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it, whether you be young or old! There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of!. If we knew who it was, what ! How might an awful sight would it be to see such a person all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in And it would a very short time, even before this year is out. be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before to-morrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as you now enjoy!

And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls

as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield,* where they are flocking from day to day to Christ?

Are there not many here who have lived long in the world, and are not to this day born again? and so are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and have done nothing ever since they have lived, but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath? Oh, sirs, your case, in an especial manner, is extremely dangerous. Your guilt and hardness of heart is extremely great. Do you not see how generally persons of your years are passed over and left, in the present remarkable and wonderful dispensation of God's mercy? You had need to consider yourselves, and awake thoroughly out of sleep. You cannot bear the fierceness and wrath of the infinite God.-And you, young men, and young women, will you neglect this precious season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness. And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every day and every night? Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?

And let every one that is yet of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great favours to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles' days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded. If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God's Spirit, and will wish that you had died and gone to hell before you

A town in the neighbourhood.

had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, the axe is in an extraordinary manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree which brings not forth good fruit, may be hewn down and cast into the fire.

Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation Let every one fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed."

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SERMON VIII.*

THE

WATCHMAN'S DUTY AND ACCOUNT:

HEB. xiii. 17.

They watch for your souls, as they that must give account.

AFTER the Apostle had in this epistle particularly and largely insisted on the great doctrines of the gospel relating to the person, priesthood, sacrifice, exaltation and intercession of Christ, and the nature, privileges and benefits of the new dispensation of the covenant of grace, as answering to the types of the Old Testament; He improves all in the latter part of the epistle to enforce christian duties and holy practice, as his manner is in most of his epistles. And after he had recommended other duties to the christian Hebrews, in this verse he gives them counsel with regard to their duty towards those that were set over them in ecclesiastical authority; Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves.-By them that had the rule over them, the Apostle means their ecclesiastical rulers, and particularly their ministers and pastors that preached the word of God to them; as is evident by verse 7. Remember them that have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: and also by the words of the text, that immediately follow in the same verse, in which the employment of those that have the rule over them, that they are to obey and submit to, is represented. Concerning which may be observed,

1. What it was their pastors were conversant about, in the employment they were charged with, viz. the souls of men. The employments that many others were engaged in were about the bodies of men; so it is with almost all the particular callings that mankind do follow; they are in one respect or other to provide for men's bodies, or to furthur their temporal

* Preached at the Ordination of the Reverend Mr. Jonathan Judd, to the Pastoral Office over the Church of Christ, in the New Precinct at Northamp ton, June 8, 1743.

interests; as the business of husbandmen, sailors, merchants, physicians, attorneys, and civil officers and rulers, and the innumerable trades and mechanical arts that are practised and pursued by the children of men but the work of the ministry is about the soul, that part of man that is immortal, and made and designed for a state of inconceivable blessedness, or extreme and unutterable torments throughout all eternity, and therefore infinitely precious; and is that part of man in which the great distinction lies between man and all the other innumerable kinds of creatures in this lower world, and by which he is vastly dignified above them; it is such beings as these that the work of the ministry is immediately conversant about.

2. How ministers in the business they have to attend are to be employed about men's souls, they are to watch for them; which implies that they are committed to their care to keep, that they may be so taken care of that they may not be lost, but eternally saved.

3. A grand argument to induce and oblige them to faithfulness in this employment, they must give account; i. e. they must give an account to him that committed those souls to their care, of the souls they were betrusted with, and of the care they have taken of them.

Therefore that we may the better understand the nature of that work of a minister of the gospel and pastor of a church, and the grand inducement to faithfulness in it, spoken of in the text, and know the better what improvement we ought to make of these things, I would

I. Show that ministers of the gospel have the souls of men committed to their care by the Lord Jesus Christ.

II. I would show to what purpose Christ thus commits the precious souls of men to the care of ministers.

III. That the way in which Christ expects that ministers should seek that these purposes may be obtained, with respect to the souls committed to them, is by watching for them. IV. I would observe, how when the time of their employment is at an end, they must give an account to him that committed the care of these souls unto them.

And then make application of the whole.

1. Ministers of the gospel have the precious and immortal souls of men committed to their care and trust by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The souls of men are his; he is the creator of them: God created all things by Jesus Christ. He created not only the material world, but also those things that are immaterial and invisible, as angels and the souls of men. Col. i. 16. For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in

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