delivered, are _new_; unless the charge of novelty can be brought against the doctrines of the reformation. Examine them, brethren, with care and coolness of temper. Compare them with the scriptures, first; and then read over the 39 articles. If you love truth, you will do the first. If you love the Church of England, you will do the last. And if you have any pretension to candor of inquiry, or solicitude about your everlasting interests, you will not desist; till you have found an answer to Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” “Consider what I say; and the Lord give you understanding in all things!” 2 Tim. ii. 7. SERMON II. THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF GIVING THE HEART TO GOD, CONSIDERED AND ENFORCED. [Preached at Nantwich, July 1, 1781.] “_My son_, _give me thine heart_.” PROV. xxiii. 26. IT is a very strong proof of the depravity of human nature, that the most persuasive arguments, that revelation itself can furnish, are insufficient to induce the children of men to seek the things that belong to their everlasting peace. When the world calls, and secular interest prompts, they want no spur to their assiduity, no incentive to their zeal. The greatest toil is sustained with cheerfulness, difficulties apparently insuperable are surmounted with ease, and no degree of solicitude is deemed excessive, although in the ardor of pursuit, the only object that presents itself, is either the fascinating phantom of pleasure, the accursed lure of gold, or the bubble of worldly honor, which often is burst by the same uncertain breath that inflated it. But when God calls, either in the menacing language of incensed majesty, or in the attractive voice of parental mercy and pity; how slow to hear are the insensible creatures that are addressed! how unwilling to yield obedience to a call, that invites them to happiness, to heaven! Although the way into which they are solicited to enter, and walk, is the path of glory, honor, and immortality; yet how many objections are made, how many difficulties started, to impede or intimidate the heart in a pursuit of its best, its eternal interests! And, although present peace, as an earnest of permanent bliss in reversion; a sense of the divine favor, as a pledge of one day entering his kingdom; all the unsearchable riches of grace, and all the inexhaustible treasures of glory, are the substantial blessings held forth to sinners in the gospel of the blessed God; yet, how strangely is all this profusion of grace and goodness overlooked or contemned, even by those who are most interested in it! In the eyes of multitudes, worldly vanities possess more intrinsic charms than the eternal realities of the invisible world; He, who is “altogether lovely,” has no form or comeliness, in the opinion of the gay, the proud, and the self-righteous; and all the glories of heaven itself are so depreciated