Page images
PDF
EPUB

fice, or difhonefty. Fortify your fouls in the ways of uprightnefs, by the frequent reflection that you are to appear before the Judge of the world; and that, what you are now fo anxious to conceal, will then be openly expofedthink how you fhall be overwhelmed with fhame, with remorfe, and with apprehenfion, and think, how every one you may have wronged, by the use of "a small measure, or "a falfe balance," will deliver in his evidence against you.

SERMON

SERMON XXIV.

JAMES V. 14,

Is any fick among you? let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him.

N the affairs of this life, whatever is of mo

[ocr errors]

ment is performed by wife, and prudent men, without delay: in the affairs of eternity, indifference, thoughtleffness, neglect, defiance, are fo confpicuously visible, as to ftrike the most inobservant. I would lead your attention to a circumftance of infinite moment: 1 mean, the extreme abfurdity, the unaccountable folly, the imminent danger, of fuffering fickness and decay, to make flow, yet fenfible, attacks upon the human frame, before the ordinances of the Gospel are embraced, and before any preparation is made for eternity, An abfurd notion prevails amongst the ignorant, that the fick, who are fo ill as to need the vifits of the clergy, rarely recover. Ridiculous! It is likewife fuppofed, that, if a man

make

make his will, he shall not long furvive. What! Do you imagine Providence is directed in the administration of the universe by cir cumftances like thefe?" God doeth whatfo"ever pleaseth Him in heaven above, in the "earth beneath, in the fea, and in all deep

66

places, and none can stay his hand, or say "unto him, what doest thou?" In confequence of fuch dangerous prepoffeffion, the minifter is often fent for, when the poor wretch is in the agonies of death, or fo diftracted with pain, or overwhelmed with fick nefs, as to be infenfible of his fituation. What is to be done? He is requested to adminifter the Blef fed Sacrament, and the friends of the fick perfon charitably hope, that, if it should please God to take him, all will then be well. Sometimes indeed he is induftriously kept from a sense of his fituation, left a concern for his falvation should co-operate with his fickness, to bring him to the grave.

than

If there be any condition, which, more another, excites our commiferation and pity, it is that of a wicked man with small hopes of life, awakened to a fenfe of his danger. Stung with remorfe, his whole conduct arifes before

his view the extortion and injustice he has committed; the oaths and curfes he hath uttered; the fabbaths he has profaned-he fees every fin unite to condemn him in the fight of God: he looks forward to the iffue of his conduct, and his confcience prefents the Redeemer of mankind, no longer merciful and forbearing, but ready to take vengeance for his iniquities❝ a fire devours before him, and behind him a " flame burneth." Had the man, before his fickness had made fo dreadful a progrefs, fent, as the text directs, " for the elders of the “church, the minifters of reconciliation". had he made the best reparation to those he had injured-had he, as his fickness increased, made a proportionate progrefs in the work of repentance, and made his peace with God-he might, instead of being distracted with remorse, and agonized with despair, have entertained humble hopes of being admitted, through the all-fufficient merits of Jefus Chrift, into the mansions of everlasting peace. Can there be a ftronger argument to prevail with you, on the firft intimation of fickness, to enter upon the work of repentance? that, if it shall please God to restore you to health, forrow for fin

may

may produce reformation of life: or, if the Almighty, in his all-wife counfels, fhould otherwife determine, that you may have a more comfortable profpect of eternity.

By a timely exhortation to repentance and amendment, the fick may be enabled, if ficknefs continue long upon them, to correct, by the affiftance of Divine Grace, the depravities of their nature. Many men may have behaved fo brutishly to their families, that they would wifh to make fome reparation, according as their circumftances and fituation may allow: at least, they would wish to acknowlege, how fenfible they felt them felves of the impropriety of their conduct; and to afk, and to receive, forgiveness of those, whom they had teized by their caprice, provoked by their fufpicions, or oppreffed by their power. It might occur likewife, "through the ministry of the word," that fuch a difpofition could be no recommendation to the favor of the Almighty. For one of the chief ends of Christianity is, to promote peace, and good-will, and happiness, one amongst another. A man who had been always influenced by caprice, or enflamed by violence, might be induced to compare his conduct

« PreviousContinue »