ground?" he was entreated to try it one year longer; and then, if it proved not fruitful, to cut it down. Christ himself there makes the application twice over (verses third and fifth), "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." If the present, or if the then state of our conscience and of our souls call up this reflection, then are they very guilty indeed, if such preservations leave no religious impression upon us : or if we suffer the temporary impression to pass off without producing in us a change for the better.

Infirmities, whether they be of health or of age, decay, and weakness, are warnings. And it has been asked with some degree of wonder, why they make so little impression as they do? One chief reason is this. They who have waited for warnings of this kind, before they would be converted, have generally waited until they are become hardened in sin. Their habits are fixed. Their character has taken its shape and form. Their disposition is thoroughly infected and invested with sin. When it is come to this case, it is difficult for any call to be heard; for any warning to operate. It is difficult; but "with God all things are possible." If there be the will and the sincere endeavour to reform, the grace of God can give the power. Although, therefore, they who wait for the advances of age, the perception of decay, the probable approach of death before they turn themselves seriously to religion, have waited much too long, have neglected and despised and defied many solemn warnings in the course of their lives; have waited indeed till it be next to impossible that they turn at all from their former ways: yet this is not a reason why they should continue in neglect of the warnings which now press upon them; and which at

length they begin to perceive: but just the contrary. The effort is greater; but the necessity is greater. It is their last hope and their last trial. I put the case of a man grown old in sin. If the warnings of old age bring him round to religion, happy is that man in his old age, above any thing he was in any other part of his life. But if these warnings do not affect him, there is nothing left in this world which will. We are not to set limits to God's grace, operating according to his good pleasure; but we say, there is nothing in this world; there is nothing in the course of nature and the order of human affairs, which will affect him, if the feelings of age do not. I I put the case of a man grown old in sin, and though old, continuing the practice of sin: that it is said, in the full latitude of the expression, describes a worse case than is commonly met with. Would to God the case was more rare than it is! But allowing it to be unusual in the utmost extent of the terms: in a certain considerable degree the description applies to many old persons. Many feel in their hearts, that the words

grown old in sin," belong to them in some sense which is very formidable. They feel some dross and defilement to be yet purged away; some deep corruption to be yet eradicated; some virtue or other to be yet even learnt: yet acquired: or yet however to be brought nearer to what it ought to be, than it has hitherto been brought. Now if the warnings of age taught us nothing else, they might teach us this: that if these things are to be done, they must be done soon: they must be set about forthwith in good earnest, and with strong resolution. The work is most momentous; the time is short. The day is far spent: the evening is come on: the night is at hand.

Lastly, I conceive that this discourse points out the true and only way of making old age comfortable; and that is, by making it the means of religious improvement. Let a man be beset by ever so many bodily complaints, bowed down by ever so many infirmities; if he find his soul grown and growing better, his seriousness increased, his obedience more regular and more exact, his inward principles and dispositions improved from what they were formerly, and continuing to improve; that man hath a fountain of comfort and consolation springing up within him. Infirmities which have this effect are infinitely better than strength and health themselves: though these, considered independently of their consequences, be justly esteemed the greatest of all blessings and of all gifts. The old age of a virtuous man admits of a different and of a most consoling description.

It is this property of old age, namely, that its proper and most rational comfort consists in the consciousness of spiritual amendment. A very pious writer gives the following representation of this stage of human life, when employed and occupied as it ought to be, and when life has been drawn to its close by a course of virtue and religion. To the intelligent and virtuous, says our author, old age presents a scene of tranquil enjoyment, of obedient appetites, of well regulated affections, of maturity in knowledge, and of calm preparation for immortality. In this serene and dignified state, placed as it were on the confines of two worlds, the mind of a good man reviews what is past with the complacency of an approving conscience, and looks forward with humble confidence in the mercy of God, and with devout aspirations towards his eternal and ever increasing favour.

XXXI.

THE TERRORS OF THE LORD.

MATTHEW, xvi. 26.

What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

THESE words ask a question, the most home to every man's concern of any that can possibly enter into his thoughts. What our Saviour meant to assert, though proposed to his hearers in the form of a question (which indeed was only a stronger and more affecting way of asserting it), is, that a man's soul, by which term is here meant his state after death, is so infinitely more important to him, so beyond and above any thing he can get, or any thing he can lose, any thing he can enjoy, or any thing he can suffer, on this side the grave, that nothing, which the world offers, can make up for the loss of it, or be a compensation when that is at stake. You say that this is very evident; I reply, that evident as it is, it is not thought of, it is not considered, it is not believed. The subject therefore is very proper to be set forth in those strong and plain terms which such a subject requires, for the purpose of obtaining for it some degree of that attention, which each man's own deep interest in the event demands of him to give it.

There are two momentous ideas which are included in the expression,-the loss of a man's soul; and these are the positive pain and sufferings which he will incur after his death; and the happiness and reward

which he will forfeit. Upon both of these points we must go for information to the Scriptures. No where else can we receive any. Now, as to the first point, which is, in other words, the punishment of hell, I do admit, that it is very difficult to handle this dreadful subject properly; and one cause, amongst others, of the difficulty is, that it is not for one poor sinner to denounce such appalling terrors, such tremendous consequences against another. Damnation is a word which lies not in the mouth of man, who is a worm, towards any of his fellow creatures whatsoever: yet it is absolutely necessary that the threatenings of Almighty God be known and published. Therefore we begin by observing, that the accounts which the Scriptures contain of the punishment of hell are for the most part delivered in figurative or metaphorical terms, that is to say, in terms which represent things of which we have no notion, by a comparison with things of which we have a notion. Therefore take notice what those figures and metaphors are. They are of the most dreadful kind which words can express: and, be they understood how they may, ever so figuratively, it is plain that they convey, and were intended to convey, ideas of horrible torment. They are such as these, "being cast into hell, where the worm dieth not, and where the fire is not quenched.” It is "burning the chaff with unquenchable fire." It is "going into fire everlasting, which is prepared for the devil and his angels." It is "being cast with all his members into hell, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." These are heart appalling expressions: and were undoubtedly intended by the person who used them (who was no other than our Lord Jesus Christ himself) to describe terrible