Destruction!-not ceasing to be, but an utter end of all pleasue for evermore. Misery, pains, torments, without mitigation, without cessation, without end. Everlasting separation from the presence of God, the fountain of life; and confinement in chains of darkness, with devils and damned spirits, to all eternity.

On the other hand, God has set before us the way of life. The entrance is strait, the way is narrow. Difficulties indeed there are; but grace lessens them all, and sweetens them all; so that the worst of Christ's way is better than the best of Satan's way; and, what is best of all, the end is eternal life. And O, what tongue can tell, what heart conceive, what God has laid up for them that love him! Is there a redeemed soul in glory, who now repents of the pains he took in religion? Does he repent of his repentance? Does he regret that he believed in the Son of God? Is he sorry that he walked in the ways of holiness? O no. Each glorified saint reviews with ecstacy of joy, the rich grace of God, that enabled him to discover the danger of that broad road in which he once travelled, and that placed his feet in the narrow but sure and safe road to eternal bliss.

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Obey then the words of our Lord in another place, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate."-Agonize to do it. Do it at all events. Do it directly. Let not a moment be lost. Escape for your lives; look not behind you; neither tarry ye in all the plain : escape to the mountain, lest ye be consumed." Fly from the wrath to come. "For many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able." (Luke xiii. 24.) Many, who would willingly go to heaven, seek after it in so cold, and slothful a manner, or by such false and mistaken ways, that they never obtain it: and O how many, who now neglect it altogether, will knock for admittance when the door is shut. Now, therefore, while it is called to-day, let us hear his voice. us be dilligent in observing the sabbath, attending on the preached word as often as possible, reading the scriptures daily; and, especially, let us wrestle hard with God in prayer, that he would give us his Spirit, to teach and assist us, and work in our hearts that deep repentance, that true faith, and that genuine holiness, which are the proper exercises of all who travel in the narrow way to heaven.

Let

The almost Christian and Apostate.
BROAD is the road that leads to death,
And thousands walk together there;
But wisdom shows a narrower path,
With here and there a traveller.
"Deny thyself, and take thy cross,"
Is the Redeemer's great command!
Nature must count her gold but dross,
If she would gain the heav'nly land.
The fearful soul that tires and faints,
And walks the ways of God no more,
Is but esteemed almost a saint,

And makes his own destruction sure.
Lord, let not all my hopes be vain;
Create my heart entirely new;
Which hypocrites could ne'er attain ;
Which false apostates never knew.

SERMON III.

WATTS.

THE NATURE, SPIRITUALITY, AND USE OF THE LAW. Rom. vii. 9.-For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

T is a most true maxim of Scripture, that "The whole

church of Christ has been justly compared to an hospital, to which none but the sick repair; no wonder then that the gay and healthy shun it. But whether we know it or not, our souls are sadly and dangerously diseased; and the worst symptom of all is, we know it not.

It may not be pleasant to a person to be told of any thing amiss in his health, his family, or his affairs; yet he is a true friend who gives the information, and he is a wise man who thankfully receives it. With this view, John the Baptist was sent before Christ; by preaching repentance to prepare the way for him and the disciples of John gladly received the Saviour. Without the knowledge of ourselves, as sinners, we cannot understand the gospel, nor prize Jesus. And this is the true key to what would otherwise be unaccountable-the general neglect of the great salvation. When our Lord himself and his inspired

:

Apostles, with every possible advantage, preached the gospel, few believed the heavenly report; almost all, with one consent, began to make excuse; one going to his farm, and another to his merchandize. Now, as men are all alive to worldly pleasure and profit, it is evident, that their neglect arises from ignorance of their true state; and this is from their ignorance of the law of God, which is the only certain rule and standard by which to measure ourselves.

Hence, St. Paul designing in this Epistle to treat fully concerning the great point of justification, or being made righteous before God, takes care, in the first place, to prove that all men in the world are sinners-the Gentiles against the law of nature, and the Jews against the written law, or ten commandments. He well knew the importance of this method, by his own experience; for he says in the text, "he was alive without the law once," &c. that is, when he was unconverted, and a proud pharisee, he had high swelling thoughts of himself; thought all was well between God and him; he did not see himself dead in law, being justly condemned by it for his sin; but he was all alive in his own opinion; and his mistake arose from ignorance of the law. He was "without the law;" not without the letter of it; he could have said it by heart: but he did not know its spiritual meaning and high requirements. But when the commandment came, especially the tenth commandment; when it came in the light and energy of the Holy Spirit to his mind and conscience; when he saw that it reached to the thoughts, principles, views, and desires of the heart, as well as to his words and actions; requiring perfect purity, and condemning for a single sin, even in thought-then, saith he, then " sin revived, and I died." Then he saw thousands of things to be sins, which he never thought such before; and he found sin had full power and life in him; sin revived in his conscience; he saw it in all its dreadful terror, as justly exposing him to the wrath of God; and he fell under a sense. of death, and condemnation, as a man dead in law, and deserving to die eternally.

Now, that we may rightly understand the law, and that it may be, "our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ," let us,

First, Take a view of the holy law, by which is the knowledge of sin; and,

Secondly, Consider the proper effect of a work of the law on the heart.

I. Let us take a view of the holy law of God; for hereby is the knowledge of sin.

Remember, my friends, that God, who is the maker of the world, is also the governor of it. God prefaces his law with these words, I am Jehovah, the salf-existent Being, the source of all being, on whom all beings depend and he adds, I am thy God, to remind the Jews of their relation to him; for they were his professed worshippers, as we also are. He adds, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage. Here are their obligations to him on account of their wonderful deliverance; so the redemption of sinners by Jesus Christ lays them under infinite obligations to holy obedience. Man is a rational being, and accountable to God for his conduct. Brutes are led by instinct; but it is fit that man should be led by proper motives, willingly to obey his Maker's will. Now from the first, God gave a law to man. It was not indeed written. There was no occasion for it. Men lived almost a thousand years, and could easily teach their children what God at first taught Adam. At length, however, God saw fit to give his law from Mount Sinai, in dreadful thunders; and also to write it on two tables of stone.

You will observe, that the law of God is summed up in one word, namely, LovE; and that this love has two objects: Love to God, for what he is in himself, and for the blessings he gives us; and Love to Man, for God's sake.

The love we owe to God is to be expressed in four ways; and these are set forth in the first four commandments. The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods but me. This requires us to know and confess the true God, Father, Son, and holy Spirit, as the only living God, and our God; in opposition to all idolatry; it requires us also to love and adore him, as the author of our being, and the source of our happiness; and this commandment is broken, not only by worshipping other gods, but by setting our idols in our hearts, by excessive selfVOL. I. C

love, or love of creatures, relations, money, or gratifications of the flesh; so that, according to this, there are many Atheists, living without God in the world, and maný idolaters, worshipping the creature.

The second commandment forbids all worship of Images; and requires us to worship God in the way he has appointed; but, alas! how many wholly neglect and despise his worship! How many worship God with various superstitions and inventions of men! How many others forget that God is a Spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit and truth! What levity and folly do many mix with their pretended devotions: But in vain do we thus mock God, and play the hypocrite, drawing nigh to him with the lips, when our hearts are far from him. The reason added to this commandment, for Ithe Lord thy God am a jealous God, &c. shews how extremely displeasing to him it is to neglect his worship, or worship him in an improper manner, and that he will resent this sin not only to the persons who commit it, but to their posterity.

The third commandment forbids the taking the Lord's name in vain. But, O! how awful is the common practice of cursing and swearing! We may truly say "because of swearing the land mourneth;" the breath of some men is nothing but blasphemy; "their throat is an open sepulchre;" the stench of their profaneness is infinitely worse than that of a stinking carcase; and many, who do not use the most horrid oaths, will cry out-O Lord! O God! O Christ! God bless us! Lord have mercy! &c. &c. But however common this practice is, let all men know, that God declares "he will not hold them guiltless that take his name in vain." O consider what a great God we have to do with ; and let his name never be mentioned without a serious pause, allowing us time to think who he is, and that he is greatly to be feared.

The fourth commandment respects the religious observation of the Lord's Day, or christian Sabbath. We can never enough admire the goodness of God in the appointment of it. Persons should prepare for it, by having every thing in readiness as much as possible, that no part of it, especially the morning, which is the best part of it, should be lost. All unnecessary works are to be laid