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weaken the force of the supposition in my text, by an appeal to human systems; but to admit it as a salutary caution to yourselves, and to improve it with all diligence, that you yourselves may not become examples of the case that is supposed.]

Admitting then the possibility of the case supposed, let me draw your attention to,

II. The evil of it declared

Wherever such a case occurs, the man is indeed in a most pitiable condition: " His last end is worse than his beginning." Yes verily, he is in a worse state than ever,

1. In respect of guilt

[The more light a man has in his mind, the more he sins if he resist that light. Now in the case under our consideration, the person is supposed to have obtained "a knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and such a measure of it as has been attended with the happiest effects; and yet, after knowing the way of righteousness, to depart from it." Here then he must sin against light and knowledge: he must violate the dictates of his own conscience: for, though it is true enough, that a man may persuade himself that he is acting right, whilst yet he is violating the plainest commands of God, he cannot experience a transition from the service of God to the service of Satan without many rebukes from conscience, and strong misgivings in his mind. And every step he takes in such a state exceedingly augments and aggravates his guilt: insomuch that the sins which he committed in his days of ignorance, have no guilt in comparison of that which he now contracts. What our blessed Lord said to the Jews of old is strictly applicable to him: "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sing." If to this be added, that in departing from the ways of righteousness he in a tenfold degree dishonours God, and brings disgrace upon his Gospel, and weakens the hands of the godly, and hardens the hearts of the ungodly, the sin of an apostate is great indeed.]

2. In respect of bondage

[The Spirit of God strives more or less with every living manh: but with those who have experienced the sanctifying effects of the knowledge of Christ, he must of necessity have wrought in a more abundant measure. Consequently, by the increased resistance necessary to overcome his sacred motions,

g John xv. 22.

h Gen. vi. 3.

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he must have been the more deeply "grieved." And when once "the Spirit is quenched," and caused" to depart1," and "vexed" as to become an m enemy to the backslidden soul, What can be expected but that Satan should re-occupy the post from which he had been driven, and bind in stronger chains than ever his unhappy captive? This our blessed Lord has taught us to expect. He says, that Satan, under such circumstances, "will bring with him seven other spirits more wicked, if possible, than himself; and they will enter into the backslider's heart, and dwell there: and that the last state of that man will be worse than the first"." The heart of the apostate must of necessity become more hardened in proportion as he has "rebelled against the light," and provoked God to give him up to his own heart's lusts. Hence the apostle speaks of it as impossible to renew such an one to repentBy this I understand not that it is absolutely impossible, but so difficult as to be beyond all reasonable expectation.]

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3. In respect of condemnation

[If guilt be increased, an increase of punishment must follow of course. "The servant that knows his lord's will and does it not, will be beaten with many stripes;" whilst he who sins through ignorance will be beaten with comparatively "few stripes P." Hence our Lord declared to the cities of Bethsaida and Capernaum, that it should be "more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for them:" for though their wickedness was not of the precise nature with that which so abounded in Sodom, yet it was committed in the midst of advantages which Sodom and Gomorrha never enjoyed. The same may be said of the apostate: "If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour us." And this judgment will be proportioned to the guilt which we have contracted by our abuse of our pre-eminent advantages: for (it is added), "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace?"

From all these considerations it is clear, that the last state

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of the apostate is worse than his beginning: and that it would have "been better for him never to have known the way of righteousness, than, after he has known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto him."]

APPLICATION

There are, it is to be feared, many here present, who have never yet been delivered from the pollutions of the world

[In truth, of this description are the great mass of nominal Christians throughout the world. If you take men's victory over the world as a criterion whereby to judge of their piety, you will find amongst the professors of Christianity quite as little as amongst Jews, or Mahometans, or Pagans. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, that is, pleasure, and riches, and honour, are the great objects of ambition in every place: and, if a man be dead to them, he is " a sign and a wonder" to all around him. Look, beloved brethren, and see how your hearts stand affected to these things. Can you truly say, as before God, that " you have overcome the world," and that it is, as it were, under your feet? Have you ever had such views of "the cross of Christ, as have rendered the world and all its vanities like a crucified object in your eyes; and that you also are become like one crucified unto its?" I entreat you to attend to what the Apostle speaks in my text: "If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." He here takes for granted, that this effect will follow, universally, and invariably, follow; all who know our adorable Saviour will escape the pollutions of the world. I pray you to mark this: the Apostle takes it for granted: and he was right; for there never was, nor ever will be, one exception to this truth: all who know Christ aright, will become dead to the world, and escape from its pollutions. Bring yourselves then to this test: try yourselves, ye whose friends and companions are worldly, whose desires and pursuits are worldly, whose joys and sorrows are worldly. If you were Christians indeed, you would "not be of the world, even as Christ was not of the world." You cannot be of the world, and of God too; for they stand in direct opposition to each other". "You cannot serve God and Mammon." Know then, that whilst you love and “mind earthly things," you have never yet "known the way of righteousness" and that though your state may be " worse," it is exceeding bad: for, if "the last end of the apostate is worse than his beginning," his beginning must of necessity be bad:

s Gal. vi. 14. Matt. vi. 24.

t John xvii. 16.
y Phil. iii. 18, 19.

u 1 John iv. 5, 6. z 2 Pet. ii. 21.

and such is the state of all who have not yet devoted themselves to the service of their God.]

But some there are, we may hope, who have, through the knowledge of Christ, been delivered from the world

[It is well you have thus far answered one end for which our blessed Saviour died: for "he gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world"." But you will do well to bear in mind the caution in our text. A change of situation often brings with it a change of conduct. Perhaps you may be somewhat advanced in rank or station, or may form some new connexion, or be brought into some new circumstances and you may easily persuade yourself that this change not only sanctions, but requires, a change in your habits and deportment. But " beware lest, as Satan beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so you also should be turned from the simplicity that is in Christ." Whatever your situation or circumstances may be, God's command to you is, " Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in himb." Even "the friendship of the world, if unduly sought or delighted in, is enmity with God." Beware then how in heart and affection you return to the world. "Remember Lot's wife." "After once putting your hand to the plough, you must never look back again." Methinks, if you would duly consider the image by which such apostasy is represented in the words. following my text, you never could return to the world. One scarcely knows how even to quote the Scripture itself; so exceedingly does one nauseate the ideas suggested in it, and so utterly do one's feelings revolt from it. But it does paint the world, and all who love it, in very humiliating colours. O that all the votaries of gaiety, and fashion, and pleasure could but hear what the Apostle compares them to; even to “swine wallowing in the mire!" and that all who are tempted to conform to them, could be brought to reflect on "a dog returning to his own vomit again!" Yes, brethren, this is the feast to which your earthly friends invite you. Ah! learn to view the world as God views it: learn to regard it as a country infected with the plague: and let your great concern be to get through it in safety. Go not unnecessarily where the infection rages most: but come out from among them, and be separate; and touch not the unclean thing." And, as it was the knowledge of Christ which first brought you forth from the world and its pollutions, seek to "grow in the knowledge of your

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a Gal. i. 4.
d Luke ix. 62.

b 1 John ii. 15.
e 2 Cor. vi. 17.

c Jam. iv. 4.

adorable Lord and Saviour," that, through the abundance of his grace communicated to you, you may live more than ever unto God; and that, "shining already as lights in the world"," your" path may shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day h."]

f 2 Pet. iii. 18.

8 Phil. ii. 15.

h Prov. iv. 18.

MMCCCCXXVI.

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.

2 Pet. iii. 7. The day of judgment and perdition of ungodly

теп.

A FUTURE state of rewards and punishments is, in theory, universally acknowledged; but, in practice, it is grievously forgotten, and, by not a few, is held in derision. Because God delays to execute his threatenings against ungodly men, they imagine that he never will execute them. Just as in the days of Noah, because the menaced deluge was suspended for one hundred and twenty years, it was to multitudes an object of scorn; so now the idea of an universal conflagration, when "the heavens and the earth shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up," is deemed a fable; and the destruction which will then come upon the whole ungodly world is disregarded, as the dream of a fanatical or superstitious mind. The day of judgment, it is hoped, will prove alike favourable to all; and no great difference be put between the righteous and the wicked. But the name given to that day deserves particular attention and I beg you to attend to it, with the humility that becomes you, whilst I open to you,

I. The terms by which the day of judgment is here designated

It is called "The day of the perdition of ungodly men." Let us consider,

1. Why it is so called

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