gress? Watch against its first risings, and against every thing that may call it forth into act and exercise. Has sloth rendered you remiss in the duties of the closet ? Watch, lest it yet further prevail to draw you from God, and to indispose you for those exertions, which are more than ever necessary for your welfare. " Remember also how thou hast heard and received ; and hold fast, and repent." Call to mind the feel- ings that you experienced when first you received the truth into your hearts : ihcn perhaps you thought that nothing could ever divert you from the path of duty : then the concerns of the soul seemed to swallow up every inferior consideration : but voio "how is the gold become dim, and the fine gold changed !" Remember this ; and " hold fast" those good impressions, those holy purposes, those strenuous exertions, which cha- racterised the time of your espousals. " Repent" also, oh ! repent bitterly, on account of your departure from God : let every sin, whether of omission or of commission, be mourned over, and forsaken. Call forth " the dying remnants" of your grace, and endeavour to " strengthen them" by exercise and habit. Beg of God also to " strengthen you with might by his Spirit in your inward man," that, through his effectual operations, the embers of your love may be rekindled to a flame, and the whole work of salvation prosper in your souls.]
Those however who despise this counsel, will surely be visited with some awful and unexpected judg- ments—
[A thief, breaking in upon us in the night, fills us with alarm, and spoils us of our property. Yet the terror and loss which we sustain by his means, are undeserving a thought in comparison of that dismay which self-deceiving professors shall experience, when Christ shall summon them to his tri- bunal, and pass upon their deserved doom. We know in- deed that persons in an unprepared state are apt to suppose that their Lord will not come without giving them some pre- vious notice, that they may trhn their lamps, and get them- selves in readiness for his appearance ; they expect this favour at his hands, because theij are unprepared: but this is the very reason why they are not to expect it : yea, Christ assigns this as the very reason why " he will come in an hour when they look not for him," and withhold from them those intimations of his approach, which he might otherwise have vouchsafed unto them. O think of this, ye who are in a declining state ! In- stead of being more. secure thanothers, youarein greater peril ; by your declensions you have provoked the Lord in a peculiar manner ; and, if you turn not speedily to him, and with your whole hearts, you will be made distinguished monuments of his righteous indignation.]
Together