to exchange temporal and tolerable sufferings for those, which are eternal and intolerable. This, my brethren, is a point which I would forcibly urge on your attention. When we see a fellow-mortal stretched on the bed of sickness, writhing in agony, and struggling with an incurable disease, how very common is it to express a hope that he may be soon released, that death may speedily terminate his misery. The hope itself is charitable, and results from an unwillingness to witness sufferings to which we are unable to administer relief. But let us not deceive ourselves with vain and unmeaning words. If the man be not a real christian, death will be no release to him. Death, far from terminating his misery, will dreadfully increase it. The body indeed by dissolution will be reduced to a senseless state, and for a season will lie mouldering in the dust, exempt from pain. But the soul will be passed into a place of unutterable anguish, "reserved under chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day." And is this a release? Is this a gain? It is true, that "the spirit saith, blessed are the dead;" but mark the limitation annexed," who die in the Lord." They only who die in the Lord are blessed: for they only have an interest in the atoning blood of Christ, without which there is no remission. The sting of death is sin." But the sins of the real christian are forgiven: for, "there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." They die in peace with God: therefore they are blessed. But all others die under the curse and sentence of unpardoned sin. "The wrath of God abideth on them." And how can they be blessed?

God grant, that these awful truths may be accompanied with suitable impressions! My brethren, you must die. Young and old, high and low, rich and poor, you must one day die. Let the period be removed to the greatest possible distance, yet your last hour will at length arrive; that solemn hour, when you will be called to leave this world for ever; to bid a long and last farewell to every thing on earth; to enter on an unseen and untried state. When this momentous change shall come, what would you wish to find it? Your best friend, or your worst enemy? Your greatest gain, or your heaviest loss? A blessing, or a curse? I cannot but anticipate

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your answer. I know that every heart must be ready to exclaim, May death to me be gain?" And most cordially and earnestly do I hope and pray, that you may find it such; a gain vast and incalculable, beyond your utmost thought! But remember, that you never can find death a gain, unless death finds you a real christian. It never can be gain to you to die, unless to you live is Christ." These are two things inseparably united. Think not that you can part them. Build not on so

6 to

vain a hope. Think not that it is enough to be saying within yourselves, may I die the death of the righteous?" The question is, are you living the life of the righteous? Are you living through the power of Christ, by faith in Christ, to the glory of Christ, after the pattern of Christ, under the law of Christ? Is it your desire thus to live? Is it your prayer thus to live? And while you desire and pray, are you diligently using all the appointed means, by which the spiritual life is nourished

and sustained?

God forbid that in stating these solemn truths, I should discourage any humble christian, or in a single instance"make the heart of the righteous sad, whom the Lord hath not made sad." But I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; and I would have you jealous over yourselves. I would not have you conclude that all is safe, unless that all be safe, I would spare you the dreadful disappointment of discovering, when the discovery will be too late, that you have been self-deceived. Think what unspeakable anguish will ensue, when death, which in expectation you have fondly regarded as a gain, shall on trial prove to be a loss, which you never can repair! And O, a loss how great! The loss of heaven; the loss of hope; the loss of your immortal soul! Spare yourselves this misery. Let Christ be now your life. Open your hearts to him, that henceforth he may dwell within you. Seek of him grace, that, redeemed from your vain conversation, you may become new creatures in Christ Jesus. Here must the work of reformation begin. Here must the foundation of the spiritual edifice be laid; in a deep, and abiding renovation of the inner man by the spirit of God. "That which is born of the spirit," and that only, "is Spirit."

By nature you are carnal, and born in sin. "Marvel not that ye must be born again." A new life must commence in a new birth. Never can Christ be your life," till from him you have received a new principle of spiritual life. Pray then for this inestimable gift. Continue instant in prayer for it: till being "transformed by the renewing of your mind ye may prove," experimentally know, "what is that good, and perfect, and acceptable will of God."

See that you live more
Let his power be more
Live more humbly and

Is Christ already your life? diligently and closely to him. fully manifested in your life. simply dependent on his grace and promises. Live more devoted to his glory. Live more conformed to his image. Live more obedient to his word. Thus living, you may feel assured, that death, whenever it arrives, shall be your gain. In life you shall experience that peace of mind, which passeth all understanding: but at death you shall be completely blessed. You shall be transported from this vale of misery and tears to those regions of unfading bliss, where "God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes: and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.-The sun shall no more be thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory."

SERMON XV.

THE DUTY OF SURRENDERING OURSELVES TO GOD EXPLAINED AND ENFORCED.

1 beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.--Romans, xii. 1.

THE ultimate object of revelation, considered with respect to man, is to fit him for eternal happiness, by reclaiming him to the knowledge and practice of his duty,

as a moral creature of God. To promote this object is the grand tendency of all the doctrines of the gospel. With one voice they not only proclaim the necessity of holiness; but urge us by the most constraining motives to "yield ourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God."

It is this duty, which St. Paul in the text so affectionately presses on the Romans, as a conclusion obviously, and even necessarily, resulting from the doctrines, which he had stated and illustrated in the preceding part of his epistle. He describes that cordial surrender of themselves to the divine service and glory, which it is his aim to recommend and enforce, in language borrowed from the circumstances of the ceremonial law. In allusion to the sacrifices, in which the bodies of the animals were solemnly presented and devoted to God, he exhorts lais readers to " present their bodies a sacrifice holy unto God." In contradistinction however to these sacrifices, in which the animals, being designed as a typical atonement for sin, were slain, and their dead bodies were burnt upon the altar, the apostle adds, But present your bodies a living sacrifice holy unto God. Devote your lives to God. Devote your bodies to him; and not your bodies only, but your souls also. The devotion of the body, unaccompanied with that of the soul, will be but a formal, lifeless service; a dead, and not a living sacrifice. vote to him the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, to be set apart for his use, to be employed to his glory. This will be a sacrifice acceptable to him: a sacrifice, which reason requires, and which the infinite mercies of God compel you to offer.

De

Such is the duty, which the apostle here prescribes. Such are the motives, by which he enforces the practice of it. But this duty is equally incumbent these motives are equally binding on all christians. On these two points therefore I shall proceed separately to enlarge.

I. For the clearer explanation of the duty under review, I shall point out some of the leading particulars in which it consists.

II. I shall endeavour to show the constraining efficacy
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of those motives by which this duty is enforced in the

text.

1. One leading particular in the general duty under review consists in the "mortification of sin."

It is utterly impossible that there can be any real devotedness to God, where sin reigns in the mortal body, and is habitually obeyed in any of the lusts thereof. God and sin are directly opposed to each other. Both therefore cannot retain dominion in the same heart. The soul, if it serve sin, cannot be devoted to God. When the apostle then exhorts us to present ourselves a living sacrifice, holy unto God, he directs us in other words, to

crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts-to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit"-to "mortify our members, which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." Do you ask more particularly, what these directions require? They require, that, according to the spirit of the apostle's injunction, you must not allowedly indulge any one passion, any one practice, any one temper, which is contrary to the holy law of God; that you must deny yourself; and watch and fight against every sin, especially that sin which most easily besets you. Many hypocrites have been detected by their obstinate adherence to their favourite sin. Herod refused to divorce Herodias: and Saul, while he destroyed the rest of the Amalekites, spared Agag the king. But the duty before us admits of no reservations. It bids you spare no sin, though it be near and dear to you as your right-hand, or your right eye. It directs you, as the bodies of the sacrifices were laid open for the inspection of the priests, to lay open your heart for the inspection of God, who requireth truth in the inward parts; and without any deceit or guile to shew him, that though you have indeed much evil remaining in you, for which you daily need to implore his forgiveness, yet you do not willfully retain iniquity within: that it is your sincere desire and earnest endeavour to purify yourself even as he is pure; and that in fact, "denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts, you are living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world."