F are deftitute of the love of God? There are few indeed but pretend to be lovers of God, but their love has not the infeparable properties of that facred paffion. Their pretence to it is an abfurdity, and if put into language, would be fuch jargon as this, Lord, I love thee above all things, though I hardly ever affectionately think of thee; I love thee above all, though I am not careful to please thee; I love thee above all, though my conduct towards thee is quite the reverse of what it is towards one I love.' Will fuch an inconfiftency as this pafs for genuine fupreme love to God, when it will not pafs for common friendship among men? No, fuch have not the leaft fpark of that heavenly fire in their breafts, for their carnal mind is enmity against God. And are these likely to be faved? likely to be admitted into the region of love, where there is not one cold or disloyal heart? likely to be happy in the presence and service of that God to whom they are difaffected? Alas! no. Where then shall they appear? O! in what forlorn, remote region of eternal exile from the bleffed God! I fhall now conclude with a few reflections. 1. You may hence fee the work of falvation is not that easy, trifling thing which many take it to be. They seem mighty cautious of laying out too much pains upon it; and they cannot bear that people fhould make fuch ado, and keep fuch a ftir and noise about it. * For their part, they hope to go to heaven as well as the best of them, without all this precifenefs and upon these principles they act. They think they can never be too much in earnest, or too laborious in the pursuit of earthly things; but religion is a matter by the by with them; only the business of an hour once a week. But have these learned their religion from Chrift the founder of it, or from his apostles, whom he appointed teachers of it? No, they have formed * I here affect this low ftile on purpose, to represent more exactly the fentiments of fuch careless finners in their own usual language. formed fome eafy fyftem from their own imaginations fuited to their depraved taste, indulgent to their floth and carnality, and favourable to their lufts; and this they call christianity. But you have feen this is not the religion of the Bible: this is not the way to life laid out by God, but it is the smooth downward road to destruction. Therefore, 2. Examine yourselves to which clafs you belong, whether to that of the righteous, who fhall be faved, though with difficulty, or to that of the ungodly and the finner, who must appear in a very different fituation. To determine this important inquiry, recollect the fundry parts of the righteous man's character which I have briefly defcribed, and fee whether they belong to you. Do you carefully abftain from vice and immorality? Do you make confcience of every duty of religion? Have you ever been born again of God, and made more than externally religious? Are fenfible of the difficulties in your way from Satan, the world, and the flefh? And do you exert yourfelves as in a field of battle or in a race? Do you work out your falvation with fear and trembling, and prefs into the kingdom of God? Are you true believers, penitents, and lovers of God? Are these or the contrary the conftituents of your habitual character? I pray you make an impartial trial, for much depends upon it. you 3. If this be your habitual character, be of good. cheer for you fhall be faved, though with difficulty. Be not difcouraged when you fall into fiery trials, for they are no ftrange things in the present state. All that have walked in the fame narrow road before you have met with them, but now they are fafe arrived in their eternal home. Let your dependance upon the aids of divine grace to bear you through, and you will overcome at laft. But, be 4. If your character be that of the ungodly and the finner, pause and think, where fhall you appear at laft? When, like our deceased friend, you leave this VOL. II. mortal L mortal ftate, and launch into regions unknown, where will you then appear ? Muft it not be in the region of fin, which is your element now? in the fociety of the devils, whom you resemble in temper and imitate in conduct? among the trembling criminals at the left hand of the Judge, where the ungodly and finners fhall all be crowded? If you continue fuch as you now are, have you any reason at all to hope for a more favourable doom? I fhall conclude with a reflection to exemplify the context in another view, and that is, "If judgment begin at the houfe of God, what fhall be the end of them that obey not the gospel? If the righteous, the favourites of heaven, fuffer fo much in this world, what fhall finners, with whom God is angry every day, and who are veffels of wrath fitted for deftruction, what fhall they fuffer in the eternal world, the proper place for rewards and punishments, and where an equitable Providence deals with every man according to his works? If the children are chastised with various calamities, and even die in common with the reft of mankind, what fhall be the doom of enemies and rebels? If those meet with so many difficulties in the purfuit of falvation, what fhall these fuffer in enduring damnation? If the infernal powers are permitted to worry Chrift's fheep, how will they rend and tear the wicked as their proper prey? O that you may in this your day know the things that belong to your peace, before they are for ever hid from your eyes. Luke xix. 42. SERMON SERMON XXIII. INDIFFERENCE TO LIFE URGED, FROM ITS SHORTNESS AND VANITY.* 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30, 31. But this I fay, brethren, that the time is fhort: it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they poffeffed not; and they that use this world, as not abufing it for the fafhion of this world paffeth away. A Creature treading every moment upon the flippery brink of the grave, and ready every moment to fhoot the gulph of eternity, and launch away to fome unknown coaft, ought to ftand always in the pofture of ferious expectation; ought every day to be in his own mind taking leave of this world, breaking off the connections of his heart from it, and preparing for his laft remove into that world in which he muft refide, not for a few months or years as in this, but through a boundless everlasting duration. Such a fituation requires habitual conftant thoughtfulness, abftraction from the world, and ferious preparation for death and eternity. But when we are called, as we frequently are, to perform the laft fad offices to our friends and neighbours who have taken their flight a little before us; when the folemn pomp and horrors of death ftrike our fenfes, then certainly it becomes us to be unusually thoughtful and ferious. Dying beds, the laft ftruggles and groans of diffolving nature, pale, cold, ghaftly corpfes, "The * This fermon is dated, at Mr. Thompson's Funeral, February 16, 1759. "The knell, the fhroud, the mattock, and the grave; "The deep damp vault, the darkness, and the worm;" these are very alarming monitors of our own mortality: these outpreach the loudeft preacher; and they muft be deaf and fenfelefs rocks, and not men, who do not hear and feel their voice. Among the numberlefs inftances of the divine skill in bringing good out of evil this is one, that paft generations have fickened and died to warn their fucceffors. One here and there alfo is fingled out of our neighbourhood or families, and made an example, a memento mori, to us that furvive, to roufe us out of our ftupid fleep, to give us the fignal of the approach of the last enemy, Death, to constrain us to let go our eager grafp of this vain world, and fet us upon looking out and preparing for another. And may I hope my hearers are come here to-day determined to make this improvement of this melancholy occafion, and to gain this great advantage from our lofs? To this I call you as with a voice from the grave; and therefore be that hath ears let him hear. One great reafon of mens exceffive attachment to the present state, and their ftupid neglect to the concerns of eternity, is their forming too high an eftimate of the affairs of time in comparison with those of eternity. While the important realities of the eternal world are out of view, unthought of, and difregarded, as, alas! they generally are by the most of mankind, what mighty things in their efteem are the relations, the joys and forrows, the poffeffions and bereavements, the acquifitions and purfuits of this life? What airs of importance do they put on in their view? How do they engrofs their anxious thoughts and cares, and exhauft their strength and fpirits? To be happy, to be rich, to be great and honourable, to enjoy your fill of pleasure in this world, is not this a great matter, the main intereft with many of you? is not this the object of your ambition, your eager defire and laborious purfuit? But to confume away your |