eternal interest he defires, or fees it to be his duty to contribute? let him be fpeedy and diligent, whether by inftruction, admonition, example, or even prayer: you know not how short a time the opportunity may lat. By and by all thefe relations fhall be diffolved. How many who were with us last year are now fleeping in the duft; their state irrevocably fixed for eternity, either entered into rest, and happy in their Redeemer's prefence, or referved in chains of darkness, and looking forward, with defpair and terror, to the general judgment. No warning of the deceitfulness of fin there; they know it, and feel it, in inward reproach, and everlasting felf-condemnation. No preaching of the gofpel there; no hope of recovery, or place for repentance there fo that we may juftly address every hearer of the gofpel, in the words of the apostle Paul, 2 Cor. vi. 1, 2. 'We then, as workers together with him, befeech you alfo, that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For, he faith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of falvation have I fuccoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of falvation.';

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I fhall only add, that the deceitfulness of fin, and the precarioufnefs of time, are confiderations which ferve greatly to ftrengthen one another. As time waftes, the finner hardens; not only is the feafon paffing away, but the work is becoming ftill more difficult, and, at laft, as I have shown before, in the courfe of nature, and by the appointment of God,