silent tomb; this is the voice of truth and universal experience. Now for the sake of such empty goods to lose the soul in hell, and be consigned to a place of endless torment, and hopeless separation from the living God, whose loving kindness is the life and joy of all creation-who can say what folly this is! Who could believe any man to act so absurdly, did not experience witness that thousands so act; that the many do thus ruin themselves by running in the broad road to destruction! Not one in this house, then, but will own that such an exchange is madness in the extreme, and that for any man to lose his soul for the greatest of earthly advantages, is folly in its

essence.

There is a farther deceit in this business. The spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience suggests, "What need of such precise strictness ?" May not we follow the world in some degree, and give our hearts to it, in some measure, and yet from a merciful God expect pardon and salvation, if we keep clear of gross crimes, and attend some religious duties at certain seasons!" Ah! brethren, who was it that said, "ye cannot serve God and mammon?” and, inspired by his Spirit, does not one of his disciples say, "whosoever will be the friend of the world, is the enemy of God?" Does not another say, "if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him?" And does not another say, "be not conformed to this world," and give us his own pattern, that he "gladly suffers the loss of all things, and counts them but dung, that he may win Christ?" Thus Christ himself; thus James, John, and Paul his servants, with one voice declare. A

man cannot place his heart on this world, and on God together. The objects are inconsistent with one another. As easily may a man travel northward and southward at the same moment. Do not mistake. It is one christian duty among others, "not to be slothful in business," and for every man to provide for his own house." But the heart, the heart must be only for God; he is a jealous God; he will have the whole heart, or none of it. He alone must be our portion. We must sit loose to every thing else; be ready to part with any thing; with all things, when he calls. We must not make out our happiness from any thing, but from himself.

Now you who talk thus of dividing between God and the world, are evidently living for this world only. Were it not for a pang of conscience now and then, and for slavish fear, religion would not be at all attended to by you. When you comfort your minds with prospects of pleasure, confess it is not from the thought of a reconciled God in Christ, and the prospect of a blessed resurrection to eternal life, but from gain or pleasures, or something or other of a worldly kind. The reason why you feel not the impossibility of serving God and mammon together, is because you are at ease as to your soul. Its worth you never felt. Satan keeps you asleep in sin, with a view to ruin you for ever, and you talk of the easiness of being religious, with the same spirit as any man, who never made trial of any trade or art, talks how easy it is. He is aware of no difficulty, because he knows nothing of the subject.

Awake, awake to careful thought, and be alarmed; for all the horrors of hell, that have been de

scribed, belong to you, in your present state; and the vain world you seek, with all your heart, is vanity indeed. To you let our Lord's question in the text ring a loud alarm. Conscience! do thine office in these men; let them not sleep the sleep of the second death, in Satan's chains. Oh! may the good spirit of God show you what you are, and make you feel the force of the question.

For after men are awakened indeed, and begin in earnest to ask "what they must do to be saved," and obtain some light, and put some things which they know in practice, they feel in real experience, what, in former carelessness of thought, they could not understand; that, indeed, there is no such thing as serving God and mammon. They see the world to lie in wickedness, and the glory and service of God, and the beauty of holiness to be quite contrary to it. Then the opposition between the two interests, that of God's kingdom and of Satan's kingdom, becomes palpably evident; and they find that "in them dwells no good thing." They have a lazy, lustful, blind, proud, rebellious nature, that needs to be mor tified and brought down universally, or there is no living to God at all. But besides the strife and conflict, from the evil nature, which all have in common, according to men's different tempers and situations and temptations, they find, in many particular things, the effects of this conflict, which shake their inmost souls, and cause a civil war within.

Feel you not thus, O seeking souls!" Oh! this and that lust, how strong do I find it! How does it overcome me again and again! This fear of the world, what a snare does it bring to me! These

tempers, how bitter and obstinate! This pride, how stubborn! This love of the world, how bewitching!" None of you who feel with power these things, are thinking that you can be saved, while these lusts and these sins remain unmortified, and you continue at your ease. No, you have not so learned from the Spirit of Christ. Thank God, your eyes are thus far opened. This is more than the easy, careless souls have learnt, to whom I first addressed myself. Be hence encouraged, however, to press on for victory, lest your latter end be worse than the first.

But mind the manner in which you are to press on for victory; for in the little that remains of this discourse, I shall carry you forward to complete everlasting victory; I mean so far as man can do it in word. And may the Holy Ghost do it with power for you and for me.

You should be led, then, and if led by the Spirit of God, you will be led to bring the worth of the soul, and the worth of the world, each into opposite scales of the balance. And you will weigh them in the balance of God, that is, of truth. The soul will infinitely outweigh. To escape hell; eternal, remediless, pitiless hell, in the company of the Devil and his angels; to gain heaven, the fullness of joy, the likeness of God, and fellowship with Jesus Christ:-This will be your simple, infinitely weighty object. The world, its gains, pleasures, friendships, honours, all together, will kick the beam, light as air; as a shadow; as nothing. The most alluring lusts will lose their hold. You are called to give up, what? a nothing; that which is not worth keeping; what it is infinitely better to lose than to hold,

whenever God pleases. You are called on to receive freely happiness itself. You will know, that the end of the love of the world is the second death in the lake of fire: you will see that the love of the world deserves the lake of fire; nay, that you deserve it for what is past already; how much more for the continuance of such a state of sin for the time to come.

Does this conviction come hardly to you! Indeed it does; but, oh! Christ, thou canst do it, and the spiritual view of thee crucified and made a curse for us, shows it invincibly. Then pride receives its death wound: man fell by pride, and he must rise again by humility. Saved by grace alone you now feel you must be, if at all; and you will now hear Jesus inviting you so to be saved, and telling you he shed his blood, that you might live. You believe and are pardoned, sanctified and live new creatures. But how is this brought about? You find you must part with all, even your righteousness, for Christ. You have no strength for this. Into Christ's arms you fall as the clay, and there lie. He raises you by faith. He tells you his victory is yours. "These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world."