of discouragement, like others, we have never shrunk from our duty, or shunned to execute it to the very utmost of our power. On your own souls, therefore, must lie the guilt of neglecting God ; or, as the Apostle expresses it, " Your blood must be upon your own heads: I am clean a." Yet God forbid that I should rest without further efforts for your sal- vation. God is not weary in waiting for you ; neither would I be weary in laying before you his whole counsel. It is pro- bable, indeed, that this may be the last time in which I shall ever behold the face of some amongst you: for though I should not be removed from you before another Sabbath, the probability is, that some one at least may be here present this day, with whom my next meeting will be at the bar of judg- ment. I beseech you, then, to think what an awful thing it will be to go to the judgment-seat of Christ with all your guilt upon you! Yet, if you remain impenitent and unbe- lieving, this must be your unhappy condition : you will " die in your sins," and endure the punishment of them to all eter- nity. Think me not harsh for asserting this : for, as St. Paul says, " How shall ye escape, if ye neglect so great salvation?" so St. Peter also appeals in like manner, " If judgment begin at the house of God, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God? If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear1*? These appeals are very forcible, because they make you judges in your own cause. I ask, then, " What must your end be ? and where will you appear at the last day ? " If you will say, ' In heaven,' be it so: I would to God you might! But conscience is not so blind, but that it will remonstrate against such a confidence as that. Conscience will tell you, that, if you will not obey the Gospel, but will continue to " reject the counsel of God against yourselves," you will do it at your peril ; you will do it to your ruin.]
2. Those who are disposed to follow the counsel of their God —
[Remember to follow " the whole of it," " without partiality and without hypocrisy0." The religious world are extremely apt to forget their duty in this respect. Some place all their piety in contending for doctrines, in opposition to morals; and others, in exalting morals, to the disparagement of doctrines. Some will take one set of doctrines ; and others, a set which appear opposed to them : and both will think that they are doing God service, whilst they anathematize each other ; as if religion consisted in the adoption of human creeds, rather than
11 Acts xviii. 6. b 1 Pet. iv. 17, 18.
f 1 Tim. v. 21. Jam. iii. 17.