before, and now tell you again, that unless the gospel is made the
power of God to your souls, you must be miserable in time, and to
eternity.

I propose now to give you some advices, to assist you in understanding
the gospel for yourselves, which if you observe, I trust, you will
attain to the possession of those principles, and walk by those rules,
which will both afford you present peace, and secure your future
happiness. For godliness has promises pertaining to the life that now
is, and to that which is to come.

Let me then exhort you to attend seriously to what you are to
believe; and to what you are to do. These two points include the sum
and substance of the gospel, the whole of the christian life, and may
be comprised in two words, FAITH and PRACTICE.


I. You must learn from the word of God, what you are to believe. True
faith is the root and foundation of all real religion. Without this
inward principle, nothing that we have done, or can do, will be
acceptable to God [Heb. xi. 6.]. I have briefly informed you what you are
to believe--That you are sinners, that Jesus Christ is an all-sufficient
and willing Saviour--and that the word of God both warrants and commands
you to look to him for salvation. This looking unto Jesus, is what we
particularly mean by faith or believing. When we cordially and entirely
rely upon him, upon the invitation of the promises of God, for
pardon, peace, and eternal life, then we believe.

All who thus believe, through grace, are required and commanded to be
careful of maintaining good works [Titus. iii. 8.]. As our moral, and what