timony of God's regard to his law. And those who shall have escaped to heaven, when they shall "look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed," will be feeling more and more strongly forever, how great are their obligations to the Saviour, for redeeming them from the curse of a law, so fearfully holy. And who, that places any value upon his soul, and believes that God will thus jealously guard the honour of his law, and has not already made him incorrigibly angry, will delay an hour, in securing an interest in that Saviour, who bore the curse for us. O, my friend, haste your escape, as you would at midnight from your burning house, as you would from the jaws of a ravening lion, as you would from the terrors of a volcanic eruption, as you would from the fire that can never be quenched, and the worm that shall not die.

2. The subject will I hope prepare us to contemplate with horror, the condition of those congregations, who have selected for themselves a ministry, that builds its instructions on the ruins of the divine law. Would to God that I were mistaken, in supposing such a case to exist. But when I hear, from lips that profess to have been touched with a coal from off the altar, that man is quite an upright being, has committed a few errors only, and these all venial, not sufficient to condemn him; that he needs no atonement, nor Saviour but to teach him, and be his pattern, and this Saviour not divine ;-When I hear

of sentiments like these from the pulpit; I fear there is a controversy with the law of God, and that it is meant to be understood, that he has relinquished his demand, upon the sinner, of a stricter obedience, than he is disposed to yield.

Thus by putting aside the law, as we suppose is done in the outset, and hewing down the whole system to accommodate it to this fatal error, the whole, though somewhat consistent with itself, is rotten and deceptive. Thus the sinner is lulled, and soothed, and when asleep, is kept slumbering till he is lost. He never has any proper sense of his sins, nor respect for the violated law, nor regard for the holiness, and justice, and truth of God. He never becomes humble, nor fears God, nor embraces the Saviour, nor quits his sins. like the Siren's song, that lures but to destroy. It keeps men stupid till it is too late to be anxious to any profit.

The gospel he hears is

O, ye lost and ruined congregations! if my voice might reach you, I would tell you to look well to the ministry you attend. While it pretends to offer you life, it may destroy you. If you find it aiming to lessen the number, and diminish the aggravations of your sins, you ought to suspect it. You never will betake yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, as your precious and only Saviour, till the commandment comes home to your bosom, high and imperious in its claims; holy, and just, and good, in all it requires, and in all it threatens, In the

sense of the apostle, sin must revive and we die, else there can be no hope that we shall be made alive in Christ Jesus. The multitudes who have gone to heaven, and the whole army of believers who are bound thither, know the period when they felt themselves justly exposed to eternal death. The gospel that pretends to find you quite whole and happy, needing only a little instruction, and perhaps some reformation, and aims not to alarm and distress you, you may rest assured is a lie, and not the truth; it comes from hell, and not from heaven, and if embraced, will conduct you back with it to the recesses of perdition.

SERMON 5.

CORRECT VIEWS OF CHRIST

ESSENTIAL.

LUKE IX. 20.

"Whom say ye that I am?"

ADMITTING the fact, that men may speculate correctly, while their hearts are unsanctified; or to some extent incorrectly, after they are born of God; still it is a general truth, that men will be, in their moral, and in their religious character, corrupt or correct, in the same proportion with their creed. If on any important subject they believe a lie, their false faith will present to their hearts wrong motives of action, and lead to those affections, and that course of conduct, that is in opposition to the law of God, and the precepts of the gospel. But if men believe the truth, though it be not with the heart unto righteousness, still that truth may exert, at some future day, a sanctifying effect upon them, and the creed adopted, through the Spirit's influence, mould them into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if there is one subject, rather than any other, on which a serious man would guard the correctness of his faith, it must be relative to the character of

the Saviour he trusts in for eternal life. It must be essential, that we put our trust in the very Redeemer that God has revealed; else how can we hope that he will acknowledge us, when he shall come in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels.

Can it be otherwise, than a very important thing, to the human family, to understand distinctly his nature, and character, in whom they are invited to take sanctuary from the wrath to come? Hence to know, that the gospel proclaimed to us, presents the very Lord Jesus, through whose stripes we must be healed, will be a question of minor importance to none, who calculate, first or last, to turn their eye toward heaven.

In Christ's little family, this subject was early and earnestly agitated. Our Lord would not suffer his disciples to be ignorant on this point. "He asked them saying, whom say the people that I am? They answering, said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again." He then brought the question home to their own bosom, "Whom say ye that I am?" Said the prompt and affectionate Peter, "The Christ of God."

This subject is of high and increasing importance, at a period, when it is becoming so fashionable, to consider it of no consequence what we think of Christ. It will not be so much my object, to exhibit proofs of his divinity, as to show, that whatever his character may be, it is important that we