SERMON VI.

TOKENS OF PERDITION.

MAT. XXIV. 32, 33.

Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

Our Saviour had been foretelling the signs which should precede his coming in the destruction of Jerusalem and his coming at the end of the world. As the tender branch and early leaves of the fig tree betoken the approach of summer, so these predicted harbingers would betoken, in their seasons, the judgment upon Jerusalem and the judgment of the great day. Corresponding with these two judgments are two which every wicked man must meet; one at death and the other at the second coming of Christ and corresponding with these signs are the symptoms which are found on individual sinners of these approaching judgments. There are certain appearances in relation to particular men which

may be plainly set down as Tokens of Perdition; which as manifestly forebode destruction as early fig leaves foretel approaching summer. The summer may be prevented by a special interposition of God, and so may this destruction.

In general it may be observed that a state of impenitence and unbelief is a portentous symptom of approaching ruin; much in the same way that the condemnation and imprisonment of a criminal are signs of his approaching execution. Every unbeliever is now under sentence of death, and is imprisoned in the body to await the day of execution. "He that believeth not is condemned already." This, one would think, is a state sufficiently alarming to rouse every impenitent sinner not actually distracted. But there are still more fearful symptoms, which may be emphatically styled The Tokens of Perdition. Some of these I will endeavor to select and arrange. And O may that Spirit whose province it is to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, apply them to your hearts! The day of judgment is before us all, -is just at the door. We shall soon be translated from earthly temples to one of the two great apartments of eternity. Everlasting ages of happiness or misery are before us all. And while our destiny lingers, we are permitted to meet once more in the house of God, to confer together on these amazing revolutions of ages. We are met in an assembly which will be reviewed from that world with unspeakable interest after yonder sun has ceased to shine. By all the anxiety of one who must shortly

meet you at the bar of Christ,-by all the tenderness of a pastor who wishes to spend eternal years with you in love and happiness, I entreat you to lend me your whole attention.

The first token of perdition which I shall mention is vicious habits; such as profane swearing, drunkenness, uncleanness, associating with loose company and the like. This is the broad road to perdition. These habits bespeak one already far advanced in the course to ruin. They prove a conscience seared as with a hot iron. They are alarming symptoms of a soul abandoned of God. They are the most perfect process that could be invented to harden the heart and to grieve the spirit away forever. They remove the sinner to the greatest possible distance from all the means instituted for his salvation. They betoken a rapid approach to that moment when the measure of his iniquity shall be full, and are every hour bringing him more directly under that fearful sentence, The wicked "shall not live out half their days." They are the best chosen means to provoke the wrath of heaven, and to seal and hasten and aggravate the sinner's ruin. That is a course from which few return. It is rare that a person settled in these habits gives evidence of becoming a real christian. Where one does this, millions proceed from bad to worse until they plunge into eternal death. The commencement of such a course therefore, shows as strong a probability of perdition, as the commencement of a consumption does of death. They are gone, eternally gone, unless they are plucked as brands from the burning.

The next token of perdition which I shall mention is a resort to infidelity or universalism to relieve the mind from presentiments of a judgment to come. None are capable of thus running away from the light of truth and taking shelter in impenetrable darkness, but those who for the present are abandoned of God. We read of some who are given over to a "strong delusion" to "believe a lie that they" may "be damned." Such a plunge into darkness shows a resolute determination to hide one's self from the light. And when men have thus immured themselves in cells which exclude the light of heaven, no motives to seek salvation can reach them. Now and then one of their number is reclaimed by the invincible grace of God; but by far the greater part, (judging from the outward indications of character,) die in their sins. The first approach to these cardinal errors therefore, betrays as violent symptoms of eternal destruction, as the first attack of a raging fever does of approaching death.

Much the same may be said of a denial of the proper divinity of Christ, and a denial of total depravity and regeneration. These, as they tend with all their influence to prevent a change of heart and faith in a divine Redeemer, tend as directly to destruction as a determined abstinence from food does to death.

The next token of perdition which I shall mention is that display of character which betrays a false hope and a false profession. I believe there is no instance recorded in the Bible of a sinner's being