tament, was inculcated with equal clearness by a psalmist in the old- Serve the lord with

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fear, and rejoice with trembling!

I propose therefore for our consideration this morning the perils of the christian life. May the lord awaken us to a due sense of them, that we may estimate them rightly, and ever apply for the only effectual preservative! and more especially, knowing us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright, may he himself grant us such strength and protection as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations through Jesus Christ, our lord!

I have spoken of an interval between the act of justification and the act of glorification. These two are, as it were, the starting-place and the goal of the christian course: and the space between them, or the whole time of our sojourning here, the interval between our first beginning to be sojourners in heart and purpose and our arriving at our promised home, is the period, allowed for our sanctification. It is

that interval, through the whole of which a christian continues in a state of salvation. That is to say, in a state of recovery from sin. He ought to be recovering from sin during the whole of that period. He is for this purpose undergoing a salutary discipline through the unction of the holy one, and ought to be going on daily from one degree of faith to another, from one measure of strength to a higher, to be overcoming some corruption, strengthening in some grace, separating farther from the power of evil, and drawing nearer and closer to God and Christ; and, if instead of advancing he ever recede, if instead of growing in grace he relapse into sin, if after escaping the pollutions of the world he be again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with him than the beginning.

Therefore I say, that the interval between the act of justification and the act of glorification is a fearful interval, and requires perpetual watchfulness and prayer.

Let us come to further particulars!

The dangers of a christian arise altogether from within him. He has a moral disease,

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which gives temptation all the power sesses to molest him. The allurements of the world, the example of the ungodly, the suggestions of the evil one would have no strength to seduce him, were the distemper of his soul healed: and the worst symptom of his disorder is a remaining unwillingness to be healed. We are none of us ready to submit to all those sacrifices, which christianity requires of us, and which, if made, would at once remove the obstructions, by which our recovery is retarded. We are not ready to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove, what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, because the process involves in it the unwelcome duty of presenting our bodies, a living sacrifice, unto God. Remove but this remaining unwillingness! and the work of sanctification would go on with less interruption. Ye will not come to me,' (says the saviour) that ye may have life.'

This unwillingness to be made whole provokes God. It provokes him to withdraw from the soul, that is so reluctant to receive him, and to deny to it the comfort of his holy spirit,

even though its power may remain. In short through the whole of this interval God tries his servants, and thus brings them to perceive more and more their necessity for watchfulness and prayer.

Sometimes he tries them by abandoning them for a time to their own resources, that he may thus shew them, what is in their heart. This was the case with Hezekiah, of whom it is written in the thirty-first verse of the thirtysecond chapter of the second book of chronicles, that God left him, to try him, that he might know all, that was in his heart.

Sometimes he allows Satan to tempt them, that so they may perceive, how entirely they depend upon his grace, to sustain their integrity and obedience. This was the case with Job. It was also the case with Peter: and what was the consequence? Job contended with the almighty, and justified himself more than God. Peter denied his saviour.

Instances are numerous in scripture of holy men being betrayed into grievous faults. Even Abraham, the father of the faithful, was not once only, but twice overpowered by the same

temptation, and became guilty of a sinful prevarication; David, the man after God's own heart, fell into gross adultery and cruel murder; and Solomon, though wiser than all men, was perverted by his wives, to forsake the lord, God of his fathers.

We

These are instructive, though humbling lessons, and should teach us the necessity of perpetual watchfulness and prayer. perceive by them, that the holiest of men is not safe from the most grievous of offences, unless he be upheld continually by the almighty grace of the holy spirit.

But besides gross offences, from which ordinarily the sincere servants of God are preserved through his mercy, they have to lament frequent omissions of duty, and deficiencies in the performance of it, from which no one in this stage of his being can be clear even for a day; for in many things we offend all. What duty is there, that we ever discharge according to the standard of the divine law, that standard, of which our saviour never came short in word, in act, or in thought?