"in his sin he shall die," Rom. xii. 20. Rev. iii. 11. and Ezek. xviii. 24. From these scriptures, such a christian as I have described will not infer consequences against the certainty of his salvation; but consequences directly contrary; and there is a degree of perfection which enables a christian soldier, even in spite of some momentary repulses in war, to sing this triumphant song, "Who shall separate me "from the love of Christ? In all things, I am more "than conqueror, through him that loved me! Thanks "be unto God, who always causeth me to triumph in "Christ!" Rom. viii. 35. 37. and 2 Cor. ii. 14.

O! how amiable, my brethren, is christianity! How proportional to the wants of men! O! how delightful to recollect its comfortable doctrines, in those sad moments, in which sin appears, after we have fallen into it, in all its blackness and horror! How delightful to recollect its comfortable doctrines in those distressing periods, in which a guilty conscience driveth us to the verge of hell, holdeth us on the brink of the precipice, and obligeth us to hear those terrifying exclamations which arise from the bottom of the abyss: "The fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, whoremongers, and all liars, shall have their

part in the lake which burneth with fire and brim"stone!" Rev. xxi. 8. How happy then to be able to say, I have sinned indeed! I have repeatedly committed the crimes which plunge men into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone! I have repeatedly been fearful and unclean! Perhaps I may be so again! Perhaps I may forget all the resolutions I have made to devote myself for ever to God! Per

haps I may violate my solemn oaths to my sovereign Lord! Perhaps I may again deny my Redeemer! Perhaps, should I be again tried with the sight of scaffolds and stakes, I might again say, I know not the man! But yet, I know I love him! Nothing, I am sure, will ever be able to eradicate my love to him! I know, if I love him, it is because he first loved me, 1 John iv. 19.; and I know, that he, having loved his own who are in the world, loved them unto the end, John xiii. 1.

O my God! What would become of us without a religion that preached such comfortable truths to us? Let us devote ourselves for ever to this religion, my brethren. The more it strengthens us against the horrors which sin inspires, the more let us endeavour to surmount them by resisting sin. May you be adorned with these holy dispositions, my brethren! May you be admitted to the eternal pleasures which they procure, and may each of you be able to apply to himself the declaration of Jesus Christ to St. Peter, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, who is in heaven. God grant you these blessings! To him be honour and glory for ever. Amen.

SERMON V.

The little Success of Christ's Ministry.

ROMANS X. 21.

All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

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THE object that St. Paul presents to our view in the text, makes very different impressions on the mind, according to the different sides on which it is viewed. If we consider it in itself, it is a prodigy, a prodigy which confounds reason, and shakes faith. Yes, when we read the history of Christ's ministry; when the truth of the narrations of the Evangelists is proved beyond a doubt; when we transport ourselves back to the primitive ages of the church, and see, with our own eyes, the virtues, and the miracles, of Jesus Christ; we cannot believe that the Holy Spirit put the words of the text into the mouth of the Saviour of the world: All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. It should seem, if Jesus Christ had displayed so many virtues, and operated so many miracles, there could not have been one infidel; not one Jew, who could have refused to embrace christianity, nor one libertine, who could have refused to have become a good man: one would think, all the synagogue

must have fallen at the foot of Jesus Christ, and have desired an admission into his church.

But when, after we have considered the unsuccessfulness of Christ's ministry in itself, we consider it in relation to the ordinary conduct of mankind, we find nothing striking, nothing astonishing, nothing contrary to the common course of events. An obstinate resistance of the strongest motives, the tenderest invitations, interests the most important, and demonstrations the most evident, is not, we perceive, an unheard-of thing: and, instead of breaking out into vain exclamations, and crying, O times! O manners! We say with the wise man, That which is done, is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun, Eccl. i. 9.

I have insensibly laid out, my brethren, the plan of this discourse. I design, first, to shew you the unsuccessfulness of Christ's ministry as a prodigy, as an eternal opprobrium to the nation in which he exercised it. And I intend, secondly, to remove your astonishment, after I have excited it; and, by making a few reflections on you yourselves, to produce in you a conviction, yea, perhaps a preservation, of a certain uniformity of corruption, which we cannot help attributing to all places, and to all times.

O God! by my description of the infidelity of the ancient Jews to-day, confirm us in the faith! May the portraits of the depravity of our times, which I shall be obliged to exhibit to this people, in order to verify the sacred history of the past, inspire us with as much contrition on account of our own disorders, as astonishment at the disorders of the rest of man