glorious prospects which have just opened upon you ? For, what can you gain by going back to the world. ? I will sup- pose you gain all that the world can give. "What is it? What satisfaction can it all afford ? and how long will you retain it ? Or, supposing you could retain it ever so long, would it repay you for the loss of heaven ? To what a state, too, will your defection reduce you ! Of all the men who came out of Egypt, not so much as one was suffered to enter the promised land, except Caleb and Joshua, who continued faithful in the midst of this general apostasy. A fearful type and pledge of the doom that awaits youf! Hear what God says on this subject, in the Epistle to the Hebrews: " If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in himg." Ah! know of a cer- tainty, that all who draw back, " draw back unto perdition11:" and "if, after you have escaped the corruptions of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, you are again entangled therein and overcome, your latter end will be worse than your beginning : for it would have been better that you had never known the way of righteousness at all, than, after you have known it, to turn from the holy com- mandment delivered unto you1." You have all doubtless heard of Lot's wife, who, though brought out of Sodom, was turned into a pillar of salt, because she looked back towards the city, when she should have thought of nothing but of pressing onward to the destined place of refuge. Ah ! " remember Lot's wifek," as our blessed Lord has warned you ; for " if you only look back, after having put your hand to the plough, you are not fit for the kingdom of God1." How can your ministers, who have watched over you, contemplate such an issue of their labours, and not weep and mourn before God on your behalf m ? I pray you, beloved, let not this be the recompence of all the pains we have bestowed on you : let us not have the grief of seeing that the very privileges you have enjoyed have only fitted you, like Capernaum of old, for a deeper and heavier condemnation : but let us have joy over you, in beholding your spiritual advancement ; and let us have the sweet and blessed hope of having you for " our joy and crown of rejoicing to all eternity." Be not afraid of any enemies : for God is with you : "if he be with you, who can be against you? " Read the exhortation of Caleb and Joshua to their unbelieving brethren, and apply it to your own souls": and, instead of listening to the ruinous suggestions of unbelief0, "be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."]
f Numb. xxvi. 64, 65. with Jude, ver. 5. and 1 Cor. x. ] 1. e Heb. x. 38. h Heb. x. 39. » 2 Pet. ii. 20, 21.
k Luke xvii. 32. ' Luke ix. 61, 62. m Jer. xiii. 16, 17.
11 ver. 7 — 9. ° Heb. iii. 18.