II. Inquire wherein that readiness consists: III. Propose some arguments which prove the necessity of our being always ready.

And, whilst I endeavour to discourse on these subjects, may the Lord impress all our minds with deep solemnity; present eternal things to our view in their certainty, nearness, and importance; enable us rightly to understand and willingly to entertain the instruction contained in these words; and to speak and hear, as if from this sermon we expected an immediate summons to meet our Judge!

I. Let us consider the event for which we are exhorted to be ready.

And here our subject necessarily leads us to consider our situation in this world. Before an audience assembled to worship God and hear his word, many things may be assumed as truths, which in some places might require, and would easily admit of, abundant proof. The first principle of all our religious inquiries is the existence of one God; who is infinite in greatness, majesty, glory, and excellence; the everlasting, self-existent, and universal creator and upholder of all things; worthy of all possible love, worship, honour and submission; "whose is the kingdom, and the

power, and the glory, for ever: Amen!" His creatures we are: "from him we have life, and "breath, and all things;" "and in him we live, " and move, and have our being." Constituted diverse from, and superior to, all the other inhabitants of this lower world, we are evidently intended for other and nobler purposes than they. Being capable of the knowledge of God, and of understanding our relations and obligations unto

him; of perceiving the glory of his perfections, as reflected from all his works; of discerning between moral good and evil; and of performing a reasonable and voluntary service; we appear designed expressly for the exercise of religion, and to perform that worship and service to our Maker and Benefactor, of which he is so worthy, and to which he hath so just a claim. We alone are able to understand and to be governed by a law; to be influenced by motives, and actuated by hopes and fears of future consequences: and therefore we alone of all creatures here below are accountable to our Maker for our conduct.

These things are, indeed, the probable deductions of reason: but they stand not on that basis divine revelation confirms the conclusions of our understanding, and with authority also demands our belief of the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, a future judgment, and an eternal state of retributions; in which the whole man, both body and soul, shall enjoy the most exquisite felicity, or endure the most intense and inexpressible misery for ever, "according to "the things done in the body, whether they be "good or evil."

But this is not all. We are not only rational and accountable creatures, and in a future state designed for immortal existence: we are also fallen and sinful creatures. Our great Creator, Governor, and Judge hath given us a perfect law, reasonable, equitable, and good in all its requirements; immortal life and felicity are in it promised to him who yields obedience; an awful curse is pronounced against every transgressor. "By this law is the

"knowledge of sin." Every deviation from its perfection, whether by omission or commission, by excess or deficiency, is sin: and "the wages of sin "is death." Love of God with all our powers, and love of all men as ourselves, form the substance of this law; which, excellent and lovely as it is, shuts all men up under condemnation. For, being thus "spiritual," and having respect as much to the affections, imaginations, and intentions of the heart, as to the words of the tongue, or actions of the life, it condemns ten thousand things which we naturally should not esteem deserving of condemnation. Thus our Lord pronounces causeless anger and malice to be an infringement of the sixth commandment; and lewd imaginations, desires, and intentions, to be adultery in the sight of God. And "he that keepeth the whole law, and offendeth "in one point, is guilty of all :" for, like other laws, it condemns a man for one transgression: nor can it be pleaded in arrest of judgment, that we never broke the law before, nor ever intend to break it again; or that, though we have committed adultery, we never committed theft or murder. Such pleas would not avail us before man's tribunal, nor will they at the bar of God.

From mount Sinai the Lord himself delivered this law, in ten commandments, with every circumstance of terror, which could express the wretched condition of mankind as sinners under its condemnation; and warn them to flee from the wrath to come, to the salvation of the gospel, held forth to the Israelites by bloody sacrifices, and divers puri

'Avola, 1 John iii. 4.

fications. These very commandments have now in the name and presence, and by the authority of God, been pronounced in your hearing: upon your bended knees, as transgressors, you have supplicated mercy and, as prone to transgress, have besought the Lord to incline your hearts to keep' each precept, and 'to write them all in your hearts.' I trust this is not with all of you a mere form, but that you are deeply convinced that such is your character and situation: yet with too many this is all a solemn mockery; and they have neither in their judgment of themselves correspondent sentiments, nor in their hearts suitable affections.

But, would you seriously compare your whole temper and conduct; your thoughts, words, and actions; your pursuits and pleasures; your behaviour to God and man; the government of your appetites and passions; your manner of spending your time and substance; the use you have made of your abilities and influence in times past, and are making of them at present: would you, I say, compare these things impartially with this holy law of God, after mature reflection you could not deny that you have broken every one of the ten commandments. We have broken the first commandment by idolizing ourselves and the world; by proud self-admiration; and by supremely valuing, pursuing, and delighting in earthly things. We have broken the second by mean unworthy thoughts of God, neglecting his instituted worship, and preferring our own or other human inventions the third by irreligion and profaneness, and irreverence to the sacred name of our God: the fourth by neglecting to keep holy the Lord's

day, and actually profaning it in worldly employments, trifling engagements, or carnal indulgences: and all the rest by misbehaving ourselves in relative life; being injurious to the persons, connexions, property, or characters of our neighbours; by covetous, sensual, ambitious, revengeful imaginations, wishes, purposes, conversation, and behaviour. Thus, without supposing you guilty of any gross and scandalous wickedness, (which nevertheless, I fear many of you have been and are,) let your own consciences determine whether I have not proved you and myself guilty of transgressing all the ten commandments, and under the condemnation of the whole law.

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On this account death reigns and triumphs.

By one man sin entered into the world, and "death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, "for that all have sinned." Death is no debt of nature, as some affect to call it, but a debt to divine justice. A public execution implies previous condemnation and criminality. Having sinned, we are condemned. Hear the sentence, "Dust thou "art, and to dust thou shalt return." Death is the execution of that sentence. Nothing, but the hatred which a God of holiness bears to sin, could induce him to destroy the admirable work of his own hands; for, in the energetic language of the Holy Spirit "it repenteth him that he hath made man."

Many crimes injurious to society are thought deserving of an ignominious and violent death, which is all the punishment that man can inflict: having "killed the body, he hath no more that he "can do." But what are all the little concerns of men, compared with the glory of God and the