And

He generally carries it on in the following manner. The first step is to convince the sinner of his need of this change, by discovering to him his guilt and danger, and particularly the universal corruption of his nature. He is roused out of a state of a stupid security by an affecting view of the holiness of God, of the purity of his law, of the terror of its penalty, of the great evil of sin, and of his own exposedness to the divine displeasure upon the account of it. Upon this he becomes sad and serious, uneasy in his mind, and anxious about his condition. He endeavors to reform his life; he prays and uses the other means of grace with earnestness unknown before. when he has gone on in this course for some time, he begins perhaps to flatter himself that now he is in a safe condition. But, alas! he does not yet know the worst of himself. Therefore the Holy Spirit opens his eyes to see the inward universal corruption of his whole soul, and that a mere outward reformation is far from being a sufficient cure of a disease so inveterate. Hereupon the awakened sinner betakes himself to the means of grace with redoubled vigor and earnestness, and strives to change the principles of action within. But, alas! he finds his heart is a stubborn thing, and altogether unmanageable to him; and after repeated strivings to no purpose, he is effectually convinced of his own inability, and the absolute necessity of the exertion of divine power to make him truly good. Therefore he lies at the throne of grace, as a poor, anxious, helpless sinner, entirely at mercy, and unable to relieve himself. Now the important hour is come, when the old man must be crucified; when the divine and immortal principles must be implanted in a heart full of sin, and when the dead sinner must begin to live a holy and divine life. The great God instantaneously changes the whole soul, and gives it a new and heavenly turn. In short, now is wrought that important change, which I have already described, which is called the new birth, and denominates the man a new creature.

Here again you may furnish yourself materials for selfexamination. If you have been born again, you have thus felt the pangs of a new birth, and seen your guilty, sinful, and dangerous condition in a true light. And what do those of you who are in a state of nature determine to do? Will you not resolve to seek after this im

portant change, upon which your eternal all depends? Oh, let us part to-day fully determined upon this-that we will implore the power and mercy of God to create in us clean hearts, and renew within us right spirits.

XXV.

THE WAY OF SIN HARD AND DIFFICULT.

"It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks."-Acts, iv. 6.

Α

You often hear of the narrow and rugged road of religion, which leadeth unto life, and some of you, I am afraid, have not courage enough to venture upon it. You rather choose the smooth, broad, down-hill road to vice and pleasure, though it leads down to the chambers of death. It must be owned that a religious life is a course of difficulties, a hard struggle, a constant conflict; and it is fit you should be honestly informed of it; but then it is fit you should also know that the difficulties arise, not from the nature of religion, but from the corruption and depravity of the nature of man in its present degenerate state. course of religion is disagreeable, is hard, is difficult to mankind, just as a course of action is difficult to the sick, though it is easy and affords pleasure to those that are well. There are difficulties in the way of sin as well as in that of holiness, though the depravity of mankind renders them insensible of it. This is the view of the case I would now lay before you. There is a sense in which it is true, that it is a hard thing to be a sinner as well as to be a saint; there are difficulties in the way to hell as well as in the way to heaven. And if you are insensible of them, it is owing, as I just observed, to the corruption of your nature, and not to the real easiness of the thing itself. If it be hard, in one sense, to live a life of holiness, it is certainly hard, in another sense, to live a life of sin; namely, to run against conscience, against reason, against honor, against interest, against all the strong and endearing obli gations you are under to God, to mankind, and to your

selves; or, in the words of my text, it is hard for you to kick against the pricks.

This is a proverb, in use among various nations, which has received a sanction from heaven in the text.

To kick against the pricks, is an allusion to a lazy or unruly ploughhorse, or ox, that when pricked with a goad (an instrument used in ploughing, in sundry places, instead of a whip) refuses to go on, and spurns and kicks against the goad, and so wounds himself and not the driver. It is to this the phrase alludes; and it signifies a resistance injurious to the person that makes it, when it would be easy to obey. Hence we may learn the precise sense in which it is used by the mouth of Christ, in his pungent address to Saul the persecutor, whom we now know under the higher name of Paul the apostle.

Saul, animated with a furious, misguided, though honest zeal, against the disciples of Jesus, was now on his way to Damascus in pursuit of them, and had a commission from the highest court of the Jews to apprehend them, a commission which he was impatient to execute. This, in human view, was a very unpromising hour for his conversion; now it appears more likely that vengeance will arrest him as a criminal, than that grace will prevent him as a vessel of mercy. But O! what agreeable exploits of grace has Jesus performed! At the first introduction of his religion, it was fit he should single out some great sinner, and make him a monument of his mercy, for the encouragement of future ages. Therefore he surprises this fierce persecutor in his daring career, darts the splendor of his glory around him, and pierces him to the heart with this irresistible expostulation, Saul, Saul, why perse cutest thou me? Saul, in a trembling consternation, replies, Who art thou, Lord? He thought he was only bringing to justice a parcel of contemptible, blasphemous sectaries, unworthy of toleration; and little did he think that his persecuting zeal reached so high; little did he expect to hear one crying from the throne of heaven, Why persecu test thou me? But Jesus feels and resents the injuries done to his people as done to himself. The head sympathizes with its members; therefore he answers, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. And then follows my text, It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

That I may the more fully illustrate the striking thought

suggested by my text, I shall point out to you some seemingly insuperable obstacles in the way to hell, or some dire exploits, which one would think would be too hard for you to perform, which you must perform, if you persist in a course of sin.

1. Is it not a hard thing to be an unbeliever or a deist, in our age and country, while the light of the gospel shines around us with full blaze of evidence? Before a man can work up himself to the disbelief of a religion attended with such undeniable evidence, and inspiring such divine dispositions and exalted hopes, what absurdities must he embrace! what strong convictions must he resist! what dark suspicions, what boding fears and misgivings, what shocking peradventures and tremendous doubts must he struggle with! what glorious hopes must here sign! what gloomy and shocking prospects must he reconcile himself to! what viblence must he offer to his conscience! what care must be used to shut up all the avenues of serious thought, and harden the heart against the terrors of death and the supreme tribunal! How painful a piece of preposterous self-denial to reject the balm the gospel provides to heal a broken heart and a bleeding conscience, and the various helps and advantages it furnishes us with to obtain divine favor and everlasting happiness! How hard to work up the mind to believe that Jesus, who spoke, and acted, and suffered, and did every thing like an incarnate God, was an impostor, or at best a moral philosopher! or that the religion of the Bible, that contains the most sublime and Godlike truths, and the most pure and perfect precepts of piety and morality, is the contrivance of artful and wicked men, or evil spirits! These, brethren, are no easy things. There are many skeptics and smatterers in infidelity, but few, very few are able to make thorough work of it, or commence stanch unbelievers. The attempt itself is a desperate shift. A man must have reduced himself to a very sad case indeed, before he can have any temptation to set about it. He has, by his willful wickedness, set Christianity against him, before he can have any tempta tion to set himself against Christianity; and when he proclaims war against it, he finds it hard, yea, impossible, to make good his cause. He may indeed put on the airs of defiance and triumph, and affect to laugh at his enemy, and at times may be half persuaded he has really got the

victory. But such men find the arms of their own reason often against them, and their own conscience forms violent insurrections in favor of religion, which they cannot entirely suppress; so that they are like their father, whatever they pretend, they believe and tremble too. Alas, that there should be so many unhappy companions in this infernal cause, in our country and nation! They find it, hard, even now, to kick against the goad; and O! how much harder will they find it in the issue! Their resistance will prove ruinous to themselves; but neither they nor the gates of hell shall prevail against the cause they oppose. Christianity will live when they are dead and damned, according to its sentence.

2. Is it not hard for men to profess themselves believers, and assent to the truths of Christianity, and yet live as if they were infidels!

A professed speculative atheist or infidel is a monster that we do not often meet with; but the more absurd and unaccountable phenomenon of a practical atheist, one who is orthodox in principle, but infidel in practice, we may find wherever we turn; and it would be strange if none such have mingled in this assembly to-day. To such I would particularly address myself.

If you believe Christianity, or even the religion of na ture, you believe that there is a God of infinite excellency, the Maker, Preserver, Benefactor, and Ruler of the world, and of you in particular; and consequently, that you are under the strongest obligations to love him, and make it your great study and endeavor to obey his will in all instances. Now is it not strange, that while you believe this, you are able to live as you do? How can you live so thoughtless of this great and glorious God, who bears such august and endearing relations to you? How can you withhold your love from him, and ungratefully refuse obedience? Is not this a hard thing to you? Does it not cost you some labor to reconcile your consciences to it? If this be easy to you, what champions in wickedness are you? how mighty to do evil? This would not be easy to the mightiest archangel; no, it is a dire achievement he would tremble to think of.

Again; if you believe the Christian religion, you believe the glorious doctrine of redemption through Jesus Christ; you believe that he, the Father's great coequal Son, as