"brethren; stablish your hearts; for the "coming of the Lord draweth nigh." “Come, Lord Jesus, even so comequickly."-Amen. SERMON X. ON APOSTACY. HEBREWS X. 38. If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. WHEN Paul wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews, many of them, who had embraced Christianity, had apostatized from its faith, in consequence of the persecutions of their unbelieving countrymen, who founded their opposition to the gospel on some false interpretations of the prophecies respecting the Messiah. To fortify the minds of the believing Hebrews against these temptations to apostacy, the apostle proves at great length, from the Sacred Oracles, of which for ages their nation had been the deposi tary, and the divine origin of which they admitted, that Jesus whom they crucified was indeed the Prince and the Saviour promised to their Fathers, predicted by a long succession of Prophets, and shadowed forth in all the types and ceremonial ordinances of the law; and thus establishes the infinite superiority of the person and priesthood of Christ to that of all the former messengers of God to man. To strengthen the good impressions which it was natural to suppose his reasoning had produced on his believing brethren, he exhorts them, in the verses preceding my text, to call to remembrance the joy which they felt when they first believed the gospel, the courage and constancy with which they then suffered for the faith, the kindness which they shewed to their partners in those sufferings, their sympathizing with him in his bonds, and the becoming temper of mind with which " they took the spoiling of their goods, knowing that "in heaven they had a better, even an enduring substance." And to encourage them to persevere in this honourable and consistent behaviour, "not to cast 66 60 away their confidence in Christ, but to "hold fast the profession of their faith " without wavering," he assures them, that a great reward awaited them in the heavens; that they would soon be delivered from the persecutions to which they were at present exposed; for the Lord Jesus would come, as he had promised, and destroy Jerusalem,-an event which the Hebrews then saw approaching, by the appearing of those signs which Christ had mentioned in his prophecy would precede its accomplishment. To en force these arguments by a different and still more powerful motive, he adds, "the just shall live by faith;" but if any man who had made a profession of faith should draw back in the time of trial, and finally apostatize, the apostle declares in the name of God, speaking after the manner of men," my soul shall have no "pleasure in him.” It is a melancholy truth, that many professors of the gospel, in all ages, have proved unstedfast and unfaithful in their Christian profession. Even so early as the days of our Lord's personal ministry, we read of many who were accounted his disciples, that went back and walked no more with him. And in the present day, how many are there, who make shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience ?— How many, who having once seemingly run well in the Christian race, afterwards cease their exertions;-who "having once "put their hand to the plough, look "back," and by degrees return with increased guilt to their former sins ;-who having begun in the spirit, at last end in the flesh.-Considering those things, and conscious too, as all who know any thing of themselves must be, that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, is there not cause for holy jealousy and godly fear? Is not the awful admonition in the text equally suitable, equally important, equally necessary to us, as it was to the persons to whom it was originally addressed? And may we not suppose, that our blessed Lord is now saying to each of us individually, "If thou draw back, my soul "shall have no pleasure in thee ?" In discoursing from this subject, it is proposed, I. To explain what is meant by the |