ftinacy in wickedness. Ten years ago, it was much more likely, in human view, that you would have been converted ere now, than it now is, that you will be converted in ten years to come. In fhort, the only ground of hope concerning you, is not at all from the appearance of things in human view, but merely from the free and fovereign grace of God. I may fay of your falvation, what Chrift faid of the falvation of the rich, with men that is impoffible: that is, according to the ordinary way of judging among men, who can judge only by appearances, and who count thofe things likely or unlikely, poffible or impoffible, which feem to be fo in their own nature: according to this rule of judging, there is no reafon at all to hope for it: it is quite defperate. But with God all things are poffible: he can and fometimes does, act contrary to appearances and the natural tendency of things; and aftonishes his creatures with unexpected and furprizing wonders. Thus, veteran, obftinate finners! he may yet deal with fome of you. Omnipotence may yet take you in hand, difarm all your refiftance, and caufe you to feel those admonitions you have made light of. This, perhaps, God may do. But O! it is an anxious, dreadful peradventure; for you must know, though he fometimes fingles out an hardened finner of your clafs here and there, to make him the illuftrious trophy of the power of his grace, yet this is not his ufual way he does not commonly work upon fuch rough, unfuitable materials. He generally pitches upon the young and pliable, upon thofe that have not been long inured to the gofpel, nor hardened in fin. Therefore, even this, which is your only ground of hope, can afford you but a trembling, anxious hope. Notwithstanding this, you have reafon to fear that you will die as you have hitherto lived, hardy, refolute, incorrigible finners. And if fo, you know your dreadful end; you fhall fuddenly be destroyed; your stiff neck shall be unexpectedly broken; and there will be no help, no remedy.

And

And if you are indeed in fo much danger, will you 'not now lay it to heart, and endeavour to escape while you may? Alas! fhall this admonition alfo, this admonition for your difregarding all paft admonitions, be loft upon you like the reft? O! will you not at length take warning, before it is too late? Perhaps the voice that now warns you, may not long found in your ears. But O! let me find this day, that thofe whom I have reproved in vain for fo many years, regard me at laft, and fubmit and yield, Then, and not till then, you will be fafe from the vengeance denounced in this alarming proverb, He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, fhall fuddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

SERMON XLI.

THE NATURE OF LOOKING TO CHRIST OPENED AND

EXPLAINED.

ISAIAH XlV. 22. Look unto me, and be ye faved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none elfe.

I

T is the peculiar fin and unhappiness of the chriftianized world, that, while they profefs and fpeculatively believe Jefus to be the Meffiah, the Saviour of finners; and while they harbour fome kind of high efteem for him as a Benefactor that appeared upon earth about 1700 years ago, who should be ftill remembered with gratitude, yet that they are not deeply fenfible of that intimate, perfonal concern which degenerate finners have with him in every age. They do not make that eager, importunate, affectionate application to him, which his character requires

requires as the Saviour of guilty men. Divine juftice indeed was fatisfied, the demands of the law were anfwered by the obedience and fufferings of our divine Redeemer long before we came into existence, and God became reconcileable to a guilty world. But all this alone does not infure our falvation. Redemption muft not only be purchased, but applied; and though it was purchased without our concurrence, yet all mankind, in all ages, are concerned in the application of it. There was no need of the gospel and its ordinances to procure it; but all these are neceffary, and therefore appointed for our obtaining an actual intereft in it. Hence Chrift, as an almighty Saviour, is exhibited, and the bleffings of his purchase are of fered in the gospel; and all that hear the gracious propofal are invited to entertain this Saviour with fuitable difpofitions, and to consent to the terms on which thefe bleffings are offered, upon the penalty of everlasting damnation. Our perfonal confent is required as much in this age as when the gofpel was first published to the world; and it is this which is folicited by all the means of grace; it is to gain your confent to this gracious propofal, that the gofpel is ftill continued among you. It is for this we preach; for this you should hear, and perform every other duty; for this the Lord's Supper in particular was inftituted, and has been to-day administered among you. It is to melt your hearts, and engage your affections to a dying Saviour, that he is represented both in words and in speaking actions, in all the agonies of Gethsemane, and in all the tortures of Calvary.

But though these affecting means have been used from age to age, yet, alas! they have not had the intended effect upon multitudes. They act like a fick perfon infatuated with the imagination that the mere grateful remembrance of Galen or Hippocrates, or fome other eminent physician of paft ages, will be fufficient for his recovery, without following their prescriptions,

prescriptions, or making a speedy application to a living phyfician now: whereas there is as much reafon why we in this age fhould be pricked to the heart, and cry out, What shall we do to be faved? as there was for St. Peter's hearers. Acts ii. 37, 38. There is as much reafon to exhort unregenerate finners now to repent and be converted, as there was to exhort the impenitent Jews to it. There is as much cause to direct and perfuade men now to believe in the Lord Jefus Chrift, as the heathen jailor, who had been an infidel. Acts xvi. 31. It is true indeed, when we now exhort men to believe in Chrift, we cannot include all the ideas in it which were included in this exhortation when addreffed to infidel Jews and heathens in the apoftolic age; for then it included, that they should renounce their former religion, and affent to this important truth, That Jefus is the Meffiah, and take upon them the profeffion of christianity; and this is rendered in general, I hope, needlefs in our land, as we have been initiated into this perfuafion by our education and other means. But, my brethren, all this is far fhort of that consent which we muft yield to the gofpel, if we expect to be faved by it. This faith is not that living faith which we are called to act upon the Redeemer; and we must give him another kind of reception than multitudes do, who thus believe his diviné miffion, and profefs his religion. We must have thofe affectionate difpofitions and vigorous exercifes of heart towards him, which become guilty, perifhing finners towards an almighty and gracious Saviour, who deferves and therefore demands our fupreme affection, our humble dependence on his merits alone, and our hearty confent to be his fervants for ever. We muft be brought to believe in him with fuch a faith as will regulate our practices, and render the whole of our life a series of grateful obedience to him, who is an atoning Priest upon a throne of royal authority, enacting laws and demanding the dutiful fubmiffion of

his fubjects. And therefore though it is needlefs to call upon you to believe in the fame fenfe in which this exhortation was addreffed to infidels by the apoftles; yet there is still room enough to urge you to this duty, only leaving out one ingredient then included, viz. a fpeculative belief and external profeffion of the chriftian religion, and that Chrift is the Meffiah. There is ftill reafon to perfuade finners to confent to the terms of life established in the gofpel, to renounce all dependance on their own righteousness, and to place their humble confidence in his alone, to acquiefce with the warmest complacence in the method of falvation through grace, and in the mean time to furrender themselves to his government, to obey his will, with the most cheerful willingness, the moft ardent devotion, and the humbleft adoration : in short, to entertain the great Redeemer with those affections and difpofitions which the nature and defign of his mediatorial office demand, and which become our condition as guilty, miferable, helpless creatures; all which are included in that faith in Jefus which the gospel enjoins as the grand condition of falvation.

This faith is one of the principal fubjects of facred fcripture, and is expreffed in various forms: fometimes in plain terms, but more frequently in metaphors borrowed from earthly things, and particularly from the actions of the body. This method of expreffing spiritual objects and intellectual adeas, in terms that originally and properly are applied to the body, is not only common in fcripture, but intermingled in converfation, and authorized by the best authors in all ages and languages. We fpeak of the eye of the understanding as well as of our bodily eye: and to fee an argument, or a meaning, is almoft as common a phrase as to fee a man or any other material object. The evidence by which the foul forms its determinations is called light, as well as the medium of proper vifion. And as the metaphor is here VOL. II. Mm m borrowed