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nourished and supported, they will also 'say, By the use of the means-by hearing the Word of God, by studying it-by prayer, and by the other ordinances.

Experience will also show us, that they are the persons of whose state there is too much reason to think ill, who either neglect the ordinances, or means of grace entirely, use them but formally, or casually, or not at all.

Look at the people of this village whose lives are a disgrace to their ra tional nature, and are they not to be found among those who despise God's ordinances, and contemn the sober and constant use of means appointed for their reformation and salvation? Is there any injustice in God, in punishing such people as these? Nay, does not the very justice of God demand their punishment? God is just: O that such would be convinced of it, before they feel the truth of it, in an eternal world!

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These people very likely curse God in their hearts for sending the Gospel among

them to condemn them to a greater degree of punishment than if they had been deprived of the privilege of hearing its joyful sound: but let them recollect, that it is the innocent cause of their condemnation. It is meant for their

good, their eternal good; but they turn it into the occasion of their condemnation.

That man must have a depraved heart, my brethren, who would willingly hurt the feelings of any human being design edly, and with a malignant intention, And believe me, if I speak harsh things against sinners, it is solely with the view of their being made useful to them. If they would but believe the threatenings denounced against them by the Word of God, they would surely pay some attention to them; for they are not cunningly devised fables, but the words of soberness and truth. No sinner can be saved, if he continues and dies in that state. God cannot be false to his word. He saith that sinners shall be cast into

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hell; and not all the powers of men or principalities among devils can reverse the sentence.

I will say one word to a different class of people, and conclude.

Some of you perhaps may be in the habit of using the means, but have found no saving benefit as yet from them. If you are using them in earnest, seeking for God's blessing upon them; in God's time you will reap the benefit you desire. Ask, and ye shall have. None that ever sought the Lord in earnest, and with importunity, ever sought him in vain. You need no other consolation: may God fulfil, in this ordinance, the desires of your heart! Amen.

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SERMON XXXIV.

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1 TIMOTHY, II. 3, 4, 5, 6.

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth; for there is one God and one Mediator be

tween God and man, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

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Ir is God our Saviour, as we learn from the verse preceding our text, who will have all men to be saved. The Apostle, after having exhorted Timothy that plications, prayers, and intercessions, and giving of thanks, should be made for all men, makes the observation contained in the words we have selected for our present meditation. And nothing further, I think, seems to be necessary to remark concerning the context; the words follow as a natural deduction from

those which go before them. If all men are the objects of prayer, all men may justly be exhorted to faith and repentance, without any encroachment upon other peculiarities of the Gospel system. Duties are ours, are all men's universally, though events are God's. We must do our duty, and leave the rest to God, whose distinguishing attributes are justice, mercy, and goodness. If we neglect our duty, no success can in reason be expected; on the contrary, it is highly reasonable, that we suffer if we will not do all we can. And this we find to be

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the case in all the common affairs of life if a man will not sow, neither shall he reap; if a man will not bring up his family in the ways of virtue and piety, he has no reason to feel dissatisfied if they err from the straight line of duty, and become a misery both to themselves and their parents. Nothing can possibly excuse us in the neglect of a known duty.

"God will have all men to be saved,

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