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But to the kingly office of Christ they have a rooted aversion, quite as certain, from their temper and practice, as if they were heard to say, we will not have this man to reign over us."* To the allegiance which Jesus claims they seem as perfectly insensible as the poor savage that never heard his name. They are perpetually drawn away from known duties at the call of inclination, appetite, or passion. And foul transgressions are occasionally committed, where there is a prospect of secrecy. The infinitely gracious God, who feeds them by day, and guards them by night, receives from them no tribute of praise, nor hears the voice of prayer in their families. Visitors can trace no vestige of godliness there, to cheer, or to do them good. They find the contagion of sin awfully prevalent; but no antidote of truth, no medicine of grace, no efforts used to stay its progress. If an irreligious friend should call on the sabbath, public worship is given up, as of no weight in the scale, and the day profaned in order to entertain him agreeably to his inclinations. The probability of his gaining some spiritual good, by persuading him to hear the gospel, is sacrificed to selfish, and sinful regards. Alas! for the servants and inmates of such families! If they are unconverted, they become many fold more the children of hell than they were: if converted, they go mourning, and most probably suffer loss. But I must endeavour to address you with a word in season, though it is difficult, and painful to speak to your case. You are doubtless in a state

of imminent danger. If you consider the Author, and design of the Christian religion, and the price

• Luke xix. 14.

paid for our redemption, can it be safe for you to make it a time-serving convenience,—a mask, to be worn in one company, and thrown off in another, a cloak of covetousness,-a stalking horse, from behind which you may annoy, and make a prey of others? Or, if hard pressed, will you take the infidel's ground, and flatter yourselves that you can defend it against those who are taught of God? Weak, and deluded men! If you could view that ground clearly, you would see it as a fallacious and horrid quagmire over the bottomless pit, and giving way under your feet. Should you tell us, that you suspect the Bible to be the word of man, and Christianity a cunningly devised fable; that is more than the father of lies himself dared to suggest, when he exercised his malignant art on the Son of God. The wretched victims of the

tempter, and of their own lusts, who are gone before you into perdition, if they could now address you, would cry shame on your presumption, and bid you take warning from their folly; for they would speak from what they feel: O for a drop of water to cool our tongues tormented in this flame! The authenticity, and genuineness, the divine inspiration, truth, and exclusive wisdom and excellence of the scriptures have been demonstrated by arguments never refuted; and they resemble a solid, immoveable, adamantine rock, on which the assaults of infidels, from age to age, have made no impression: nor can we, on the minutest examination, find a single spot, of which it may be truly said, 'here the enemy has indeed done some injury to the edifice of God.' Can you flatter yourselves, that you may thus affront the merciful forbearance, and immaculate jus

tice of God with impunity? Will you venture to believe, that He, who formed the eye, and gave you the wonderful faculty of vision, will fail to see all you are doing? that He, who trieth the reins, and searcheth the hearts of men is a stranger to what passes in yours? and though he judgeth in the earth, as well as in heaven, that he will not notice your conduct, nor ever call you to account? O"wherefore do you contemn God? and say in your heart, He will not require it." But I commend you to Him; and remind you, that you must appear before his tribunal. O think, what you will answer, when required to give an account of yourself to God! Hear even now what he says to the wicked: "Thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. Thou givest thy mouth to evil and thy tongue frameth deceit. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence: thou thoughtest, that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver."+ Take notice, that all your follies and sins will be set in order, and appear in terrible array against you; and that the charge, which determines your character, is forgetfulness of God, or the atheism of the heart. You may endeavour, and the enemy may tempt you to make light of all this; but think again, that you hear the All-seeing God, who still forbears to strike, thus tenderly expostulating with you: "Can thy heart endure, or can thy hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it." Many are now

* Ps. x. 13. + Ps. 1. Ezek. xxii. 14.

you

in hell, who have not gone so far in provoking Him, nor abused the means of grace so long as you have done. It is not however my office to call to despair; but to repent; because you are yet spared,-yet permitted to hear the word of grace. "For with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption." Avail yourselves of this without delay, and apply for mercy in the name of Jesus, who has redeemed us to God by his blood. Confess all your vileness without reserve, and "loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities, and for your abominations. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."+

It is lamentable to observe how many still continue open enemies to the gospel. I speak not of avowed infidels, or persecutors; but of enemies by wicked works, such as adulterers, whoremongers, drunkards, profane swearers, sabbath-breakers, and other gross offenders. They oppose the gospel in their practice. Some of them are hearers of the word; but their hearts, instead of becoming con. trite, are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For "the devil cometh, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved." To them ministers "are a savour of death unto death."§ These are they, who have ears, and hear not. At the theatre, the club, or some resort of dissipation, where the discourse is suited to the taste of corrupt nature, and altogether worldly, they can hear: but under the gospel, where God calls men, "not to uncleanness, but to

• Ps. cxxx. 7. Ezek. xxxvi. 31. James iv. 8. ‡ Luke viii. 12. § 2 Cor. ii. 16.

holiness," they are deaf. The Lord speaks to such also in his Providence, as well as in the scripture, by the judgments and miseries, with which he visits their rebellion against him. But they are so little moved by either, that it becomes a question, whether reason and conscience have not ceased to perform their office in them. For "whoredom, and wine, and new wine take away the heart." They deprive men of common sense, and render them incapable of any love, or devotion towards God. A course of sinning produces, and increases in them a spiritual lethargy, or rather death, dreadful and desperate beyond conception. And hence it is, that when God calls them to account, by his word, or Providence, they neither hear, nor are willing to acknowledge, that he has any claims of that kind upon them. At the present moment God is calling the inhabitants of this coun try to account for their offences against him, by a great, and unusual distress, affecting various classes, more especially what is called the landed interest. Yet how few seem to form any proper conception, either of the origin of the evil, or the means of removing it; though both the cause, and the remedy are clearly set forth in the book of truth. One passage from the chapter last quoted throws a flood of light on the subject: "By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, &c." When common swearing prevails among a people, and oaths are multiplied by statute beyond calculation, and with

* 1 Thess. iv. 7. + Hos. iv. 11.