Page images
PDF
EPUB

stake; heaven or hell for a recompense; eternal bliss, or eternal torment. The righteous will be most certainly received into glory, to live in great joy and rejoicing forever; and the wicked with all the nations that forget God, will as certainly be turned into hell and tormented forever. It is high time to be men in understanding, and resist the adversary, your old master, and tell him you will no longer submit to his yoke, to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for him, or, in other words, that you will no longer serve him, he his slaves, or fulfil criminal indulgences, the lusts of the flesh in various ways; resist I repeat; the devil resolutely at the foot of the cross, with full purpose of heart henceforth to serve the true and living God, and Satan shall flee from you, for Christ hath spoken it. O that you would become believing, obedient children. O that you would consider your latter end ere it be too late. Where would your immortal souls be most happy? 1 presume you all admit that you have souls, or am I addressing infidels? there may be some among us, however, may they by the grace of God, be roused from their unholy dreaming ere they awake in hell. Where would your immortal souls be now, had God-do you believe there is a God, or do I address atheists? if you believe in the Divine Being, Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Omnipotent, why do you dare to disobey his words and dishonor him, and also despise the inestimable treasure, when properly cultivated, in your possession; that spark which is to live forever, either in heaven or hell; that portion of the Deity, your immortal souls-bad God called or would now summon you to give account at his bar, had death overtaken or would do so ere to morrow's Sun; remember the time and the seasons are in Jehovah's hands; how do you think you would fare in eternity? would this discourse also have availed you nothing; been as good seed sown upon hard, dry, and unproductive ground; repelled by the adamantine texture of your hearts; or snatched away by Satan your cruel enemy, who hitherto held you in bondage and slavery, kept your souls in darkness,

[ocr errors]

deluding you in various ways, making you believe that the glorious gospel scheme of Salvation, through our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, was all a chimera; and even succeeded in getting some to believe there was no God, no heaven to gain nor hell to shun, and that they had no immortal souls; levelling them, on this subject, to the brute creation, which neither speak nor understand. I would fain caution you now to put you on your guard for the future; to beware of his subtilty; he will keep you in his service forever, if you do not out general him, through the merits of Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, and take refuge in the Rock of Ages, and repel him with the christian's armor, with the shield of faith, the helmet of hope, the breast-plate of righteousness, and the sword of the Holy Spirit, which is also the word of God. Be therefore, up and doing; work out your soul's salvation with fear and trembling while it is day, ere the night comes upon you and ye will then be unable so to do; if you persevere in your rebellion against God, instead of warring in his cause, for his glory and also yours, as there is none other worth a straw, you are liable to be given over, (having exhausted God's mercy in your behalf) to hardness of heart and reprobateness of mind, and thus come under the last clause of our text.Furthermore, they that have been often reproved and stiffen their necks shall be cut off suddenly,and that without remedy, and this may be to all of you. O self-secure, drowsy sinners, in a few more revolving suns your bodies may be buried be neath the clods of the valley, or perhaps some with more pomp and ceremony, in some temple or cathedral, with a tablet over your mortal remains to secure your fame to posterity, to live forever as the blind world calls it; while your immortal souls may be in torments with the damned, having been condemned at the bar of Jehovah, and doomed to a death that never, never ends. Now while it is yet this side the grave, 1 would fain whisper it into every one of your ears, yea, and also proclaim it upon the house top, that the only way to live forever, is through faith in Him

who saith, "I am the resurrection and the life, he that be. lieveth in me though he were dead yet shall he live, and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die." May this be the portion of us all, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with Father and Holy Spirit, be all the honor, glory, dominion, majesty and power, now, henceforth, and forevermore. Amen.

DISCOURSE II.

ON FAITH.

Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans, 10th chapter, 17th verse.

These are the words of the great apostle to the Romans, a people who had been, previous to his mission among them, in a state of barbarism, worshipping strange Gods, birds, beasts, and creeping things, and thus indulging in gross idolatries; they did not like to retain the knowledge of the true God in their minds, and consequently were given over by the Almighty to commit all manner of filthy lewdness, to the abusing their bodies between one another; even their women left off the natural way and permitted themselves to be used against nature and even savage decency, and if you allow me the expression, civilization. He also describes them as implacably unmerciful, full of envy, hatred, malice, murder, deceit, estranged from all natural affection and more akin to the beasts, if not below them, than to say even a moral state of human beings; and therefore, without doubt, worshippers of devils, exercising themselves in their hellish inventions, working in the black art with familiar spirits, with devils, and committing all filthy abominations with these foul spirits, and consequently stunk in the nostrils of Jehovah, as all have done before them, and will to the end of time, that are so far degenerated and sunk beneath the decency of swine and dogs. When a nation becomes thus degraded, as mentioned by our blessed Lord in his sermon on the mount, they may expect little else than to be speedily judged from on high, and that a holy God will avenge himself of such filthy, disgusting creatures, and cleanse his nostrils of the stink; he had done it in many instances before, and even the people whom he chose to put his name upon did not escape his

judgments and avenging rod. He bears an inveterate hatred against all that live in such abominable filthiness, even individually, and how much more when a nation disregards his smiles and frowns, and in all their proceedings think to vex him, and to stink more and more in his nostrils. Verily their career is hastening to a speedy close, their days are numbered, their destruction is hastening on apace, and as holy David says, "They are turned into hell." And so it was also with this nation, he brought their pride down to the dung heap, and what are they now as a nation? only for people resorting thither from other nations, they would be unable to get a temporal livelihood.

Thus the Omniscient eye of the Lord of Hosts dodges after the ways of the wicked, and his Omnipotent arm strikes them to the ground. He is a God jealous of his own glory, and will never give up the earth to the devil, as some may vainly imagine, but will always have a holy nation of Kings and Priests, among all nations of the earth, a peculiar people whom he delights to honor :

"He looks 'mid circumvolving spheres,
Complaisant on his ransom'd heirs,

More dear than all his works beside,

Blest souls for whom the Saviour died."

Yea verily, God does in his saints delight; they are the ap, ple of his eye, and as trees planted by the rivers of waters, bringing forth fruit of a sweet savour; their leaves also shall not wither, and they shall flourish as the rose and the lilly under the light of his countenance. "The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away."Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish."

[ocr errors]

I have been thus lengthy descanting on the prevailing sins of the Romans, and for which also other nations were annihilated, because I am among creatures of similar dispositions,

« PreviousContinue »