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minded, more decided in combating the evils of his heart, and more successful in warding off the fiery darts of the wicked one.

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O Christians, you have commenced a warfare from which there is no discharge; — a warfare in which mighty spirits are engaged with unwearied malice; a warfare which the inhabitants of heaven are contemplating with peculiar interest;- a warfare to which you are all of yourselves unequal, and yet on the issue of which are suspended consequences of eternal moment! What will you achieve in this grand enterprise, if you stand alone? What will you effect by mere natural courage, or even by your most strenuous and vigorous efforts? Does your heart glow with a warmer zeal, and with a purer love, than that of Peter? Are you more humble and devout than Hezekiah? Are you more holy than David; more meek than Moses; more faithful and obedient than Abraham? Can you stand where Adam, though supported by innocence, fell? Do you not see, with all these examples of human instability before you, that he who trusts in himself is actually on the brink of ruin, and that he only is secure, who, disdaining an "arm of flesh," hides himself "beneath the shadow of the Almighty?"

Remember, Christians, what a glorious object the God of all grace places before you, not

a wreath of laurel, or the record of your valour in the annals of earthly fame, or the fading honours of nobility, or the splendours of royalty: but the possession of an unfading inheritance, an eternal kingdom, a crown of glory! To what inconveniencies and privations will not men submit, to obtain some short-lived advantage, a mere competency, which, after all, they can enjoy only through a few fleeting years! What diligence, what earnestness, what watchfulness, what self-denial, ought you not to employ, with the view of being meetened for everlasting glory, and of being admitted into that Divine kingdom which you may be called to enter in a few years, perhaps in a few days? O why does it not engross all our thoughts?-Why is not the whole space of our lives occupied with holy and rapturous anticipations of that immortal prize? How is it that some of us can live through a whole day, without any endearing thoughts of that blessed world, and without any anxious inquiry, whether we are indeed preparing for it! Ignoble souls! Can nothing raise us from the dust? Can nothing awaken our ambition? Do we prefer pain to pleasure,-sorrow to joy, -toil to rest,- slavery to liberty,—and darkness and death to the splendours of heaven, and the shining of the face of God, and the beatitude of endless life!

Put on, my brethren, "put on the whole armour of God;" gird yourselves with fresh courage for the battle. "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." The struggle will continue for a short time only; and, should it be lengthened out to many years, remember, it is for a kingdom that you contend. Every eye in heaven is upon you; martyrs and apostles; yea, your fathers and your brethren, to whom the palm has been already awarded, are observing the contest with high emotion, and are witnessing your victories with delightful interest; while Jesus, in whose cause you are engaged, is presenting to your eye the crown of life, saying,-"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am sat down with my Father on his throne."

"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy; -To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen."

DISCOURSE VIII.

MATTHEW, vi. 13.

Deliver us from evil.

It was originally intended to unite these words with the preceding petition, and to make them the ground of one discourse; but, on examining them more closely, it appeared that they would afford a train of thought sufficiently removed from that which occupied our attention last Lord's Day, and capable of forming the basis of some remarks which could not then be conveniently introduced. Our text leads us to contemplate the believer,

I. As apprehensive of danger; and,
II. As solicitous of Divine preservation.

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