stantly holy. He requires all men to be holy, as He is holy. "Be ye holy; for I am holy." If men transgress his law and do iniquity, He denounces against them his wrath and curse. "Cursed is every one, that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do them. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." This is just. The law is holy, and just, and good; and all the workers of iniquity deserve its penalty. The wages of sin is death." 2. Sinful practices, while continued, exclude men from pardon and the grace of the gospel. They flow from a heart totally corrupt. When the heart is purified, sinful practices cease, and the fruits of holiness are produced. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." vicious practices, persisted in, uniformly terminate. This is evidently the dreadful death which Paul pronounces "the end of those things." This is plain from the connexion in which his words stand. "What fruit had ye then in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin and become servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness; and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God, is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." It is that death which is the opposite of eternal life, and which is the wages, or proper punishment of sin, in which all sinful practices terminate. This is eternal death, the death of the soul, or the penalty of the Divine law. Such is the death, which sin, when it is finished, never fails to bring forth. It remains to show, III. Why sinful practices ter- Pardon, through the atonement minate in this awful kind of death. of Christ, is promised, in the gosIt is possible for those, who pel, to those only who exercise rehave long indulged in sinful prac-pentance toward God, and faith tices, to reform. With God all things are possible. There are some rare instances, in which the habitually vicious have cast away their transgressions and forsaken their sins. And when the wicked, however gross their vices and great their guilt, turn from their wicked ways, their souls shall live.Though their sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' The blood of Jesus Christ cleanse th from all sin.' But if the sinful practices of the wicked, be pursued and not forsaken, they will inevitably terminate in eternal death. The reasons are obvious. For, 1. Sinful practices deserve eternal death. God has made mankind rational, free, moral agents; and therefore capable of being con toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance includes hatred of sin and godly sorrow for it. Repentance originates in that love to God, which the divine law requires, and which constitutes purity of heart. Every true penitent, therefore, forsakes his sins, and renounces all his evil practices. Hence God says by his prophet, "Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin." And the apostle writes, "If we confess and forsake our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrightcousness." It is impossible to repent, and at the same time, to persist in any sinful course. "Faith worketh by love, purifyeth the heart, and overcometh the world." The fruits and evidences of a living faith, therefore, are good works." Faith without works is dead. I will show thee my faith by my works." There cannot be true faith in Christ, without purity of heart and life. Those, therefore, who continue in sinful practices, are impenitent sinners and unbelievers. They have no part in the pardon and grace of the gospel of Christ. The wrath of God abideth on them. "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor DRUNKARDS, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." It is morally impossible that persons of this description should inherit eternal life. For, 3. They are totally unfit for a holy heaven. Their hearts are full of evil. There is not an object in heaven, that could afford them the least delight. Without a good heart; without that disinterested love, which is the essence of repentance and faith in Christ;-it is impossible to be happy in heav en. To such as love and pursue vicious practices, heaven would be a place of torment. Without holiness, no man shall, or can see the Lord. The terms of the gospel are as low as God could make them. But, if the unrighteous and impure could enjoy the happiness of heaven, it would be inconsistent for God to admit them to that holy, happy place. If He should treat the wicked and the righteous alike, how would He appear to love righteousness and hate iniquity? If Christ should receive unsanctified sinners to himself, would Ile not become the minister of sin? It would defile the mansions of purity, to people them with the unholy and abominable. Should impenitent, vicious sinners be received to the society of the just made perfect; instead of communion, harmony and peace, there would be aversion, discord, and war in heaven. "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?-An unjust man is an abomination to the just; and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.". Those who persist in evil practices, must not be permitted to disturb and defile the realms of purity and peace: they are fit only for the company and the place of the devil and his angels. IMPROVEMENT. 1. It appears from the description which has been given of sinful practices, that every impenitent, unrenewed sinner is liable to fall into them. They all naturally flow from the corrupt, selfish heart, which all unregenerate men possess. Sinful practices are contained in the impenitent heart, as streams are contained in their fountains, and plants in their seeds. It is owing to various restraints in Divine Providence, and not to any goodness in the hearts of sinners, that some are more moral than others, and that they do not all run to the same excess of riot. The Scribes and Pharisees were ignorant of themselves, when they said, "If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets:" for, by their treatment of Christ and his followers, they made it manifest, that they were the genuine children of them, who imbrued their hands in the blood of those holy men, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Hazael was blind to the malignity of his own heart, when he replied to the prediction of the man of God, What! is thy servant a dog, that the should do this thing?" for, in three day's time, he did it all. And sinners are always ignorant of the plague of their hearts, whenever they think themselves too good to conduct like others, or imagine there is any thing too bad for them to do. 2. If sinful practices are the F natural fruits and expressions of a sinful heart; then moral sinners have no ground to boast over vicious sinners. It is not because their hearts are better, by nature, that moral sinners do not addict themselves to vices and crimes: for if they were equally free from restraint and equally exposed to temptation, their practices would be like those of the immoral and profane. In similar circumstances, in all respects, unrenewed men conduct alike. The wicked are always inclined to do wickedly. All things considered, every impenitent sinner conducts as bad as he can. Thus God said to his ancient, impenitent people, "Thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest." Jerem. iii. 5. Jews, by nature, are as bad as Gentiles: for all are included under sin. "Are we better than they? No, in no wise.-Where is boasting then? It is excluded." It hence follows, 3. That saints have reason for humility. They were, by nature, dead in trespasses and sins, and children of wrath, even as others. "And such were some of you," fornicators, idolators, thieves, covetous, drunkards, &c. but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that, not of yourselves-it is the gift of God," Well may all saints, with the deepest humility and self-abasement, adopt the words of the apostle, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs, according to the hope of eternal life." 4. Do sinful practices terminate in death? Then the doctrine of universal salvation is groundless. In order to support this delusive doctrine, it must be made to appear, that all the wicked truly repent and reform, before they leave the world. But, is this the fact? Do not multitudes, on the contrary, persist in sinful practices, as long as they live? But, the end of those things is death. To maintain, that those who persevere in vicious courses, will be saved, is to give the lie to the whole gospel; which teaches us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly. It is the father of lies, and his servants, who would persuade us, that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God. 5. In view of this subject, it appears, that to be stopped in one's sinful course by death, must be dreadful! It is a great change, to leave the body and enter the invisible and eternal world. Death in itself, is, naturally, the king of terrors to all mankind. But, "the sting of death is sin." This arms the grim monarch with power to terrify and destroy. Saints, however, who have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and good hope through grace, are enabled, with the armour of righteous. ness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit and the helmet of salvation, to triumph over their last enemy. But none of this peace, and hope, and triumph, is experienced The desire by the unhappy man, whose career Let all, then, as they value the of sinful indulgence is checked lives and their souls, beware of only by death. It would be no this prolific and deadly vice, less than Deism, to suppose that which is more prevalent, at this such an one, when absent from the day, than any other, and which is body, is present with the Lord. the parent of most of the crimes Ah no! His end is destruction. If and sins which defile the land. there be truth in the word of Him, Temptations to this vice, are nuwho cannot lie, in hell he lifts up merous and powerful. There is his eyes, being in torment.' And nothing so easily obtained as the O, how dreadful, to go, in a mo- intoxicating draught. ment, an unexpected moment, of gain in individuals, and a defrom a scene of sensual indul- sire of revenue in the public, have gence, heedless dissipation, and opened a mart for the mortal powanton excess, into the lake which tation, at every corner. "Avoid burneth with fire and brimstone,it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away." Let none imagine, that they are secure from the attacks of a fiend, who has made many a strong man weak, and many a wise man mad. Beware of the most distant approach to the jaws of the monster, which yawn to devour, and which ingulph thousands, yes, ten thousand wretched victims, every year, in this good land! to dwell, forever, with devils and damned souls! 6. We may infer from what has been said, that the situation of all such, as habituate themselves to sinful practices, is awfully dangerous. They are pursuing a course whose end is death. They are in the broad way to destruction. Their sins have already gone before them to judgment. They are constantly exposed to death, and as much exposed to perdition. Their feet stand on slippery places. I warn the young, in particular. There is yet some hope of them. O, go not in the paths of the destroyer. Shun, as you would the Such, in a peculiar manner, is plague, as you would the gates of the dangerous and fearful condi- hell, shun every company, and evtion of those, who are addicted to ery place, which would seduce you the vice of intemperance. Of all to handle, touch, or taste the liqvices, this most rapidly under-uid poison, which induces a permines the constitution, and expos-petual sleep-the sleep of death! es its wretched victim to sudden "If sinners entice thee, consent death. Those who practice this thou not. Be sober; be vigilant. vice are chargeable with deliberate Abstain from fleshly lusts, which suicide. They are self-murderers; war against the soul. Follow afand no murderer hath eternal ter righteousness-lay hold on life abiding in him." Intemper- eternal life." ance not only exposes the miserable man to sudden death; but totally disqualifies him to make the least preparation for his great and last change. It fits the soul for hell, as fast as it fits the body for the grave. The end of this course is inevitable destruction. Drunkenness is the high road to damnation. 66 "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also." Hab. ii. 15. I charge those, whose duty it is. as they fear the oath of God which is upon them, to execute the good and wholesome laws of the land. I call upon all the friends of their country and of man, to unite Finally, this subject and this occasion call loudly upon all sorts of sinners, to repent and turn unto the Lord. Nothing short of this, can secure you against those sinful practices, which terminate in death. Purity of heart alone, can suppress those "foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. Where their efforts to check the deadly | fore, cleanse your hands, ye sinevil, which hurries thousands to ners, and purify your hearts, ye an untimely grave and to a miser- double-minded." Flatter not yourable eternity. selves, that you are less sinners, than those, who have already come to an untimely and fearful end; for, 66 except ye repent, ye shall Whoso all likewise perish." confesseth and forsaketh his sins, shall have mercy; but he that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.'-AMEN. From the Utica Christian Repository. A CHARGE, ADDRESSED TO A PASTOR ELECT, AT HIS ORDINATION. pect to interest and affection for you and the people of your charge, no one could with greater propriety, attempt this service, and be appointed to urge upon you the faithful and patient performance of your solemn duties. DEAR SIR-In the presence of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and before angels and men, you are this day invested The first and supreme object of and charged with the office of a attention and affection, to all raChristian minister. To you, in tional beings, must forever be the this office, are now committed the eternal and self-existent Jehovah. rich treasures of divine truth, If you would serve and please grace and glory, in the gospel of God, in the office he this day asChrist Jesus. By the choice of signs you in his holy kingdom, you this church, and your own consent, must constantly give him the first with the sanction of this council, place in your sentiments, affecand the religious solemnities of tions, interests, exertions and enthe present occasion, you are joyments. It is of the highest imbound to be, especially, the ser- portance, that you should, as a vant of this church and people, in preacher and teacher of divine the duties and labours of your of- truth, set God always before you fice. Your spirit ought to be and before your hearers. The stirred within you, and your heart true knowledge of God, of his exto be deeply moved, in view of istence, the attributes of his nathe bonds by which you are bound ture, the perfections of his charto serve God and his church, and acter, the purposes of his will, his the people of your charge. We sovereign offices, his universal believe that you are so affected; agency, and most glorious blessedand that you are, therefore, pre-ness, will give light and strength, pared and desirous to receive the beauty and glory to your ministry." exhortation, which I am appoint- Your views of every doctrine and ed by this council to give you in duty of religion and of every creatheir name. The service assign- ture, object and event, will be ed me would, indeed, far better essentially affected by your sentibecome such an one as Paul the ments respecting God, who is the aged," than your brother who creator, preserver, governor and now addresses you. But in res- proprietor of all things. His mor |