shutting your eyes to the inevitable consequence of rejecting God's holy will and word (John, xii. 48, 49, 50; Mark, xvi. 16), as it hath pleased Him to offer it to us, and resting contented with hoping, both for ourselves and others, what we have no warranty for hoping, thereby bringing ourselves under double condemnation through unbelief; but, in warning all those whom we see, blindly, and yet with eyes wide open, for "eyes have they, and yet see not" (Mark, viii. 18), travelling onwards towards the brink of the precipice, which they cannot perceive for the thick mist of delusion they create for themselves, and which the eyes of their understanding will not penetrate-of their dangerous approach to INEVITABLE destruction! Beware, then, my Christian brethren, lest, wishing and fearfully anxious to keep within St. Paul's noble definition of charity (1 Cor. xiii.), ye fail on the other hand, by giving these poor deluded, hopes which never can be realised, thereby likening yourselves to those accursed, which suffer the blind to fall into the ditch, or dash his head against the wall, rather than members of that Christian Faith 66 cry whose vital spark is charity! And the more to impress this upon you and I pray the LORD to send it home to your hearts and conscience-read what says Moses (Deut. xxvii. 18): "Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way! and all the people shall say, Amen!" Avoid, then, my Christian friends, this plain-spoken curse: but rather press forward in the service of your GOD, and aloud, and spare not! Lift up your voices like trumpets, and show the people their transgressions." Aspire to be of "the LORD's watchmen, which stand on the walls of the city, never holding your peace, day or night. And Oh! ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence!" Isa. lxxii. 6. Have not many living seen the day when the LORD might have exclaimed, think you, My watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark-sleeping-lying down -loving to slumber ?" There are, however, thanks be to our merciful GOD! in this our day, some brilliant emanations breaking forth rapidly into the almost universal darknesssome goodly lights shining in dark places→→ some beacons set upon the hills-some that have their faces set to contend for the testimony, as a flint which striketh fire from obdurate rock, and they shall not be ashamed! Isa. 1.7. But, alas! in how many cases does the pride of life render their testimony nugatory? Amongst the rich, the times are too refined to tolerate discourse on any subject so unpalatable as Hell:-and Heaven-GoD's throneHeaven is a name only agreeable to man when simpered forth from the impious lips of some gay fashionable fair *. Amongst the poor, "the march of intellect" has made such ravaging strides, that death, dread death, is what?" animal decomposition;" and "indestructibility of matter" is their resurrection! In vain does the LORD say, "Strive to enter in at the straight gate. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but * The living Christ said (Mat. v. 34), "Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is GOD's throne! Surely, when men and women both, convert the throne of GOD into an impious and unmeaning expletive, how can they believe the awfulness this name imports?-and unbelief is infidelity! This word loses much force in its translation from the original, which would be, if literally given, "Agonize yourselves to enter in." by Me." John, xiv. 6. "Go and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned!!" We are all heathen. Rom. iii. 12. We are all clean gone out of the way; we are altogether become unprofitable; there is none righteous: no, not one! All-all worse than the avaricious pagan Felix, for even he could not hear Paul speak of righteousness, temperance, and judgments to come, without trembling. Acts, xxiv. 25. But, alas! my friends, my countrymen, how different is the case with us? We can hear the LORD of Heaven himself speak. these words, not only without TREMBLING, but can impiously scoff at them; for it has been discovered by certain, who are wise in their own conceits, that hell is not hell, but something else, and that heaven is but a name! And though all are not sufficiently daring with their lips to avow these things, how many→→→ oh, how very many, openly evidence, by their utter despight of God's holy word and warnings, that this creed is also theirs. And so much farther are they removed from Christianity and its salvation than the pagan Felix. Truly did Isaiah prophesy, liii. 1. "Who hath believed our report?" Fearfully did the Lord say, Luke xviii. 28, "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth ?" And I feel the more impelled, my Christian countrymen, to speak thus plain and loud, because I know that "we are in perils among false brethren," 2 Cor. xi. 26. For, I have seen it published in the city of Bristol, in a sermon which has seen four editions since the fifth of November last, and which was preached on that day by the Rev. Mr. Smith, prebend of that place, before the mayor and corporation, in the cathedral church, that, "to render your own faith as pure and perfect as possible," you must have " a constant recollection that it is possible, in spite of thought and study, that you may have been mistaken,' page 19. Yes, read this, Christian believers. Read it simply in this way;" to make your faith as pure, as perfect as possible, you must be constantly in doubt." And this from a prebendary of the loyal and religious city of Bristol! Oh! proh pudor! Truly does the |