his fury and rage. Vice is the gate of death, the very entrance of hell. Surely, the way of transgressors is hard.

Yes, in

4. The way of transgressors is hard, because it brings the mind into a state of bondage. Whatever be the besetting sin of the ungodly, it has within them all the force of law, to which they are compelled to yield a willing obedience. Such is the inward and invincible propensity of the worldling, the sensualist, and the drunkard, that they readily follow the impulse of their own corrupt hearts. A spring will not more naturally rise, when the power which compresses it is removed, than their lusts will rise to demand their wonted gratification, when an opportunity for indulgence is afforded them. These poor infatuated beings, who are the slaves of passion and appetite, call this liberty; but the whole Scriptures designate it bondage: Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey? yielding to the power of temptation, we become the servants of sin, and also of Satan; for he it is who worketh in the children of disobedience, and leads them captive at his will. Indeed, the whole gospel takes this for granted; for Christ was sent into the world to redeem mankind from this bondage, and to make us free indeed. Now, while thus enslaved, is not the sinner in a most deplorable and pitiable condition? What slavery is so degrading, so humiliating, and so debasing, as the slavery of sin? It blunts the moral sensibility of the soul, it extinguishes the light of reason, it pours darkness upon the mental vision, and it converts the image of God into the likeness of a brute. The whole life of a wicked man is occupied in things which tend to the destruction of his own welfare. Surely, the way of transgressors is hard.

5. The way of transgressors is hard, because it produces anxiety and mental distress. The ungodly man, whatever may be his pursuits, finds nothing in which his soul can rest. Give him riches, give him honors, give him pleasure; yet, in the fulness of his sufficiency, he is in straits. He has no God, and anxieties and perplexities torment him, notwithstanding he has his portion in this life. There is always a secret something unpossessed: some object which he thinks would make him happy, but which constantly eludes his grasp; and after he has hewn out to himself a cistern, with great labor, he finds it only a broken cistern, that can hold no water. His continual disappointments fill him with vexation; insomuch that he finds even the objects of his fondest hope, in the issue, to be only vanity and vexation of spirit. Having never given his heart to God, he sensibly feels the want of those enjoyments and those prospects which alone can afford support and consolation to him, under his trials. Under the continual pressure of a heavy burden, he feels his strength gradually exhausting, till, at length, he becomes wearied and disgusted with life.

To his other pains are added those of a guilty conscience. Against these no brutality can shield him, no skepticism can harden

him. The Sacred Oracles furnish many examples to confirm and illustrate this declaration. Adam flies; Achan turns pale; Belshazzar trembles; Saul despairs; Judas hates existence, and hurries out of life: Yea, the wicked even flee when no man pursueth. Could we penetrate the heart of a sinner, what misery should we find there! What, but a book, on every page of which was written, lamentation, mourning, and wo!-what, but a fountain, from whence none but bitter streams continually flow!—what, but a den of savage beasts of prey, tearing and devouring, tormenting and destroying, till, at last, nothing but ruin and death appear. Ah, conscience! how dost thou rack the sinner, sting his guilty soul, witness against his crimes, and treasure up the remembrance of them to his confusion! He in vain tries to stifle thy voice: he betakes himself to business, and pleasure, and company, in order to get rid of thy remonstrances: but it is impossible. There are times of sickness and approaching dissolution, when thy voice will be heard, and when thy reflections will be cutting. I appeal to the conscience of every wicked man, whether that declaration be not verified in his own experience: The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. Yes, verily this testimony is incontrovertable; and it proves, beyond all doubt, the truth of the declaration contained in the text, that the way of transgressors is hard.

6. The way of transgressors is hard, because it exposes them to temporal calamities. We do not suppose that God renders a righteous retribution to moral conduct in this mutable state; but there are instances in which he manifests his displeasure against sin by a signal punishment; and by which he gives the world to understand that he has power to vindicate the honor of his laws, and to make examples as often as he pleases. It is not, however, for us to be rash in pronouncing judgment, even on the wicked; but let us look for a few moments on some of the instances in which God has manifested his displeasure against the ungodly. I behold a Cain, on whom God has placed an indelible mark, a skulking vagabond; I see a whole world, with a small exception, expiring in the agonies of death. Yonder is one turned into a pillar of salt-here is another, struck with the leprosy, and become white as snow. On this side, one falls down dead with horror; on that, another seeks destruction from his sword; one is smote by an angel, and eaten up of worms; another is instantly consumed by devouring flames. What an awful catalogue do the Scriptures produce! On what monuments this epitaph may be written-The way of transgressors

is hard.

7. The way of transgressors is hard, because it exposes them to danger. In some respects, it may be said of every man, that he is exposed to danger, and that we know not what a day may bring forth. But, if we be the servants of Christ, we have nothing to

fear; since he is pledged to preserve us from everything that shall be really evil, and to make all things work together for our good. Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Even death itself is a blessing to the pious man, who is privileged to count it amongst his richest treasures. Indeed, for him to depart and be with Christ, is far better than to remain in the flesh. Far different from this, however, is the state of the ungodly man he knows not but what the next moment may hurl him into the abyss of hell-the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. Death waits but for its commission from on high, and it will in an instant transmit his soul to the bar of judgment, and into the presence of his offended God. What a fearful thought! With what terror would it inspire the unconverted man, if it were contemplated aright! Could we but conceive a transgressor hurried to the tribunal of his Judge, to give up his account, and to receive his final doom, what a view should we have of the folly of his ways! O, the anguish to which he is now subjected under the wrath of an avenging God! what weeping under the load of his misery! what wailing on account of his folly, in having so wasted his day of grace! and what gnashing of teeth against that God who is executing upon him the fierce displeasure of his wrath! Such is the imminent danger to which the unconverted man is every moment exposed. At his convivial feasts, at his mirthful pastimes, at his bacchanalian revels. at his pleasurable delights, this sword is suspended over him by a single hair, which is liable to be cut every moment, and instantly consign him to endless wo.

O miserable and deluded transgressor! to what art thou come at last. Thou hast cast off the yoke of religion, and freed thyself from the restraints which the law of God would impose upon thee; thou hast taken refuge in Atheism, under the pretence of following the law of nature. But dost thou pretend to follow the laws of nature, when thou art trampling on the laws of the God of nature? when thou art stifling his voice within thee, which remonstrates against thy crimes? when thou art violating the best part of thy nature, by counteracting the dictates of justice and humanity? Dost thou follow nature when thou renderest thyself a useless animal on the earth? and not useless only, but noxious to the society to which thou belongest, and to which thou art a disgrace; noxious by the bad example thou hast set; noxious by the crimes thou hast committed; sacrificing innocence to thy guilty pleasures, and introducing shame into the habitations of peace; defrauding the unsuspicious of their just due who have trusted thee; involving in the ruins of thy fortune many a worthy family; reducing the industrious and the aged, to penury and want; by all of which, thou hast justly brought upon thyself the resentment and reproach of the wise and virtuous, and just indignation of an aveng

ing God. Tremble, then, at the view of the gulf which is opened before you. Look with horror upon the precipice, on the brink of which you are now standing. Say not that your life is a life of pleasure, and your death a death of triumph; that God is to be discarded, religion despised, and the soul neglected; for on thy conscience now, on thy countenance in the day of judgment, and on the gates of hell forever, shall this sentence be written: The way of transgressors is hard. From all of which we may learn,

1. The evil of sin. Let not any imagine that this way is rendered any harder than it ought to be, through the undue severity of God. His love, forbearance, and long-suffering towards sinners, clearly prove the contrary; also the strong measures which he adopts to bring about their salvation, and the ready and gracious manner in which he receives those of them who return to him with a godly sorrow, furnish additional proofs that the Most High is not unnecessarily severe. Nor could the exercise of undue severity towards transgressors be easily conceived. Reflect on the heinous nature of sin: against whom is it committed? Against the greatest, the wisest, the kindest, and the best Being in the universe! And by whom is it committed? By one who has derived his being and all his comforts and advantages from him, and the very end of whose existence is to resemble and enjoy him forever. And under what circumstances is it committed? Even at the very moment, when all his thoughts and acts towards us are those of unmerited love and good will. Could any treatment of beings so abominable, be too severe? In what way could Jehovah make his love of order, his spotless purity, his inviolable truth, his inflexible justice, and, in short, his infinite perfection appear, were he not to visit the ingratitude and baseness, the levity and incorrigibleness of transgressors, with unspeakable, interminable, and intolerable sufferings beyond the grave? These are the just demerits of sin; and every impenitent transgressor will be called to endure tribulation and anguish, lamentation and wo, for ever and ever.

2. If such are the evils to which transgressors are exposed, what a blind infatuation they must be laboring under to reject the offers of mercy. Truly, if men were conscious of their danger in an nuconverted state, they could no more sleep than could a man in a house that was on fire; or than could a shipwrecked sailor on a plank, by which he was making his escape to land. O, fellow-sinner, I pray you to consider the shortness and uncertainty of time! Consider, how every day's continuance in sin operates to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, to harden your own hearts, to confirm your evil habits, to accumulate your load of guilt, and to augment the misery that awaits you. As long as you live in sin, you must be miserable here; and if you die impenitent, you will certainly be damned hereafter. O, then, will you delay to turn unto your God? Will you delay a single hour? What if your soul should be required of

you this very night, and your doom be fixed without a hope or a possibility of change forever? I beseech you to-day, while it is called to-day, harden not your hearts, but repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your

ruin.

DISCOURSE XVII.

Expostulation with those who neglect the work of God.

"Why stand ye here all the day idle?"-Matt. xx., 6.

THE case of the rich young man, who turned away from Christ on account of his love of worldly possessions, gave occasion to our Lord to observe that many, who, like that young man, are first in the enjoyment of outward advantages, and in the appearances of piety and virtue, should be last in the esteem of God, and be found the most wanting in the day of judgment; and that the last in external advantages, and who are rejected by such as judge according to outward appearances, shall be the first, or the highest, in the divine favor, in that day. In illustration of this doctrine, our Lord delivered the parable recorded in this chapter, in which he represents the proceedings of God in his kingdom under the figure of a house holder, who went out at different periods of the day, to hire laborers into his vineyard.

In the first place, he went out early in the morning, or about six o'clock, called by the Romans and Jews the first hour of the day, when he engaged some at the usual price of a day's labor; and then, at the third hour, which would be, as we reckon time, at nine o'clock in the morning, when, finding others unemployed, he engaged them on a promise that they should receive whatever was right. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, or, as we reckon time, at noon and at three in the afternoon, and did likewise. Finally, about the eleventh hour, or at five o'clock in the afternoon, when there was but one hour remaining before sunset, he went out, and finding others standing idle, he expostulated with them in the language of our text, Why stand ye here all the day idle? These he also sends into the vineyard on the same general assurance, that he would give them what was just and reasonable. The different hours of the day, at which the house holder is represented as going out and hiring laborers into his vineyard, when applied to those who live under the gospel age, may be considered as referring to the several periods of human life, as that of childhood, youth, middle age, the decline of life, and old age. Thus