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 test of scriptural examination the fecret support, be it what it may, which buoys you up with expectations that there shall at least be a partial remiffion of the doom denounced againft guilt. Yea and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right (e) ? Bring it forth to a test which you behold with more complacent eyes, the teft of reason. 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 such a delusion folly itself turns aside. It is not on such a plank that you trust to survive shipwreck. Do you then flatter yourself that He with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning, He who is the fame yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, will fuddenly exchange stedfastness for inconstancy, and abolish His fixed and promulgated decree? You abjure this madness. "If the destruction," you exclaim, " of the " finner be indisputable until fickleness can "be imputed to the Most High; there re"maineth no refuge from despair." And (e) Luke, xii. 57.. Aa4 what 1 what refuge from despair remaineth to the persevering finner? Produce your hidden confolation. Disclose 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 righteousness, vengeance arrayed in fiery terrors assumes her feat in the clouds; mercy is at hand to avert the most formidable of her bolts, and to shield 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 adventurest to theorise concerning the counsels 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 destroyed by the flood? Why were Sodom and Gomorrah and the incredulous sons-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 grass with oxen? Why were the Jews extirpated by the Romans from their native land? Proceed a step farther. Compare thy theory with the attributes of the Godhead? Is not thy God a God of truth and holiness? Yet thou chargest Him with premeditated falsehood. Dost thou expect His promifes to be punctually fulfilled? Why? Because He is faithful and righteous. And do not faithfulness and righteousness equally require the punctual fulfilment of His threatenings? Do not promises and threatenings stand equally on the word of God? Is not the truth of God equally pledged in both? Is it not equally falsehood to depart from either? Be not deceived. If we believe not, yet God abideth faithful: He cannot deny himself. The wicked Shall 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 shall cast them into a furnace of fire : there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. These fayings are faithful and true. These are the true sayings of God (f). Consider these things; lest judgement and justice : 1 (f) 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 gospel. Be convinced that God will bring upon the wicked all the punishment which He has denounced against them as furely as He will bestow upon the righteous the glories, which Christ 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 destruction. Life is set before you. Why will ye die? 1 : SERMON XVII. On the Guilt of establishing unscriptural Principles of Conduct. 1 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! THE steps by which error gains poffef fion of the human mind are various. Sometimes it pushes its operations in secrecy and filence. Sometimes it advances with a bolder aspect; and scarcely disguises its affaults on the bulwarks of truth. At one period it resorts to measures promising immediate success. At another, it depends on the flow refult of persevering artifice. Now it afpires not beyond a temporary triumph. 15 Now |