fubjects, of foldiers, of fervants, of children, you confefs to be entirely reasonable. It is the rule by which men rightly judge one concerning another. It is likewife the general rule of Holy Writ. It is the rule which God established in the Old Teftament. Read the twenty-feventh chapter of the book of Deuteronomy; and you will perceive that for each of the feparate crimes there specified the curfe of God is pronounced to be due. It is the rule by which St. Paul avers no less clearly than St. James, that God will judge every one of us. Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, nor they who are guilty of uncleanness, or of lafciviousness, or of batred, or of variance, or of emulations, or of wrath, or of strife, or of seditions, or of berefies, or of envy, or of murder, or of revellings, or of fuch things, of any fuch fin, of any of the works of the flesh, fhall inherit the kingdom of God (c). Mark the words of the Apoftle. He does not fay that the man who is guilty of all these fins, or the man who is guilty of most of these fins, or the man who is guilty of feveral of (c) 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Gal. v. 19-21.

:

thefe fins, fhall not inherit the kingdom of God. He exprefsly affirms that the man who is guilty of any one of these fins fhall not inherit the kingdom of God. Not but that perfons who have lived in one or even in many of thefe enormities may yet be faved. Repentance is offered to them by their Redeemer: and if, turning to the grace which is fet before them, they truly repent, and continue ftedfaft in holinefs, they fhall obtain eternal life. Let the wicked man forfake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him turn unto the Lord, for He will have mercy upon bim; and unto our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Then however long they had walked, however deeply they had funk, -even in the worst of the enormities recently enumerated by St. Paul; yet now, like his penitent Corinthians who formerly were fuch, they are washed, they are fan&tified, they are juftified in the name of the Lord Jefus and by the Spirit of our God (d). But if a man refolutely perfifts in any one of his finful ways, affuredly he fhall perish. Why? Because, defpifing the first and great commandment, he loves not God with all his heart. Because his heart is not right (d) 2 Cor. vi. 11,

with God. In fome refpects he obeys God but in one point he will not obey him. As though by keeping fome of the commandments he could purchase a license to break others! As though, by withholding fubmiffion from God with regard to one branch of his law, he did not deny his univerfal fovereignty! As though by perfevering in one favourite fin he did not thew his love for that fin to be greater than for God! As though by obftinately preferring his own will to the precepts of the Gofpel he did not prove that he was bent on living unto himself, not unto Chrift! Jefus Chrift gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity. If there be any iniquity whatever which we will not renounce for the fake of Chrift; we cannot be his difciples, we are not partakers of his redemption.

If the rule then, my brethren, which the Apostle delivers in the text, be in itself completely reafonable; if it be conformable to the principles of equity by which you daily decide concerning men; if it be not peculiar to St. James, but upheld by the uniform tenor of the word of God: receive it as an infallible criterion of your spiritual. prospects. Try by this standard the grounds

of

of your hope that you are in a state of salvation. Fix not your thoughts on those portions of your conduct which you efteem

the faireft. Look alfo to the duties which you neglect, to the tranfgreffions in which you wilfully indulge. Say not; "I know "that I reverence God, becaufe I do many things for his fake." Afk yourself whether it be your defire, and your aim, to do all things for his fake. If there be any practice which you pertinaciously hold faft in oppofition to his revealed will; you deny his authority, you reverence him not. Say not; "I am confident that I am re

ligious and shall inherit the kingdom of "Chrift; because I am not unchafte, nor a 66 thief, nor a drunkard, nor a reveller, nor "heretical, nor feditious." Examine whether you are not covetous. If you are pure from covetoufnefs; fearch whether you are nót addicted to envy. If neither covetous nor envious; are you not a reviler? If clear from these fins; do not you cherish hatred? Proceed in this method through that catalogue of fins which St. Paul has

displayed before

you:

from that catalogue

purfue your enquiry through the other heads of offences, to which by his concluding general expreffion he refers you:

and

and learn whether there be not fome one - habitual fin, which you obftinately cherish. If that be the cafe; believe the word of God, believe the folemn and repeated declarations of the Holy Ghoft, that this very fin, unless through the divine grace, which awaits your prayers, it be abandoned, will caft you into hell. Hear St. James illuftrating by a specific example, the import of his doctrine. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart; that man's religion is vain. The man who bridleth not his tongue, however religious he may in other refpects appear, is not religious: he may perfuade himself that he is religious, but he deceiveth his own heart: his reli

gion may be outwardly fpecious and impofing, but it is not religion; it is a hollow, empty, unsubstantial appearance, a vain, delufive, unprofitable fhadow. His unbridled tongue fhall be his destruction. Shall his unbridled tongue deftroy his foul, even though in many points he acts in conformity to the precepts of religion? Affuredly. By refusing to curb his tongue he proves that very conformity not to flow from religion. Were his obedience in other points genuine, it would not be limited to

them.