therefore will fulfil his word. It is in vain to think that he will change : for " he is not a man, that he should lie ; or the son of man, that he should repent." Seeing then that he will take the matter into his own hands, judge ye, whether it be not " a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Were it only a mortal man that was incensed, and you had no way of escape from him, it were a terrible state for you to be in : but what must it be to be exposed to the wrath of the living God, who, whilst he ever lives to execute vengeance, will preserve you in existence, that you may eternally endure it ? Think of enduring " the wrath of the Lamh," which will be so much the more terrible, in proportion as his mercy in submitting to be slain for you has been slighted and despised.]
"Suffer ye then, brethren, a word of Exhorta- tion " —
1. Watch and pray against every wilful sin —
[" Keep thy servant from presumptuous sin," said David ; " then shall I be innocent from the great transgression'." Now, though it is true that every wilful sin, or every pre- sumptuous sin, does not involve us in all the guilt of apostasy, yet it leads to apostasy as its natural end and issue ; because it hardens the heart, and sears the conscience, and grieves the Holy Spirit, and provokes God to leave us to ourselves : and, if once God say of us, " They are joined to idols; let them alone™;" our doom is sealed, and our perdition sure. Let me then affectionately entreat you to guard against every wilful sin, whether of commission or omission. A man does not become an apostate all at once : he first indulges some secret lust, some filthiness either of the flesh or spirit. Then he declines into formality in his secret walk with God : then his besetting sin gets an ascendant over him : then he becomes indifferent to public ordinances; and so, from opposing the Gospel in his heart and life, he comes to abandon it even in profession, and to relapse into avowed infidelity, and a con- tempt of all true religion". The misery which such persons frequently endure in this life, is sufiicient to make us dread
such an event as this But that which the apostate
soul shall endure in the eternal world, surpasses all conception. It would have been better for such an one never to have known the way of righteousness, than, having known it, to desert it, and make shipwreck of his faith".]
2. Bear in mind your obligations to Christ and to his Holy Spirit —
' Ps. xix. 13. " Hos. iv. 17.
n Ecclus. xix. 1. o 2 Pet. ii. 20, 21.