unto eternity? Deal plainly with yourselves. Search out and fift your imaginations. Afcertain what is that twig of hope to which you are clinging. Bring forth to the teft of fcriptural examination the fecret support, be it what it may, which buoys you up with expectations that there fhall at least be a partial remiffion of the doom denounced against guilt. Yea and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right (e)? Bring it forth to a teft which you behold with more complacent eyes, the test of reafon. Is it ignorance that you afcribe to the Omniscient? Do you prefume that He, to whom the future is naked as the past, perceives not, as yet His own purposes? From fuch a delufion folly itself turns afide. It is not on fuch a plank that you truft to furvive fhipwreck. Do you then flatter yourself that He with whom there is no variableness nor fhadow of turning, He who is the fame yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, will fuddenly exchange ftedfaftnefs for inconftancy, and abolish His fixed and promulgated decree? You abjure this madness. "If the deftruction," you exclaim, "of the "finner be indifputable until fickleness can "be imputed to the Moft High; there re"maineth no refuge from defpair." And

what refuge from despair remaineth to the perfevering finner? Produce your hidden confolation. Difclofe the bottom of your heart. Tardy and reluctant as is the confeffion, it is at length extracted. You conceive that the Deity has decreed from the beginning to relax from His threatened judgements: that while, for the purpose of aweing men into righteoufnefs, vengeance arrayed in fiery terrors affumes her feat in the clouds; mercy is at hand to avert the most formidable of her bolts, and to fhield the offender from all but that lighter chastisement, the fear of which would have been inadequate to the prevention of tranfgreffions. Compare then thy theory, thou who adventureft to theorise concerning the counfels of thy God; compare thy theory with facts. If in the denunciations of future vengeance a part only be intended for accomplishment, while `the refidue is empty air: whence is it that past menaces have been fulfilled to the uttermoft? Why was the old world deftroyed by the flood? Why were Sodom and Gomorrah and the incredulous fons-in-law of Lot overwhelmed? Why was Pharaoh cut off? Why did the Egyptian hoft perish to a man? Why was Jerufalem delivered unto Nebuchadnezzar to be uprooted from the foundations? Why was

the

the king of Babylon driven out to dwell and eat grafs with oxen? Why were the Jews extirpated by the Romans from their native land? Proceed a ftep farther. Compare thy theory with the attributes of the Godhead? Is not thy God a God of truth and holiness? Yet thou chargeft Him with premeditated falfehood. Doft thou expect His promifes to be punctually fulfilled? Why? Becaufe He is faithful and righteous. And do not faithfulness and righteoufnefs equally require the punctual fulfilment of His threatenings? Do not promifes and threatenings ftand equally on the word of God? Is not the truth of God equally pledged in both? Is it not equally falfehood to depart from either? Be not deceived. If we believe not, yet God abideth faithful: He cannot deny himself. The wicked fhall be turned into hell; and all the people that forget God. The Son of Man fhall fend forth his angels; and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and fhall caft them into a furnace of fire: there fhall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Thefe fayings are faithful and true. These are the true fayings of God (f). Confider these things; left judgement and justice

(ƒ) 2 Tim. ii. 13. Pf. ix. 17. Matth. xiii. 41, 42. Rev.. xix. 9. xxii. 6.

take

take hold on you, and there be none to deliver. Close not your eyes against the warnings of the gofpel. Be convinced that God will bring upon the wicked all the punishment which He has denounced against them as furely as He will beftow upon the righteous the glories, which Chrift has purchased for them with His blood. Remember the fonsin-law of Lot. Fly from the contagion of guilt: fly from fin, the certain forerunner of deftruction. Life is fet before you. Why die?

will ye

SERMON XVII.

On the Guilt of establishing unscriptural Principles of Conduct.

ISAIAH, V. 20.

Woe unto them that call Evil Good, and Good Evil; that put Darkness for Light, and Light for Darkness; that put Bitter for Sweet, and Sweet for Bitter!

HE fteps by which error gains poffef

THE

fion of the human mind are various. Sometimes it pushes its operations in fecrecy and filence. Sometimes it advances with a bolder afpect; and fcarcely difguifes its affaults on the bulwarks of truth. At one period it reforts to meafures promifing immediate fuccefs. At another, it depends on the flow refult of perfevering artifice. Now it afpires not beyond a temporary triumph.