We dispute not this special interpretation; but let us consider the oath in its full scope. The angel He addresses his voice to you, O reader, and He teaches you one of the most terrible but most important truths of morality and religion. It is that the mercy of God, which is infinite in several aspects, has, notwithstanding, its bounds and limits. It is infinite, for it embraces equally all mankind. It puts not any distinction between the Jew and the Greek, between the Scythian and the barbarian. It pardons crimes of the deepest dye, courses of life the most vicious, and, lifting the penitent sinner from an abyss of misery, opens before him the pathway to supreme felicity. But it is bounded. When the sinner hardens himself, when he resists, when he defers his conversion to a more convenient season, God shuts up His bowels of compassion, and refuses to hear the cry of those who steeled themselves against His own most loving entreaties. It is from this awful truth that Isaiah draws the conclusion which forms the subject on which we intend to meditate for a little,-Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is Excuse us from a too rigorous exactitude. We shall not detain you by explaining what it is to seek the Lord, and to call upon the Lord. What near. ever illusion we may be liable to in this matter, whatever inclination we may have to confound the appearance of conversion with the reality, I must say, it is not this that ruins the largest number. We purpose, at present, to probe our real sore, to go to the very source of our corruption, to dispel, if it be possible, the false allurement which has cast many inhabitants of Christian countries into perdition, and which is still the most powerful incentive of which the evil spirit avails himself to draw us on to destruction. This allurement, this incentive, I call your consciences to witness, is an indescribable, contradictory idea, which we have formed in our own minds of the Divine mercies-certain vague designs we are entertaining to repent in the future, and a fancied certainty of being able to accomplish it successfully whenever we may wish to undertake it. We shall make various reflections upon the delay of conversion, and these we shall derive from three sources. From Man, from the Scriptures, and from Experience. We will employ, in turn, Religion, History, Reason, to manifest how dangerous it is to defer turning ourselves to God. First, we shall endeavour to prove from our individual constitution that it is extremely difficult, not to say impossible, for a man to be converted when he is steeped in crime. Next, we shall shall shew that Revelation is at one with Nature on this point, and that every thing that Scripture teaches us, not only as to the efficacy of grace and the miraculous aids of the Spirit of God, but also as to the treasures of mercy which are displayed to us in the gospel, dissuades in the strongest manner from delaying conversion. Lastly, we shall direct our efforts to justify, by what happens daily among sinners who put off their repentance, that which Scripture and reason have taught us. Our intellect, swayed by passion and prejudice, has need of heavenly aid in the simplest reflections; but when I attack the sinner in his citadel, yea, in his last entrenchment, I truly have need of Thine unconquerable power, O my God; but I depend on Thine aid, and Thine alone. Amen. PART FIRST. UR peculiar constitution, the very nature of man furnishes us, in this part of our sub ject, with several reflections on deferred conversion. It is unquestionable that we carry in our very being certain qualities which render conversion difficult, and, I dare to say, impossible, according as it is more or less deferred. To understand this, form to yourselves a proper idea of conversion, and you will perceive that to be in a state of grace, your soul ought to have two dispositions. It should be enlightened; it should be sanctified. It ought to know the truths of religion; it ought to submit itself to its precepts. Firstly, you could not be in a state of grace if you did not know the truths of religion. It is not that we place the gospel before you as a course of study which has for its aim the exercise of speculation. We do not wish to convert the Christian into a mere philosopher, nor to load his memory with the thou sand and one questions discussed in the schools. Still less do we wish to put salvation beyond the reach of those men of limited capacities, who, being capable only of transient attention, would be totally helpless, if salvation demanded meditations too profound, and researches too exact. Nevertheless, you will not dispute that every Christian ought to be instructed in accordance with the circumstances in which Providence has placed him, and agreeably to the capacity he may have received from Heaven. In a word, a Christian ought to be a Christian, not because he has been brought up in the principles of Christianity as having been handed down from his fathers, but because these principles have come forth from God. To have contrary dispositions, to follow a form of religion from obstinacy and prejudice, is to give up, equally, the distinguishing quality of a man, a Christian, and a Protestant. Of a man; who, endowed with intelligence, should never undertake any business of importance, without consulting that understanding which has been given him as a conductor and guide: Of a Christian; for the gospel sets before us a God whom we ought to know; who would have us to prove all things, and hold fast that which is good: Of a Protestant; for it is the foundation-the very corner-stone-of our Reformation, that implicit submission to learned men, human and |