occupy his place, in order to address you, on those awful subjects, wherein, as dying men, you are very nearly interested: and, I entertain not the least doubt of your being all disposed to attend to what I shall say, with the most heart-felt desire of being edified by it.

Your situation is such as cannot but work upon the tender feelings of human nature; and condemned as you individually are by the wise laws of our country, to suffer a shameful and ignominious death, for the commission of those crimes, that render such exemplary punishment necessary, sentiments of pity and compassion are still your due; and, whereinsoever your never-dying souls can be benefited, there it is our endeavour to help you.

Most of you appear to be young men, and but few, seemingly, have advanced even to what is called the vigour and prime of life. That period, therefore, which in the ordinary course of nature, might have been lengthened out, in each of you, to many years, is suddenly to be cut short; and before the light of one more day shall be extinguished, you will all be removed from the land of the living; your bodies will return to that earth, from which they originally sprang; and your disencumbered souls will wing their way, to appear before the great and glorious God, to whom the secrets of all hearts are open, and from whom none of your transactions can be concealed. Then, they-I mean your conscious souls, will enter upon

an

an unknown inconceivable scene; and will there be doomed either to happiness, or else to unhappiness and misery that will know no end.

Awful, awakening, tremendous thought! To be told, and to know, with certainty, that your disembodied souls, within less than fifteen hours from this moment, are either to be conveyed by angels to seats of bliss, or else hailed by devils to mansions of woe, are very affecting circumstances. Does not the consideration chill you, this instant, with horror? And, are you not importunately solicitous to know, whether of the twain shall be your lot? God indeed might reveal even this unto you. I cannot.Man cannot. All, that we can do, is to point out the terms and conditions, whereon, we know, on the infallible testimony of the divine word, salvation to be attainable.

These are matters, which it concerns all persons to be well acquainted with; and even you, I think, cannot have been altogether unacquainted with them. They have not, it is probable, engrossed much of your attention; but, the business, or the follies, or the sins of a wicked world, were suffered to engage your affections, whilst God and Eternity were not in your thoughts.

My brethren, yours thus far, is a common case. The multitude, in all places, are extremely regardless of their everlasting welfare; for "the world lyeth in wickedness." The peculiarity of your case is, that your sins against

men, and the peace of society, have been such, as to render earthly punishment highly expedient.

Happy, however, is it for you, that a door of hope, with regard to futurity, still remains open. Salvation is attainable even for malefactors; and attainable too, in the same way, as for other men.

Since you came within the walls of this dole-ful prison, the opportunities of Christian instruction, far from being withheld, have been renewed, and encreased to you. You have had peculiar incitements to consideration, and you have had the constant alarum of my reverend brother's voice, announcing the tenor of the Gospel covenant, and admonishing each one with "prepare to meet thy God:"-add to which, you have been furnished with pertinent books to give all needful instruction, and to assist you in the actual exercise of devotion to Almighty God.

I am willing to hope, because I know nothing to the contrary, that these blessed opportunities have not been lost upon you, but that whilst your bodies have been imprisoned, your souls have been set at liberty, in some degree at least, from the thraldom of sin. Should

this not have been the case, the calls to; and happy opportunities of, religious improvement, you have had, will only contribute to encrease your condemnation. But, brethren, I hope better things of you, though I thus speak."

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Can

Can I add, then, to what has already been done in your behalf? Have I any new matter, or counsel, to propose? No, surely the same, only, which you have heard from the beginning, that declare I unto you. As a servant or minister, of our Lord Jesus Christ, I am now indeed uttering the last solemn discourse, to which your ears will ever be open. Oh, then, for your lives, even the lives of your souls, attend to my words; since, to-morrow, you will find them most marvellously verified!" Repent ye, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out."

Hence it shall be my business 1st to shew, how it happens, that if ye repent and be converted, your sins shall be blotted out, or forgiven. And 2dly, I will point out what it is to repent, and be converted.

Here then you are to be reminded, that Almighty God, pitying the unhappy situation, into which mankind were fallen, by reason of sin, vouchsafed at an early period of the world, and many times after, to promise to them a Saviour. This Saviour, in due time, appeared, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He united himself to our nature, and appeared to the world as a man; in which nature, he became our sacrifice, propitiation, and atonement. "He who knew no sin, was made a sin-offering for us; the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." The prophet therefore said, Surely he hath borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: he, his own self, bare our sins in his own body, on the tree, that we being dead to sin, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes we were healed.

This, my brethren, is the Saviour. If you are saved, or I am saved; nay, whoever of our race shall be saved, it must be through him, for his sake, in virtue of his merits. All, if not rescued for the sake of Jesus Christ, have sin enough about them, to involve them in eternal perdition you have given, even to the world, peculiar evidences of your sinfulness.

But, then, is salvation to be had, through Christ, unconditionally? Is it to be had on any terms? or on no terms? Far, very far otherwise. Salvation, without Christ, were impossible. Salvation, through Christ, is conditional. In some degree, it depends upon ourselves. Repentance, without the mediation and sacrifice of Christ would have been altogether unavailing to salvation. But, now, happily for sinful men, if ye "repent, and are converted, your sins will be blotted out," they will not be brought forward to your everlasting condemnation, Christ having made for them an atonement. The best of us must be indebted to him, for every hope, we entertain, of heaven; and the worst, if they "repent and are converted," will find mercy, through his redeeming goodness. The blood of Christ propitiates for the