he must not delay a moment, lest he should be consumed. Thus it is with us. We cannot say, God has sent his only dear Son to save me, and therefore I have nothing to do : we must rather say, God has offered to have mercy on me, and therefore I must "work out my salvation with fear and trem- bling." To found our hopes upon the secret purposes of God, would be to delude ourselves, and to ensure our eternal ruin. We might as well hope to win a race without running, or to gain a battle without fighting, as to get to heaven with- out personal exertion. We must seek ; yea not only seek, but strive, to enter in at the strait gate, if ever we would find admittance into it.
Nor will it avail us any thing to put forth our strength to the uttermost, unless we maintain a constant, vigorous, perse- vering diligence in the course that we have begun. Lot's wife was a partner of his flight, but not of his preservation : for she looked back, and was therefore made a lasting monument of God's displeasure f. And if Lot himself had remitted his endeavours, he also would have perished in like manner. We may "run well for a season, and yet be hindered:" we may " begin in the spirit, and yet end in the flesh :" we may " escape the pollutions of the world, and yet be again entan- gled therein, and overcome." We may come out of Egypt, and yet never reach the promised land. It is not he who begins well, but " he that endureth unto the end, that shall ba saved." " If we put our hand to the plough, and look b.uk, we are not fit for the kingdom of heaven."_
Address,
1. Those who are at ease in Sodom —
[We would not willingly speak reproachful words, or ad- dress you in terms that are needlessly offensive : but we are sanctioned by the prophet Isaiah in saying, " Hear the word of the Lord, ye Rulers of Sodom, and ye people of GomorrhaC We bless our God that the abomination referred to in the context, is held in universal abhorrence; and that the very thought of it excites as general indignation amongst us, as it did in Sodom a general concurrence and approbation11. But in all other respects those wicked cities are a glass wherein we may behold ourselves. " This," says the prophet, " was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom ; pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her1." And what can be conceived more characteristic of our state ? Our pride, our luxury, our love of ease are not a whit inferior to theirs. Again, our Lord says, "As it was in the days of Lot ; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they
r ver. 26. s Isai. i. 10. ]l ver. 4. * Ezek. xvi. 49.