build your hopes on the foundation of God's word. Be perfuaded to make religion a serious bufinefs, and to ftrive for an entrance at the ftrait gate; for this is the only paffage into the kingdom of heaven. Wait not until the door is fhut. Delay not at all, for you know not when the door will be fhut. Afk and knock, while mercy ftands at the gate to invite you in, and to tell you that still there is room. Hear her voice while it is called to day, and harden not your hearts. Know the things of your peace in this your day, left they be hidden from your eyes. Behold, now is the day of falvation. If you neglect this great falvation, how will you efcape?

Fourthly. The next thing which falls under our confideration, is the character of thofe whom our Lord will reject, and of thofe whom he will admit, at the last day. "I tell you I know you not depart from me all workers of iniquity." The reverfe of this is the character of thofe whom he will receive: they are workers of righteoufnefs. So he inftructs us. "Not every one that faith unto me, Lord, Lord, fhall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doth the will of my father, who is in heaven.*

You will obferve, that thofe whom Chrift excludes from his kingdom are workers of iniquity. Sin is their work, their bufinefs, their delight.

Good men often fall into particular acts of fin, but they are not workers of it, or fervants to it to obey it in the lufts thereof. They may be overtaken with it, when they, in general, flee from it; but they do not purfue it with a defire to overtake and embrace it. In this fenfe John fays, "He that is born of God doth not commit fin, for his feed remaineth in him, and he cannot fin, because he is born of God." There is in him a

principle which opposes fin. He does not commit or practise fin as a fervant of it; but he watches against it, fhuns the known temptations to it, abftains from the appearance of it; and, whenever he is drawn into it, he reflects upon it with humiliation for it, with repentance of it, with prayers for grace to preferve him from it, and with refolutions to keep himself. Those imperfections and mifcarriages, which are not allowed and indulged, but are foon followed with penitent reflections and humble resolutions, do not denominate us workers of iniquity, and will not exclude us from the kingdom of Chrift; for these are not inconfiftent with a principle of faith and holiness in the heart; but are incident to fanctified fouls in this imperfect ftate. They are the works of that law in the members, which wars against the law of the mind.

We may farther obferve, that all workers of iniquity will be condemned. Not one habitual finner not one, who knowingly lives in wickedness, and finally dies in impenitence, will be admitted into heaven. It is not merely this or that fin; but it is any and every fin indulged and allowed, which fhuts the door against men. You think, perhaps, that you shall enter in at the gate, because you are not a drunkard, an extortioner, a thief, a liar. But remember, other vicious characters are excluded as well as thefe. If there be any one kind of iniquity, which you love and practice, and which you refuse to renounce, there is no place in heaven for you; for nothing enters there which defiles or works abomination."Know ye not," fays the apoftle, " that the unrighteous fhall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor thieves,

nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, fhall inherit the kingdom of God." You will obferve, the apoftle does not fay, that the man in whom all these vicious characters meet, but the man to whom any one of them belongs, will be excluded from the kingdom of glory. If there be any one fin, which you cherish and retain, your fouls are guilty and defiled; and before you can enter into heaven, you must be washed, juftified and fanctified in the name of the Lord Jefus, and by the spirit of God. Saint John fays, "They who do God's commandments," they who have respect to them all without referve, "fhall enter through the gates into the city; for without are dogs, and forcerers, and adulterers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whatsoever loveth and maketh a lie,"

You fee, then, that, whatever duties you feem to perform, and whatever qualifications, you think, you poffefs; if you be not new creaturesif you have not the love of God in your hearts; but ftill retain fome known wickednefs, fome favorite luft; you cannot enter through the ftrait gate.

Though you make a good profeffion, yet if your hearts and lives be not conformed to it,though you call Chrift your Lord, yet if you do not the things which he says, he will disown you as none of his. "Behold, thou art called a Jew," fays the apostle, "and refteft in the law, and makeft thy boaft of God-circumcifion verily profiteth, if thou keep the law; but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcifion is become uncircumcifion. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcifion which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, who is one inwardly, and circumcifion is that of the heart, in VOL. V.

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the fpirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God."

The highest attainments in knowledge will not avail to your acceptance, without a correfpondent temper and practice. Though you hear Chrift teaching in your ftreets, as well as in his own houfe, and attend upon his inftructions both in feafon and out of feafon; yet if you regard not the things which he fays, he will profefs unto you, that he never knew you. They who hear his fayings and do them not, are like a man, who builds his house on the fand. They only are bleff ed, who hear his word and keep it. Though you have all knowledge, and understand all myfteries, yet without charity, you are nothing.

Farther; Though you fhould be greatly awakened in hearing the word, and fhould feel pungent convictions of fin and ftrong terrors from the reprefentations of hell and judgment; yet if these fenfations die away, and leave your hearts unchanged, and your lives unreformed, you have no claim to heaven. When Paul reasoned of righteoufnefs, temperance and the judgment to come, Felix trembled. But he foon difmiffed the folemn fubject for the prefent; and we do not Jearn, that he ever refumed it. Judas felt the anguifh and horror of guilt; but he remained a fon of perdition, and is gone to his place.

Yea; though you fhould not only be alarmed by the threatenings, but also comforted by the promises of the gofpel; yet if there be not an abiding conformity to its holy precepts, your guilt remains. We read of fome, who not only hear the word, but receive it with joy, and yet have no root in themselves. Thefe, in a time of temptation, fall away. They are like ftony ground, in which the feed fown fprings up fpeedily; but because it has no root, it withers and dies.

However ftrict and regular you are in your attendance on the duties of devotion and the ordinances of Chrift, if your hearts be not devoted to him, your claims to heaven will be rejected. There are fome who eat and drink in his prefence, and still remain workers of iniquity. In Christ neither circumcifion, nor uncircumcifion availeth any thing, but a new creature. Devotional duties are highly important as the means of holinefs, but if you fubftitute them in the place. of holiness, and make the whole of your religion to confift in them, they then become unprofitable and vain.

And, finally, whatever you do in religion, if you be not influenced by the motives which the gofpel propofes to you-motives taken from the character of God, and your relation to him-from the things which he has done for you, and the glorious hopes which he has fet before youif instead of these motives, you admit only those which respect the prefent world; your religion is but external; it has no place in the heart, and will not be accepted of that holy being, who requires truth in the inward parts.

As we have violated the purity, and incurred the penalty of the divine law, we muft know, that our present repentance and future obedience cannot be the ground of our pardon here, nor of our happiness hereafter. This must be the free mercy of God, which he exercises toward finners through the facrifice of Jefus Chrift. We are never to confider any thing which we do as having the leaft degree of meritorious influence in procuring our falvation; but we are to afcribe this, in every stage of its progress, to the grace of God in the redeemer.

Perfonal holiness, however, is a neceffary qual