times my Spirit strove with thee; sometimes drawing thee with "the bands of a man and the cords of love;" at other times flashing terror into thy. conscience, and endeavouring to frighten thee out of thy sins. Tell me now, What became of these convictions?

I gave thee health. Thou wast not confined to thy house and bed by some chronical distemper, as many were for years together: thou hadst scarce a day's interruption by sickness: tell me, How didst thou improve this great blessing of health?

And so on, through all the numberless mercies of our lives. This will strike many of us speechless. But if he begins to "reprove" us, and "set our sins in order before us;"-if he comes to charge us home; one with drunkenness, another with profaneness, another with uncleanness, another with lying and dishonesty; and particular instances are quoted, with all their circumstances of heinous aggravation, so that it is impossible to deny it;-when what was "done in a corner shall be thus proclaimed upon the house top;" what we would not now for the world that our parents, or our minister, or the church, or the town, should know, shall be published before all the world ;-O what will be the confusion and consternation, the horror and anguish of many at that day! And that day will as surely come, and your trial will be as surely called, as the sun will rise to-morrow. "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he

shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left."-And this suggests another end of his coming: viz.

3. He is coming to fix us all in heaven, or hell, for ever.

If we are acquitted upon the trial just now mentioned; if it appears that we were created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works;" that we walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord," if not absolutely and perfectly “blameless,' yet without any allowed defect or deviation; if it appears that we loved the Lord our God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength;" and that the grace of God had taught" and enabled "us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world;"

then the Judge will smile upon us, and say; "Come, ye blessed of my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world." And when the business of the day is over, we shall ascend with him to his Father, and our Father; to his God and our God; and sit down with him on his throne, and behold his glory, and partake of it too, with songs and everlasting joy upon our heads. We shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away for ever.

But-dreadful alternative-but, if the trial go against us; if it shall appear that we lived and died "enemies to God in our minds by wicked works;" that we could never be prevailed upon to cast away our transgressions wherein we had transgressed; that we minded "earthly things" only; that we were "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God:" and that we persisted to the last in an obstinate re

say;

fusal of Christ and his offered salvation; then will the Judge, with an angry and half-averted face, "Depart, ye cursed! into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." The dreadful sentence is no sooner pronounced, than we are seized, and bound hand and foot, and cast into the bottomless pit," where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," and the smoke of our torment ascendeth up for ever.

To one or other of these states, the Son of man, when he cometh, will most assuredly consign over every individual of this assembly: it cannot be indifferent to you which. Indifferent! no; our very flesh trembles for fear of God. Tell us, What must we do to be saved? how shall we escape the damnation of hell? which way must we flee from the wrath to come? Don't leave us in this distress---go on---we are impatient to have you go on, and shew us,

II. What we must be, and do, in order to be ready for the Son of Man's coming.'

1. Repent, and be converted.

I know the very term conversion is unfashionable, obsolete, and almost unintelligible to some. It would be received in many assemblies with a sneer, and they would angrily interrupt the preacher with an "Are we unconverted also?" I presume not to say who are converted, and who are not; but, surely, in this assembly I need not hesitate to say, that "except a man be born of water and of the Spirit"---that is, "except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God." ---I say ye, because my business is now more immediately with you, and because you are all " by na

ture children of wrath, even as others:" "for by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." In consequence of this, we are all transgressors from the womb, going astray as soon as we are born, speaking lies. As we grow up, our wickedness becomes greater and more glaring, and God sees that every imagination of the thoughts of our heart is only evil continually. And yet, though this is the very depraved and very unhappy case of all mankind, very few are sensible of it: so that the reproofs and advice addressed to the church of Laodicea are as proper now as when they were first given: "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." (Rev. iii. 17, 18.) You may "go about to establish your own righteousness," and by an extraor dinary zeal in external duties get a reputation among men, and fancy that you have somewhat whereof to boast before God; but unless you have true grace enlightening the mind and enriching the soul; unless you have been convinced of your natural poverty, guilt, and wretchedness; unless you have been "washed, and sanctified, and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God;" unless you have been turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto

God;" unless you have passed" from death to life;" -unless such an inward and entire change hath passed upon you, you are not ready for the Son of man: and if he should come and find you in that condition, woe, woe unto you! It had been better for you never to have been born at all, than not be born again.

Let me beseech you, therefore, not to rest in names, and forms, and an external religion, which is mere bodily exercise, and profiteth nothing: but cry earnestly to God for regenerating grace: beg him to "create in you a clean heart," and to " renew a right spirit within you;" "that ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Pray that the Lord would make you" willing, in the day of his power," to deny yourselves, and take up your cross, and follow Christ; willing to cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour. of light; willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Prince and Saviour; willing to glory in him, as the Lord your righteousness and strength; and to rely upon him, as the sole foundation of your peace with God now, and your hopes of acceptance with God hereafter.-If Christ be thus formed in your souls; if he dwell in your hearts by faith; if abide in Christ, and his words abide in you; you then you are prepared for any thing; "for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."