portion as the watchmen disturb its pride, its pleasures, and its hopes, the carnal mind is enmity against them. It would be well pleased to pursue its own pleasures unaccused of sin and soothed with the hope of future blessedness. But to be charged with rebellion, to be urged to relinquish its dearest idols, to have its peace assailed by the prophecy of evils to come, this it cannot bear.

My unhappy friends, as one of the watchmen I declare to you that it is not my pleasure to give you pain. Could you point out any way in which I could disquiet you less, which would comport with the duty I owe to God and with tenderness to your immortal interests, and for which you yourselves would not reproach me another day, I would gladly spare you. I have not desired the woful day, O Lord, thou knowest! But you see from our text that the responsibility of a watchman is great, trembling with presentiment of a judgment to come; that a serious account is to be taken of him, and a strict search made upon him for the blood of souls. I therefore dare not amuse you with softer tones, and neglect to warn you of the sins of your heart and the retributions of eternity.

True, God is merciful, but he is also holy and just. True, a Saviour's invitations, as they proceed from the throne of love, melt on every angel's ear; and all the enchanting sounds of grace and tenderness ought to be proclaimed on earth. But other sounds have proceeded from the lips of God. True, religion is sweet; but a poor condemned sinner has something more to do than to

keep holydays and sing along the road to heaven. He has first to settle a heavy account with his offended Judge. And this will cost him And this will cost him many a heart ache and many a bitter tear. Though religion is pleasant, the entrance into it is gloomy, and gloomy things must come to his ears and to his heart. A hardened sinner does not want so much to be built up as to be pulled down; not so much to believe that he may be pardoned as that he needs pardon; not so much that there is a physician as that he is sick. You may hold up the remedy and descant on divine mercy, and till men feel that they are undone, they will vacantly gaze at the pretty display, smile in your face, and think no more of it. You may tell them of the joys of religion, and they will answer, If this is all you have to say, our own tastes assure us that we can be happier in other things. Or if the mind is convinced, a conviction of the joys of religion, without a sense of guilt and ruin, will never make the sinner die, as Paul did "when the commandment came." It may exhilerate, it may draw tears, it may produce animal religion and make him live the stronger. It may enlist his selfishness on the side of religion, may prevent him from openly opposing it, may induce him to put on a profession and form of a thing deemed profitable; but it will never bring him to the foot of the cross, to lift the cries of a dying sinner for mercy. Christ is the only door by which men enter into religion and into life; and none will enter by this way but those who feel their guilt and ruin. Without these apprehensions one may have a blind, selfish reliVOL. II.

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gion; but a full exhibition of these truths is necessary to prevent a thousand deceptions, to make judicious Christians, to point to the very spot to which the remedy is to be applied, and to state the precise good for which application to Christ is to be made. Had not the terrors of the law been needful, they would not have been displayed on every page of the Bible, nor would the apostles have used · this motive to persuade men.

In the process of bringing sinners to Christ, the several successive operations of instruction, awakening, conviction, and conversion are produced by the instrumentality of awful, soul-humbling, as well as comforting truths. For instruction there must be a display of every part of God's character, not the least essential of which is his displeasure against sin. For awakening the terrors of the law are manifestly necessary. We may fondly hope to see careless sinners overcome by the mercies of God, but experience proves that they are not so ingenuous,that they are made of sterner stuff. They are under the dominion of selfishness, and you must ordinarily touch their interest to move them. We must display the terrors of the law to produce conviction also, to impress sinners with a view of God's character and their own,-to show them the dreadful nature of sin, the extent of their guilt and ruin, and their perishing need of a Saviour. In the law they read both their character and doom. And when the watchmen describe these in the most terrifying and humbling terms, they are only the organs by which God utters his law. A mere exhibition of

mercy is not sufficient for conviction. How many sinners will sit and weep at a description of Christ's sufferings and the mercies of God, and by these mercies and tears encourage themselves to live without God in the world, and never think of crying, "God be merciful to me a sinner." And do not these persons need to know something of a condemning law? True, holy love is too disinterested to be excited by fear; but it is not love that is first to be produced. The mind must be awakened and convicted before it will love as redeemed sinners do.

Now what means can have a greater tendency to convict a sinner of his guilt, ruin, and helplessness, than plainly to describe to him his guilt, ruin, and helplessness, drawing proofs from the whole character of God, from the holiness and extent of his law, from the many obligations which sinners have violated, and from the unutterable punishment which they deserve? A deep sense of these awful truths is the very conviction desired; and one would think that a clear statement of the truths themselves would be the readiest way to make them felt. True, the mere statement will not convict, nor will the statement of any other truth convict without the action of the Spirit. But what part does the Spirit take in this matter? He only prepares the heart to be affected with the truths of God, and thus enables them to take hold of the mind and become motives to it. He never dissolves the connexion between action and motives. Those truths then which are best adapted to move the mind as it is moved under conviction, are the means

by which conviction is to be produced. And what truths can these be but those whose impression is the very conviction desired? God may make use of any truth or any event to awaken the mind. Sometimes a rash word has been used to impress him who uttered it or him who heard it; and sometimes a sinner has been roused to a view of his misery by observing the comforts of Christians. But whatever truth or circumstance may be employed to awaken the mind, conviction of these soul-humbling truths must follow or the impression comes to nothing. And what way so ready to produce the conviction as to urge the truths themselves? Why take a more circuitous route and not come right to the heart? This direct course, you say, will give offence. But to whom? To none but those on whom milder themes have been tried in vain. Good men will not be displeased. Those only will who have resisted all gentler motives and need some severer remedy in the last resort. And are their complaints reasonable and to be heeded? They are not reasonable. They will not yield to milder arguments, and yet they refuse to hear arguments of a graver cast. They pretend that by soothing accents they might be more affected, and yet by soothing accents they refuse to be won. Whether Sinai thunders or Calvary weeps, it is all the same to them. They have chosen their own way and are determined not to be disturbed in the way they have chosen. But would it be kind to them, would it be faithful to God, to gratify this fatal wish?

Nor is it unreasonably degrading to sinners to