RELIGIOUS CONVICTION,

ITS HOPEFULNESS, &c.

ઃઃ

ST. JOHN, xvi. 8.

And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin."

THE present Course of Lectures is evidently so constructed as to give a connected and comprehensive view of man's spiritual condition. Hence it begins with his natural, proceeds to his gracious, and ends with his glorified state. Last Thursday evening you doubtless had laid before you that sad and awful insensibility to eternal things, which alas! characterises fallen man. It is not this or that individual, but all, without exception, that are naturally indifferent to the concerns of their immortal souls. Such carelessness, however, is both the height of presumption

D

and of folly, when we take into account the paramount importance of religion, and the shortness and uncertainty of life. It is therefore to be strongly deprecated and deeply regretted by every well-wisher to the human race, and more especially by the under shepherds of Christ's flock, who, like their Divine Master, ought to be moved with compassion, when they behold the multitudes scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. And I doubt not that your Minister, in selecting topics for your devout meditation at this sacred season, was actuated by a fervent desire that the thoughtless among you might be awakened, under the Divine blessing, to a heartfelt solicitude about the salvation of their souls, and that the serious might be led on in their holy and blessed course, until established in faith and holiness, and finally crowned with everlasting bliss and honour.

In furtherance of this important and useful design, my brethren, it falls to my lot this evening to take you by the hand, as it were, and conduct you to the borders of the kingdom of God-to trace the first step towards the heavenly country-to lay open the very beginnings of vital godliness in the soul of the true christian. For the subject which I am called

upon to handle, is Religious Conviction, by which, I presume, is intended “conviction of sin." At least, this is the light in which I have regarded it, and purpose to exhibit it to you. In doing which I shall simply endeavour to explain the nature of conviction, according to the representation of it in the text.

Only may it please God, of His great mercy, to grant, that as many of you as have not yet experienced this work of the Spirit, may so feel it that it may issue in the conversion and salvation of your souls!

I. In laying before you the nature of conviction. I would first shew you who are its subjects-the persons convinced of sin. In the text they are called "the world," by which, however, cannot be meant every individual of the human race, because to say that all mankind, without exception, are reproved of sin, would be contrary to experience and facts. For we find that in all ages since the fall, men in general, as doubtless you heard in the preceding Lecture, are notoriously indifferent about the salvation of their souls, which they could not be, were they convinced of sin. Look at the antediluvians, and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. Mark the account given of them in the 17th chapter of St. Luke's Gospel,

and the 27th and following verses: They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all." "Likewise, also, in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." Learn from the parable of the marriage feast how the Jews received the gospel. They "made light of it and went their way, one to his farm, and another to his merchandize," each praying to be excused, and saying that he could not come. Whether it be not the same now-a-days, let your own observation testify. Whether men are not so engrossed with their pleasures or their business as to neglect the one thing needful, the great salvation of the gospel. And that it will be so at at the second coming of Christ, we know on His own authority. For He hath said, "As it was in the days of Noe," and in the days of Lot, "so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man." By "the world," therefore, as used in the text, cannot be meant all men without exception; but, it signifies the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, and specially, all on whom

.