vant and perhaps dismisses him for a single failure in duty. If he be deceived and defrauded by a neighbour, he will withdraw his favours from him; and perhaps prosecute a thief even unto death, for the loss of a few shillings. A gentleman who piques himself upon his nice sense of honour, will probably kill his friend in a duel to obtain satisfaction and yet, O strange inconsistence! these very persons will deny that the God of infinite justice means to take any notice of the numberless offences they have committed again him for many years together.

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In human governments, when there is a conspiracy against the king or the state, the culprits are diligently sought for, and when convicted, are punished with exemplary severity; and it is necessary it should be so : but is rebellion against heaven the only innocent rebellion; it is a crime of the greatest magnitude to aim at dethroning an earthly monarch, and is it no harm to live a life of open rebellion against God; violating his laws, opposing his authority, submitting to another prince, and, as far as the sinner can, aiming to dethrone the eternal majesty ?

The rebellion of a child against a parent is still more vile, as in the case of Absalom, who would have dethroned and murdered his indulgent father David. But this is a crime justly chargeable upon every sinner. Hearken to the indictment in the words of God himself. "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! for the Lord hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me!" This crime, I say, is justly chargeable on each of us; we have united the ingratitude of an undutiful child with the rebellion of a wicked subject; we have despised the laws of God; (some have taken pains to prove they are not his laws, but all fables and forgeries ;) we have denied that God requires any submission: we have obeyed another prince, an usurper, even "the prince of the power of the air, which now worketh in the hearts of the children of disobedience."

And shall we yet say, what harm have I done? We have insulted the God of heaven: we have abused his justice, as if he would not punish sin; we have abused his power, as if he could not punish it; we have abused his omniscience, as if he did not see our sin; we have abused

his truth, as if he would belie himself; and we have abused his patience, which has borne so long with us; and shall we abuse him still further, by saying that all the following threatenings mean nothing at all?

Observe what he says. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezek. xviii. 4.) "The wicked shall be turned into hell." (Psalm, ix. 17.) "Sin, when it is finished brings forth death." (James i. 15.) "Fear him, who is able to cast both body and soul into hell;-Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." (Matt. x. 28.) "Every transgression and disobedience receiveth a just recompence of reward." (Heb. ii. 2.) "He will render indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil. (Rom. ii. 8, 9.) Now, are all these dreadful threatenings nothing? Do they not prove that sin is certainly ruinous to the souls of men?

But as general threatenings do not affect so much as those particular ones which are denounced against particular sins, observe the following. What saith the holy God against the unclean sinner?" Whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge," (Heb. xiii. 4.) and again, "Whoso committeth adultery destroyeth his own soul." (Prov. vi. 32.) What saith God to the drunkard? "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? They that tarry long at the wine, &c.-at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." (Prov. xxiii. 32.) What saith he to the swearer? "God will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." (Exod. xx. 7.) The like may be said of every one who lives in any other known sin; they are ruining themselves-they are heaping up wrath against the day of wrath, like a man building a pile on which to burn himself to death; every time a man commits a new sin, he is bringing another faggot to enlarge the heap and increase the flame.

Sin has already ruined its thousands, and its millions. When sin got into heaven, it ruined multitudes of the angels, and pulled them down from their thrones into endless perdition. Sin ruined our first parents, and dragged them out of paradise into a wilderness of woe. Sin ruined the world of the ungodly, and brought a destructive deluge of wrath upon them all. Sin ruined Sodom and

VOL. II.

Gomorrah, and brought down showers of fire and brimstone upon them. Sin ruined the nation of Israel, by bringing Philistines and Assyrians upon them; and when they filled up the measure of their iniquity by the murder of the Son of God, it completely ruined them, both in church and state, and dispersed them among all nations, a standing monument of the ruinous nature of sin!

And, O! could we draw aside the veil, which conceals from our view the dire abode of damned spirits, where God's mercies are clean gone, and he will be favourable no more, what a terrific proof should we have of the truth of our text; one and all would say, "We are filled with the fruit of our own ways; we are reaping the wages of our own sins; O mortals, sin is indeed a ruinous thing!"

say,

Yes! while we are sitting here at our ease, and calmly contemplating the evil of sin, they are shrieking aloud with insufferable torture: living, ever-living witnesses of its awful evil. Methinks I hear one of them « Ah, indeed; sin has proved my ruin. Sabbath-breaking ruined me. I indulged my sloth-I kept open my shop for the paltry gain of a few shillings-I would have my pleasant walks and rides, and company-I deserted the house of God, neglected the salvation of my soul; and now I am ruined for ever.

Another cries, "Sensuality has destroyed me. My heart was full of uncleanness. I doted on the embraces of an harlot. I sacrificed, for the delights of a moment, the pleasures of an eternal world; and find by woeful experience, that "her house is the way to death, her steps take hold on hell?”

Methinks the doleful lamentation of a third is to this effect. "I was a lover of that wretched world. Gold was my god. I would be rich at all events. I would have customers, and friends, and business, at any rate; I succeeded. I got a good trade, but I lost a good God. I got friends, but made Christ my enemy. I obtained money, but ruined my soul !" O sirs! there is not a miserable man or woman in hell who does not say “ Sin has been my ruin !”

Well then will you take warning by their ruin, so as to avoid the same? Has not sin ruined souls enough al

ready? Must you, who know all this, be added to the dreadful number? God forbid! O that there were an heart in you to say-" I see, I plainly see, that sin is a ruinous thing. It is of God's infinite mercy that it has not destroyed me long ago; and now I desire to forsake it : I desire to fly from the wrath to come; but whither must I fly? What must I do to escape this threatening ruin?" To answer this important inquiry shall be our next business; for we proposed to show, in the second place, that,

2. The Gospel directs us how to avoid the impending ruin.

I say The Gospel directs how to avoid it; and nothing but the Gospel can do this. The light of nature could never have informed us upon what terms an offended God would be merciful, or whether he would be merciful at all. The law of God can do us good only by convincing and alarming our consciences, and exciting in us an earnest desire to flee from approaching wrath. But in this most interesting concern, the Gospel of Christ offers us the fullest satisfaction; and tells us, in three words, what must be done, that iniquity may not prove our ruin. We must “believe”—We must "repent"—We must "lead a new life."

1. We shall begin with "faith" faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. It was thus that St. Paul began with the trembling jailor at Philippi; when, apprehensive of immediate ruin, he cried aloud, in the consternation of his soul-" What must I do to be saved?" The servant of God directed his views to the only refuge for a sinner, even to Jesus, that benevolent friend of sinners, who came to "seek and to save that which was lost."

It was to prevent our everlasting ruin that God sent his Son into the world; it was, "that they who believe in him, should not perish," as they must have done without him, "but have everlasting life."

Turn your eyes then to Jesus! see him descending from the bright abode of glory; making himself of no reputation; taking upon himself the form of a servant; being made in the likeness of men: see him humbling him

self, and becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross! Think of the poverty, the pain, the sorrow, the contempt, he bore on earth. Behold him in the garden of Gethsemane, lying on the cold ground: pouring out strong cries and tears; and, in the inconceivable agony of his oppressed soul, sweating great drops of blood! Follow the patient sufferer to the unjust tribunals of Caiaphas, Herod and Pilate; falsely accused by his malicious enemies, abandoned by his dearest friends, and sentenced to an ignominious punishment! "Behold the man!" crowned with piercing thorns, and torn with cruel scourges. See him bearing the heavy cross along the dolorous way, to the place of common execution. See him stript in the sight of a barbarous multitude; stretched as on a rack; affixed to the cross with spikes; and lifted up, a piteous spectacle, the object of public scorn and derision! Observe the ghastly paleness of death overspreading his sacred face. He dies! the friend of sinners dies! but not till he cried aloud-" It is finished!" Yes, "he finished transgression, made an end of sins, and brought in everlasting right

eousness.'

You then, who desire that sin may not be your ruin, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." Believe that "he is able to save to the uttermost;" able to save you; "His blood cleanseth from all sin ;" and saves from ruin every helpless creature that comes to him for life. Come to him then as your Saviour. Cast your soul upon him; "so iniquity shall not be your

ruin.'

2. Repentance is, throughout the Scriptures, always represented as necessary to salvation; not, indeed, as the meritorious cause or condition of pardon; but as that disposition of mind which becomes a guilty sinner; which gives glory to God, and renders the deliverance from ruin unspeakably suitable and precious. Indeed, "repentance is a tear dropped from the eye of faith ;" and who can behold the Saviour bleeding and dying for him, without confessing, lamenting, and forsaking the sins which occasioned his death?

Repentance is that reasonable service, to which the Lord 3, in our text, exhorting the children of Israel: "Repent,