will cruelly begin to devour any fallen and helpless animal which they can find, disregarding its feeble struggles, and the breath of life which has not left it; in like manner, numbers of the human race are daily seized, and sorely handled, by their besetting sins, and kept hold of by them even unto destruction, notwithstanding some better sentiments and desires, because they do not attend sufficiently to the good Shepherd, and use the proper means to attract His aid. Let no man, then, trust in his own spirit, and in the little life (scarcely at the best deserving to be called life) which it may be still retaining, as if that shall save him from the incursions of the destroyer. On the contrary, let every person, who hath once stumbled and fallen, know, that he can never recover himself, and defy his enemies, except by calling to the Saviour of the flock for His timely interference and succour. him that is down entreat-Raise Thou me up, and him that standeth-Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe; and let all souls depend without ceasing on His Spirit, to keep them from those that seek their hurt, in passing through the present evil world. So, may you confidently hope to be always preserved, and to be made joyful at the last in His salvation. It is not indeed to be disguised, that you must

P

Let

needs die, and be turned to corruption in the grave; such is the universal lot, which none can by any means escape. Yet, if there be a man who will firmly join himself unto Christ through faith, and will humbly follow, and be led by the Spirit which He imparts, his flesh may surely rest in hope. He shall not be of the number of those, who perish like beasts, and "lie in the hell like sheep, with death gnaw

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ing upon them." But in his dying hour, with whatever terrible circumstances it may come upon him, he will be able to comfort himself with remembering, “I know that my Re"deemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the “ latter day upon the earth : and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my "flesh shall I see God. I shall awake up after "his likeness, incorruptible, and be satisfied "with it more and more." (Job xix. 25, 26. Psalm xvii. 15.)

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SERMON XXI.

1 PETER iv. 18.

If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

THE Epistle from which these words are taken, appears, by the general tone and matter of it, to have been written under an apprehension of great dangers and perplexities at hand. There is much in it about impending trials, and many arguments to prepare the scattered strangers, unto whom it is addressed, for a patient endurance of the things which were foreseen to be coming upon them. They were probably inclined to suppose, that, because of their Christian profession, the Almighty would exempt them from any share in the approaching calamities. Instead, however, of permitting them to cherish so unwarrantable a notion, St. Peter urges various considerations, derived from the example of Christ in the flesh, to put them upon arming themselves with a mind like unto His, of patience and submission under suffering wrongfully inflicted. He admonishes them on no account to deserve punishment as

evil doers; and then, so far from being confounded, or thinking it strange concerning the fiery trial that was about to try them, rather to rejoice in bearing the reproach of Christ, as trusting thus to become partakers of His joy, and to glorify God in the lot ordained for them by His Providence, which was more to be chosen than the best estate of their adversaries.

For," he goes on to say, " the time is come "that judgment must begin at the house (or

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church) of God: and if it first begin at us, "what shall the end be of them that obey not "the gospel of God? And if the righteous

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scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly “and the sinner appear? Wherefore, let them "that suffer according to the will of God, com"mit their souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator."

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Such, my brethren, is the connection, of the verse, which I have selected, with the chapter and Epistle in which it is to be found. It seems, in short, to have been originally uttered with a view to some special tribulation then at hand, and foreseen by the Apostle to be of a nature so extremely perilous, and destined at the first to fall so directly on Christ's disciples, that their case, in human opinion, should appear desperate, or hardly admitting any good deliverance. At the same time, however, the

passage proposed is one, which, after the above statement, may be considered, in a great measure, independently of the occasion which first suggested it. Unchangeable as God Himself, are the leading features of His dispensations to us ward. Down to the judgment of the great day, all His dealings with mankind are conducted upon the same broad plan, and brought to the same end. Hence, the question, or more properly the appeal to man's reason,-" If the "righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the

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ungodly and the sinner appear?"-must, while that day is yet to come, be always seasonable and in place. Nor were it easy to find another passage, adapted more strongly to impress men with a wholesome sense of danger, and to make them fully aware-both the righteous who may be growing negligent, and the wicked-of what is eventually in store for them. I design, accordingly, at this time, to hold it forth for the common admonition, giving you, first, to observe the fact which it implies, namely, that the righteous scarcely are saved; and, upon that, the fearful case of ungodly and sinful per

sons.

First, then; let me begin with explaining, what is clearly intimated by the words before us, that the righteous scarcely are saved in the days of vengeance and retribution;-how the