Secondly, That immoral actions admit of no excuse, but will subject every man to the judgment of God. For morality not being founded primarily upon the authority of revelation, but upon that reafon which is a common gift to mankind, every man muft answer for the use of his own reason: and where reason fhews him the difference of good and evil, if he chooses the evil he is without excuse. There is no juftification, no excufe, to be offered for fin in this cafe: it is in vain to plead paffion or temptation, for reafon was given for this very purpose, to govern paffion: and the fubmitting to paffion and temptation against the light of reafon is the very depravity and corruption of heart that calls for vengeance and therefore to plead paffion as an excufe for acting against your reafon, is to plead your own iniquity as a reafon why you fhould not be punished. This rule laid down by St. James is decifive in this point, To him that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is fin.

It may be faid perhaps, that the notions of morality differ in different places; and that, through the power and force of cuftom and education, the things which appear to fome to be worthy of ftripes, appear to others in another light, and to have nothing criminal in them. Be it fo: for I mean not to conteft this piece of history at present. But yet, I fay, this avails not in the prefent argument, nor affords any advantage to them who feek to excufe iniquity by pleading paffion and infirmity. Where there is no confcioufnefs of fin, there is no room to look out for excuses: and therefore whatever allowance may be made to those,

who in fuch unhappy circumftances fin without knowledge; yet certain it is, that all who contrive excuses for themfelves can have no advantage of this circumftance: for the very making an excufe fhews the consciousness of fin, and is a conviction that you have in your own opinion committed things worthy of ftripes. How foolish a thing then is it to lose the profpect of pardon, by deceiving yourself into an opinion that you do not want one? Such fins may be forgiven through repentance, but no art, no wit of man will ever juftify them.

Thirdly, It appears from this determination made by our bleffed Saviour, that all who know the will of God, and live under the light of his Gospel, fhall, whether they like it or whether they like it not, be finally judged according to the Gospel. The rule is peremptory; All who know the will of their Lord, and prepare not themselves, nor do according to his will, fhall be beaten with many ftripes. Men act fometimes as if they thought it were in their own power to choose what law they would be judged by. As foon as they profess natural religion, they look upon themselves to have no farther concern with the Gospel, but seem satisfied that they fhall be judged by their own notions. But if the Gospel of Chrift be indeed, as indeed it is, the will of God, it will not be fo eafily parted with. It is the law of our great Mafter, and obey it we must. The advice of a friend we may use or refuse, as we think fit; but the laws of our fuperiors muft be obeyed. True, you will fay, fuppofing it to be the law of our superior; but that is the very thing which you cannot admit. Look well to it, that this

perfuafion be not your crime: the people of Chorazin and Beth faida did not believe in Chrift Jefus ; yet the evidence placed before their eyes was such, that their disbelief was the very circumftance which rendered their cafe more deplorable than that of Tyre and Sidon. The people of Jerufalem were alfo unbelievers; yet fuch was their unbelief, that at laft the things which made for their peace were hid from their eyes. Here then is your cafe: you have the Gospel of Chrift Jesus before you; it claims your obedience upon no flight credentials it was introduced by greater works than ever man did; it was fealed with the blood of its great author, and has been handed down to you by those who facrificed all that was dear to them in the world in confirmation of its truth. Think not then that it can be an indifferent matter whether you receive or reject this law; or that it matters not by what light you walk, fince you expect fo much equity from God that he will judge you according to the light you have: for if the Gospel be the law of God offered to you, as it certainly is, and you are in the number of those unto whom much was given, of you therefore fhall much be required.

The mercy of God offered to you in the Gospel through Chrift Jefus is a call to repentance from dead works it is a fummons to you, to turn to the living God in works of righteousness and holiness. When John the Baptift gave notice of the near approach of our bleffed Lord, the fum of his doctrine was, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Our Saviour and his disciples introduce the Gospel with the fame warning; and St. Paul teaches,

that God, who winked at the times of ignorance, now, under the Gospel, calleth all men every where to repentance; and hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. If then the great promises made through Chrift Jefus belong only to penitents, who forfake fin, and turn to God in newness of heart, how fadly do men impose upon themselves, who truft to be faved by God's mercy, without doing the work of God, and continue in fin in hopes that grace may abound? Little do they confider, that those false presumptuous hopes will prove in the end great and real aggravations of their iniquity. To fin in hopes of mercy, is abufing the mercy of God, and making the goodness of our heavenly Father a reason for difobeying him. To plead the death or merits of Chrift in excufe or in juftification of iniquity, will fo little avail, that it will amount to a condemnation out of our own mouths. Chrift died to deftroy the works of the devil, to redeem us from fin, to sanctify an elect people to God: every Christian knows this, or may know it, if he looks into his Bible. Confider now what the plea in excufe for fin amounts to: in the mouth of a Chriftian it must come to this; I know that Chrift died to deftroy fin, but I will keep my fins, and truft in his death: I know that the promises of God are made to those only who forfake their evil deeds; but I will depend on his promises for the pardon of my evil deeds, though I forfake them not. Thefe are the perfons, who, by abufing Chrift and his re-. demption, do put him to open fhame in the world, and, in the language of the Apoftle, do crucify to themselves afresh the Son of God. Happy had it been

for fuch men, had they been born in the darkest corners of the earth, to which the glad tidings of the Gospel never came: then they might have pleaded ignorance, and weakness, and want of the knowledge of God's will; but now they live, and act, and reafon like heathens in the noon-day light of the Gospel. And what can be the confequence of fuch a life, and fuch a knowledge, but this only, that they shall be beaten with many stripes?

As to ourselves, we have great reason to bless God daily, that by his good providence we have been born and educated in a Chriftian country; that we have been admitted into the church of his bleffed Son, and have had betimes the means of knowledge and of grace communicated to us: but let us take heed that we do not turn these bleffings into curfes upon ourselves by our abufing them. These are great talents which our bleffed Lord has entrufted us with, if we use them as we ought: if we improve them to the glory of God, and the good of them about us, happy will it be for us, and we shall one day hear that bleffed fentence, Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. But if we neglect these great opportunities of falvation which God now affords, they will one day rise up in judgment against us, and condemn us. And it fhall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in that day, than for wicked Chriftians who were redeemed by the cross of Chrift, but who accounted the blood of the covenant a vain thing; who were fanctified by the Holy Ghoft, but did despite to the Spirit of God; who were bought with a price to be the fervants of God, but who fold themselves for flaves to iniquity.