gress ;" see him faithfully executing every thing he had under- taken for you, and yet yourselves " lying against him." This is the light wherein to view your conduct. Draw nigh, then, and see it; ponder it in jour hearts; consider it well. What offence can a servant commit against his master, or a child against his parent, or a man against his benefactor, that can bear any proportion to the smallest offence that you have com- mitted against Christ? and yet you have offended times without number, and that too without any remorse ; as though men were bound to requite your kindnesses, but you were at liberty to trample upon the most sacred obligations that God is able to confer upon you. Ah, Beloved! know every one of you, that " God seeth not as man seeth;" he considers things not according to man's estimation, but as they really are : and when he shall call you to an account, you will see every sin aggra- vated by redeeming love : you will see that, in fact, you " crucify Christ afresh, you trample under foot his blood, you put him to an open shame." And " shall not God visit for these things?" Yes, assuredly.]
I will proceed therefore to set before you, III. The danger of such a state —
[You can bear me witness, my Brethren, that I delight not in setting forth the terrors of the Lord. I find it far more pleasant to be publishing the glad tidings, and to be expatiating on the fulness and freeness of the Gospel salvation : but I must not conceal from you what God speaks concerning you. Were I to be unfaithful to you in this respect, I should but betray your souls to ruin ; and " your blood would be required at my hands." Attend therefore to the solemn denunciations of God's wrath against you : hear, I say, and tremble : hear, and lift up your hearts to God for mercy and deliverance : " Woe unto them, for they have fled from me ! Destruction unto them, because they have transgressed against me ! " Woe and des- truction comprehend both present and eternal misery. There is much woe, even in this life, as the consequence of sin. Who can tell the alarms which haunt the wicked in their secret retirements ? Who can tell the apprehensions they feel at the approach of death? I know that they may "sear their con- sciences," so far as to become " past feeling :" and they may delude themselves with ungrounded hopes, so far as even to attain a confidence of their safety : but notwithstanding this, it is certain that "there is no peace to the wicked:" wherever they go, and whatever they do, they have no solid peace : they are either harassed with tumultuous passions, or terrified with misgiving fears. God has said repeatedly, that " there is no peace to the wicked." But let us suppose that they pass through