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wounds. Those sighs dispelled the clouds which were ready to burst on me. That final groan completely drained the cup of wrath prepared for us. Let others push aside a Saviour to show their own fair form; I will wrap me in the garment which he has prepared, and die with my eye fixed upon his cross. Let my last words be those which trembled on the lips of the dying martyrs: None but Christ, none but Christ.

Poor impenitent sinners, covered over with pollution, condemned and abhorred of God, here is your only remedy. Take this away and all hope expires. You lie under an infinite load of guilt; you cannot atone for one sin; you must have this Saviour or perish forever. Why then, under the weight of all this guilt, do you reject the Saviour? The heavenly invitation calls you to his arms, and yet you refuse. For so many years has God been pleading with you, "O do not this abominable thing that I hate." It is affecting to hear the great God thus plead with worms. And it is greatly affecting to see those worms reject his entreaties. This rejection is infinitely offensive to God. It is a direct rejection of him. It is the blackest ingratitude. It is a most profane resistance of all the light he has shed. On these accounts the Jews were more severely punished than any other nation, and in the day of judgment will find it "more tolerable for -Sodom and Gomorrah" than for them. Do not

act over again the rebellion of the Jews. Remember that it is written, "Because I-called and ye refused, I also will laugh at your calamity, I will

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THE ABOMINABLE NATURE OF SIN.

"Wherefore, as

mock when your fear cometh.” the Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." To-day. This and not to-morrow is the time fixed by heaven. Infinite rebellion and guilt attend upon delay. Infinite danger and folly accompany delay. If ever you wish for salvation, seize the offered blessing now. You need it as much now as you ever will. It is as easy to obtain it now as it ever will be. God gives you no cause for delay. Come, for "all things are ready." Say not that you cannot. If there is any deficiency in yourselves, it is only for you to cast yourselves on God. Go and rest yourselves wholly on him for strength. The more you feel your own weakness, the more you should rely on him. If you do not practise this reliance, you do not fully feel your own weakness, and this plea is only an excuse. Would to God that you felt your own utter insufficiency, and then you would take hold of his strength and do the work at once. There is no reason for delay. Just relax your grasp from every other object and fall into the arms of a Saviour. Do it now. The eyes of God are upon you. O let him see it done. Let him see it done before he rouses his wrath and swears, Ye shall not see my rest.

SERMON V.

THE WORTH OF THE SOUL.

MAT. XVI. 26.

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

There is in man an immaterial soul, distinct from the clay which composes his body; a spiritual substance that thinks and reasons, chooses and refuses, loves and hates; and this conscious being, not depending for its existence on the body, will survive in a separate state when the body shall be dissolved. Reason assents to this when it is discovered; and although reason could not have made the discovery, yet the separate existence of the soul is clearly revealed in that Gospel which has brought life and immortality to light. Every believer in revelation must, therefore, perceive it to be the chief interest of man to secure the happiness of his soul in a future and eternal state. And those who believe in the necessity of a change of heart and of a thorough

religion, will not deny that there is a lamentable and surprising degree of inattention to the soul among the greater part of mankind; an inattention which, where it continues, must prove eternally fatal. Such will not impute it to severity, if the ministers of the Gospel, with the most heart-felt solicitude, endeavor to awaken their brethren, their flesh and blood, from such a destructive lethargy. The most impassioned calls will not be deemed too vehement in such a cause.

I cannot hope, my dear hearers, to speak to you with effect, unless you firmly believe in an eternity of rewards and punishments. If this be denied, I shall not carry you along with me as I pursue the subject. And because I may have to break company with some here whom I would not leave behind, I will stop a little and plead with them. God grant that it be not a parting leave.

If you doubt a future state, tell me, for what end were the human race created? For happiness? this none attains to the extent of his capacity in the present life, and many are wretched from the cradle to the grave. For the glory of God? this end is not answered if there be no future state: for here virtue is often oppressed while vice triumphs. Without a state of more equal rewards and punishments, the human race would bring a reproach on the righteous Governor of the world. And consider, I pray you, that you cannot bring a future state into doubt until you have destroyed the evidence on which divine revelation rests;-the testimony of miracles and prophecies,-the standing testimony

of the Jewish nation,-the evidence derived from the unity of design, the holy precepts, and all the vestiges of divinity impressed on the sacred pages; a task which the wisest and best men would die before they would attempt, and which the subtlest enemies of revelation have never been able to accomplish. To risk your immortal all on the performance of such a task! how much better to risk it on the blood of the Lamb of God. Do you believe in a future state, but not future punishment? still the things of eternity and not the world ought to engross your chief attention. Animating prospects of worldly good can prevail to draw your attention from the present moment; how much more should a prospect of immortal happiness! Are you sincere in believing yourselves the heirs of the eternal glories of heaven, and yet so seldom think of futurity, and so deeply affected with the trifles, the joys and disappointments of a moment? Perhaps you believe in future but not in eternal punishment. Well, what would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul for ages of ages in hell? To avoid one year's imprisonment on earth, you would do and suffer much. To escape then this dreadful punishment after death, (even if it be not endless,) with what anxiety ought you to examine the conditions of pardon, your own character, and labor to make your peace with God. Or have you the unnatural cruelty to disinherit your future selves of all affection, and having followed yourselves with concern through every period to the grave, to bury there with your bodies

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