4thly. Let all Christians feel a due and unshaken attachment to public worship, the Sabbath—and all divine ordinances. All of them ought to be dear to Christ’s disciples. We should esteem them. We should love them. We should diligently and constantly attend unto them. We are, at the same time, to take care that we do not place our hope in, or dependence on them, instead of the God of ordinances, the Saviour’s all-cleansing blood, and the spirit’s sanctifying operations. Means and ordinances are the helps provided by a wise, gracious, and holy God. In the appointment of them we see, in a most wonderful manner, his love and grace, goodness and patience, wisdom and condescension. Let our eye, then, be to the God of grace to bless and sanctify unto us, all means and ordinances. By the power of the holy Ghost we are; and we must be renewed. But we ought nevertheless to prize and esteem all divine institutions, as means of holiness and pious instruction. We should be grieved when any neglect them, revile them, or deny them. For they are the ways prescribed by God, to uphold religion, in the world, amid the floods of error, ignorance, fanaticism, and infidelity, which threaten the existence of all serious godliness.
5thly. We hence infer the duty of all people to prepare themselves without delay, to enjoy the ordinance of baptism. It is a precious ordinance. It is divinely appointed to teach us, the great truths of Religion, and to help forward our salvation. All parents should see that they lose no time in preparing to enjoy it for themselves, if unbaptized, and for their Children. And what, my dear friends, is required of you, is to seek and know God:—to desire to do your duty: to honor your Maker and Redeemer in the ways, which he has so clearly appointed.—Permit me with all tenderness and affection as a Minister of Jesus Christ to urge you to give no rest to yourselves, till you have rendered yourselves meet for the enjoyment of Gospel-ordinances.—How mournful is the idea that so many, in our Land, live in the total neglect of this holy sacrament of baptism.—Unbaptized Children! Unbaptized Parents! Unbaptized Youth!—How affecting the thought to all the lovers of Gospel-ordinances.—What impiety prevails!—what neglect of religion in general—of prayer in families in particular, and of public worship.—Will not a holy and righteous God visit for these things?—Many boast of this, as the age of reason—of our land, as the land of reason—and talk of the complete downfall of superstition, and bless themselves, at the thought of the diffusion of sceptical principles, and are as zealous to propagate irreligion, error, and infidelity, as if the salvation of our country, their own salvation, and the salvation of others depended on the abolition of christianity, against which the most virulent attacks are made, under the name of superstition, or a sectarian religion.—
But some seriously inclined people are objecting, perhaps, and saying we wish to enjoy divine ordinances, but you have made the way too strict, more so, than God has made it, in his holy word.—Consider a moment, before you draw up a conclusion so unfounded, and so much to your disadvantage. All that is required of you, is to give yourselves up to God and the duties of Religion.—Can less be required? Can any lower terms be rationally desired? We must never profane an ordinance, or prostitute and abuse it to worldly designs and ends.—Often, alas! have this, and the ordinance of the Lord’s supper been perverted and profaned; and so have the holy Oracles of God, which are the only Oracles of reason, and of eternal truth, and of all religion. Let us see that we are not among the number of those, who profane and abuse, or neglect and forsake it.—Come, then, and take the vows of the Lord upon you, and give yourselves up to the duties of our holy Religion, and enjoy all its ordinances and special privileges.—Defer not—procrastinate no longer the concerns of your souls and of Salvation.—Behold now is the accepted time! Behold now is the day of Salvation! To-day, if ye will hear his voice. There may be no to-morrow for you—no more time—no more seasons of grace. A small space of time will end all your days, and open to us an everlasting state.—Hear, then, the call of God, of reason, of virtue, and of Religion. Delay:—O! delay no longer. Come and take Christ’s yoke upon you, and learn of him, for he is meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall have rest unto your souls.
6thly. For what hath been said, let all who have enjoyed the ordinance of baptism, feel the sacred bonds thereof, and seek divine grace to enable them to live up to their baptismal vows. Let parents who have come forward and had baptism for their Children, and have devoted them, therein, to God, to be his, and for him, bring them up in the ways of Religion—teach them to pray—and pray with, and for them in their houses:—instruct and govern them for God—set a pious example before them—and teach them their baptismal dedication—the meaning and import of it, as above explained, and as a peculiar privilege binding them to be the Lord’s.—And let such parents, farther examine their own hearts and ways, and see if they gave up their Children, in the baptismal dedication, in outward appearance only, or in sincerity and in truth, hoping and trusting in God’s mercy and truth for them.—And let parents who never prepared themselves to bring their Children to God, in baptism, when they look on their dear infant flock, feel a deep sense of their sin, in the neglect of their duty to them: and so pity, and so love them, as to come forward, and give them up to God in baptism.—And Let unbaptized youth realize their duty, and never give themselves rest, till they have dedicated themselves to God, in his covenant and baptismal institution, to be his in life, his in death, and his forever.——And let the whole Congregation that now hear me, old and young, esteem, rightly improve, and highly value all the institutions of the Christian Religion; endeavour, by all the light and advantages, which you enjoy, truly to understand them:—to place them on their proper foundation; and to look to the God of all grace, for his powerful, purifying, and all-cleansing influence, and to Jesus Christ that the guilt of sin may be washed away:—and make it your grand concern to walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless.
DISCOURSE XI.
It is the will of the Author of Christianity that, in the New-Testament dispensation, there should be particular Gospel-Churches.
1. THESSALONIANS i. 1.
Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the Church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ: grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thessalonica was the Metropolis of that part of antient Greece, now Turkey in Europe, called Macedonia. It was built by Philip of Macedon, Father to Alexander the great, so famous in history, and called Thessalonica, in honor of his victory over the Thessalians. In this renowned City, Paul preached a considerable time, and was greatly successful in spreading among its inhabitants, the truths and glory of the Gospel. From the Jews and proselytes to their faith, and the idolatrous heathen or Gentiles, he collected a Christian Church. The people of this large city were principally heathen, who worshipped them which are by nature no Gods.