forbearing to call you to your great account. " Beloved Brethren," '* Despise not this goodnsss,ancl forbearance, and long-surtering of your God ; but let them lead you to re- pentance'." Though tht; general judgment should be long deferred, your own particular doom will be fixed, the very instant that you shall be summoned into the eternal world. Do not then delay till it be too late, but " to-day, while it is called to-tlay, harden not your hearts," lest God cut you off in } our sins, and " swear in his wrath that you shall never enter into his rest."]
'Bom. ii. 4.
1 John. i. 1 — 3. That luhich iras from the heginnhig, uhichive have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which ive have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life; (for the Ife was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto yon that eternal Ife, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us ;J that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fel- louship withus : and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
IT is impossible to read these words, and not be struck with the extreme earnestness of the Apostle in his mode of giving the testimony before us. It seems evident, that the truths which he affirms had been much controverted ; and that the evidence on which they rested had been called in question. And the fact was, that many heresies had arisen even whilst he was yet alive. Some even went so far as to deny that Jesus had ever died and risen again : they asserted, that all those transactions, which were recorded of him by the Evangelists, had taken place in appearance only, and not in reality. Against such absurd and impious conceits, St. John, now at a very advanced age, bore his testimony with a zeal suited to the occasion. He was the only surviving witness of the events referred to; and hence he re- peats, even to tautology, the evidence which he had had again and again, from all his senses, respecting
the