1st. A sense of the greatness of sin, derived from a consideration of the greatness of the Being against whom it has been committed.

2dly. They will recollect how much God, in his providence, did to prevent them from sin. The way of transgressors they had felt to be hard; they had received innumerable warnings and reproofs-they had felt innumerable restrictions and difficulties; but they had neglected or repelled them all.

3dly. They will remember that they were once under a dispensation of mercy; that, notwithstanding their transgressions, there was yet a free and full salvation; that there was balm in Gilead, and a great Physician there. That after they had sinned-after they were deeply implicated in its guilt, they might have fled for refuge to the blood of Christ, with sure reliance on its efficacy, and to the throne of the Father with certainty of pardon.

Let us close with a few remarks on what has been said.

Even with respect to those who are saved, God never suffers any to come to Him but in the way of penitence. The Spirit is a convincing before he is a consoling Spirit. He breaks down the sinner, lays him prostrate and agonizing at the footstool of Christ, before He raises him to his embrace. The believer never loses the sense of the shame and guilt of his sin, and this remembrance will compel him to refer his salvation only to the Redeemer. In the heavenly world itself will sin be remembered; for the eternal song shall be addressed "To Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood."

Never lose sight of this, that sin must be remembered either in this life or the next. You may throw it aside-you may heap the rubbish of the world upon it--you may cover it with ten thousand loads of thick earth-you may even thrust it down to the depths of hell-but in the depths of hell it will meet you. The remembrance of sin will become the terrible agent of God-it will fasten upon you to all eternity--it will be turned into the worm that never dies, the fire that never shall be quenched.

XXXIX.

REASONS FOR A JUDGMENT TO COME.*

Acts, xxiv., 25: As Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled.

[Preached at Broadmead, Bristol, Lord's Day evening, May 14, 1826.]

THE Jews, at Jerusalem, having stirred up a persecution against Paul, he was sent, by the Roman captain Lysias, to Felix the governor at Cæsarea, who, having heard of his wonderful history, brought

From the notes of the Rev. T. Grinfield.

his wife, a Jewess, to hear him relate it, probably from mere curiosity. It was on this occasion that "Paul reasoned" on the topics announced in the text. From these words it appears,

I. That religion is a reasonable thing. It is said just before, that Felix "heard him concerning the faith in Christ;" implying that, in preaching the gospel, the apostle availed himself of the proper use of reason and argument, according to the occasion. He adapted his manner to the character of those addressed: he did this to the Athenian philosophers (Acts, xvii.), citing their own poets, and appealing to creation and Providence: with the Jews, as in his Epistle to the Romans, he reasoned on Jewish grounds; and here similarly adapted his moral reasoning to the Roman governor.

II. We see the danger of trifling with convictions. By such a habit, moral sensibility is hardened against truth. Felix, as we read, often sent for Paul, and communed with him, after this; but, so far as we know, this was the only time that he trembled; he soon relapsed into a false calm, the surest prelude to final ruin.

III. We behold what an elevation is given by religion to the mean est person. Paul, in chains, appeared with dignity, while Felix, on the throne, trembled: the judge trembled before the prisoner! The moral elevation conferred on a person by a good conscience, especially when united with faith in revealed truth, is inconceivable, and utterly annihilates all the artificial arrangements of society.

IV. The principal point which I shall notice, as implied in the text, is, that the doctrine of a future state and judgment (for the one supposes the other) is a doctrine as well of reason as of revelation; not assumed by the apostle as merely a truth revealed, but as one written on the conscience. It is an alternative the most important that can be conceived, whether the whole of man dies, or not, at his death; whether he is the creature of a moment, or an heir of eternity; merely a sojourner here, whose home awaits him in another world. This latter view of man infinitely enlarges his prospect beyond the meanness of the former. Now it never was insinuated that this great doctrine depends merely on revelation. It has received, indeed, great confirmation thence. Jesus Christ has brought life and immortality to light, having illustrated it by his own resurrection; but there are evidences of it quite apart from revelation, other proofs of this persuasion.

1. The justice of God requires it. The existence of God must be assumed, or the argument cannot proceed; but this is assuming the existence of a Being perfect in all those virtues in which man is imperfect. One of these is justice. Now the present state, in many instances, does not exhibit, even according to our imperfect idea, a scene of justice. None will pretend that this is a scene of perfect order therefore another state is required, to rectify what is wrong and finish what is imperfect in this state. Though virtue has the best and vice the worst share on the whole, yet we know that the best men have many afflictions, the worst many enjoyments here. The people of God have noticed this in all ages. We find it comVOL. IV.-Q Q

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plained of by Job and Jeremiah. The Psalmist, in Psalm Ixxiii., describes this state of things in affecting terms: he confesses that he was deeply grieved by it, and almost staggered in his faith, "until," says he, "I went into the sanctuary of God, and then I understood the end of the wicked." How many things we witness that cause a revulsion to our moral feelings, and loudly demand correction! When we see the intrigues of guilt prosper, when we contemplate the oppressions of tyrants and the desolations of war, we are ready to cry, "Is there not a God that judgeth the earth?" He may keep silence now, but [le is displeased, and will show himself to have been so at last. These can never be supposed the final, the finished results of his providence. Nor can it be admitted that his justice is doubtful; for, besides that this would be taking back the premises before granted, there are evidences that He rewards virtue and punishes vice in the main. Remorse is the appointed portion of the one, calm approbation that of the other. Why, then, does He delay his justice? Delay, let it be answered, is nothing to the Eternal Being. A thousand years with Him are but as a day. All space is his. None can escape from his hand. He has all- —at all times, in all places-completely within his reach and power. "He is not slack, as men count slackness, but is long-suffering, and willing that all should repent." Therefore, his perfect justice demands a judgment and a state to come. Nor can we suppose that, without this, He would ever have permitted such unjust afflictions to have befallen the apostle who was reasoning before Felix on this great subject, or those other men who were evidently the faithful and devoted friends of God.

2. Man is naturally created heir to such a state of being. Man has an immaterial, invisible property, a soul, as well as a material, perishable body. This has been the conviction of all the wisest among mankind. The thinking principle-that which we mean when we speak of self, that which we call I-is something that consists of perfect unity and simplicity, something not to be separated into parts like the body. Otherwise, thought must be supposed to arise from the union of the several parts of the body, and every part must have its portion of thought, which is absurd; for then there must be supposed as many centres of thought, as many minds and souls, as there are parts; and thus every individual would contain an infinity of selves within him. The spirit of man is something uncompounded, therefore not destructible-not to be scattered by winds or consumed by flames. No outward force can touch thought, can affect the inward consciousness of guilt or innocence. Spirit naturally ascends to God, the infinite Spirit, the Father of all spirits, as dust naturally returns to dust. If God does not destroy the spirit of his creature, it cannot be destroyed: but what reason can be assigned why He should destroy that which is the chief work of his creative power? What atom of matter did He ever yet annihilate? Is it conceivable, then, that He should annihilate that alone which partakes most of his own nature, and renders the creature capable of an immortal union with himself? Can mind, which is an eternal thing, an

émanation of the Father of spirits, be supposed to perish? No; be assured you are born to immortality as your natural inheritance. Your being, once commenced, must go on forever.

3. Man appears to be the only being on earth to whose nature and faculties his present state is incommensurate. Every other creature completes its destiny, attains the utmost end of its faculties. Man alone is always progressive, interminably advancing in his conceptions and achievements; yet he is always cut off in the midst of his work; he is never permitted to complete a single science. The powers of man tend towards an expansion which they can never here attain. The longer he remains here, the more a just contempt of the present world grows in every noble mind. Brutes are not haunted and disquieted by the desire of an ideal felicity which they cannot find; man only sighs after an image of infinite perfection, that can be realized only in God; aspires to his native skies, with as natural a tendency as that by which the flame ascends. These are traces of his grandeur even in its ruins; indications that humanity was once a temple inhabited by Deity; and they infer the destiny of man to a future state of being.

4. The expectation of such a state has been universal among mankind. Dr. Robertson informs us that nations have been found without an idea of God, but none without an idea of a future state. Now, when any persuasion is found to be universal, we must suppose one or the other of these two things: either that it formed a part of God's original revelation to man, or that it is a part of human nature. In either case it comes from God. But guilt is accompanied with disquietude and alarm, with an awful handwriting on the wall of conscience; none so hardened as he that can wholly shake off the apprehension of a hereafter; a voice within assures us that evil deserves to suffer, and good to rejoice. This law, written on the heart of man, has made even pagans wretched amid grandeur attended by guilt; and the reasoning of Paul was seconded in the mind of Felix by another deeper voice that made him change places with the prisoner before him, and tremble at the judgment to come, even on his judgment-seat.

Let only one improvement suffice. Those who reject revelation gain no advantage for excluding the belief of a future state; they merely involve themselves in deeper darkness and despair. If they could blot out every page of revelation, and consign the name of Jesus Christ to eternal oblivion, the doctrine of man's immortality would still remain; the only difference would be, that the hopes and consolations of the gospel would then be lost. There is an echo, a confirmation, in nature to all that Scripture says in connexion with this momentous theme; a handwriting within, correspondent with that in the page. When it is said, "The wages of sin is death," the consciousness of sin as sin is presupposed; its condemnation is expressed as of an evil. already known and allowed. When we hear that "cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the law," it is implied that the curse existed before the law was given, and would have existed had it never been given, being itself the law of nature. But now

the only refuge from that law and its curse is opened by Jesus Christ and his redemption. The way to ruin is manifold and broad: there exists one only narrow way to life eternal. Enter into this way, that you may be saved from the wrath to come! Remember that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God! Let us, therefore, find grace, where all may find it, to serve Him with holy fear; " for our God is a consuming fire."

XL.

CHARACTER OF THE JUDGMENT TO COME.*

HEBREWS, vi., 2: Eternal judgment.

[Preached at Broadmead, Bristol, Lord's Day evening, May 21, 1826.]

In the text, "eternal judgment" is ranked among the first principles of religion, in connexion with faith and repentance, the rite of baptism, and the doctrine of the resurrection. In a preceding discourse,† we considered the evidences of reason in favour of a future judgment; we may now present the additional light of Scripture, especially the New Testament, on this great subject.

1. Jesus Christ is declared to be the Judge. This is the doctrine of the whole New Testament. In Matthew, xxv., He himself gives us a full description of the judgment as conducted by the Son of Man, attended by all the holy angels, and seated on the throne of his glory. His apostles reiterated the same truth. In Acts, xvii., Paul informs the Athenians that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world by that Man whom He has ordained, whereof He has given assurance in that He has raised Him from the dead. And elsewhere he writes, "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." Hence, it is evident that Jesus Christ is more than a mere man, since the judgment of all involves omniscience, an incommunicable attribute of Deity. At the same time, it appears most proper that Jesus Christ should be the Judge, that He who came to save should be rewarded with the dignity of judging those to whom He came. His mediatorial kingdom cannot be conceived to close in any manner with more majestic decency than by his assigning their eternal destinies to all his subjects.

2. The last judgment is described as being exercised on man in his incarnate state. This circumstance is a pure discovery of revelation; it was utterly unknown to nature. We are taught