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waited until the found a convenient time; renewed the attempt, and fucceeded. The great enemy of man, who inftigated this murderefs and rendered her fuccefsful, is ever on the watch to betray you. He is waiting for the hour, when you shall no longer be on your guard; or when you fhall have grieved by a recent offence the Spirit of God; or when a concurrence of enfnaring circumftances fhall heighten the allurements of fin. The birth-day of Herod fhall arrive. Thy heart shall be opened to enticement. The year fhall not revolve without bringing the convenient time. Mirth fhall render thee thoughtless: or forrow fhall bow thee to defpondence. Pride fhall inflate thee with confidence or floth fhall indifpofe thee to exertion. Then shall the temptation present itself afresh perhaps in its original garb; or, if need be, in colours more attractive. What I fay unto you, I fay unto all; Watch. Refit the devil; and he will flee from you. Be not high-minded; but fear. Let him that thinketh be ftandeth, take heed left he fall. Strive to enter in at the ftrait gate. Strive against fin: ftrive according to His working, which worketh in you mightily. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you (d).

(d) Mark, xiii. 37. James, iv. 7, 8. Romans, xi. zc. 1 Cor. *. 12. Luke, xiii. 24. Hebr. xii. 14. Col. i. 29.

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4. Let me in the next place advert to a confideration, which, however it may in fome measure have been implied in the preceding remarks, requires, on account of its high importance, to be expreísly ftated by itfelf. It is this: 'that nothing short of a fettled determination to labour to avoid all fin, joined with conftant application to God, through Chrift, for the influence of his fanctifying Spirit, can authorife you to hope that you shall preserve for a fingle hour a confcience void of offence. Nothing fhort of this determination is religion. If you refuse to furrender yourself wholly to God; you are a rebel. If you refufe the unqualified furrender of yourself to Him, and profefs to be religious; you are an hypocrite. The dominion of the entire heart, the fovereignty of the whole foul, the poffeffion of the affections in a measure so predominant that your tendereft feelings for the earthly objects which you hold most dear deferve, when placed in comparison with your love to God. and your Redeemer, the denomination of hatred (e): this is the homage required from the difciple of Chrift. Herod feared John and obferved him; and when he beard him, be did many things, and beard him gladly! But he retained his brother's wife. Is there an (e) Luke, xiv. 26. John, xii. 25.

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Herodias whom thou wilt not put away? Is there fome fenfual gratification, which thou wilt not abandon? Is there fome unlawful gain which thou wilt not renounce? Is there ridicule which thou wilt not encounter? Is there hardthip which thou wilt not fuftain? Thy pleasure, thine intereft, thy reputation, thine ease, thou loveft more than thou loveft Chrift. Why boafteft thou of thy partial obedience? Of what avail are thy regular devotions, thy kindness to thy friends, thy liberality to the poor, thy usefulness to fociety? Thy heart is unfound. Before God thou art a rebel and an hypocrite. What is thy language to thy Saviour?" Behold these subor"dinate indulgences, which at thy command 66 I disclaim. Be contented with the facri"fice. Expect not the furrender of my "favourite object. Thou didst lay down thy, "life for my fake but I will not relinquish "this fin for thine." Sayeft thou thus to thy Saviourgis and calleft thou thyfelf his disciple? long

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The propenfity of the heart to felf-delufion exceeds all previous computations. Man is continually devifing by all conceivable methods to afcribe merit to himfelf: and at the very time when he confeffes that he is regularly proceeding in fome wicked line of conduct, is

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prone to value himself highly for having refrained from a more flagrant tranfgreffion, It is not in the leaft improbable that Herod, confcious as he was that he most unjustly detained John the Baptist in prison, applauded himself with complacency, and affumed in his. own eftimation great credit for virtue, because he had withstood the folicitations of Herodias for his death. Have you not also, while aware than you have lived under the habitual influence of fome unchriftian temper, in the habitual indulgence of fome unchriftian practice; have not you also been proudly congratulating yourself on your good-, nefs, because you have abftained from other crimes to which you were tempted? Have not you been fatisfying yourself for yielding to the one temptation, by reminding your confcience that you did not yield to the other? Have not you hankered after a compromise with divine juftice; and meditated with complacent felf-righteousness the production of a balance of imaginary merit to countervail the penalty of guilt? Thus faith the Lord of Hofts; Confider your ways (f). How long fhall a deceived heart turn thee afide (g)? How long fhall it be ere thou knoweft that thou art wretched and miferable and poor and blind and

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(f) Haggai, i. 5. (g) Ifaiah, xliv. 20.

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naked (b)? How long shall it be ere thou underftandeft the curfe of the law; Curfed is every one who continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them (i)?

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If example can affect you, look to that of Herod. Behold in him an illuftration of the confequences entailed on perfeverance in a fingle fin. In him behold a picture of that abandoned depravity, of which perfeverance a fingle fin is naturally the forerunner. To all the evils which Herod had done we have feen him adding yet this above all, that he Shut up John in prifon (k). We have feen him farther advanced in the road to deftruction, and taking away the Baptift's life. We have ftill to behold him furpaffing all his former guilt. Behold him, a worthy defcendent of his Father, plotting the death of the Saviour of the world (/). Behold this murderer, when the Saviour of the world was delivered into his power by the Romans, triumphing over his captive with ftudied bitterness of infult; expofing him to the brutal fcoffs of the foldiery; mocking him, and setting him at nought; and finally fending him back to the Roman governor arrayed in a gorgeous robe, intended at once to throw derifion upon his claim to be the Meffiah, (b) Rev. iii. 17. (i) Gal. iii. 10. (k) Luke, iii. 19, 20. (1) Luke, xiii. 31, 32.

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