Partnership in iniquity is shameful, as it betrays a rash and foolish confidence; a confidence in those who are not to be trusted. Wicked men may solicit your concurrence with them in their evil designs; but they will desert you in the day of trouble. They may employ you as a tool to accomplish their purpose; but will not console you in the anguish of guilt, nor deliver you from the punishment of your wickedness.

The rulers of the Jews covenanted with Judas to betray his master into their hands, But when filled with the horror of remorse, he threw back the wages of his perfidy, and confessed, "I have sinned in betraying innocent blood," they, insensible to his distress, replied, "What is that to us? See thou to that."

5. If we have fellowship with sinners in their works, we must share with them in their punishment.

The Apostle says, "The wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. Be not ye partakers with them."

The like warning God gives to his people at the approaching destruction of Babylon; "Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Solomon observes, that "a companion of fools will be destroyed. -Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished." All who are concerned in the work of iniquity, must divide among them the fatal rewarda reward not diminished, but often augmented by their mutual concurrence with, and reciprocal influence upon each other. If we would stand clear of the guilt, we must abstain from the appearance of evil.

It becomes you now to review the various ways in which men form a fellowship in sin, and to examine whether you are concerned in such a vain, such a ruinous commerce. Have you never by example, enticement, countenance or concurrence, drawn others into iniquity? Have you never taken pleasure in them who do evil? Have you rather reproved and restrained

them? If any such partnership has subsisted, it is high time that you dissolve it-that you withdraw yourselves and reclaim your associates from so fatal a confederacy. If you have destroyed much good, it concerns you, by all means in your power, to restore it. Perhaps you cannot undo all the evil which you have done, nor recal the virtue which you have expelled. But, at least, by repentance save your own souls; and, by your good 'conversation, encourage the repentance of others.

Let all be persuaded to a different kind of fellowship, a fellowship in the fruitful works of holiness and light. Consider one another to provoke unto love and goodworks. Exhort one another daily, lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Take heed lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Give diligence to reclaim the wicked and encourage the virtuous. He who converteth a sinner from the error of his ways, shall save a soul from death and hide the multitude of sins.

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SERMON XXXVI.

Sleeping Sinners Called to Awake.

EPHESIANS v. 19, 14,

But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

THE words, to which the Apostle here alludes, are in the beginning of the sixteenth chapter of Isaiah. "Arise shine," or be enlightened, "for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee." To the Gentiles the Apostle applies these words, as a call to awake from their slumbers, and enjoy the light of the gospel newly risen upon them.

This call addressed to the Ephesians may with equal propriety be addressed to multitudes in the Christian world; for though the light shines, they open not their eyes, but continue in the same dead sleep as if darkness still covered them.

Sleep and death are metaphors often used in scripture, to express the moral state, not only of Heathens, but also of sinners in general; and especially of such

as are secure and thoughtless in their sins. To such slumbering souls I shall now apply the call in the text: And I beg that you will watch one hour.

I shall describe the character of the persons to whom the call is directed, open the call itself; and press the argument in the text.

I. Let us attend to the character of the persons here addressed They are such as are in a state of sleep.

In vain is the call in the text addressed to you, unless you are convinced, that you are the men. The most exact description of your character, unless you hear and apply it, will give you no conviction. If you can sit inattentive to a subject in which you are so nearly concerned, it is manifest, that you are under a Spirit of slumber, and, with respect to you, the inquiry may stop here. But let me hope better things of you, though I thus speak. To proceed then,

1. If you allow yourselves in the practice of known wickedness, your conscience is asleep.

"The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." If you had any just apprehension of this wrath, you would not take pleasure in unrighteousness: You would be anxious for deliverance from it. While therefore you indulge iniquity in your heart, you are in a state of sleep; your conscience is unfeeling to guilt, your reason is blind to interest, and your soul is dead to a sense of danger.

Think not that your condition is safe, because there are some vices which you avoid." Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" If you are such, in any respect, you must be renewed and sanctified by the Spirit of God.

You say, "Good men are imperfect-they offend in many things." This is true; but they pursue not a course of sin; they yield not themselves servants to it; they obey it not in the lusts thereof. When through infirmity or temptation they are led astray,

they think on their ways, and turn their feet unto God's testimonies. A conviction of their transgressions brings them on their knees before God, and their pious sorrow works in them carefulness. Is this your character? There is then ground of hope and comfort. But if, on the contrary, in your general resolutions, you make reserves in favor of this or that sinif you deliberately contrive the commission of iniquity -if you repeat it often without remorse, and run into temptations without caution-if, when you have done evil, you seek excuses to pacify your conscience-if the imperfections of good men, instead of exciting you to vigilance, encourage you to selfflattery-if the mercy of God, which should lead you to repentance, emboldens you to continue in sin-what will you say -Do you not love and choose wickedness? Is not your heart set in you to do evil?

2. If you live in the customary neglect of selfexamination, you are in a state of slumber.

One who is awake to religion, regards it as the one thing needful. He is solicitous to know, whether he possesses the temper, and is entitled to the blessings of it. He examines himself, whether he is in the faith, and proves his works, whether they are wrought in God. That sense of the importance of religion, which engages him in the practice of it, makes him attentive to the exercises of his heart and the actions of his life, that he may know what manner of man he is. This is his prayer, "Search me, O God, and try my heart; prove me and know my thoughts: See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Inquire then whether under a serious concern to know your state, you are conversant with your own hearts-whether you often bring them to the law and to the testimony, and try them by the rules which you find there.

But here, I would observe to you; though the entire neglect of selfexamination proves you to be in a VOL. III.

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