hour. I am well aware, that all have not equally avowed their independence on him, or proceeded to the same extre- mities in their rebellion against him : but whether you have rejected him with Pharisaic pride or with Sadducean indif- ference, the effect has been the same; you have equally in your hearts said, " Who is Lord over us? " " I know not the Lord, neither will I obey his voice." I warn you then, that though he has with astonishing patience and long-suffering borne with you hitherto, the time is shortly coming when he will call you to account ; and when, if you persist in your rebellion, he will say, " Bring hither those that were mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, and slay them before me. \
2. Is not this your desert ? [We are apt to wonder at the Jews, that they could treat with such envenomed hostility a man like our blessed Saviour, so mild, so benevolent, so blameless. But their guilt is not to be compared with ours, whose views of his character are incomparably more enlarged. They saw him but as a man. We know him to be God as well as man, even " Emmanuel, God with us." They knew not the true end of his coming into the world: we know that he came " to give his life a ransom for us," and by his own obedience unto death to make recon- ciliation for us with our offended God. We even profess to believe in him, and to be his obedient followers : and yet, in our conduct, we shew ourselves " enemies to him in our minds by wicked works," even as they. What then can we expect but that the sword of vengeance shall be drawn forth against us, and that, when we shall stand before him in the last day, he will bid us to " depart accursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Dear brethren, I pray God you may not, by persisting in your rebellion, reduce yourselves to this awful condition. Now, if you will submit yourselves to him, he will be gracious and merciful unto you, and will " blot out your iniquities as a morning cloud ;" but if you suffer this day of grace and salvation to pass unimproved, you will deplore it to all eternity: for " how can ye escape, if ye neglect so great salvation ? "]