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associated members a oneness of influence. attempts in the cause of his Lord and Master, instead of being counteracted and defeated by the course of others, is aided and rendered successful by the mutual agencies of each and all. In short, it is a union cemented by the spirit of love, of purity and peace. A union resembling that which binds together, in eternal harmony, all the inhabitants of heaven. A union which is destined to be perpetuated and perfected there. And though we have as yet only imperfect samples of it, yet there are to be seen, here and there, approaches towards its perfection. Unceasing attempts to reach that, is the duty to which we are called. Such attempts will invite the Saviour's return. Such attempts will be no unimportant preparation of his way. If they are made by only a few, they have his promise to encourage them. If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father in Heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And are there not two or three of us, who are disposed to make this attempt to PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD? to make straight in the desert, a highway for our God?

We often hear the inquiry, wherefore it is that our churches are not favored with the special presence of Christ. It is an inquiry of momentous importance, and yet is often proposed with very little feeling of interest. If any of us are urging the inquiry, either with concern or not, the subject of this discourse may be regarded as furnishing an answer. It is because, there is not among us a preparation for it. Pride and self-righteousness lift their mountain obstacles in the way.Christians have sinned, and not repented. They have declined from God, and yet they say, wherein have declined? They have imbibed a worldly spirit-have learned to use carnal weapons-have learned to depend on worldly expedients and plans--have learned to attempt

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to gain their ends by the same means that are employed by worldly men-have come to think lightly of the worth of the souls of men around them, and to overlook the immense difference between the children of God and the children of this world. Having thus lost their spiritual apprehensions, and become accustomed to look at things in the light of the present evil world, they have ceased to be faithful to their own, and the souls of others or to strive to strengthen the bonds of union between the different members of Christ's body. Who does not see, that while in such a state, they are wholly unprepared, and indisposed to attempt to be prepared, for the blessings of the Saviour's gracious presence? In this state, they resemble a trackless desert, through which no broad and safe highway is opened. And is this the grand reason, my brethren, why we are thus left? Is it, because we have sought to make no

suitable preparation? Let us see, that this cause is removed. It is becoming us to be of a contrite and broken heart. It agrees with our profession and our hopes, that we feel the value and the peril of the sinner's soul. It belongs to our name, that we be fearless, and faithful, and affectionate in warning the ungodly of their dangers. Are we the members of Christ, and are we not bound together-united in holy living, feeling and acting? Oh, let us awake. It is high time to awake. We have every conceivable inducement to awake and PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD. When our duties are performed, we may confidently expect a blessing. Every thing that we can ask or desire, is promised. If the way of the Lord is not prepared-if a highway is not speedily made straight for him-the inevitable consequence must be, that souls will be lost-eternally lost! And who is willing to have their blood found in his skirts? Who is willing to meet at the judgment day the consequence of his refusing to be broken hearted before God, faithful to the souls of men, and cordially united with the saints in the work of the Lord?

SERMON VII.

The Harbinger's Cry, addressed to Sinners.

MATTHEW III. 3.

PREPARE YE THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.

In the case of every one, naturally, there are numerous obstacles in the way of his becoming a subject of the spiritual salvation, which Christ has to bestow. As they are principally such obstacles, as men freely and voluntarily contribute to accumulate, they are such as are to be removed only by the willing efforts of men. It is for this reason, that scripture abounds with invitations, exhortations, injunctions, and commands urging men to remove whatever prevents their reception of saving mercy. They are addressed as in need of a Saviour, and as competent to prepare the way for the saving benefits of his redemption to reach their hearts. The text clearly recognizes both these, and is a particular call to impenitent men to put away those evils from their ways, which hinder their acceptance of redeeming grace. But they, who have been induced to remove or surmount impediments in the way of their own personal interest in Christ, are sometimes the guilty cause of preventing the successful endeavors of others. They are not always careful to take away occasions of offence, and to do what they can, to give the Saviour access to the hearts of the unregenerate. The duty of such persons was considered

in a former discourse from these words. It will be the object of the present, to point out some things which men in their natural state are required to do, in order to PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD.

Let it not be supposed, that I am about to prescribe to the unregenerate a long course of doings preparative to their reception of Christ, as a substitute for such a reception, or as any thing, which, for a moment, releases them from obligations immediately to repent and believe. To do these, is the grand direction which the word of God constantly addresses to the least solicitous inquiry after salvation. Until this direction is obeyed, salvation must remain far from the wicked. Yet it must not be forgotten, that there are certain acts of the unconverted, which, though they are not the great and all-important ones of believing and turning to the Lord, have a connexion with these acts. So that faith and conversion to God are so invariably connected with these certain acts, as to forbid our looking for the former, where the latter have not gone before. No one ever yet learned to do well, who had not ceased to do evil. No votary of worldly pleasure ever yet became a penitent believer, who had not for a considerable season previous, renounced his low delights. No covetous worldling was ever yet converted to God, who had not for a time, abandoned the eager and engrossing pursuit of wealth. Every truly converted drunkard, for weeks and months before he gave his heart to the Lord, gave up his intemperance. The evil speaker, who has, found Christ precious to his soul, had previously bridled his tongue, and ceased from the language of calumny and invective. So in all instances of true conversion, there is a previous relinquishment of such habits and pursuits, as are incompatible with the solicitous endeavors of men after salvation. This relinquishment is within the power of men. It is effected often where there is no heartfelt turning to the Lord. A visible reformation in the life by no means implies, though it is one step in the progress towards that all-important pro

cess, by which the Saviour becomes enthroned in the heart. TO PREPARE THE WAY, THEREFORE, for him to reign there, it may be observed,

I. That men are carefully to avoid outward sins, and to observe that class of visible virtues and moralities, which are more especially enjoined in the second table of the Decalogue. It cannot have escaped the notice of many of my hearers, how extensively very hurtful mistakes prevail in relation to the precise character and importance of the doings of the unregenerate. The fact, that there is nothing meritorious in such doings, and that they can only spring from unholy motives, has been so stated as to lead men to conclude, that it would be no less auspicious to their final safety to continue to practice known and open sins, than to avoid them. Because outward reformation is not inward spiritual conversion, and in numerous instances is not seen to lead to it, great numbers venture to practice on the dangerous inference, that they are as likely to be reached by converting grace in the paths of open and palpable sin, as in a course of outward and visible reformation. Now such an inference is not justified by any correct view of the gospel. Its morality does, indeed, flow from a rectified state of the heart. The acts it demands as connected with salvation, are those which proceed from the heart. But it does not offer a premium to any form of transgression, by encouraging in men a persuasion, that they are as fair candidates for the special divine favor, while in the habitual practice of many obvious sins, without either watching or struggling against them, as they are, while they are endeavoring to cease doing what is manifestly wrong, and attempting to do what is manifestly right. No less unfounded and erroneous, is such an inference as viewed in the light of reason. It can never be true in the nature of things, that sin leads to holiness that the multiplication of any acts of sin, throws no increasing barriers in the way of salvation or that to break off from

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