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grace, and who can obtain the grace that saveth no otherwise than by embracing the gospel.

That the ground of opposition, then, and the excuses resorted to, for the neglect of this manifestation of the love of GoD to a world of sinners, should be of the same character and description now as at the beginning, we are prepared to expect. And that they are scions from the same root of bitterness, the carnal mind, which is enm'ty against God, the terms in which the parable is framed put beyond all reasonable doubt.

A certain man made a great supper, and bade many : and sent his servant, at supper time, to say to them that were bidden, come, for all things are now ready; and they all, with one consent, began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it—I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought fire yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them-I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and, therefore, I cannot come.

Of the excuses themselves, then, we are instructed by the parable, that they are all of a worldly and sensual nature, that they are prompted by that inordinate preference of temporal advantages and delights, which constitutes the wisdom of the natural man, and that they amount to a wilful rejection of salvation.

The enemy of GOD and man finds his most powerful weapon against our souls, by presenting the riches and the pleasures, the enjoyments and the sufferings of the present life, under such an aspect as removes them altogether from their lawful and appointed use, and renders them sinful and destructive. Hence it is that he is called the god of this world, and the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, or unbelief; for GoD has neither left us in ignorance of the true and profitable use and improvement of our wordly condition, nor yet abridged us in the safe and lawful enjoyment of those blessings and comforts which his mercy hath bestowed on our unworthiness.

Farms and merchandise, and professions and occupations, in all their variety, are lawful in themselves, helpful to the accommodations of life, and necessary to maintain the state of the world; without them, mankind must have continued in a state of

ignorance and barbarism but little removed from the condition of the beasts that perish. They are, therefore, the appointment of God for the order and repose of social life; and, as such, cannot, in themselves, be in opposition to or inconsistent with any other of his appointments for the well-being of his creatures: but religion, or the occupation of preparing for and securing a state of happiness in the life that is to come, is equally, though in a higher sense, the appointment of GOD. Our worldly duties, therefore, so far as they are of God, can never be inconsistent with the duties of religion, nor form a justifiable excuse for the neglect of them. Whenever, therefore, they conflict with each other, that is, when our wordly interest or enjoyment comes in opposition to the interest of our souls, we are before-hand sure which is the good part which shall not be taken from us. By preferring our souls to the world, however flattering its promises or frightful its threatenings, we secure both present peace and everlasting reward; whereas, by yielding to the temptation, our gain, or advantage, or enjoyment, which ever it may be, even if we succeed, is but for a moment; for the few and uncertain years of the life that now is are loaded with the fearful apprehensions of an evil conscience, and will be met, on the threshhold of eternity, with the awful inquiry, What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

Unanswerable, however, as these truths are, and fully as they are responded to by the secret voice of every conscience, yet such is the power of inordinate affection, of the law in the members waring against the law of the mind, that the world, called Christian, is but one mournful display, that the things of the SPIRIT OF GOD are foolishness to the natural man. His preference is for the things that are seen, his dependence is upon the things which perish, his expectations are limited by time, his views of the future are dark and uneasy, yea, sometimes troublesome and painful; but they can be obscured or blotted out under the care of other things, and, while this can be done, he begs to be excused. He looks light in the face, the light of eternal life in the discovery of the gospel, and yet he prefers darkness; hence it is that worldly prosperity and worldly

engagement are both such enemies to the soul. Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called; called, indeed, they are, but they pray to be excused, and, therefore, the apostle expresses their refusal in a phraseology peculiar to the Scriptures. In like manner, they that will be rich, says the same apostle, they whose hearts are set upon a portion in this life, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition, so that if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost, through inordinate preference of temporal advantages and delights, or, as the same blessed apostle again expresses it, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of CHRIST, who is the image of GOD, should shine unto them. Hence we learn, my brethren, the wholesome but unpalatable lesson of the goodness, yea, even of the mercy of GOD, in those various visitations of his Providence whereby he blasts our fondest earthly hopes, strikes away our worldly props and defences, and thereby admonishes us to place our dependence on a more secure foundation, even on Him whose word shall endure when this world and all its glory shall be dissolved in the consuming fire of the second advent of him who once came to save and will again come to judge.

But what demonstrates more fully the madness of this propensity and leaves its entertainers without excuse, is, the just and obvious conclusion which the divine wisdom draws from such conduct. GOD having put forth the wonders of his love for our recovery from sin and eternal death, and invited us to return to his favour and everlasting life, through the merits and death of his only begotten Son, JESUS CHRIST, to reject the gospel, or, which is exactly the same thing in effect, to excuse ourselves from its requirements, is a wilful rejection of the means of grace, and, consequently, of salvation. I say unto you, says our LORD, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

I know, indeed, that it is not the deliberate purpose of those who thus trifle with eternity to embrace perdition; but as all are bound to consider impartially the grounds and arguments of revealed religion, as all can deduce this necessary consequence from the nature and express conditions of the gospel;

and as reason itself is competent to refute the most specious excuses on so tremendous an alternative as that of everlasting life or eternal death, put to the choice of accountable creatures; neglect of the gospel is justly considered and treated, by the Searcher of hearts, as the deliberate rejection of all that God hath done and CHRIST hath suffered for the salvation of sinners.

Now, my dear hearers, wherein do the excuses of the present day differ, either in their letter or their spirit, from those detailed in the parable? And wherefore shall not the same measure be meted to those who now slight the invitation of the gospel, as to those persons who first desired to be excused from accepting it? Yet to look around in the world, and consider the number and description of persons who make the lawful duties and occupations of the present life an excuse for overlooking the care of their immortal souls, one might suppose that some alteration had taken place in the counsels of heaven; or, that the love of the world and of the things that are therein had changed its character, and become the ready way to obtain the favour of GoD and the rewards of the life to come. For if we consider this subject with the care it deserves, we shall perceive that these excuses are not made by the poor and profligate, but by the more decent, orderly, and careful sort of people, by the men of wealth and substance, of name and note-the possessors of farms and teams, and of the means of sensual gratification. And it is not an unreasonable conclusion, that the parable was thus framed in order to present a more striking warning against this powerful, prominent, and destructive propensity of our fallen nature, to knock at the door of their hearts, who hear the word indeed, but suffer it to be choked and rendered unfruitful by the thorns and briars of worldly occupation and sensual delights. To show the wealthy and the prosperous, and the busy and the thoughtless, where their danger lies, and to set their calculations at work upon eternity.

The poor and the profligate have their excuses also against the gospel; but they are of a different character, and are equally provided against in that word which is able to make all sorts of sinners wise unto salvation. But as the main deceit of sin, as

the most present and powerful delusion of the devil, the love of the world, including the pleasures which the world can bestow, is chiefly dwelt upon, is placed in the front of our common danger, and the light of divine truth is thrown so clear and strong upon it, as to render excuse inexcusable. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with GOD? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of GOD. Yes, indeed, ye know it; but ye beg to be excused from taking heed either to the warning or the invitation. But let the world send forth its invitations, who, then, returns the contemptuous refusal? Alas! that even those who profess that they seek a better country, too often exercise their ingenuity in fashioning excuses, and are found sitting at meat in the idol's temple. And what is the result, the open unblushing result, in this Christian land? Full theatres, overflowing parties of pleasure, and empty churches; thousands squandered on folly, fashion, and sin, and the religion of the gospel, the science of salvation, turned over to the meagre support of the scraps and remnants which the full-fed world can spare from the table of its delights. O truth, where is thy force? O reason, where is thy power? O conscience, where is thy voice? O shame, where is thy blush?

II. Secondly, I am to show the unreasonableness and fallacy of these and all other excuses on this subject.

This you may say, my hearers, is needless-the point is selfevident; but if so, then surely their guilt is the greater, who thus say and do not. If ye were blind, said our LORD to the Pharisees, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, we see, therefore, your sin remaineth. Yet as we know from experience, that many are prejudiced against the gospel under the widespread delusion that a profession of religion is incompatible with the business of the world; to such it may be helpful, while to others it cannot be grievous, to show how utterly unfounded the notion is, and thereby manifest more clearly the folly and sinfulness of every objection to the only hope man is possessed of on this side the grave.

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