as though the creature had a right- to overwhelmed. think against the Creator.

Let any sober and candid

Unbelief, or the rejection of the Son of God, is more inexcusable now, in professed Christians, than it was in the Jews who persecuted and nailed him to the cross; for then he appeared as "a man of sorrows," in a form so humble as to disap

inquirer only read such writers as Paley, If these negative positions be once ad- Leslie, Berkeley, Fuller, Chalmers, and mitted, what becomes of the authority- others, with that attention which the imthe doctrines-the promises the admo- mense importance the inquiry demands nitions the denunciations, and all the-on whatever side the truth may liesanctions of the word of God? Moses and we safely leave him to form his own and the prophets, Jesus Christ and his judgment. No man ever seriously sat apostles, were all impostors, and Chris- down to investigate the evidences of tianity itself is a cunningly or a clumsily Christianity, with any degree of attention, devised fable. And yet these infidel senti- or with but a moderate share of candour, ments, or sentiments like these, are che-without rising from the investigation with rished by many who speak favourably of the full conviction of its divine origin; Christianity-who attend places of Chris- and no man ever yet rejected the gospel tian worship, both within and without the who had not a wicked reason for it, pale of the Established Church, and who which in the judgment of the Searcher of would feel themselves insulted and scan- hearts is worthy of everlasting condemnadalized if they were charged with infi- tion; and thus fully justifying the awful delity yet the charge is too just; infidelity sanctions by which its claims are guarded is marked upon their brow, intermingled and enforced: "He that believeth not with their intellectual system, and oozing shall be damned;"" He that believeth up in their language and conversation not is condemned already, and the wrath in their habits and in their conduct; they of God abideth on him.” may be orthodox in their head, but they are infidels at heart. And when we consider St. Paul's definition of the faith which hath the promise of eternal life, as made in the eleventh chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews-that faith is the demonstration of things not seen, and the sub-point all the expectations-the fond exstantial impress of the truth and of the reality of things hoped for-for it renders distant and invisible things as really influential upon the heart and conduct as though they were present and visible; when we consider the effects of this holy principle, as exemplified in the ancient church, and described by the apostle in a subsequent part of the chapter;—and, finally, when we compare these effects with the present state of things, either in the church or in the world, we may well ask, if the Son of man should even now come, would he find faith on the earth? Alas! alas! we have not faith even as a grain of mustard seed. Your infidelity is absolutely inexcusable. All its strongest" made unto them of wisdom, righteousarguments and its impertinent cavils have been fairly and triumphantly refuted, on the arena of controversy; and all its insidious sophistries have been detected and exposed, beyond all recovery, a thousand times; and all its advocates, of every class have been baffled, confounded, and

pectations they had long cherished of the temporal grandeur of the Messiah. With regard to the multitude, and even the heads, of that nation, what they did against the Lord Jesus was merely the result of ignorance. "For if they had known it, (says the apostle,) they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Their ignorance, indeed, was wilful; they shut their eyes, they closed their ears, they hardened their hearts; for this reason, their unbelief was inexcusable; and, therefore, wrath came upon them to the uttermost. But unbelievers in the present day—that is, all who do not receive the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God,

ness, sanctification, and redemption," reject him in his glory and majesty, though exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour; and many who deny the Christian faith do it wilfully, against the rational conviction that he is both Lord and Christ. Inexcusable, then, is their

unbelief, and fearful will be their con- |struction of Jerusalem; and the great obdemnation.

ject of the inspired author is to illustrate Nor has the avowed infidel, who scorns the malignant nature, and ruinous tenthe very profession of the Christian name, dency, of unbelief, either in an individual the least shadow of apology for his unbe- or in a nation; and thus to warn his counlief or his conduct: for, not to mention trymen of the calamity with which they the internal evidences of Christianity- were going to be visited for their rejection bearing the seal of divine authority im- of the Son of God. The Hebrews propressed on every page he has not only fessing Christianity, to whom it was adthe most unquestionable testimony of the dressed, and for whom it was immediately truth of what is revealed in the gospel intended, were violently attached to the history, but innumerable proofs, strong ceremonial law. Whilst some of them and incontrovertible, which could not be regarded it as eternally binding on the known to those who believed on Christ church, because of its divine appointwhen he was in the world; such, for ex-ment, others pressed the observance of it ample, as arise from the literal accom- as necessary to justification and salvation. plishment of many illustrious prophecies They were, therefore, in imminent danger in the propagation of the gospel through of apostasy from the faith, and acting in the whole extent of the Roman world by disobedience to the Lord Jesus, in those the feeblest instrumentality-in opposi- days of vengeance which were near aption to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the proaching, by remaining at Jerusalem for eye, and all the inveterate prejudices of the sake of the temple service, when the the human heart-in opposition to all the city should be invaded by the Roman learning, and philosophy, and genius of army, instead of fleeing to the mountains the Augustan age-in opposition to the for safety in obedience to their Lord's persecution of kings and emperors, and command. The design of the apostle, their armies and that, too, with a ra- therefore, is to warn them of this danger, pidity never before or since exemplified and the final consequences of unbelief and in any conquest attended with the con- apostasy from their profession, and of any fused noise of the warrior, and of gar- overt acts in disobedience to the Son of ments rolled in blood; in the unparalleled God. And how did he do this? He did calamities that befell the Jewish nation at it by various arguments drawn from the the last siege of Jerusalem; in their dis-superiority of the gospel to the legal dispersion among all nations, and their mira-pensation; from the divine majesty of the culous preservation to this day as a distinct people from all the nations among whom they are scattered; in the partition of the old Roman empire into ten kingdoms; and, finally, in the rise and progress, and the begun overthrow of papal superstition, and Mohammedan delusion. The infidel has either examined these evidences of the truth of our holy religion, or he has not. If he has not, he is inexcusable for his negligence; if he has, his obstinacy can be resolved only into the enmity of the carnal mind against God: and, in either case, his unbelief is inexcusable, and his condemnation will be tremendous.

From the inexcusableness of infidelity, mark, in the next place, its fearful malignity. The epistle to the Hebrews was written only a few years before the de

Founder of Christianity-as the brightness of the Father's glory, the Creator and Preserver of the universe-the Lord of angels, and the object of their worship; from his ineffable condescension and love in assuming the nature of man, that in that nature he might make reconciliation for man's iniquities-from the dignity of his mediatorial character, as the great prophet of the church by whom God hath spoken to us in the latter days; as the King of Zion, the sceptre of whose kingdom is a right sceptre, and whose throne shall stand for ever-and as the Highpriest of our profession, a priest consecrated for ever after the order of Melchizedec; from his superiority to Moses, Joshua, and every other heavenly messenger, however exalted, whether human or divine; and, especially, from the tran

hearken to him who spake on earth, (allud ing to the promulgation of the law from mount Sinai,) how shall ye escape, if ye refuse to hearken to him who now speak

earth, (at the delivery of the law,) but who hath now declared, I shake not the earth only, but heaven also, (the political heaven of the Jewish nation.) If they who despised the law of Moses, died without mercy, before two or three witnesses, of how much sorer punishment shall ye be thought worthy who have trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and do despite to the Spirit of grace." This is the guilt involved in unbelief. Again, we know who hath said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." And again, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." And again, it is written, "the Lord shall judge his people."

Brethren, this interesting epistle was the last alarm rung in the ears of the Jewish nation by an offended and departing God, before he poured out his wrath in the destruction of their city and temple

scendant superiority of his priesthood to that of Aaron, and his successors in office; and on this branch of the subject, he leads them amongst the altars, priests, sacrifices, and ritual observances, of that mag-eth from heaven: whose voice shook the nificent dispensation, which he shows was preparatory only to a more glorious dispensation. This short statement contains, in fact, an epitome of the whole of that wonderful epistle, and upon these arguments, the apostle proceeds to illustrate the horrid nature and the damning consequences of unbelief, whether in an individual, or in a nation. Now, in the guilt of this fearful sin, Great Britain is deeply involved. Her guilt, in this respect, has been accumulating for upwards of a thousand years. Upon the same argument he founds the following admonitory exhortations, which are equally applicable to us-which apply with as much force to us as they did to the Jewish nation. Hear them; they are the practical part of the epistle to the Hebrews, of which Luther said, "It is of as much importance to the church, as the sun in the heavens is to the whole world—the world could do as well without the sun as the church of Christ without the epistle to the Hebrews." "Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard, lest, at any time, we should let them slip. If the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every trans-habitants of the British empire! gression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? -which, at the first, began to be spoken by the Lord himself, and was afterwards confirmed unto us by signs and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." You remember that the vials of wrath were then about to be poured out on Jerusalem. "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, lest he swear in his wrath that ye shall not enter into rest; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you, an evil heart of unbelief in apostatizing from the living God. If they escaped not who refused to

the last voice of departing yet lingering mercy, before he closed the gates of salvation against them. May this loud alarm be heard, and this tender, perhaps the last tender of mercy, be received by the in

Every blessing that God bestows upon man or upon a nation involves a degree of responsibility in exact proportion to its magnitude. Let us, then, upon this principle, examine the degree of guilt contracted by this nation. Long has Britain enjoyed the light of the gospel-the richest boon the God of heaven ever bestowed upon a nation. Long has she been favoured with the visible protection of a national providence, and with a series of wonderful and remarkable interpositions of the Divine favour. Witness the early introduction of the gospel to our forefathers in the apostolic age, and, probably, by an apostolic minister. Witness the number of burning and shining lights which burned and shone in Britain, even during the darkest ages of popery. Witness our early separation-such as it was

-from the church of Rome. Witness on the Gentiles when God shall visit the defeat of the Spanish Armada, effect- them for the sin for which Jerusalem was ed not by human agency, but almost en- overthrown! tirely by the winds, and elements of nature. Witness our deliverance, in a subsequent reign, from the attempts of a gloomy tyrant to enslave both body and mind, at the glorious revolution of 1680 -a revolution brought to pass without the hazard of a single battle, and almost without the shedding of a drop of blood. Witness the declaration of rights and the act of settlement, in which our liberties were for the first time enrolled in a charter, and stand, as we fondly hope, on an everlasting foundation. These are bright pages in the annals of our country, on which our forefathers wept with fond enthusiasm, and of which they often spoke with exultation and joy as they were accustomed to bring out their massive family plate on great festive occasions. But the formation of Bible and Missionary Societies was reserved by the peculiar care of Providence, according to prophetical intimations, for these latter days, to adorn the concluding part of the reign of George the Third. If unto whomsoever much is given of them much will be required-if the guilt of sin be aggravated in proportion to the number and the magnitude of the mercies that have been received and abused, Britain has reason to dread the full weight of God's indignation. She is deeply involved in the guilt of those nations who refuse to kiss the sceptre of Messiah the Prince, and which he will break in pieces with a rod of iron like a potter's vessel-in the guilt of those nations who refuse to believe the gospel of Christ, and who shall be destroyed with an everlasting destruction, when he shall be revealed with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance; and if the sufferings inflicted on the Jewish nation -the seed of Abraham, the friend of God, and "still beloved (as the apostle tells us) for the Father's sake" which is never said of the Gentiles-in their last contest with the Romans, and especially in the last siege of their capital, were so terrible as to make the ears of all them that heard it tingle, how tremendous may we not fear will be the calamities inflicted

Like Jerusalem, only a few years before the cup of trembling and death was put into her hand, Britain has been highly honoured in sending forth her missionaries to preach the gospel as a witness to all nations; but, like Jerusalem, too, she has rejected the only sacrifice, refused to hearken to him that spake from heaven, neglected the great salvation, trodden under foot the Son of God, counted the blood of the sacrifice as a common thing, and done despite to the Spirit of grace, and thus incurred severer punishment than the despiser of the law of Moses, who died without mercy. Great indeed have been her privileges, and great and manifold are the grounds of the Lord's controversy with her. While empires and continents, dense with population, into which her adventurous sons have penetrated in commercial enterprise, have been involved in moral darkness more palpable than that which Egypt once felt, the glorious light of the gospel has been shining upon her coasts, through the clouds of her iniquities, in noon-day brightness. But, oh! how aggravated has been the criminality of those who, amidst the glorious shining around them, wilfully shut their eyes against the heavenly light! Oh, what a weight of guilt has been thus contracted! On what national grounds, then, can we hope that the cup of trembling shall not be put into our hands, when we are so expressly told by the God of heaven that all the kingdoms of the world that are upon the face of the earth shall be made to drink of it? “Ye shall certainly drink of it, as I live, saith the Lord of Hosts." And will not the justice of God be vindicated in the infliction of his righteous judgments upon this guilty nation? Yes, verily! Our contempt of his authority, in not hearkening to the qualifications which his word requires from those who are intrusted with the administration of our public affairs, and the sceptical indifference of our rulers in the regulation of their decisions according to the rules and precepts laid down in the Holy Scriptures, and in sub

serviency to the glory of God, bear witness we drink of the cup of God's wrath, against us. The groans of our oppressed which shall be filled to the brim, when countrymen the magnitude of our na- great Babylon comes up in remembrance tional debt, principally contracted in fight- before God. ing the battles of popery-the groans of But it is not merely on the ground of our oppressed and enslaved colonial po- the guilt of our national policy that the pulation, whose united cries have entered justice of God will vindicate its honours the ear of the Lord God of Sabaoth, bear in the infliction of these awful judgments. witness against us. The guilt of our The corruptions of society in general are colonial system, and the obscenity of idola-alarming in the extreme. Moral disease tries and the unnumbered murders com- of a deadly dangerous nature has overmitted in India, under the visible protec-spread the land. Witness the chicanery tion of the British government, bear of the law-the frauds and impositions in witness against us. The incalculable every branch of trade, and the aggravamultitudes of human beings whom we tion of our commercial iniquity as conhave butchered for the gratification of our nected with the colonial system. Because ambition, and the extension of our domi- of swearing, profligacy, drunkenness, and nions; in connexion with the corruption Sabbath-breaking, the land mourneth. of our hierarchy-the myriads of immor- Impurity and prostitution, perhaps accele tal souls sinking into perdition, through rated by the Malthusian theory of poputhe unfaithfulness of ungodly men ap- lation, and by the sophistries of political pointed to the ministry for worldly and economists, have awfully increased, and political purposes, bear witness against are still increasing. Infidelity, worldly us. The reign of Antichrist herself, for mindedness, hypocrisy, fanaticism, phariwhose re-establishment we lavished blood saicism, antinomianism, licentiousness, and treasure, again admitted to national and a false liberality-ever ready to sacountenance, bears witness against a land crifice the authority of revelation at the which early among the nations escaped shrine of human reason-indicate too from her pollution and thraldom, and clearly that the power of vital religion has which early testified against her domina- obviously declined, and impurity seems tion, her blasphemies, and her usurpa- coming in like a flood. Where is that tion. Where is now the zeal which once deep penitent spirit, that holy zeal for characterized our opposition to her who Christ, that entire separation from the hath so often dyed her garments in the world, and the dread of its spirit and blood of God's dear saints? Where is maxims, lest the heart should not be right that purity from her contamination by with God, which so eminently distinwhich we were distinguished among the guished our holy men in former times? nations? Where is that holy zeal that glowed in the bosom of Cranmer, Latimer, Bradford, and others, amidst the flames of Smithfield? Where is that tender affection which a grateful nation once cherished to the memory of those martyred heroes, to whom she owes all her civil and religious liberty? While these things have been forgotten by the multitude as a vision of the night, the government has been employing the energies of all Europe in support of the power which brought them to the stake.

The more intimate our connexion with that power the more deeply we are infected with that infidelity with which she is tainted to the core-the more deeply shall

In the Established Church the clergy are quibbling about tithes with their parishioners, and the parishioners with their clergy. The property of the church is assailed on every hand with a violence and a perseverance, and is defended by the clergy with a tenacity and a vigour, unknown in former ages; and the whole establishment seems to be reeling to its fall. In the dissenting interest many congregations are dissatisfied with their pastors, and pastors with their congregations. Multitudes of churches are destitute of pastors, and multitudes of pastors are destitute of churches; and, through the whole dissenting interest, there seems a general movement from one end of the