the revelation of the righteous judgement of God, who will render to every one according to his work. Knowing, therefore, the terrors of the Lord, as the Apostle speaks, we persuade men, we lay before you the unreasonable nature of sin, the awful consequences it has entailed upon thousands, the dire effects it has occasioned to multitudes; families, towns, cities and nations, have been depopulated by this abominable thing, which God hates. We warn you that you may strive against it, we admonish you that you may cease to commit it, we apprise you of its bitter end: however pleasing it may seem now, whatever attractive forms it may assume, its appearances are delusive, its nature is deceitful, its tendency is to harden, to corrupt, to spoil, to overthrow with a terrible confusion. Would any of you take poison because there was some pleasant and delightful ingredient mixed with it? and will you so love sin as to forfeit your salvation? Will you be so deluded with the glittering toys of this world, as to make no account of the next? Will you be so infatuated with this passing scene, with this frail life, with this chequered state, with this vain shadow, as to neglect the substantial joys, the solid comforts, the exalted happiness, the refined pleasures which flow at the right hand of thy Majesty in the Heavens? What a senseless part do such persons act, what a foolish

line of conduct do they pursue, and sooner or later they will discover this, bye and bye they will find out their error, perhaps when too late, this is often the case, thus it frequently happens, and then what remains but self reproaches, melancholy reflections, dismal ideas, horrible thoughts. It is certain that all who do not repent in this life, must repent in the after life; but then it will do them no good; it will afford them no relief, it will not alleviate their sufferings; it cannot proceed from a good motive, because it will not be accompanied with obedience; it cannot be genuine, since it will never yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness; it must then be counterfeit and false, arising from fear and dread, from pain and anguish, from a sense of the present and a contemplation of the future.

But it is time to make some improvement of the subject we have been considering. Are there not then some of my hearers who resemble the character mentioned in the text;-who say in their hearts, there is no God? Is it not the wish and desire of those who are living in sin unrepented of? Many who have denied the Being of a God through life-such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Payne, &c. &c. have acknowledged His existence at the hour of death. The former of these, who used to make sport with the sacred name and character of Jesus Christ, in his dying

moments cried repeatedly to Him for help: but he cried in vain; then was that Scripture fulfilled "I will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh: when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you, then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me, for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord; they would none of my council, they despised all my reproof, therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices." God, you see, will not be mocked. How awful to fall into his hands unprepared? How terrible to meet him in a course of sin? How heart-rending to be ushered into his presence with a mountain of guilt upon the conscience? Ah! my brethren, think of this and take warning. Doubtless some of you who cannot cease from sin, quake, as it were, when you think of the last judgment, and the solemnities attending that grand period when all earthly distinctions will be for ever abolished, and all human honours will for ever die away. Such thoughts as these will obtrude upon the most obdurate at times, they will occasionally visit the most careless and profane, in spite of all the sinner's efforts to withstand them. Does not the conduct of some

you as

here seem to say, that you are not accountable, or that you have got a lease of your life, or a licence to sin; you know a reckoning time will come, you know also that it may come quickly, even before you leave this Church, and so sudden as the twinkling of an eye, and what can be more rapid than the motion of the eye-lash? You well know that matters are not with they should be, that your heart is not right with God; your affairs may go on prosperously with relation to this world, you may have numerous flocks and herds, you may eat the fat and drink the sweet (to speak in the language of Scripture) but what will you do when the Almighty taketh away your breath? When your soul is required? When an account of your stewardship is demanded? The answer is obvious; going out of the world, you are ready to say in this condition, dying in this state, quitting this mortal scene in such a frame of mind-I must sink; and sink never to rise again, except it be to shame and everlasting contempt.

SERMON VI.

MATTHEW, CHAP. 18, VERSE 20.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. IN this chapter the Saviour inculcates humility and Christian forbearance upon his Disciples, and he did not, like many of our modern teachers, enforce those principles upon others, and yet remain a stranger to them himself; but he made his light so to shine before men, that even his adversaries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious works that were done by him.

In discoursing from these words, I shall state, in the 1st place, what is implied by being gathered together in the name of Christ. 2dly, notice the encouragement afforded to such; and conclude with suitable observations.

What is it then to be gathered together in the name of Christ? It is not to come together for the purpose of gratifying the senses as in the case of thousands at our theatrical assemblies,