improved, and hurry back again like a dog to his vomit, do not think you are just where you were. No you are in a much worse condition; God has knocked again at the door of your heart, and you have again refused to open, and let HIM in to dwell there. On the other hand, if by His grace you really open your ear to instruction, then you have this blessed assurance, that the very first scruple thus arising in you is a proof that GOD has not cast you off: you may be forgiven and saved; only lose no time, lest this mercy too be thrown away.

And when you have once begun, really and steadily, to mind the great work of your salvation-when you find yourself in good truth more earnest and fervent in prayer, more awake and alive to the presence of ALMIGHTY GOD, more concerned to please your SAVIOUR in all things,-then you may humbly consider, that every hour of real improvement is a fresh sign of His gracious purpose towards you: thus you may quiet any misgivings, which either sloth, or discontent, or (as sometimes happens) bodily infirmity may at times excite within you. Only be very much on your guard against anything like praising yourself. Remember the Pharisee in the parable: a good work had begun in him; for punctual payment of God's dues, and fasting to keep himself in order, were surely, so far, good things: but he threw all the good of them away, he turned them into occasions of evil, by trusting in them, and valuing himself upon them. Never forget, that this snare is laid for you. When Satan cannot prevent good beginnings, his next point is, to get you to praise yourself. for them; not always to praise yourself in words, but often, what is still more dangerous, to think over your own praise silently. This is a deep and most enticing art; and those who know, by their own conscience, that they are apt to be led away by it, and to sit musing on their own good deeds, have as much need as any sinner in the world to watch and pray without ceasing.

However, thus much is certain: that nothing besides amendment in practice, purer and holier thoughts, words, and actions, nothing short of this can be safely depended on as a token of men's final salvation. As far as we dare to judge of it at all, we must judge of it by that rule, and by no other: not by our much knowledge of divine words, no, nor of divine things either; nor yet by our quick and strong feelings, when we read or hear of the

252 PAST MERCIES, A PLEDGE OF MERCIES TO COME.

sufferings of our SAVIOUR, or other affecting parts of holy Scripture; much less are you to judge yourself in a state of grace, because you have more knowledge, or more good feeling, than many or most of your acquaintance. These are, indeed, broken reeds to lean on, without good practice to follow them, good practice persevering to the end.

And observe, I mean by good practice, not what the world means, only or chiefly, doing your duty to your neighbour, but I mean especially, doing your duty to your SAVIOUR: trying to live by faith in His Cross, to please HIM in all things, for HE died for you. These things will bring a man peace at the last; as for high knowledge and quick feelings, and thankful recollections of mercies received in times past, they are all good, as beginnings: but if not followed up, they may, and will, be lost.

Who ever knew more of the truth, or felt divine things more deeply, or had more Christian good works to look back on, than had the great Apostle St. Paul? But he never durst look back; he counted not himself to have obtained; he kept himself in order, body and soul, lest, having preached to others, he himself should be a castaway.

"Are we, then, never to be certain ? never to be assured of our final salvation ?" We know of no promise that we shall be so here in this present world. But we do know that we are commanded, as long as we are in this world, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling: we do know, that the great Owner of the world begun by His SPIRIT a good work in us, when He called us to be Christians, and has given us many tokens since, that He will perform that work unto the end, if our sin and unbelief drive HIм not away. This we do know for certain; and therefore we may be sure that it is wisest and best, making no question of God's merciful purpose, to judge ourselves strictly by His plain commands, and in deep humiliation for our past unworthiness, and strict purposes of future improvement, to submit ourselves to His good SPIRIT, for such measures of comfort and assurance as He knows to be best for us. As long as we choose for ourselves, we are in danger; but when we can once, truly and heartily, leave HIM to choose for us, then it will be well with us, and then we shall be safe.

SERMON CXCVII.

THE ENEMIES OF THE CROSS.

PHILIP. iii. 18, 19.

"For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of CHRIST: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things."

THIS letter of St. Paul to the Philippians, as is clearly enough pointed out by the beginning of the first chapter, addresses itself particularly to well-meaning Christians, people who are so far honest in heart as to wish to serve GoD sincerely, and not make void His Fatherly care in sending His ministers among them, and providing them with the means of grace. Now whereas such an amiable and right disposition is not seldom blemished, more or less, by indolence of mind, making men unwilling to consider deeply, and look unpleasant truths in the face; and especially, making it hard for them to believe that any error commonly received, and embraced perhaps by persons whom they like, can be very ruinous to men's souls;-observe how plainly the Apostle speaks out, what earnest and vehement language he uses; so that no one, regarding his judgment, (or rather the judgment of the HOLY SPIRIT by him,) could ever after think slightly of the sin and error here denounced by him. "Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the

enemies of the Cross of CHRIST: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things."

To make the right use of these words, we must consider what sort of people the Apostle is here describing. Not, I should think, professed Heathens, but rather, lukewarm, insincere Christians; for if they were not outwardly of that faith, there would have been little or no danger of well-meaning believers imitating them. But suppose them, in show and profession, Christians; suppose them to make up a very large portion of the visible Church of Christ, and the need of warning, of severe and constant warning against them, is clear at once, and very pressing. Not of unbelievers, then, but of insincere, inconsistent believers, is St. Paul speaking here in the text. And he seems as if, do what he would, he could hardly find words to express his sense of their peril. “I have told you before of them, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of CHRIST;" not simply enemies, but the enemies, the worst enemies of that Name, besides which "there is none other under Heaven given unto men, whereby they must be saved."

And no wonder their end should be, what he next tells us, "destruction;" since they obstinately cast away from them the only hope and refuge of sinners, the Cross of our LORD JESUS CHRIST. This warning the Apostle accompanied with his tears. "I have told you of them," says he, " before, and now tell you even weeping :" weeping with regret and sorrow for them, that they should cast themselves into such misery; and with fear and anxiety for his own faithful people, lest they should be any how beguiled by their example. "They are the enemies of the Cross of CHRIST: whose end is destruction." These are his inspired words of warning, put first, as it seems, to rouse his hearers, and make them listen more attentively, to know what class of persons they might be, who, professing like themselves to be Christians, could deserve and receive so dreadful a sentence. And he leaves no one at a loss to know; the words that follow point out to every one, in a way which cannot be mistaken, what sort of persons he has in view. "Their God is their belly, and their glory is in their shame," because "they mind earthly things." Selfish, sensual persons, entirely swallowed up in the

gross and brutish pursuits of this present evil world, could not be more emphatically described.

Their God is their belly;" that is, as minds sincerely pious and Christian are taken up with the thought of GOD, and make it always their first care, whatever they do, to please HIM; so these men are taken up with those low and mean appetites which men have in common with beasts: eating and drinking and bodily delights are their first care, the thing which they long for, the object for which they live and act. One would think the mere pointing out to such persons, how they wilfully degrade themelves, how they let themselves, on purpose, down, as far as they may, to the condition of brutes, -one would think this ought to be enough to produce something like repentance in them. If not as Christians, surely as men, they must feel it a shame and a reproach, to be wholly given up to the body. So one might expect; but what is the fact?

"Their glory," says St. Paul, " is in their shame;" they are grown so besotted, so brutish, by long indulgence of their bodily appetites, that they pride themselves and exult among their companions, each in being more wicked than another. For instance; among habitual drunkards, is it not made a matter of boasting to be mightier than the rest to drink wine, and of more strength to mingle strong drink: that is, in other words, to be a more hardened and reprobate sinner, and to go further in offending GOD? Men do not, I know, distinctly mean this: in many cases, they do not think at all of GOD when they thus affront HIM with glorying in their sins but who made them so hardened, so reckless, as to leave HIM out of their thoughts? Was it not their own wilful corruption, in giving way more and more to passions which they knew to be wrong, to imaginations which they ought to have kept in order?

If any man say, his passions were strong, his nature weak, and though indeed he knew better, he had not strength to act upon that knowledge; here again he forgets, inexcusably, that he was not left to his own weak nature. He forgets that ALMIGHTY GOD, on whom he might have called if he would when he gave way to wilful sin,-that HOLY SPIRIT of Grace, which is always close enough at hand, and surely always able to help him out of any, the most overpowering, temptation.