your com

guments, my brethren, be necessary to induce pliance? May the following considerations quicken and invigorate your exertions!

Consider the magnitude of the object, for which you are exhorted to strive. It is the life of your soul. It is happiness beyond conception great, boundless in extent, endless in duration. It is an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in the heavens. It is the "salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory." Surely this is an object, the attainment of which demands your most vigorous efforts: an object, for the attainment of which you cannot encounter too many difficulties, you cannot endure too many privations. Shall the men of this world toil and labour, shall they "rise up early, and late take rest," that they may join field to field, add house to house, and procure to themselves some little increase of earthly wealth or honour? Will you not labour that you may secure to yourselves treasures in heaven, that you may appropriate the honour which cometh from God? Admit that the gate is strait. Admit that through much-tribulation you must enter into the kingdom of God. Yet the joys of that kingdom will abundantly compensate for the tribulations through which you have passed. Does Paul, in the fruition of "the crown of righteousness," regret the conflict which he endured to obtain it? Does he now lament, that he "so run, not in uncertainty: that he so fought, not as one that beateth the air: but that he kept his body under, and brought it into subjection: lest that by any means, when he had preached to others, he himself should have been cast away?* My brethren, look more at the things which are not seen. Contemplate the rest that remaineth for the people of God. Strive to enter in.

Consider the consequences of not complying with this admonition. "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." If you do not strive to enter in, you will infallibly be excluded. Your hopes, however sanguine they may be, will assuredly terminate in disappointment. You may plead your profession of Christ's religion; you may urge your attend1 Cor. ix. 26, 27. + Matt. xi. 12.

ance on his ordinances, but the luke-warm professor and the slothful servant will be alike rejected, as workers of iniquity. Think what will then be the anguish of your heart, when seeking to enter in, ye shall not be able: when standing without, and knocking at the door, ye cry, Lord, Lord, open unto us: and he shall answer, I know you not, whence you are! Think what weeping and gnashing of teeth there will be, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out! And whither, my brethren, will ye be thrust? When Christ commands you to depart from him, whither will ye be driven? Remember, that there is no middle state. If you obtain not admission into the glorious mansions of the blessed, you will for ever be assigned to the regions of misery and despair, prepared for the devil and his angels. There will you lift up your eyes, being in torments. There will you experience the additional anguish of reflecting, that you have been excluded from those mansions, that you have incurred those torments, through your own irresolution and neglect. ' Heaven

might have been ours: but we foolishly trifled with the opportunity vouchsafed to us. We sought to enter in, but we did not strive. We desired the blessing, but we did not wrestle for it. We made some efforts, but we did not exert sufficient strength. Had we but laboured to secure an heavenly inheritance, as earnestly as we laboured to obtain a portion in the world, we had not come into this place of torments.'--Spare yourselves these bitter self-reproaches, these unavailing lamentations. Work while it is day. While there is time, labour for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life. Be not weary in well-doing. In due time you shall reap, if you faint not. For,

Consider, lastly, the certainty of success, which awaits your compliance with the admonition. "Your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord." Strive, and ye shall enter in. Though the difficulties be formidable, you shall be able to surmount them. Though the gate be strait, you shall obtain admission. Though in yourselves you possess no strength for the arduous conflict, yet be not dismayed. In the way prescribed, in the

exercise of prayer, in dependence on the grace of Christ, contend with earnestness against every enemy, and he shall give you strength. At the command of Jesus, the man endeavoured to stretch forth his withered hand; and in the very act of endeavouring to obey the precept, received power to obey it. At the command of Jesus, strive ye to enter in at the strait gate, and you shall not strive in vain. You shall be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. You shall have power to overcome every intervening obstacle. You shall be enabled to endure unto the end. So "shall an entrance be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

SERMON XXIV.

THE MARKS OF TRUE FAITH, STATED AND EXPLAINED.

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the Faith: prove your ownselves.-2 Corinthians xiii. 5.

THERE is no truth more clearly stated in scripture, than that Faith is indispensably necessary to salvation. We are expressly told, that "without faith it is impossible to please God;" that "by grace we are saved through faith;" that "he who believeth not is condemned already;" and that "all unbelievers shall have their portion in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone.' At the same time it is no less clearly stated, that "all men have not faith." If we read of some, who "believe to the saving of their souls," we hear also of others, who "have an evil heart of unbelief:" who "concerning faith have made shipwreck :" who, because "the God of this world hath blinded their minds, believe not."-While such are the representations of the word of God, who does not perceive the importance of St. Paul's admonition in the text, "examine yourselves, whether ye be in faith: prove your ownselves?”

In urging the Corinthians to institute this enquiry into their state, the apostle probably was apprehensive, that there might be among them some who were deceiving themselves by a false shew of religion; who, while they assumed the title of believers, had really no just pretensions to the character. To such persons, the examination prescribed might be attended with incalculable benefit. By disclosing to them the insincerity of their christian profession, it would destroy their vain confidence; and thus, through the divine blessing, might eventually lead them to build their hopes on a less dangerous foundation.

There might be others, also, to whom a compliance with the apostle's exhortation would be highly profitable. There might be persons who entertained considerable, though needless fears of their interest in the Redeemer; persons, who in fact possessing unequivocal evidences of a true and living faith, yet, from want of duly investigating them, continued to class themselves with unbelievers, and formed the most gloomy conclusions concerning their spiritual state. Let these persons, however, be persuaded to "examine themselves, whether they be in the faith;" let them “ prove their ownselves." will be the result of such an enquiry? Convinced that their fears are groundless, their conclusions unreasonable, they will cast aside their despondency, and will "go on their way rejoicing."

What

But were characters of these descriptions to be found only in the times of the apostle? Doubtless they are to be found in all ages. Doubtless the admonition may be as profitably applied in this, as in any preceding age of the church, for the purposes of detecting the self-deceiver, and of administering strength and consolation to the weak and afflicted christian.

Such is the application which I design to make of this admonition. In prosecuting the design, I shall address, I. Those, who assert that they have faith.

II. Those, who fear that they have not faith.

And may that holy spirit, who only can discover to the heart its errors, or can shine upon his own work of grace in the soul, bless the discussion of this momentous

subject to the conviction, or to the comfort of all concerned !

I. My brethren, you assert that you have faith. Far is it from my intention to deny the assertion. God grant that it may be true! But I would wish to suggest the possibility of its being false. You may possibly be deceived in the sentiments which you entertain of yourselves. You may possibly think more favourably of your state, than in reality you ought to think. What con

duct then does wisdom prescribe? In a matter on which consequences so important to your everlasting interests are suspended, it warns you to proceed with caution. While a possibility exists of your being mistaken, where a mistake must be attended with irretrievable ruin; it warns you to pause, before you decidedly form your opinion; to investigate with attention the grounds on which your conclusion is built. Your edifice, if it be founded on a rock, will not be less secure, because you shall have examined the foundation: and your confidence will be proportionally augmented by the conviction, thus acquired, of its firmness and stability.-Suffer me then to propose some leading topics for your serious examination.

1. Are your views of faith correct and scriptural?— Such views indeed are not essential to the attainment of faith. You may have attained to true faith, though you may neither distinctly conceive, nor be able accurately to define it. You cannot however know that you have attained to it, without having formed some just apprehensions respecting it. In examining yourselves, "whether ye be in the faith," unless you have ascertained what true faith is, you cannot arrive at any satisfactory conclusion on the subject.

What then are your views of the object of faith? Faith in general has respect to the word of God. Every revelation of the divine will is in truth the object of faith. But the faith, of which we particularly speak, is the faith of the gospel. Of this faith the object is Christ crucified, the Lamb of God, who, by the sacrifice of himself, takes away the sin of the world. This was the object, to which, as the predicted seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head, the saints before the flood