continually falling away from Chrift; either totally, fo as to walk no more with him; or partially, fo as greatly to difhonour his name. Alas, how many characters of this defcription are to be found in our congregations! If we only review the progrefs of things for twenty or thirty years paft, we fhall perceive many who once bid fair for the kingdom of heaven now fallen a prey to the temptations of the world. Like the bloffoms in the fpring, they for a time excited our hopes: but a blight has fucceeded: the bloffom has gone up as the duft, and the root in many cafes appears to be rottenness.

If

It is one important branch of the work of a faithful paftor to strengthen the difeafed, to heal the fick, to bind up the broken, to bring again that which is driven away, and to feek that which is loft.* thefe pages might fall into the hands of but a few of the above defcription and contribute in any degree to their recovery from the fnare of the devil, the writer will be amply rewarded. It is a pleasure to recover

* Ezek. xxxiv. 4.

any finner from the error of his way; but much more thofe of whom we once thought favourably. The place which they formerly occupied in our efteem, our hopes, and our focial exercifes, now feems to be a kind of chaẩm, which can only be filled up by the return of the party. If a child depart from his father's houfe, and plunge into profligacy and ruin, the father may have other children, and may love them; but none of them can heal his wound, nor any thing fatisfy him, but the return of him who was loft.

In pursuit of this defirable object, I fhall defcribe the nature and different fpecies of backfliding from God-Notice the fymptoms of it-Trace its injurious and dangerous effects-And point out the means of recovery.

ON THE GENERAL NATURE AND DIFFER

ENT SPECIES OF BACKSLIDING.

All backfliding from God originates in a departure of heart from him: herein confifts the effence and the evil of it. Thine

wwen wickedness fhall correct thee, and thy backflidings fhall reprove thee: know, therefore, and fee, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that THOU HAST FORSAKEN THE LORD THY GOD, and that my fear is not in thee, faith the Lord of hofts. * But the degrees of this fin, and the modes in which it operates, are various.

The backfliding of fome is total.-After having made a profeffion of the true religion, they apoftatize from it. I am aware it is common to confider a backflider as being a good man, though in a bad state of mind: but the fcriptures do not confine the term to this application. Those who are addreffed in the paffage juft quoted, had not the fear of God in them, which can never be faid of a good man. Backfliding, it is true, always fuppofes a profeffion of 'the true religion; but it does not neceffarily fuppofe the existence of the thing profeffed. There is a PERPETUAL backfliding, and a drawing back UNTO PERDITION. † Such characters were Saul, and Ahitophel, and Judas. Many perfons who have in a

* Jer. ii. 19. Ch. viii. 5. Heb. x. 39.

great degree declined the practice of religion, yet comfort themselves with an idea that they fhall be brought to repentance before they die: but this is prefumptuously tempting God. Whofoever plunges into this gulph, or continues eafy in it, under an idea of being recovered by repentance, may find himself mistaken. Both Peter and Judas went in; but only one of them came out! There is reafon to fear that thousands of profeffors are now lifting up their eyes in torment, who in this world. reckoned themfelves good men; who confidered their fins as pardonable errors, and laid their accounts with being brought to repentance: but, ere they were aware, the bridegroom came, and they were not ready to meet him!

The nature and deadly tendency of fin is the fame in itfelf, whether in a wicked or in a righteous man: there is an important difference however between the backfliding of the one, and that of the other. That of the hypocrite arifes from his having no root in himfelf: therefore it is that in time of temptation he falleth

away: but that of the fincere chriftian refpects the culture of the branch, and is owing to unwatchfulness, or remiffness in duty. The firft, in turning back, returns to a courfe which his heart always preferred: the laft, though in what he does he is not abfolutely involuntary, for then it were innocent; yet it is not with a full or perfect confent of will. He does not fin wilfully: that which he does he allows not : it is against the habitual difpofition of his foul: he is not himfelf, as we should fay, while fo acting.* Finally, the one, were it not for the remorfe of confcience which may continue to haunt him, and difturb hist peace, would be in his element in having

* It is usual to denominate a character by his habitual or ruling disposition, and not by occasional deviations from it. Thus when we hear of him who was famed for meckness, speaking unadvisedly with his lips, we say this was not Moses; or of him who was distinguished by his courageous avowal of his Lord, denying with oaths that he knew him, we say this was not Peter. Both these great characters in these instances acted beside themselves: It was not them, as it were, but sin that dwelt in them. See Heb. x. 26. Rom. vii. 15-25.