view the contemners of Christ, whether they manifest that contempt in a way of open infidelity or of secret disaffection. There will be degrees of misery, indeed, proportioned to the degrees of guilt which each has contracted; but the least miserable of those who perish under the light of the Gospel, will have a heavier doom than shall ever fall to the lot of Sodom and Gomorrha. O that our head were a fountain of tears to run down for them night and day ; and that we might labour, all of us, whilst yet there is time, to pluck them as brands out of the burning!]
Advice —
1. Let all who hear the Gospel consider their
responsibility —
[The generality think little but of hearing such or such a man : but be it known to you, that the word you hear is " not the word of man, but of God," and is to be so received, if it be agreeable to his revealed will. You know that an ambassador is the representative of his king, and that the reception or rejection of his message is considered as affecting, not him, but his master who sent him. So it is with the ambassadors of
Christb O that whenever we attend upon the house of
God, we might attend as if Christ himself were come down to instruct us, or as if God the Father spoke to us by an audible voice from heaven !]
2. Let them improve their privileges —
[It is an inestimable privilege to have the Gospel faithfully administered to us. What if Sodom and Gomorrha had en- joyed that privilege? they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes, and would probably " have remained to this very day." So, if millions that are now in hell had heard what we have, they would perhaps have obeyed the truth and been saved by it. We are sure that many have made a far better improvement of it than we : and therefore we should humble ourselves on a view of our unprofitableness, and labour to bring forth fruits worthy of the culture bestowed upon us.]
b Text, with John xiii. 20.