Conscience may sleep on this side of the grave. Carry then your thoughts forward to that awful day, in which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth. In that day you shall hear the voice of Christ. You shall see him coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. But how will you abide the day of his coming? How will you stand when he appeareth? When dragged before his dread tribunal, in what language will you express the horrors of your mind? "Hast thou found us, O our enemy ? This is He whom we refused to love. This is He whose friendship we rejected. Rocks fall on us. Mountains cover us; shield us from the wrath of the Lamb. "O that we had been wise, that we had considered our latter end!" Such will be your helpless consternation, such your ineffectual wishes in that great and terrible day of the Lord. May the anticipation of this dreadful scene now produce its proper effect upon you! May it lead you now to seek Christ for your Friend. At present he waiteth to be gracious. He extends to you the golden sceptre of his love. He invites you to come unto him for pardon, peace, and holiness. "And the spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely."*

*Rev. xxii. 17.

147

SERMON XIII.

THE SIN AND DANGER OF NEGLECTING THE GREAT SALVATION OF THE GOSPEL.

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?—Hebrews ii. 3.

CONTEMPLATED in every point of view, the salvation proclaimed in the gospel is a great salvation. Whether we look at the source from which it originates, or at the objects to whom it is extended; at the depth of misery from which it proposes to deliver mankind, or at the height of glory to which it promises to exalt them; at the long train of prophecies by which it was introduced, or at the stupendous display of miracles, by which it was established; we cannot but be deeply impressed with a conviction of its magnitude and importance. There is one circumstance, however, which wonderfully augments these impressions, the unparalleled excellence and dignity of the person, by whom this salvation was perfected. That God should send his Son to be the Saviour of the world; that Son, "who is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person; who upholdeth all things by the word of his power;' stamps on the work of redemption a character of magnificence, which no other consideration can impart. Great indeed, beyond conception great, must be that salvation, which so glorious a Saviour purchased with his own blood, and now completes by his intercession at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Would God! that the reception, which this salvation encounters in the world, was proportioned to its importance! Would God! that mankind did in general regard it with that serious attention to which it is so pre-eminently entitled! But in every age of the church the ministers of the gospel have had too much reason to

* Hebrews i. 3.

adopt the complaining language of the prophet, "Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"* In every age of the church numbers have neglected this great salvation. With the persons in the parable, they have made light of the invitations of the gospel. Intent only on realizing their worldly prospects, on prosecuting their several schemes of profit or of amusement, when bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb, they have "refused to come-with one consent have begun to make excuse;" and in a profane disregard of the blessings provided for their perishing souls, "have gone their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandize."

To persons of this description, the expostulation in the text is forcibly addressed. It remonstrates with them on the folly and wickedness of their conduct, and on the certainty of that destruction to which they stand exposed. "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" Whatever flattering hope of final deliverance from the wrath to come, those who neglect the great salvation of the gospel may secretly entertain, it is a vain and groundless presumption. They may lull their consciences to sleep with the soothing notion, that they shall escape at last: but how shall they escape? What means shall be devised? What avenue shall be disclosed? The question implies the strongest actual negation. They shall not escape. Those, who live and die in the neglect of so great salvation, must inevitably perish. Their case is irremediable; their doom unalterably fixed. No way, no hope, no possibility of escape

remains.

It is this momentous truth, which I purpose, on the present occasion, to discuss. God grant, that the discussion may prove instrumental in awakening some from that state of criminal and dangerous insensibility, into which their souls are so awfully plunged!

The first argument which I shall adduce, in confirmation of the truth under discussion, results from the very nature and constitution of things. They who neglect the great salvation of the gospel, must, from the necessary connection between causes and effects, be involved in everlasting destruction. For what is the salvation of *Isaiah liii. 1.

the gospel? It is a salvation from sin. Sin is the disease of human nature: a disease, dreadful and ruinous in its consequences, and utterly incurable by any means within the reach of man's discovery. But for this tremendous disorder, the gospel discloses a sovereign remedy. It unfolds a method of restraining the progress of sin, of repairing its fatal ravages, of restoring the soul to its full health and native vigour. This is the glory of the gospel; the peculiar ground, on which it commends itself to our notice, and claims universal acceptance.

Ex

The gospel, and the gospel only, makes adequate provision for remitting the penal consequences of sin. Sin, as an act of rebellion against the majesty of heaven, exposes the transgressor to merited and everlasting punishment; subjects him to the sentence of the violated law, which denounces an awful curse on disobedience.* cept this sentence be reversed, judgment must unavoidably follow. But how shall this sentence be reversed? How shall the guilt of sin be pardoned, and its penalty be remitted? This is a question which has ever baffled the inquiries of human reason, and has made foolish the wisdom of the world. Whatever hopes or sentiments men might entertain on this subject, it has been reserved for the gospel to proclaim the certainty of God's disposition to pardon sinners, as well as to designate the only way, in which that pardon will be extended to them. has been reserved for the gospel to reveal a Saviour, even the eternal Son of God, who himself suffered for sinners, bare their sins in his own body on the tree, and redeemed them from the curse of the law, being made a curse for them. It has been reserved for the gospel to declare, that through the name of this glorious Saviour, "whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins."+But wherein, it may be asked, did the necessity exist for the interposition of so great a Saviour? Could not the criminal be absolved from punishment, except through the death of God's incarnate Son? What forbade the Almighty to grant remission of sins, unless purchased at such an inestimable price? His own perfections forbade him. His infinite justice, his essential holiness, a regard

It

* 1 John iii. 4. Deut. xxvii. 26. Matt. xxv. 41, 46. † Acts x. 43.

to the honour of his law, and to his character, as moral governor of the universe, forbade him. They had forbidden him to spare the rebellious angels. How then could he spare rebellious, apostate man? Should he shew mercy to sinners without the intervention of some competent means which might mark the enormity of sin, his just abhorrence of it, and his fiery wrath against it, what confusion might not such an act of lenity have introduced into the world of spirits? What suspicions of the holiness of God, what encouragement to trample on his laws, what hopes of sinning with impunity, might not such a proceeding have excited throughout his universal empire? Here then the necessity for the incarnation and sufferings of the Son of God originated. By the spectacle exhibited at Calvary, all such suspicions, such encouragements, such hopes, are entirely and eternally precluded. Let angels and archangels, let all the hosts of heaven, principalities, dominions, powers, thrones, survey the cross of Jesus, and there be taught, when the almighty is disposed to pardon sin, what is the nature of the atonement, which he demands. Let them see, that when God maketh inquisition for sin, he spareth not his own Son, if that Son be found in the sinner's place; and, thus reflected in the sacred mirror of the gospel, let them contemplate and adore the incomprehensible perfections of Jehovah. Such is the adequate provision, which the gospel makes for remitting the penal consequences of sin. It discovers the only way, in which God can be just, and yet the justifier of the sinIt directs us to look with a believing reliance on that Saviour, by the one offering of whose body, once for all, those otherwise irreconcileable attributes of infinite holiness and infinite mercy, are harmoniously exercised; every end of punishment is completely accomplished; and every obstacle to the most unlimited display of grace and mercy effectually removed.

ner.

The gospel, and the gospel only, makes adequate provision for obviating the effects of man's innate and deep depravity. Man is by nature carnal, sold under sin. Sin is the element in which he lives. Every power, every faculty of the soul is corrupt. He is filthy and abominable, and drinketh iniquity like water." He is "wise to