No. IX.

HEBREWS X. 31.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

WHY will it be so fearful a thing to fall into the hands of the living God?

Not because he is not the kindest being in the universe, and too just to do wrong to any being. "He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in goodness and truth."

But the text does not mean to say, that sinners are not now in the hands of the living God, but has allusion to the time when he will make them the subjects of his vindictive wrath; when he will display his hatred of their character in their everlasting destruction.

Why will it be so fearful a thing to fall into the hands of the living God?

I. Because he suffers his wrath to accumulate.

Men inflict vengeance as soon as they begin to be angry. They punish when their "wrath is kindled but a little," perhaps when but one act of aggression has been committed.

God waits long. The iniquity of the Canaanites was not yet full. He waited in the old world, after the decree to destroy it had gone out, one hundred and twenty years.

II. Because delays to punish do not at all neutralize his anger. Men sometimes forget the deed that enraged them, and become quite pacified after having been angry, although they have not taken vengeance.

"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."

III. Because, while he delays to punish, he continues the means of grace, and thus shows himself willing not to inflict the deserved wrath.

"O that thou hadst hearkened unto my commandments, then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea."

IV. While he waits on the sinner, he continues to him the wonted indulgences of his providence. He feeds his enemies while he is waiting the hour of their execution, and he often waits very long. V. While he waits, he gives no intimation that he continues angry.

The sinner would not know by any mere token of divine wrath, that God had marked him out for destruction.

VI. Because he fixes no set bounds to his indulgences.

One he bears with a longer time, another a shorter-condemns one at the age of twenty, another at the age of forty, and another at the age of sixty.

VII. The longer he waits, the less hope there is of forgiveness. It is otherwise with men ; if they delay vengeance, we hope they have forgotten their wrath--not so with God.

VIII. Because he always produces conviction of desert when he punishes.

It is often otherwise with men. They are sometimes convicted and condemned while innocent.

IX. When he punishes, it is always a final and complete destruction. Wrath shall come upon them to the uttermost.

X. It will be jealousy when he punishes, and no wrath is so dreadful. It is the wrath of the Lamb. Jealousy is love soured. XI. He is the living God!

No idea can be more dreadful. He lives to finish the wrath he began to inflict. He will eternally be alive to punish.

REMARKS.

1. How amazing is the supineness of the sinner, who must so soon fall into the hands of the living God!

2. How yet more amazing their mirth and jollity-dancing in their chains!

3. How astonishing the indifference of believers! They would feel serious at the prison grates of some convict that must die a natural death as soon as many around them must die eternally.

4. If this subject is so solemn and dreadful in its application to sinners in general, how much more dreadful must it be in application to those who have set out for heaven, and then drawn back to perdition! Such will be convicted of having "trodden under foot the Son of God," in a peculiar and terrible sense, "and put him to an open shame."

No. X.

GALATIANS IV. 15.

Where is then the blessedness ye spake of?

PAUL had preached the gospel to the Galatians, had been the means of turning many to the Lord Jesus Christ, and drawn toward himself their strong attachment.

If it had been possible, he says, they would have plucked out their own eyes and given to him. But he had now become their enemy because he told them the truth.

But the great calamity was, that while they had become cold in their affections towards their spiritual father, they had also declined in their affections towards Jesus Christ, and there was need that he be formed again in them the hope of glory.

But as no scripture is of private interpretation, the subject will lead me to inquire of believers, "Where is then the blessedness ye spake of?" What cause has there been, and what excuse can be offered, for a decline of Christian affection, since the time of your espousals to the Lord Jesus Christ?

That there has been a decline in the warmth of feeling and and promptness of action, since the day of your covenant with God, it is presumed no one will require us to prove.

The only inquiry that must be made, is into the cause or ground of this decline.

I. Is not Jehovah the same great and good being he was when you gave him your whole heart, and covenanted to be his for ever? And does he not govern the world on the same principles of grace and mercy by Jesus Christ? And does he not foster the church with the same care and kindness he did when you first took sanctuary in her bowers? Has there been any correspondent cooling of affection in the bosom of the angels, and the "spirits of just men made perfect," towards Jehovah? Is he not as nigh to you, and as necessary, as when you first diccovered that the world was full of God? "Should you ascend up to heaven, is he not there? Should you make your bed in hell, is he not there? Is not his favor life, nd his loving kindness better than life?” If plunged into trials, are you not still obliged to say, "The Lord

liveth, and the Lord reigneth, blessed be the name of the Lord"? Will you not say, "Whom have I in heaven but thee, and who is there on earth I desire beside thee?" Would you not say in the hour of onset, "If it had not been for the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quickly, when their wrath was kindled against us." Why, then, any change in your affection towards the great God? "Where is then the blessedness ye spake of ?"

II. And what grand change has there been in your views or af fections towards the Lord Jesus Christ? It is as true now, as then, that he died for you, and still intercedes for you. His blood is still the basis of your pardon and the ground of your acceptance; and your hope and communion with him is as sweet as ever. The redeemed in heaven have none of them lost their confidence in him. You did not, in the time of your espousals, overrate his merits, or value too highly his love, or confide too firmly in the sureties of the everlasting covenant. Why, then, any change in your affections towards the Lord Jesus Christ? "Where then is the blessedness ye spake of ?"

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III. And the children of God, to whom you seemed so much attached, have the same claim to your regard as they had then. True, you might not then have seen all the faults in them you now But have you seen so many that you cannot love them? If so, then we ask if Christ has seen so many that he cannot love them? And cannot you love when he can? Have you not as much in you to cool their affection as they to cool yours? And, with all their faults, are they not in covenant with God? Will they not finally escape to heaven? You once loved them because they loved Christ, and they love him still, and he them. Where, then, has fled that warm Christian affection which led you to say, with the Moabites, "Where thou goest, I will go, and where thou stayest I will stay?"

IV. The souls of ungodly men, that claimed your pity, and draw forth your prayers and exhortations and entreaties, are worth no less now, than at the time of your espousals to the Lord Jesus Christ. Those same beings are some of them here yet, in all their unbelief and impenitence, and their condition, it will be acknowledged, is far more deplorable. If many are gone and lost who affected your hearts in the day when you believed, others are here, in the same ruined condition of guilt and wretchedness. Hence, why any less concern for their souls?

V. And this poor world is the same vanity as when you first

trampled it under your feet. In what new attitude can it possibly have presented itself so as to win again a supreme attachment? It is a perishing good that can be stolen or moth-eaten, or can take wings and fly away. The cry in your ear still is, "Arise ye, and depart, for this is not your rest. Or has this cry all died away? Well, it is as true as when you first listened to it. This is a poor world, a temptation, a mere vanity.

VI. And the heavenly treasure-how can it have lost its value to a dying man? However highly it may be right to value this world, we must quit it so soon, that wisdom would dictate that we have treasures elsewhere. If heaven implies a freedom from sin, how can the believer not long for it? If in heaven there are more distinct views of Christ than in this life, how can the believer not wish to be in heaven?

VIII. Some of the blessedness of your earliest religious hours consists in the happy seasons of prayer enjoyed; and why has this duty lost any of its sweetness? God is as ready to hear you pray, and as prompt to answer and save, as he then was; and have you not the same occasion to pray? Do not a thousand cares ever press you into a cold, backslidden state? And could you get back to the views and affections you once had, the duty would give you all the pleasure it then did. "Where is then the blessedness ye spake of ?"

VIII. And so far as your early joys were derived from the Bible, why need there have been any change? It is the same book of God, filled with the same precious promises, the same sanctifying doctrines, and the same delightful exhibition of God and heaven. "Where is then the blessedness ye spake of?"

REMARKS.

It may be important to inquire, since there would seem to be no cause of the change, of the loss of blessedness to believers from their departure from the spirit of their espousals, what the effect will be?

1. That the believer is greatly injuring his own soul by his departure, there can be no doubt. He backens his heavenly growth. 2. It is equally sure that he injures his brethren. He holds them back with all the influence he has over them, by all the affection they have for him, and all the forms of his example.

3. And in the mean time he is destroying the world of the ungodly. They will not believe, while they see you live as though