that were mine enemies, and slay them before me?" Yes, " there remaineth for them no other sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment, and fiery indignation, to devour them®."]
3. The Apostate, who renounces him —
[We are told respecting those who, " after having once escaped the pollutions of the world, are again entangled with them, and overcome ; that their last end is worse than their beginning ; and that it had been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness, than, after having known it, to depart from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them'"." And how many are there, at this day, who have " left off to be wise^," and " gone back to their evil ways''," and " turned again with the dog to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire'!" Yes, there are, alas! many who " run well only for a season'';" and, " under the influence of temptation," like the stony-ground hearers, " fall away." What, then, is their state? " They turn back unto perdition," and seal up themselves under the everlasting " dis- pleasure of their God'."]
4. The Hypocrite, who dishonours him —
[None have a severer doom than persons of this descrip- tion. To have the most dreadful portion, is to " have our portion with the hypocrites™." To cry with pretended zeal, " Lord, Lord !" whilst we do not the things which he com- mands", can answer no other end than that of deceiving our own souls". " Our hearts must be right with God," if ever we would be accepted of himP: and the retaining of a single lust, though dear as a right hand or a right eye, will plunge us into inevitable and everlasting perdition''. The more dis- tinguished our profession may be, the greater is our sin, if, " whilst we profess to know God, in works we deny him"":" our excellency may mount up to the heavens, and our head may reach unto the clouds; but the issue will be, that we shall perish for ever like our own dung ; and they who have seen us will say, " Where is he? where is he^?"
Concerning every one of these persons, so living, and so dying, it must be said, as of Judas, " It had been good for that man if he had not been born."]
And shall I not now,
e Heb. X. 26, 27. ' 2 Pet. ii..21. g Ps. xxxvi. 3.
^ Ps. Ixxviii. 57. ' 2 Pet. ii. 22. k Gal. v. 7.
' Heb. x. 38, 39. ™ Matt. xxiv. 51. " Matt. vii. 21—23.
" Luke vi. 46. p Ps. Ixxviii, 37. 'i Matt. v. 29, SO.
r Tit. i. 16. * Job XX. 4—7.