proof. It so captivates the consent of the christian, the philosopher, and even the atheist, that nothing but mental derangement can induce a man to combat its decisions.

This is the grand instructor who shall preach today in this pulpit. In illustrating the words of the text, it is not sufficient that we have demonstrated, in our preceding discourses, from reason and Scripture, the folly of the sinner, who delays his conversion; it is not sufficient that philosophy and religion have both concurred to prove, that in order to labour successfully at the work of salvation, we begin in early life, in the time of health, and in the days of youth. We will prove it by experience; we will demonstrate it by sad tests and instances of the truths we have delivered; we shall produce to you awful declarations of the wrath of heaven, which cry to you with a strong and tender voice, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.

These witnesses, these tests, these cases, shall be adduced from persons, who were once placed in your present situation; acquainted with the will of God, warned by his servants, and living, as St. Peter expresses himself, at a period, in which the longsuffering of God awaited them. 1 Pet. iii. 20. And you, even you, christians, will one day become what they now are, awful examples of the wrath of God; eternal monuments of his indignation and vengeance; unless your eyes, opened by so much light, unless your hearts, impressed by so many motives, unless your consciences, alarmed by the dreadful judgments of God, shall take measures to prevent the sentence, already prepared in his eternal counsels, and the execution of which is at the door.

But does it not seem to, you, my brethren, that wo undertake a task too arduous, when we engage to prove, from experience, that the long-suffering of God is restricted; and that, by delaying conversions we risk the total frustration of the work ? You have

already alleged, I am aware, an almost infinite number of sinners, who apparently subvert our principles; so many servants, called at the eleventh hour; so many hearts, which grace has changed in a moment; so many penitents, who, in the first essays of repentance, have found the arms of mercy open; and whose happy success consoles, to the present hour, the imitators of their crimes.

We shall hear your reasons, before we propose our own. We would leave nothing behind, which might occasion a mistake, in which it is so danger. ous to deceive. Our discourse shall turn on these two points: first, we will examine the cases of those sinners, which seem to favour the conduct of those who delay conversion; then we shall allege, in the second place, those which confirm our principle, and make a direct attack on security and delay.

I. We shall examine the case of those sinners, which seem to militate against what we have advan. ced in the preceding discourses. All that we then advanced, may be comprised under two heads. We said, first, that in order to acquire the habit of piety, there was but one way, the daily exercise of all its duties. We affirmed, secondly, that the period of mercy is restricted; and that we risk a total exclu sion, when we offer to God only the last groans of expiring life. We founded our first proposition on the almost invincible force of habits, and on the na ture of the Holy Spirit's economy, who, for the most part, abandons to their own turpitude, those that resist his grace. This was the subject of our first sermon, and the second part of the other. Wẹ established our second proposition on the new co. venant, which offers us mercy, solely on condition of repentance, faith, and the love of God; consequently, which renders dubious the state of those, who have not bestowed upon those virtues the time adequate to their acquisition. These are the two

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principal heads, which comprise all that we have advanced upon this subject.

You may oppose to us two classes of examples. In the first class, you may arrange those instantaneous conversions, which grace has effectuated in a moment, and by a single stroke; and which apparently destroy what we have advanced on the force of habits, and on the economy of the Holy Spirit. In the second class, you will put those other sinners, who, after the perpetration of enormous crimes, have obtained remission by a sigh, by a wish, by a few tears; and afford presumptive hopes, that to whatever excess we may carry our crimes, we shall never exceed the terms of mercy, or ob struct reception at the throne of grace.

You adduce those sudden conversions, those in. stantaneous changes on the spot, without difficulty, labour, and repeated endeavours. Of this class, we have various exampies in Scripture. We have Simon, we have Andrew, we have James the son of Zebedee, and most of the apostles, whom Jesus Christ found engaged in the humble trade of fish. ing, or collecting the tribute; and who were instantaneously endued with divine thoughts, new desires, and heavenly propensities; who, from the meanest artisans, became the heralds of the Gospel; formed the noble design of conquering the universe, and subjugating the world to the empire of their Master.

With this class, may also be associated the example of Zaccheus ; who seems to have been renovated in a moment, and to have reformed on the spot, and without the previous duties of piety, a passion the most obstinate, which grows with age, and from which scarcely any one is converted. He assumed a language unheard of in the mouth of a merchant, and especially a covetous merchant: The half of my goods I give to feed the poor; and if I' have taken any thing from any man by false accusa

tion, I restore him fourfold. Luke xix. 8. To the same class you may add those thousands of persons, who changed their faith, and reformed their lives, onthe first preaching of the apostles.

After so many trophies erected to the power of grace, what becomes of your arguments, you say, on the force of habits, on the genius of the Holy Spirit's economy! Who will maintain, after this, that habits of piety may not be acquired without labour, fatigue, and the duties of devotion? Why . may I not promise myself, after devoting the most of my life to pleasure, to have the same power over my heart as Zaccheus, the apostles, and first converts to Christianity? Why may I not expect the irradiations which enlightened, the aids which attracted and the omnipotent power, which converted them in a moment? Why should I make myself a perpetual martyr to forward a work, which one of those happy moments shall perfectly consummate.? These are the first difficulties, and the first examples, you adduce.

You oppose, in the second plea, the case of those sinners, who, after committing the greatest crimes, have found, on the first efforts of repentance, the arms of mercy open for their réception. Of this class, there are many in the Scriptures: the principal are David, St. Peter, St. Paul, and the converted thief, who has a nearer connection with our subject than any of the others. These are names, which the wicked have continually in their mouths; and it must be acknowledged, that they are distinguished monuments of divine mercy. It seems that you may deduce this consequence, that to whatever degree you may have carried vice, there is some ground to expect pardon and salvation.

After so many examples of divine mercy, sinners will readily say, how is it that you alarm us with so many fears? Why do you draw so many terrific portraits of the justice of God? And why exclude

the sinner, however corrupt, from the throne of grace? I who may have a secret intrigue, scarcely suspected, very far from being known to the world, shall I have more difficulty in obtaining mercy than David, who committed adultery in the face of all Israel? I who may have absented myself for a time from the true church, shall I have more difficulty in obtaining mercy than St. Paul, who persecuted the saints; or St. Peter, who openly denied his Master, and in his Master's presence? I who have not directly robbed, but have been contented with acquiring goods by means clandestine indeed, but at the same time sanctioned by example, by custom, by the usages of fraud and art; by palliated lies, and oaths contrary to truth; but essential in the employment to which I am providentially called, shall I be more faulty than the converted thief who robbed on the highway? What should hinder me then from following those personages in vice during life, reserving time to throw myself into the arms of mercy, and imitate their repentance in my last hours? Have you, sinners, said enough? Are these all your hidden things of dishonesty, and all the frivolous pretences of which Satan avails himself to secure you in his fold? See then to what tends your religion, and the use you make of our Scriptures. The Holy Spirit has delineated the lives of those illustrious men who once were vessels of honour in the Lord's house; he has surrounded you with a cloud of witnesses, for animation in your course, by the example of men like yourselves, who have finished with joy. He has also left you a history of their defects, to excite you to vigilance, saying to every sinner, take care, if those distinguished saints stumbled; what will thy fall be when thou shalt relax? If those grand pillars have been shaken, what has not the bruised reed to fear? If the cedars of Lebanon have been ready to tumble, what shall be the destiny of the hyssop of the wall? You are deaf