First, You yourselves are witnesses against yourselves, that you have chosen the Lord to be your God. You know and confess you have been dedicated to God in baptism and some of you know, it was your own act and deed, when capable of choosing for yourselves. You also know in your consciences, you were last Sunday, and at other times, at the table of the Lord; and there you renewed your covenant with God afresh; and with the memorials of a crucified Saviour in your hands, made the most solemn vows, that you would serve the Lord for the future. Are not your consciences witness to these transac tions? You may try to suppress their evidence by violence or bribery; but I am apt to think, you will find it difficult, with all your art, to keep them entirely silent. When they catch you in an act of sin, or in the neglect of duty, they will whisper within, "Remember, man, thou wast baptised: remember, thou hast been at the table of the Lord. Thou hast had such transactions with God, as promised better things. And is this the result? Is it thus thou performest thy obligations? Is this the baptised christian? Is this the communicant?" And hereupon, your consciences will bring you in guilty of perjury, and forebode the judgments of God coming upon you. Thus you are not likely to enjoy even the sordid pleasure of sin, without molestation. You have a witness within that remonstrates against your conduct. You will be self-condemned, condemned by yourselves, when you are both judge and party; and who can then acquit you? Methinks, whenever you see a child presented to baptism, it may strike you with a sense of guilt: "Thus," you may say, "in this manner was I devoted to God; but how treacherously have I revolted from him?" Methinks, the remembrance of the table of the Lord may perpetually haunt you while you are walking in the ways of sin. But though you may be able to manage your consciences, so that they may not afford you much uneasiness, while in this world, yet they will speak they will speak plain and loud-they will speak home to your hearts, in that dread, eternal world, to which you are hastening. There, these suppressed evidences will have fair play. Then no charge will be brought against you by your Judge, but your consciences will re-echo," Guilty! guilty!" And thus, you will consume away an eternity in accusing and condemning yourselves. Oh! impenitent sinners, how will you long for a lethea river of oblivion, when shut up in the belly of hell, that you might drink, and forget that ever you had a drop of baptismal water upon you, or that ever you sat in the posture of a commu. nicant at the sacred table? But, alas! conscience will keep the painful remembrance fresh in your mind forever. Conscience will then upbraid, " you that are now the prey of devils, and the fuel of infernal flames, were once devoted to God. You that are now the companions of damned ghosts, were once among the saints, and wore the badge of the disciples of Christ. But you were insincere and treacherous in all this; and now your privileges are become your curses. You sunk into hell, as it were, with the water of baptism upon your flesh, with the sacred bread and wine, the emblems of a crucified Saviour, in your hands, and with the mark of christians upon you." Oh! what scope for tormenting self-reflections is here! O! how cutting will these reviews be! reviews of transactions passed millions of millions of ages ago. This, sirs, will be the consequence, if you fall from your sacramental engagements: you will be your own accusers, and your own tormentors. Therefore, now beware of so dreadful a doom. Secondly, You are witnesses against one another, that you have chosen the Lord to serve him. You have seen the transactions that have passed between God and you in this house; you have seen some baptised themselves; some presenting their children to baptism, and so renewing their own covenant with God; some sealing their religious engagements at the Lord's table. These things we can witness against one another, neighbour against neighbour, parents against children, children against parents, brothers against brothers, friend against friend, husband against wife, and wife against husband. If we see or hear of any of you falling into immoralities, or neglecting the duties of religion and virtue, we can witness, that you promised better things. If any of you who have enjoyed the privilege of baptism among us for your children, still live in the neglect of family-religion, here is a numerous crowd of witnesses, to testify that you are perjured; for we heard you solemnly promise it. One would think, the very sight of one another should make you ashamed, and afraid to offend. You would not willingly be known and marked for a perfidious dishonest villain, in civil affairs; and will you be guilty of perfidy towards God and his church, without shame or remorse? My brethren, you are too far and too publicly engaged to be religious, to be capable now of deserting with honour and in 1 tegrity. Therefore let those who were witnesses of your vows, be also the witnesses of your performance of them. Now" pay your vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.”* Whenever you see this place, methinks you may cry out with Jacob, "O how dreadful is this place! this is no other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Let the sight of your minister, and every one that has been witness to your transactions with God, strike you with the remembrance of your duty, and excite you to perform it and thus be silent, but powerful monitors to each other, and derive advantage even from the sight of one another. : But our intercourse with one another in this world will soon be over, and we must be parted, and pass solitary through the valley of the shadow of death, friendless and companionless. And can we then be witnesses against each other beyond the present state? Yes, my brethren, we must all meet in the region of spirits: we must all stand at the judgment-seat of Christ and there especially we shall be witnesses against each other. To realise this awful interview, let us suppose (what I am afraid will be the case in fact) that some of you who have been baptised in infancy, will then be found on the left hand of the Judge, and be accused of violating the covenant of your God: suppose the witnesses are called to prove the charge, (for, as the process will be intended, not for the information of the omniscient Judge, but to convince the world, who can judge only by apparent evidence, of the justice of the doom. This supposition may be matter of fact,) your father, mother, or sureties (as many of my hearers were baptised in the church of England, I mention sureties on purpose for their conviction) will stand forth, and witness," Lord, though this be our child, yet we must bear testimony against him, that we did devote him to thee in baptism; and he who now stands among the trembling criminals on thy left hand, was once introduced into thy church, and had thy holy name called upon him." Then those that were spectators of the transaction, will stand forth, and declare, "Lord, all this is true: we ourselves saw him solemnly devoted to thy service." Then the minister will declare," Lord, with this hand I baptised him in thy name ; and I had once some hopes he would have made an useful member of thy church; but now I see he is a condemned, lost outcast." Gen. xxviii. 17. * Psa. xxii. 25. Or suppose some of you negroes, who have been baptised upon your profession of faith for yourselves, accused of having once engaged yourselves to the service of God, and afterwards forsaking it; and witnesses are called to prove the fact; this whole congregation may rise up and declare with one mouth, "Lord, we heard him with our own ears profess, that he renounced all his sins, and gave up himself to thee to be thy servant forever." And your minister must also witness, "Lord, he declared to me in private, that he did really repent of all his sins, that he did believe in thee with all his heart, and that he was heartily willing and desirous to be thy servant forever. This, Lord, I had from his own mouth. Had he not made this profession, I would not have admitted him to thine ordinance. But as I could not judge of the sincerity of his heart, but by his declaration, I was obliged to admit him and he renewed the same declaration publicly in the presence of thy people and we, who could only judge by outward profession, hoped he was sincere. But how sadly are we disappointed." Or, suppose some of you who have entered into covenant with God last Lord's-day, should then be found workers of iniquity, what, a crowd of witnesses will rise up against you to prove that you have voluntarily promised better things? One can witness, "Lord, I saw him at thy table "" Another, "Lord, he sat next to me on the same seat!" And your poor minister, "Lord, he received the elements from my hands: Lord, I conversed with him privately; and he told me, that as far as he knew his own heart, he was sincerely penitent for his sins, heartily willing to be thy servant forever, and resolved to live a life of holiness for the time to come. This he professed to me, and as I could only judge of outward profession, I was obliged to receive him among the number of thy people." In short, sinners, you cannot possibly escape judgment will pass against you, and that with the clearest evidence. God the Father will condemn you; Jesus, the only advocate for sinners, will condemn you; your nearest relations and friends will condemn you; the whole universe will condemn you; you will condemn one another: nay, you will condemn yourselves your own consciences will cry out, "O Lord, thou hast judged righteously; for all these charges are true: I can neither deny nor excuse them!" Evidences will then crowd in against you from every quarter. The three that bear record in Uu 342 Christians reminded of their Obligations. heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, will witness against you. The elect angels, that are performing their ministry invisibly in the assemblies of the saints, will witness to the transactions that they saw you engaged in. And may not the sundry ministers that have laboured among you, shake off the dust of their feet, as a witness against you?* may they not shake their garments, and say, "Your blood be upon your own heads; we are clean ?" Nay, the heavens shall reveal your iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against you. The rust of your 66 gold and silver, for which you exchanged your souls, shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire." The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. And (if I may use the bold figure of Joshua, in the conclusion of his last address) behold these pews, these pillars, and this pulpit, shall be a witness against you; for they have beard all the words of the Lord; therefore these shall be a witness against you, if you forsake the Lord your God. My brethren, I hope I can say, I discharge those duties of my office, which belong to the present state, with some degree of cheerfulness among you. But there is an office, which some of you, I am afraid, will oblige me to perform, at the tribunal of the supreme Judge, the very prospect of which may make me shudder; and that is, to be a swift witness against you. All this praying, and hearing, and baptising, and communicating, will not be forgotten, as soon as performed: no; the matter will have a re-hearing in the other world. And oh! endeavour, my dear people, endeavour so to improve my labours among you, that I may give in my testimony with joy. Let me read the apostle's advice in this case :¶ "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves : for they watch for your souls-as they that must give account : that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you." Matt. x. 14. † Acts xviii. 6. + Job xx. 27. Heb. xiii. 17. |