ay yet be saved from sin, when they die, and be
received to heaven. It lulls into carnal security. It operates as a
standing excuse for all the iniquities which men may chance to
commit. While on the contrary, our Savior's doctrine, that if we
believe not in Him as our Savior from sin, we shall die in our sins,
and where he has gone never go, tends most directly and
powerfully to arouse from the fatal slumbers of worldliness and
sinful pleasure, to cry mightily to God in Christ's name, for
deliverance from all our spiritual foes-and for strength and grace
"to serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness before him
all the days of our life." God grant that this may be
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the earnest cry of every soul, and be continued by every one of you
until you find your feet in that "highway of holiness over which the
unclean shall not pass." He that thinks that he shall certainly be
saved from sin at last, will be almost sure to be saying, "a little more
sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to
sleep." May the Lord save us out of this destructive snare of the
devil, and bring us all to behold by faith, "the Lamb of God who
taketh away the sins of the world." Then shall we "obtain the
witness that we are righteous, God testifying," within us by his spirit
"of his" own "gifts," and "then shall we not be ashamed when we
have respect unto all his commandments."
3. We may see it to be a matter of unspeakable consequence,
that we do not trifle with, nor resist the Holy Ghost. He trifles with
the Holy Ghost, who thinks lightly of the pollutions which God
charges upon him, and will not seek to be cleansed by the Spirit of
God. He resists the Holy Ghost who will not yield to the motives of
the gospel, and come to Christ for the Holy Spirit that he may have
life. If any of you my hearers desire the salvation of God-let me
say to you as did David to Solomon his son. "Thou Solomon my
son, know thou the God of thy Fathers, and serve him with a
perfect heart, and with a willing mind. If thou seek him he will be
found of thee, but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off f
