day ſhall come, which puts an end to time and terreſtrial things: when that awful, that majeſtic voice, is heard, which commands all the race of Adam to appear at the bar; then, my dear brethren in Chriſt, then alſo ſhall you glory in the croſs. When others, in an agony of terror, call upon the rocks to fall on them, and mountains to overwhelm them: This shall be your ſedate appeal: rather this ſhall be your heroic challenge: Who ſhall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that juſtifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Chriſt that died, Rom. viii. 33, 34. -Then ſhall you enter the harbour of eternal reſt; not like ſhipwreck'd mariner, cleaving to ſome broken plank, and hardly eſcaping the raging waves; but like ſome ſtately veſſel, with all her ſails expanded, and riding before a proſperous gale[1].
III. Let me caution the ſelf-righteous. Thoſe, who more frequently think of their own piety than of Chriſt's obedience; are more apt to cry out with the Phariſee, I am no extortioner, no adulterer; than to confeſs with the publican, God be merciful to me a ſinner. -What ſhall I ſay to theſe perſons? Let me not be thought cenſorious, when my only aim is to be faithful. Beware, I beſeech you beware, leſt you build for eternity, not on a rock, but on the ſand. However you may appear in your own fight, before the adorable majeſty of the everlaſting God, before the conſummate perfection of his holy law, you are leſs than nothing; you are worſe than nothing. You are, indeed you are, deficiency and ſin. Renounce, therefore, renounce all depen-
- ↑ A ſhip wafted into the port, tinder the full influence of wind and tide, ſeems to afford the fineſt repreſentation of a large, a rich, an abundant entrance; 2 Pet. i. II.
