amongst you who are unconverted would consider, for one mo- ment, on what ground they stand ! Beloved brethren, consider this; Either God must change, or you. But will God change? " Is he a man, that he should lie ; or the son of man, that he should repent d ?" Will he alter his very nature, and sacrifice all his perfections, in order to save you? All that he. can do consistently with his own honour, he is ready and willing to do : but you cannot suppose that he will, or can, divest himself of all the properties of the Godhead, to save you in your sins. Know, then, that there must be a change in you : and, if you become not new creatures in Christ Jesus, you must perish. As long as God is true, your doom is fixed. O " turn ye then ! for why will ye die?"]
d Numb, xxiii. 19. 1 Sam. xv. 29.
Mai. iii. 8. Will a man rob God ? Yet ye have robbed me.
FIDELITY in Ministers, how unacceptable soever it may be to their hearers, is their indispensable duty. Accordingly, we find all the prophets, and all the Apostles, distinguished for it, notwithstanding they exercised it at the peril of their lives. And God's word to all his servants is, " He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully." True it is, that in the execution of this duty we may be accounted harsh : but we must commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God, and deal faith- fully with all, " whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear." The Prophet Malachi has set us, in this respect, a noble example ; seeing that he charged the whole nation of Israel with being thieves and robbers in the sight of God. In conformity with this example, I will proceed to shew you,
I. What an odious thing sin is —
By the excuses which we invent for it, and the specious names we put upon it, we contrive to hide from ourselves its horrid deformity : but, if we look at it as it is represented in the Scriptures, we shall not hesitate to pronounce it odious in the extreme.