mained without hope of deliverance, had not Christ redeemed them by His blood. The fting of death is fin: and the strength of fin is the law. It is fin which caused death; it is fin which maketh death terrible. By fin death entered into the world: by fin the bed of the dying man is fhaken with agony, with pangs of body and horrors of confcience: by fin the dungeons of never-ending punishment were founded, and their gates thrown open to the guilty and unregenerate foul. And the ftrength of fin is the law. Sin is the tranfgreffion of the law: and the wages of fin is death (b). The perfect holiness of that law of God which fin perfuades men to transgress is the very weapon from which he derives his strength, his power of working destruction. The law of God demands perfect obedience. The penalty for every inftance of difobedience is eternal death. Curfed is every one who continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of the law, to do them (i). Sin prevails on every man to break the law: and then with triumphant malignity inflicts 'the penalty upon him, and plunges him into death eternal. O wretched man that I am! cried St. Paul, pouring forth on another occafion the convictions of his foul; Who fhall deliver me

(b) 1 John, iii. 4. Rom. vi. 23. (i) Gal. iii. 10.

from

from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jefus Christ our Lord (k). Here is deliverance: here is conqueft and life and bleffednefs for ever and ever.. Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jefus Chrift! Thanks be to God that the feed of the woman hath bruised the ferpent's head! Chrift hath rescued us from the power of the grave: Chrift hath delivered us from the wrath to come. Chrift hath redeemed us from the curfe of the law, being made a curse for us. Chrift hath tafted death for all men; and hath made His foul an offering for fin; a full, perfect, and fufficient facrifice, oblation, and fatisfaction for the fins of the whole world. Chrift hath destroyed the last enemy. Christ hath prepared from the creation of the world a kingdom for His faints, a kingdom of righteousness where there fhall be no more death, nor forrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: where they shall see their Lord face to face, and be like unto Him, and reign with Him in blifs unchangeable for ever and ever,

Was it then to indulge curiofity, was it to gratify the mind with fublime defcription, that the apostle had thus unfolded the everlafting triumph of the Son of God, and the everlasting triumph of the righteous through (k) Rom. vii. 24, 25.

Him? St. Paul had a nobler purpofe; that purpose which was the object of his heart in all his writings, in all his labours; to promote the glory of God by guiding and animating man to holiness and falvation through faith in the blood of Chrift. Hear the concluding leffon, the great practical exhortation, which, as the confequence and the fum of his instructions in this chapter, he addreffed to the Corinthians and now addreffeth to ourselves. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfaft, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forafmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. If then, my beloved brethren, whofe eternal welfare ought to be my fervent defire, my unceasing prayer, my persevering and earnest pursuit; if these things be fure, be ye ftedfast, unmoveable. Shew yourselves the true fervants and foldiers of your Lord. Continue unfhaken in His faith. Hold faft the words of found doctrine. Beware left any man spoil you through philofophy and vain deceit. Avoid profane and vain babblings; and oppofitions of fcience falfely fo called (4), prefumptuous difputes raised on the groundwork of senseless fpeculation and conjecture, against truths which reft on, the promise, and are secured by the omnipotence, of God. Continue fted

(1) Col. ii. 8. 1 Tim. vi. 20.

faft

faft under temptations to fin.

Refit the

Devil; and he will flee from you. Call for fuccour to your Redeemer, whom Satan tempted in vain; your Redeemer, who has openly triumphed on the crofs over all the powers and principalities of darkness; your Redeemer, who has promised that His grace fhall be fufficient for you, that He will fave to the uttermoft all who come unto God by Him. Continue patient and undismayed under fufferings. Look unto Jefus, the Author and finisher of your falvation; who for the joy that was fet before Him endured the crofs, defpifing the fhame, and is now fet down at the right hand of the throne of God. Be ye always abounding in the work of the Lord. The work of the Lord is faith unfeigned. This is the work of God: that ye believe on Him whom He hath fent (m). The work of the Lord is to do the will of God; to be holy, as He is holy. The work of the Lord is to feek first the kingdom of God and His righteoufnefs; to labour for the falvation. of your own foul, and that of the fouls of others. In this bleffed work abound more and more. Strive, through the Holy Spirit, to be an example of piety. Shew yourself a Christian in thought, in word, and in deed. (27) John, vi. 29.

Win others to the love of Chrift and the care of their eternal interefts by prudent inftruction and exhortation, where you may be allowed to inftruct and exhort: and at all times, and in all places, by adorning the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things, by giving unaffected proof that your heart is fteadily governed by Chriftian motives, and filled with Chriftian tempers. You know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. You know that there is a reward for the righteous: that your afcended Lord will return to receive His faints unto Himfelf: that while the wicked fhall be turned into hell, and all the people who forget God, all who do not make it their leading object faithfully to love and serve their God and Redeemer; the juft fhall be exalted to the prefence of God, where there is fulness of joy and pleasure for evermore. Prefs forward then towards the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Chrift Jefus; that you may be admitted to the Refurrection of eternal Life.

Would you feel the aweful import of that refurrection? Realife things unfeen. Suppose yourself an unconverted finner, recently feparated from the body, juft arrived on the confines of the invifible world.

Suppose

yourself addreffed by one of its glorified in

I

habitants.