die." "The Lord is righteous in all his ways." It shall not be said, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set. on edge but every one shall die for his own iniquity." They that cause each other to sin shall be punished together and endure mutual upbraidings in hell. This part of the subject suggests,

4. A most important hint to liars and defrauders of every kind. How many persons are there, who, in different forms, are acting over again the crime of Ananias and Sapphira; instigated by hypocrisy, covetousness, and a worldly mind, to affront an omniscient God, and encroach upon the sacred bounds of truth and righteousness. Now, "all things come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath:" he that indulges in lying, as he that feareth a lie. But this punishment of Ananias and Sapphira furnishes a dreadful warning of what God has in store for all such hereafter. he shall come, he will be a swift witness against them; and "who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?" Who can bear his exposure of all the secret fraud and guile and deceit and falsehood,

When

transacted among men? If for one deliberate lie he struck Ananias and Sapphira dead, what will become of those who habitually live in deceit, who have been guilty of thousands of lies, who are uttering falsehoods every day of their lives, and who, to answer a worldly end and accomplish their purposes of gain, scruple not to say any thing, to assume any disguise, or to practice any deceit? Let them read the story of Ananias and Sapphira, and tremble!--Let us proceed to notice,

FIFTHLY, The effect this awful event produced upon others." Great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things." It caused people to reverence the omniscience and the power of God, and to dread the thought of making a profession of Christianity and of joining the Christian cause from worldly ends and motives; and it led those who had already avowed their attachment to the Christian faith, to examine their own hearts, and to scrutinize their principles and motives. From this, we learn,

1. The intention of the divine judgments.Fury is not in God: he does not passionately punish his creatures: his design is to make them monumental warnings, that others may

"hear and fear." And perhaps hell itself, with its miserable inhabitants, may be a standing warning to the universe for ever, of the misery of sin and the danger of affronting the almighty God. Again: We learn,

2. How God can bring good out of evil.-The event itself was awful and terrifying, but in its consequences wise and gracious. It was the means of restraining the hypocritical, of alarming the dubious, and of exciting self-examination and watchfulness in real Christians, and so of preserving the sacred cause of Christianity from disgrace and reproach. We learn,

3. The use we should make of the judgments of God against sinners. We should not rejoice over sinners, nor harshly censure them, nor interpret every thing against them in the most rigid sense possible: but "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." O let me steer clear of the rock against which they split, and be so much the more earnest in offering up such prayers as these: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." "Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil," "Order my steps in thy word,

and let not any iniquity have dominion over me." "Remove from me the way of lying." "Let my heart be sound in thy statutes.' "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not." Amen.

THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN INTERCOURSE.

SERMON XIV.

ACTS XXVIII. 15.

WHOM WHEN PAUL SAW, HE THANKED GOD, AND TOOK COURAGE.

THESE words express the effect which the sight of the Roman Christians, and their friendship and attention, had upon the Apostle Paul, in his way to Rome. He admired the grace of God, which had formed so many Christian characters. He adored the goodness of God which had touched their hearts with so much affection towards himself. He felt as if new life and spirit were put into him, and quite a revival of strength and courage to go through the trials which he had in prospect.

Now, I think this circumstance capable of being applied to general purposes of spiritual improvement. It suggests to us, That the best