Puslapio vaizdai
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injustice, fraud, oppression, and extortion. The flesh tempts you to excess, self-indulgence, sloth, intemperance, greediness, drunkenness, and all such sins as turn man into a beast; the worst of beasts, and the most odious, which is the swine.

The law of God in the ten commandments, as you have been taught in your catechism, is pointed against all these sins, and, the law of God being known, conscience will be sure to tell you how and when you depart from it; and it will so often set your offences before you, that it requires very little art and skill to try and examine yourselves according to the plain rule of God's commandments. Your heart, if you listen to it, will soon tell you how you stand, in respect to the law of God on the one hand, and to your three enemies and their works on the other. To repent, is to forsake them and their works, and turn to God and his law; not in your words only, but in your hearts: for so the catechism teaches; that by repentance we do not only confess sin, but forsake it.

I am convinced, that very little teaching is wanting to shew people what it is to forsake sin, and turn to God. Our Saviour says nothing about it in the text, but supposes his meaning to be sufficiently understood; and that nothing

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is wanting in his hearers, but a due consideration of the motive, which should lead all men to repentance; that except they repent, they shall perish. What a terrible word is this, if we could understand it now, as it will be understood by sinners hereafter! But, as it is said of the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, that they are such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it ever entered into the heart of man to conceive them; so may we say of those other things, which God hath prepared for them who do not love him, that they are such as our senses of seeing, and hearing, and conceiving, will not now enable us fully to understand. What it is to perish, can be known, so far only, as God has been pleased to reveal to us in his word. If it were possible for us to comprehend it in its full extent, the prospect might shock us to such a degree, as to strike us dead upon the spot with terror. But that would be of no use; it is not designed to fright us out of life, but to fright us out of sin. God grant that it may have its effect! The general sense of it is contained in those words of our Saviour concern ing his sheep-I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish so that to perish, is to lose eternal life; and, with that, all things desireable and delightful to man. It is hard

for

for us to conceive what a spirit can be without life: but you may have some understanding of it, if you consider that there is even in this world a life which is no life; with which when death is compared, it is preferred, and often chosen, as the better of the two. Many there are to be found, who live only to feel misery; who breathe only to utter sighs and groans: and when the body is thus overloaded with infirmity, the faculties of the mind are of little use. When the strength of the body is gone, the spirit is also broken, and no longer capable of exerting itself any further, than barely to be sensible of its own suffering. life as this, but a daily death?

What is such a

And if we were

to say of such a person, that he dies every day, the meaning of the expression would immediately be understood by those who are made acquainted with the case. We are then to conceive, that the spirit which loses eternal life, lives only to suffer and to be miserable. It lives, but without the powers and comforts of life. It is separated from Christ, the Light of the world; and having lost him, finds nothing but the darkness of despair. It is separated from the Spirit, whose name is the Comforter, and its misery can find no alleviation. Being thus divided from the Light and Spirit of the

Lord,

come.

Lord, the divine presence can be manifested. to it only as a consuming fire, such as God is said to be to the wicked: it will never be blessed with a prospect of that place which Christ hath prepared for his disciples: it will never be admitted to the society of angels, and just men made perfect; but will be sent away to join the blaspheming crew of fallen angels; and be tormented with those, for whom torment was made. These are some of those ter rors of the Lord, by the preaching of which the apostles persuaded men; that is, persuaded them to repent, and fly from the wrath to And perhaps, they that hear me now may think it necessary they should repent: perhaps they form a resolution that they will repent. So did Felix; and thought he might find a proper season for it; but that season never came: "Go thy way, for this time, (said he to Paul,) when I have a convenient season I will call for thee." Thus it generally happens: for, as Felix never found a time, so the man who doth not enter upon a new course of life, the moment he is convinced that such a course is necessary, never enters upon it at all: if he suffers himself once to cool upon the subject, all things are against him, and he will never be warm any more: if he can put off

his repentance, he will never repent at all: and I will give you my reasons, why I think he will

not.

1. Man brings with him a corrupt nature into the world: he is more inclined to evil than to good. One bad example can draw him further into a life of wickedness, and prevail more for his destruction, than twenty good ones for his reformation. One corrupting dis

course from a seducing companion will instil more evil into his mind, than twenty demonstrations from the pulpit will be able to overcome: this is my first reason.

2. When sin becomes habitual to the mind, the case is daily altering for the worse. There is a double disadvantage; sin grows stronger, and the mind grows weaker: on which account, he who does not resist his sin to-day, will be less able to do it to-morrow. It is the same with sin as with sickness. All men know, that in the case of bodily sickness, it is of the utmost importance to seize the first opportunity of a cure. Some trifling remedy may be sufficient now; but after a few days, not all the remedies in the world; and so the case is a lost one.

3. The Scripture represents it as an impossi bility to change a habit of evil for a habit of good:

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