influence and example, did evil to as great an extent as any creature that ever lived : but when he exerted his royal influ- ence to reclaim the persons he had seduced to sin, he could not prevail : they would still, notwithstanding all his edicts, and all his example too, continue to " offer sacrifices on their high-places," instead of conforming themselves to the com- mandments of their God™. Thus, even supposing that we are now walking in the ways of God, the influence of our former lives will continue to operate to the ruin of many souls, and to the unspeakable augmentation of our own guilt. Contemplate this, I pray you, my Brethren ; and remember, that though you may never have committed one single sin that should expose you to shame before men, you are guilty in the sight of God, to an extent that no language can paint, no imagi- nation can conceive. Nay, strange as it may seem, the very blamelessness of your conduct before men, inasmuch as it has attracted a greater measure of their admiration, has unhappily contributed, even beyond the example of the generality, to deceive their minds, and to ruin their souls. I must then say to every one amongst you, that the injury which in your days of thoughtlessness you have unconsciously done to the souls of men, should be a ground of the deepest humiliation to you, to the latest hour of your lives.]
2. What a pre-eminent measure of guilt is con- tracted by the backsliding professor —
[Whilst others, by their ungodly lives, encourage sin in all around them, you do it with far greater effect. For you are understood as speaking /rom experience ; whilst others de- liver only, as it were, a hasty and iJl-formed opinion. You are considered as proclaiming that there is no excellency, no reality, in religion ; that the ways of the world, from which for a season you had departed, are not either so dangerous or so sinful as you had ignorantly supposed ; that, in fact, there is no since- rity in those who profess godliness ; and that, if all were as honest as you, they would, like you, throw off" the mask at once. Ah ! think what a stumbling-block you lay in the way of others ; how you " crucify the Son of God afresh;" and what cause multitudes will have to curse your very name for ever, whilst they call for vengeance on your souls for contri- buting so largely to their ruin !
And here let me speak to those who do not indeed draw back to open sin, but only so far as to conceal their principles in compliment to the world. You may account this prudence : but God will account it treason ; and the Saviour, whom " you thus refuse to confess, will refuse to acknowledge you in the presence of his Father"." Consider this ; and know assuredly
m 2 Chron. xxxiii. 15—17. " Matt. x. 32, 33.