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"Marriage is honourable to all men, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge."

First, then, with respect to those who as yet have not been defiled by the sin of uncleanness. To such I say, Flee from this sin as you would from your greatest enemy. Thank God, who has kept you hitherto from falling, and use all diligence to maintain your innocence. Avoid every

occasion that may in any wise lead you into bad company; bad conversation, light songs, immodest behaviour, imtemperance of every kind; for these, my younger brethren, these are the first steps in transgression. It is by these that the mind is corrupted, and the sin, which is so deadly in its results, made to appear less serious than it really is. Flee then from these dangers-dangers which beset you on all sides, and against which you must be hourly on your guard. As you value your peace of mind-as you value God's blessing-as you dread His displeasure-if you have any care for a parent's happiness-any care for a good name and honest character-any care for your immortal souls, "flee from fornication." Keep your bodies in temperance, soberness, and chastity; and seeing that you are not of yourselves strong enough to resist temptation, seeing that there is in us all a corrupt heart, and evil inclination, seek continually the help

of God to support you against all the attacks of the flesh and of the devil. Unless you do this there is no security against a fall. And when once fallen, who can tell if you will ever rise again? The tyranny of an unclean spirit is not easily overthrown, and when once a habit of vicious living has been contracted, it is of all things most difficult to be broken through.

Therefore, while as yet you are free, use the means that are offered you for maintaining your liberty : keep watch over your hearts, over your eyes, and over your tongue, lest you be ensnared in this sin : be watchful, be diligent; but be not over-confident: conscious of your natural weakness, have daily recourse to God, who knows what is needful for you, and who will not let you perish for lack of aid. Pray to Him as Christians are most truly bound to do-at stated times-at morning and at evening ; but most of all, pray to Him in the hour of peril, when idle companions would entice you; when loose thoughts stir themselves within you; hasten that moment to your refuge. Think then upon God, think what He has done for you-in creating, in redeeming you, in keeping you alive day by day : think how hateful all such impurities are in His sight, and let your conscience be consulted, and hearken to the suggestions it will surely make-— "How can I do this great wickedness and sin

against God?" Such is my advice, my most earnest advice, to those among you who are yet innocent of the great offence named in the text.

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There are others, I fear, in this congregation, who are not innocent: who have broken their covenant with God: have not kept themselves pure, but have been polluted with this sin: they are now, I will suppose, sensible of their misdeeds, and anxious to be restored to the love of their offended Maker: to these I say, " Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, and so iniquity shall not be your ruin." But let your repentance be sincere let it be the repentance spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel, in the forty-third verse of the twentieth chapter, as having such signs as thesea remembering your ways and all your doings:"a loathing in your own sight for all the evils that ye have committed." For it is not enough, believe me, to break off from sinning, unless you also feel sorrow and remorse for having sinned—and sorrow and remorse are bitter things: but bitter as they are, they must be endured. There can be no true repentance without them. Till a sinner feel the sting of it, he will not renounce the sin to which he is by nature inclined. Shrink not then from the work of repentance-heavy and painful as that work must be-shrink not from it, but take hold of it at once, while as yet there is time; while the

mercy of God waits for your return: only forget not that repentance itself is not wholly within your own power. God must give you grace before you can repent effectually-repent so as to obtain forgiveness and His grace, as you know, cannot be had without prayer.

Pray, then, as indeed you have great need to do-pray God to "grant you true repentance, and His Holy Spirit," that so you may come to have a deep and lasting sense of your transgression-may renounce and utterly forsake it, and ever hereafter serve and please Him, in newness of living and truth. Pray and faint not, and let the burden of your prayer be this: "Create in me, O Lord, a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me."

Little Hadham.

SERMON XI.

ALL ARE ANSWERABLE.

ROMANS XIV. 12.-" So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God."

THERE is much matter contained within the compass of these words, to which I am desirous of drawing your attention, after I have first observed somewhat, upon their connexion with that part of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, wherein they are found.

The church at Rome at this time was composed of persons who had originally been brought up up under different systems of religion: some of them were converted Jews, and some converted heathen; and though now united, through the preaching of the Gospel, in the solemn profession of the one true faith, they yet retained many of their old marks of distinction. The Jewish Chris

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