and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life;" what effect must such momentous truths produce upon his mind? Must he not of necessity begin to inquire into the meaning of these expressions, and feel a solicitude to have these questions satisfactorily determined: 'Am I a real penitent? Am I born again? Have I the Son of God?' If he doubt the truth of these things, and think they may be taken in a lower sense, he will of course be less concerned to attain the experience of them; or, if other things appear to him of superior importance, he will attend to those things in preference. But let him have that faith which gives a present subsistence to things future, and a demonstrable reality to things invisible, and it will be impossible for him to trifle with such solemn declarations. It is true, he may sin against the convictions of conscience; but if he continue so to do, it is evident that his convictions are not proportioned in any degree to the importance of eternal things, and that he cherishes a secret hope of escaping by some means or other the judgments denounced against him. Let him but feel the worth of his soul in a degree proportioned to its value; let him estimate that as men estimate the worth of their natural life, and he could no more resist habitually the convictions of his mind, than he could sit composed, while his house and family were ready to be destroyed by fire: he would surely resemble those Egyptians who sought shelter for their servants and cattle; he would "flee from the wrath to come, and lay hold on eternal life."]

Such a practical attention will be given to the word of God by all who truly believe it, because they know, II. How it will affect their state hereafter

The distinction put between the believing and unbelieving Egyptians related merely to this present life: but the Scriptures authorize us to declare that a similar distinction will be made between believers and unbelievers in the day of judgment. Yes assuredly, 1. They who have sought the appointed refuge shall be saved

[Christ is that hiding-place to which all are enjoined to flee: every other covert will be found "a refuge of lies, which the hail shall sweep away":" but Christ is a sure refuge, "to which whosoever runneth shall be safe." Whatever we may have been, and whatever we may have done in past times, we have nothing to apprehend from the wrath of God, provided we be found in Christ. "Believing in him, we are justified from all things," and shall unite for ever with the murderous b Isai. xxviii. 17.

a Heb. xi. 1. in the Greek.

Manasseh, the adulterous David, the filthy Magdalen, and the persecuting Saul, in singing "Salvation to God and the Lamb!" We must not however be understood to say, that an attention to the faith of the Gospel will save us, while we neglect its practical injunctions: far from it: but this we do say, that the vilest of sinners may find "acceptance in the Beloved;" and that "all who put their trust in him may be quiet from the fear of evil." The declaration of God himself is, "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus."]

2. They, on the contrary, who have despised the offers of mercy, shall perish

["Whatsoever men sow, that shall they also reap:" and though God's vengeance may be long delayed, it shall surely come at last. What if we see no symptoms of it now? There was no appearance of a deluge when Noah warned the old world; nor were the fire and brimstone visible, when Lot entreated his sons-in-law to escape with him from Sodom; yet were the predictions relative to these events exactly fulfilled: he who built the ark, and he who fled from the devoted city, were preserved; while they who took not warning, were destroyed. So also shall it be in the last day: "the unbelief of men shall not make the faith of God of none effect." "Their covenant with death shall be disannulled, and their agreement with hell made void: when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, they shall be beaten down by it." Nor shall the excuses, which they now urge with so much confidence, avail them. It is probable that many of the Egyptians might expose themselves to danger in consequence of urgent business, or from what they judged a necessary obedience to the commands of their masters; but they perished notwithstanding. So shall that word be verified in spite of all excuses, "Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed; but he that feareth the commandment, shall be rewarded."]

ADDRESS,

1. Those that disregard the word of the Lord-

[There are, alas! too many who "stumble at the word, being disobedient:" their language is, "As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee." If they do not avowedly reject the word, they shew by their conduct, that they consider its doctrines as fanatical, its precepts as harsh, its promises as illusory, and its threatenings as vain. But, while they thus practically reject the word of the Lord, what wisdom is in them?" Doubtless if they who were in the midst of the storm saw any of their neighbours housed, they would cast a wishful look at them: c Isai. xxviii. 18. d Prov. xiii. 13. e Jer. xliv. 16. f Jer. viii. 9.

"

and will not their lot be envied in the last day, who shall have taken refuge in Christ, and found protection from the wrath of God? Let then the remembrance of what took place in Egypt operate powerfully on our hearts. Let us "search the Scriptures, and make them our meditation day and night." Let us take them "as a light to our feet and a lantern to our paths." Let us "treasure them up in our hearts," and labour to follow the directions they give us. Let us "receive the word with meekness," ""not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God." Let us beg of God that it may be "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to our inmost souls, and discovering to us the very thoughts and intents of our hearts." Let God's blessed word regulate our hearts and lives: then will God look upon us with favourable acceptances, and acknowledge us as "his in the day that he shall make up his jewels"."]

2. Those who fear the word of the Lord

[Some there are amongst us, we trust, who having once, like good Josiah, wept on account of the denunciations of God's wrath, now, like holy Job, "esteem God's word more than their necessary food." There is not a threatening in it which they dare to despise, or a promise which they do not desire to enjoy, or a precept which they do not labour to obey. They desire nothing so much as to be "cast into the mould of the Gospel," and to be "sanctified by means of it in body, soul, and spirit.' To all of this character I say, Happy are ye; for if "ye tremble at the word" of God, ye have no reason to tremble at any thing else. Ye may look at death with complacency, and at hell itself without terror, since ye are screened under the shadow of your Redeemer's wings. Envy not then the liberty, and the thoughtlessness of sinners; neither let their revilings deter you from your purpose. The time is quickly coming when your God will appear to their shame and to your joy. Then the wisdom of your conduct will be seen in its true colours: and you shall understand the full import of that question, "Doth not my word do good to him that walketh uprightlyk?"] i Isai. lxv. 5. k Mic. ii. 7.

g Isai. lxv. 2.

h Mal. iii. 17.

Exod. x. 3.

LXXIII.

ON DELAYING OUR REPENTANCE.

Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me?

IT cannot be denied that Pharaoh was a remarkable character, raised up by God himself to be a monument

of God's power throughout all generations". Yet we mistake if we think that the dispositions which he exercised were peculiar to him: the occasions that called them forth into exercise, were peculiar; but the dispositions themselves were the common fruits of our corrupt nature, visible in all the human race. The command given to Pharaoh to permit all the Hebrews to go into the wilderness to offer sacrifice to their God, he chose not to comply with: and all the judgments inflicted on him, and the mercies vouchsafed to him, were ineffectual for the subduing of his rebellious spirit, and for the reducing of him to a willing obedience. And every one who reads the history of these events stands amazed at the pride and obduracy of his heart. But if we would look inward, and see how we have withstood the commands of God, and how little effect either his judgments or his mercies have produced on us, we should find little occasion to exult over Pharaoh: we should see, that, however circumstances then elicited and rendered more conspicuous the evils of his heart, the very same corruptions, which he manifested, are in us also, and that every individual amongst us has the same need as he of the expostulation in the text; "How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me?" And it is remarkable that this very account of Pharaoh was ordered to be transmitted to the latest posterity, in order that the children of all succeeding generations might see in it what his enemies are to expect at His hands, and what his friends. That we may render this subject the more generally useful, we will,

I. Shew wherein true humiliation consists

A full and abstract investigation of this point would lead us too far: we shall therefore confine ourselves to such particulars as the context more immediately suggests. True humiliation then consists in,

1. A deep and ingenuous sorrow for sin, as contrasted with forced acknowledgments

[If confessions extorted by sufferings or by fear were

sufficient evidences of humility, Pharaoh would never have received the reproof in our text: for on the plague of hail being inflicted, he sent for Moses and said, "I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous; and I and my people are wicked." But notwithstanding this, in God's estimation he still, as the text expresses it, "refused to humble himself before God." Yet is this the only humiliation which many amongst ourselves have ever experienced. In a time of sickness perhaps, or under any great and accumulated afflictions, we have been constrained to confess our desert of God's judgments. We have seen, that He has been contending with us; and that yet heavier judgments awaited us, if we did not humble ourselves before him. We have trembled perhaps at the prospect of approaching dissolution, and at the thought of appearing in an unprepared state at the tribunal of our Judge. Hence have arisen some forced acknowledgments of our sinfulness, whilst yet we neither hated our sins, nor lothed ourselves on account of them: and hence, on our restoration to health, we have returned, like fused metal from the furnace, to our wonted hardness and obduracy.

True humiliation is widely different from this. It implies a deep and ingenuous sorrow for sin, not only on account of the judgments it will bring upon us, but on account of its own intrinsic hatefulness and deformity. It leads us to smite on our breasts with conscious shame; and fills us with self-lothing and self-abhorrence: and this it does not only before we have obtained mercy, but afterwards; yea, and so much the more because God is pacified towards usd.

We readily acknowledge that tears are no certain sign of penitence; and that the sensibility that produces them depends rather on the constitutional habit, than on the convictions of the mind. Yet whilst we read so much in the Scriptures respecting men sowing in tears, and going on their way weeping, and whilst we behold the Saviour himself weeping over Jerusalem, and pouring out his soul before God with strong crying and tears, we cannot but think, that those who have never yet wept for sin, have never felt its bitterness: and there is just occasion for us to weep over all who have not yet wept for themselves. It is scarcely to be conceived that any man has a truly broken and contrite spirit, whose sighs and groans have not often entered into the ears of the omnipresent God, and whose tears have not been often treasured up in his vials.] 2. An unreserved obedience to God, as contrasted with partial compliances

[Pharaoh, under the pressure of his successive calamities, d Job xlii. 6. with Ezek. xvi. 63.

c Exod. ix. 27.