Page:Last and great sermon, of the Rev Dr William Dodd.pdf/8

( 8 ) grave, while he was enjoying the gain of artifice:and where then had been our hope? We have now leure for thought; we have opportunities of instruction; and whatever we sufFer from offended laws, may yet reconcile ourselves to God, who, if we sincerely seek him, will assuredly be found.

But how are we to seek the Lord? By the way which he him-seif hath appointed; by humble, fervent, and frequent prayer. Some hours of worship are appointed us; let us duly observe them. Some assistance to our devotion is supplied; let us thankfully accept it. But let us not rest in formality and prescription: let us call upon God night and day. When, in the review of the times which we have past, any offence arises to our thoughts, let us humbly implore forgiveness; and for those faults (and many they are and must be) which we cannot recollect, let us solicit mercy in general petitions. But it must be a constant care, that we pray, not merely with our lips; but that when we lament our sins, we are really humbled in self-abhorance; and that, when we call for mercy, we raise out thoughts to hope and trust in the goodness of God, and the merits of our blessed saviour, Jesus Christ.

The reception of the holy sacrament, to which we shall be called, in the most solemn manner, perhaps a few hours before we die, is the highest act of christian worship. At that awful moment it will become us to drop for ever all worldly thoughts; to fix our hopes solely upon Christ whose death is represented; and to consider our selves as no longer connected with mortality. And possibly, it may please God to afford us some consolation, some secret intimations of acceptance and forgiveness. But these radiations of favour are not always felt by the sincerest penitents. To the greater part of those whom angels stand ready to receive, nothing is granted in this world beyond rational hope:and with hope, founded on promise we may well be satified

But such promises of salvation are made only to the penitent. It is requisite then that we consider,