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nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, fhall inherit the kingdom of God." You will obferve, the apoftle does not fay, that the man in whom all these vicious characters meet, but the man to whom any one of them belongs, will be excluded from the kingdom of glory. If there be any one fin, which you cherish and retain, your fouls are guilty and defiled; and before you can enter into heaven, you must be washed, justified and fanctified in the name of the Lord Jefus, and by the spirit of God. Saint John fays, "They who do God's commandments," they who have respect to them all without referve, "fhall enter through the gates into the city; for without are dogs, and forcerers, and adulterers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whatsoever loveth and maketh a lie."

You fee, then, that, whatever duties you seem to perform, and whatever qualifications, you think, you poffefs; if you be not new creaturesif you have not the love of God in your hearts; but ftill retain fome known wickedness, fome favorite luft; you cannot enter through the ftrait gate.

Though you make a good profeffion, yet if your hearts and lives be not conformed to it,though you call Chrift your Lord, yet if you do not the things which he says, he will difown you as none of his. "Behold, thou art called a Jew," fays the apostle, "and refteft in the law, and makeft thy boaft of God-circumcifion verily profiteth, if thou keep the law; but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcifion is become uncircumcifion. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcifion which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, who is one inwardly, and circumcifion is that of the heart, in VOL. V.

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the fpirit, and not in the letter, whofe praife is not of men, but of God."

The higheft attainments in knowledge will not avail to your acceptance, without a correfpondent temper and practice. Though you hear Chrift teaching in your ftreets, as well as in his own houfe, and attend upon his inftructions both in feafon and out of feafon; yet if you regard not the things which he fays, he will profefs unto you, that he never knew you. They who hear his fayings and do them not, are like a man, who builds his houfe on the fand. They only are bleff ed, who hear his word and keep it. Though you have all knowledge, and understand all myfteries, yet without charity, you are nothing.

Farther; Though you fhould be greatly awak ened in hearing the word, and fhould feel pun gent convictions of fin and ftrong terrors from the reprefentations of hell and judgment; yet if these fenfations die away, and leave your hearts unchanged, and your lives unreformed, you have no claim to heaven. When Paul reafoned of righteoufnefs, temperance and the judgment to come, Felix trembled. But he foon difmiffed the folemn fubject for the prefent; and we do not Fearn, that he ever refumed it. Judas felt the an guifh and horror of guilt, but he remained a for of perdition, and is gone to his place.

Yea; though you fhould not only be alarmed by the threatenings, but alfo comforted by the promifes of the gofpel; yet if there be not an abiding conformity to its holy precepts, your guilt remains. We read of fome, who not only hear the word, but receive it with joy, and yet have no root in themfelves. Thefe, in a time of tempt ation, fall away. They are like ftony ground, in which the feed fown fprings up fpeedily; but because it has no root, it withers and dies.

However strict and regular you are in your attendance on the duties of devotion and the ordinances of Chrift, if your hearts be not devoted to him, your claims to heaven will be rejected. There are fome who eat and drink in his prefence, and ftill remain workers of iniquity. In Chrift neither circumcifion, nor uncircumcifion availeth any thing, but a new crcature. Devotional duties are highly important as the means of holinefs, but if you fubftitute them in the place of holiness, and make the whole of your religion to confift in them, they then become unprofitable and vain.

And, finally, whatever you do in religion, if you be not influenced by the motives which the gofpel propofes to you-motives taken from the character of God, and your relation to himfrom the things which he has done for you, and the glorious hopes which he has fet before youif inftead of these motives, you admit only those which respect the prefent world; your religion is but external; it has no place in the heart, and will not be accepted of that holy being, who requires truth in the inward parts.

As we have violated the purity, and incurred the penalty of the divine law, we muft know, that our present repentance and future obedience cannot be the ground of our pardon here, nor of our happiness hereafter. This must be the free mercy of God, which he exercises toward finners through the facrifice of Jefus Christ. We are never to confider any thing which we do as having the leaft degree of meritorious influence in procuring our falvation; but we are to afcribe this, in every stage of its progrefs, to the grace of God in the redeemer.

Perfonal holiness, however, is a neceffary qual

ification for heaven, for without it we are incapable of the spiritual felicity there to be enjoyed.

Our works of righteousness are neceffary fruits of that repentance and faith by which we become interested in the purchased and promised falvation. Whatever pretenfions we may make to forrow for fin, and reliance on the Saviour, if ftill we are workers of iniquity, we never have forrowed after a godly fort, nor believed to the faving of the foul.

Besides; as the publick process of the laft day is defigned to be a revelation of the righteous judgment of God; therefore our works will be the matter of the final enquiry, and on these the judgment will proceed, for thefe only are vifible to others. Hence it is faid, that " God will judge the world in righteousness, and render to every man according to his works; and according to the deeds done in the body; and every man fhall receive according to that he hath done, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

We fee, then, what is neceffary to our finding admiffion into heaven through the ftrait gate. We must renounce fin with godly forrow, repair to the faviour with humble faith in his righteousness, yield ourselves to God to ferve him in new obedience, refolve, in reliance on his grace, to depart from all iniquity, and conform to the whole will of God, and in hope of eternal life which God has promised, patiently continue in well-doing, and be faithful to the death. Thus we fhall receive the crown of life.

SERMON XII.

The awful Condition of those who shall be excluded from the kingdom of Heaven.

LUKE xiii. 24.

Strive to enter in at the ftrait gate; for many, I fay unto you, will feek to enter in, and shall not be able.

FROM thefe words we have observed,

That our entrance into heaven is by a strait gate -that there are many, who will fail of entering in at this gate-that the causes of their mifcarriage will be negligence, delay, and falfe dependence -That the character of fuch as will be excluded is workers of iniquity.

These obfervations have already been illustrated.
We will now,

Fifthly; attend to the reprefentation, which our Lord makes of the awful condition of those who fhall be excluded from his heavenly kingdom.

When we attend to this representation, it would be well, that we should confider it as a serious reality, not a fanciful fiction. As it is made by the fon of God himself, who came to be our teacher, and who is appointed to be our judge, we may be affured, that it was intended, not for our amufement, but for our warning.

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