Does conscience, on this examination, testify in your favour? Can you justly conclude, on the grounds adduced, that you love Christ? Take to yourselves the full comfort which this conclusion warrants. Is Christ your Beloved? Be assured that he is also your Friend. Be assured that he is a Friend cordially attached to your interests: your all-powerful, your unchangeable Friend: a Friend who will never leave you nor forsake you: who, at those seasons in which you most need a friend, in the time of adversity, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgement, by his presence, his consolations, and his support, will manifest the strength and tenderness of his affection for you. Confide in such a Friend with full assurance of faith. Rejoice in such a Friend with full assurance of hope. Dismiss every fear dishonourable to him, injurious to yourself. Live upon his fullness. Go on your way rejoicing. The day is fast approaching when He whom your soul loveth shall no longer be hidden from your sight. Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him. In that day you shall lift up your heads with joy. With transport you shall welcome the glorious appearing of your great God and Saviour.-Lo, this is our God: we have waited for him, and he will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; we will be glad and rejoice in his salva

tion*. You shall then see him as he is, your Beloved and your Friend. Friend.

You shall enter into his joy. You shall be ever with the Lord, and shall behold his glory.

But are there not some whose consciences testify against them? Some, whose hearts plainly bear witness to them, that they love not Christ? They have another Beloved. Some earthly idol is the object of their affections. Other Lords have dominion over them. They love sin. They love the world. They love the flesh. My brethren, in what language shall I address you? You esteem it a light thing to withhold your heart from Christ. Not to love him cannot, in your estimation, be accounted sinful. But you are grossly deceived.. Is it no sin not to love him who so pre-eminently deserves your love? Is it no sin not to love him who loved you, and gave himself for you? If it be no sin not to love Christ, whence proceeds that prophetical imprecation of the apostle, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha, accursed, when our Lord shall come to judgement?*

View the subject in another light. If Christ be not your Beloved, he is not your Friend. Can any of the objects which you

* Isaiah, xxv. 9.

+ Cor. xvi. 22.

are preferring to him, supply the want of such a Friend? At present perhaps you despise his friendship. Every thing smiles around you. Prosperity crowns your worldly affairs. Health and strength are yours. But will these things be always so? Will your mountain never be removed? The next moment may crumble it to atoms. Adversity may rapidly undermine every foundation on which you are now confiding. Death must finally overturn them all. What in those seasons will you think of Christ? What will you then give for such a Friend?

But adversity may not come to warn you. Death may sweep you away without affording any time for reflection. Conscience may sleep on this side of the grave. Carry then your thoughts forward to that aweful day, in which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth. In that day you shall hear the voice of Christ. You shall see him coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. But how will you abide the day of his coming? How will you stand, when he appeareth? When dragged before his dread tribunal, in what language will you express the horrors of your mind? "Hast thou found us, O, our enemy ? "This is He whom we refused to love. This "is He whose friendship we rejected. Rocks,

fall on us. Mountains, cover us; shield us "from the wrath of the Lamb. O that we "had been wise, that we had considered our " latter end!" Such will be your helpless consternation, such your ineffectual wishes in that great and terrible day of the Lord. May the anticipation of this dreadful scene now produce its proper effect upon you! May it lead you now to seek Christ for your Friend! At present he waiteth to be gracious. He extends to you the golden sceptre of his love. He invites you to come unto him for pardon, peace, and holiness. And the spirit and the bride say come. And let him that heareth say come. And let him that is athirst And whosoever will, let him take of

come.

the water of life freely *.

* Rev. xxii. 17.

SERMON XIII.

THE SIN AND DANGER OF NEGLECTING THE GREAT SALVATION OF THE GOSPEL.

HEBREWS, II. 3.

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great Salvation?

CONTEMPLATED in every point of view, the Salvation proclaimed in the Gospel is a great Salvation. Whether we look at the source from which it originates, or at the objects to whom it is extended; at the depth of misery from which it proposes to deliver mankind, or at the height of glory to which it promises to exalt them; at the long train of prophecies by which it was introduced, or at the stupendous display of miracles, by which it was established; we cannot but be deeply impressed with a conviction of its magnitude and importance. There is one circumstance, however, which wonderfully augments these impressions, the unparalleled excellence and dig