scribed, as an inheritance among them, which are sanctified and, if we are not undergoing the process of sanctification in heart and life through the power of the holy ghost, we are yet in our sins, and have forfeited all title to the hope and comfort of the gospel. This however is a state of alienation from God, towards which the natural heart, even after it has been renewed by power from on high, has a perpetual tendency to gravitate. The enemies, whom we have renounced, distributed in scripture under the three heads of the world, the flesh, and the devil, are ever striving to regain their ascendancy over us; and nothing is so well calculated to ensure their success, as our own vain confidence and presumption. Pass therefore the time of your sojourning here in fear! Watch and pray, pray, lest ye enter into temptation! Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil!

The particulars which have been laid before you, brethren, may be sufficient to shew, with what propriety the holy scriptures paint the life

of a christian, as a scene of perpetual warfare, a conflict for the christian strives against an enemy, who is dislodged, but not vanquished, who ever waits for his halting, and is constantly ready to take him by surprise; and he has reason to fear, lest his own inactivity, or negligence, or even his confidence from past success should give that adversary a new and better prospect of prevailing. Abraham

fell by timidity, Moses by self-complacency, Job by presumption, David by uncleanness, Solomon by intemperance, Hezekiah by pride, Peter by confidence. Who can think on these examples, and not fear, lest his own fall should be added to the catalogue? For it must ever be borne in mind, that a christian has not only to guard against the treachery of his own. deceitful heart. Not only is he liable to be perverted to error, and countenanced in it by evil men and seducers, or deterred from for saking it by their influence and ascendancy over him. The life of a christian is beset by unseen and spiritual enemies: for he wrestles not only against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of the darkness of this world and

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must he not fear ever more and more, lest Satan should get an advantage of him, in proportion as he becomes better and better acquainted with his devices? And besides all this the very duties of his station often betray him through the weakness of his natural heart into sin for it is abundantly plain, that he may be engaged in those duties, and yet have neither faith, nor hope, nor love in his heart; and it is plain also, that he may substitute the performance of those duties for the faith and love, in which they ought to originate, and without which they are an empty husk and shell, and thus be tempted to go on without self-examination, because without self-suspicion, and hence also without the exercise of holy affections.

Surely therefore you must now be persuaded, brethren, that we have all ample cause to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. By some persons it may be thought, that this distinct exposition of the perils, to which a christian is exposed, is unfavorable to the exercise of that confiding faith and hope, to which he is. called. But a very little reflection may con

vince you, that the more alive you are to your dangers, the more gladly are you likely to cling to that anchor of your hope, which is sure and stedfast. Blindness to danger, though real, may produce a false and presumptuous confidence in yourself. But it is a quick and lively sense of it, that must produce humble reliance on the faithfulness and sufficiency of the saviour. It was, when they suspected no evil, that the holy men, whose examples have been more than once referred to, fell into awful transgression. But, when their detected offences brought them to a knowledge of their own guilt and weakness, then it was, that they returned, with compunction indeed and sorrow, but yet with lively hope and faith, to the rock of their salvation. In the midst of life we are in death. But in the midst of a shipwreck we are more sensible of it. The consequence is, that in those fearful circumstances, when danger is imminent, and eternity in view, the fear of man vanishes, the charm of the world is dissolved, self-flattery disappears, and, however the ungodly and impenitent may at such a crisis be sometimes hardened in despair, the

true children of God shine forth in brighter colours, their faith is more elevated, their prayers more ardent, and, though fear may prevail to an indefinite extent, the hope, in which they have lived, becomes dearer to them, and is cherished with greater fervour, in proportion to the very fears, with which it has to contend.

Be not then induced by any reasonings to shut your eyes to the dangers, which environ you, and which are never so likely to prove fatal, as when they find you regardless and secure! The life of a christian is no light matter, to be undertaken or pursued without much caution, vigilance, or prayer. In the evening I hope by God's blessing to address you on the means, which are provided for us, to resist these dangers with effect, to obtain the advantage of an almighty auxiliary, and to advance under the security of the divine promise to ultimate victory over all our enemies, and everlasting salvation. May God, even the father of our lord, Jesus Christ, have you all in his holy keeping, and preserve you by his efficacious grace from falling!