the deafest ears and the hardest hearts, he repeats as in a second clap of thunder, "Yea, I say unto you, fear him." Though the gospel accounts of the punishment of hell are for the most part delivered in figurative language, yet does it not follow that we must consider that language as hyperbolical or extravagant. It is the language of him "who had no deceit in his mouth," and therefore not liable to any arbitrary or loose interpretation. In fact, without figurative speech, without a reference to such sufferings as we have known from our own senses or experience, it had not been possible to convey to us any idea of punishments such as the eye of mortal man has not seen, or his ear heard, or his nerves felt, or his heart conceived. When therefore Christ informs us that the wicked shall go into fire everlasting, that they shall be cast with all their members into hell, "where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched;" if these expressions are metaphorical, the metaphors are the strongest which language can express, and no ingenuity or subtlety of men can interpret them in any sense but that of exquisite and intense torment surpassing all that the cruelty of tyrants has invented, or the patience of martyrs endured, agonies of which in the whole compass

of this world there is no image, no resemblance, no foretaste, except the pangs of remorse in the soul of the wicked.

Such are the terrors of the Lord held up in the gospel of his Son, as the flaming sword to deter men from the ways of sin which lead to misery and destruction. For the same gracious end also, the sceptre of mercy is there extended. Life and death, blessing and cursing, are set before us that we may choose life. To them therefore who choose it not, it will be their condemnation that life was not their choice, that they were sinners against their own souls, that by the light of the gospel they saw their danger, and lived in defiance of it, that wilful in blindness, and determined in disobedience, they equally despised the terrors and the goodness of God leading them to repentance; this shall be the grinding aggravation of their guilt and misery. Knowing then these terrors of the Lord, if we believed, as we profess to believe, that we shall be summoned to answer at the judgment seat of Christ not for gross crimes only, but for neglected talents, squandered time, abused mercies, stifled convictions, and despised warnings of God by his providences, and his messengers; if we really believed all this, what manner of persons should we

be in all holy conversation, what diligence should we give to make our calling and election sure? But the proper inquiry here is, what agreement is there between our duty and our practice? What evidence does our daily walk afford, that our loins are girded about, and our lights burning, and we ourselves like unto men that wait for the Lord? Alas, my brethren! little as we know our own hearts, we know too well how little room is left in them to entertain as we ought the serious concerns of a future world.

It was to rouse us from this thoughtlessness and security, I undertook the treatment of this subject; let me entreat you now to give it such attention as you would wish, but wish in vain, to have paid it when the hand of death is upon you. Though awful the prospect of eternity, if our conversation be christian, it will not, it cannot be to us an object of dismay. "Death's terror is the mountain faith removes.' For faith reveals to

us in the person of our Judge, an advocate with the Father, who will make a merciful allowance for our frailties and temptations, and the blood of whose atonement will be powerful to procure pardon to every sinner that repenteth. And to re

*Young's Night Thoughts.

pent, it is not yet too late. He that shall sit on the throne of judgment is now seated on a throne of mercy, waiting to be gracious, and inviting us to be reconciled to God. To-day then let us hear his voice, which it may be we shall never hear more. Sickness and death may be at hand, and judgment standing at our door. Let the judgment of the last day be held up frequently and fully to our view, until it persuade, until it constrain us to forsake our sins, and do works meet for repentance. Then shall peace and comfort take place in our hearts of terror and alarm; then shall Christ be in us the hope of glory, through whom in every trying scene of life we shall have confidence towards God; and in the final struggle with the king of terrors shall be enabled triumphantly to exclaim, "O death! where is thy sting; O grave! where is thy victory."

SERMON XI.

ACTS c. xxvi. v. 27, 28, 29.

King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.

It is the interest and the characteristic of a false religion to appear what it is not, and to shrink from the test of reason and argument, in order to conceal its worldly policy and human origin. That religion, on the contrary, which alone hath God for its author, and alone teacheth the way of God in truth, invites examination and inquiry, and persuades men by its intrinsic appropriate excellence. The outrages which it has received in every age, the calumnies with which it has been so often blackened, have originated in the ignorance or depravity of its enemies, of men who either "understand not what they say, and