of

have you to do with the doctrine of election? Instead of troubling yourselves about a doctrine intended solely for the comfort of believers, labour for the meat that perisheth not; and endeavour to make your calling and election sure. You have heard what I have said concerning the doctrine of absolute reprobation; you may rest assured that God did not make man for the express purpose consigning him over to everlasting misery; he is a good God, a holy God, and a just God; God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all: this doctrine, therefore, cannot be true. You do not know then, that you may not be saved; but you cannot be saved in your sins; sin alone is the cause of condemnation. Up, and be doing. Sinners bad as you have been saved.

Why may not you? There is no reason for despair. Do all that you can. None who did all

that they could, ever missed of salvation. Strive to enter in at the strait gate; your striving may be the means of effect

ing that desirable end. But if ye will not do all that you can; if you will not accept the gracious invitations so mercifully offered to all; if you will love your sins, and continue in them; remember, "He that committeth sin is of the devil;" and that for the devil, and for all who die the children of such a father, everlasting fire is prepared, which no power will be able to quench, and from which no arm will be able to snatch you. O! believe, and live!

110

SERMON XXVIII.

1 TIMOTHY, V. 24, 25.

Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they Likewise also the good

follow after.

works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.

THIS is a very important portion of God's word; and profitable, both for rebuke and correction, for encouragement and consolation. To some it may serve as a glass, in which they may view their de formity, and thereby be led to correct their lives; to others it may serve to manifest the grace of God by which they have been called out of darkness into marvellous light, and to cause them to look forward with joy and delight to the

awful day of judgment, when a just and holy God will give unto them according. to their works.

i

"The sins of some men are open be-. forehand." Their wickedness is so apparent, that none can fail to see and observe it. All the world who know them, must know that they lead most shameful and abominable lives. Their actions are so barefaced and unconcealed, that the most superficial observer cannot be blind to them. Nor can any, who repose implicit confidence in the word of God,. as to what he has declared concerning a future state of final retribution, be in, doubt with respect to their ultimate condition, when the throne shall be set and the books be opened. "Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before them to judgment." Such, I think,; without doubt, is the general language; spoken in the first clause of our text. And is it not, let me ask sinners of all descriptions, the language of stern rebuke? Does it not speak in a tone of censure,

too loud to be unheard or silenced, without adding a tenfold condemnation to all to whom it is addressed? It is the misfortune attending all those who lead unholy and wicked lives, to stop their ears against denunciations of this sort; although they are scattered throughout the sacred writings of God's most holy book, for the express purpose of showing them their danger, in order that they may flee from it, and turn to God in righteousness and true holiness. Men must be convinced, and most forcibly too, by the Spirit of God, of their sinfulness, and of the everlasting misery attendant upon sin in the eternal world, before they can cry aloud unto God for a new heart and a new spirit. Men must be fully persuaded of the value of their immortal souls, before they can take any sincere and earnest methods to save them. The all-important question of our Lord, when he asks, "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul, and what