Would you escape this dreadful state? Would you escape that unutterable state, of which the remorse and terrors of a death-bed are but a foretaste? Remember then your Creator now, while the evil days come not. Remember now, before it is too late, all that must be done to smooth the passage of the last hour. Remember to provide for your comfort that which comforted St. Paul in the prospect of death; that your rejoicing may be like his, the testimony of your conscience, that you have fought the good fight and kept the faith *. Remember the purpose for which your Redeemer died; that it was to purify to himself as the elect heirs of his kingdom, a people zealous of good works. Labour to fulfil this purpose as it regards yourself: in order that, in that hour when all worldly comfort shall fail you, you may have the consolation of knowing, that you did so labour. In this matter, more than in all others, delays are dangerous. Believe me, no man who puts off his repentance to his last sickness, can have any ground to hope that he shall leave this world with a just confidence of God's pardon. For that man can never be assured of his own sincerity; since the sincerity of our conversion can be proved only by the subsequent amendment of life, and there

2 Tim. iv. 7.

fore he can have no full proof of his sincerity, unless a longer time were granted him. Nay, he could not have such proof unless he were to become young again. For the Gospel calls upon us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts: unless a man do this he cannot shew his devotion to God, nor look forward, with reasonable comfort, to the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ *. But how can that man mortify the lusts of the world, at least the fleshly lusts of it, when perhaps he has no such lusts remaining to mortify; when he can scarcely taste his food; and when the unholy fire, which it was his duty to subdue, has of itself gone out? How can such a man satisfy himself, that if his youthful passions should return, his youthful excesses would not come along with them? If he cannot thus satisfy himself, how can he think that God will be satisfied with his repenting of those sins which he has not power to repeat?—Are you now unwilling to return to God, but intend it at a future day? And can you think, that the same unwillingness will not then possess you? Be not deceived; you will then, in the natural course of things be more unwilling than you are now: for your

Tit. ii. 11-14.

G

good purposes will be enfeebled by time, and by time also the power of sin will be more confirmed: you will have grown weaker and your enemy stronger. Add to this the danger, lest God, who worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure; without whom we can neither do, nor even think, any thing that is good: lest he, I say, should, after the usual method of his dealing with presumptuous sinners, withdraw from us his grace and Holy Spirit, thus leaving us to that helpless state of nature, in which man has no power to do any thing but evil. Listen then now to the call of mercy, now, in the day of salvation and in an acceptable time. Let your loins be girded about and your lamps burning: for you know not how soon the bridegroom may come, and when the door is once shut, then mercy must give way to judgment, and every ray of comfort will be quenched in darkness. Then will be verified the warning of Divine Wisdom, as it is conveyed to us in the words of Solomon. "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction

cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them *.” Beloved, take good heed to the things which have been said unto you: and may God grant, that we may both perceive and know what things we ought to do, and also have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Prov. i. 24-32.

SERMON IV.

ON THE EXISTENCE, MALICE, AND ACTIVITY OF EVIL SPIRITS; AND ON THE MEANS OF OUR

SAFETY FROM THEM.

MATT. viii. 31.

The devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.

"For this purpose," says the word of truth, "the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil*." In order, then, to a right estimate of the purpose intended and effected by our Lord's coming into this world, it will be

1 John iii. 8.