40. Christ was soon repulsed by and sent away from the country of the Gadarenes ; but on the other side of the sea there were many ready with joy to receive him, Acts, xiii. 46-48. So when the Jews contradicted and blasphemed, "the Gentiles gladly received the word." Look to it, sinner, here is life and death set before thee; life, if it be not too late to receive it; but if it be, it is not too late for death to swallow thee up. And tell me, will it not be dreadful to be carried from under the gospel to the damned, there to lie in endless torment, because thou wouldst not be delivered therefrom? Will it be comfort to thee to see the Saviour turn Judge ? to see him that wept and died for the sin of the world now ease his mind on Christ-abhorring sinners by rendering to them the just judgment of God? For all their abominable filthiness, had they closed with Christ, they had been shrouded from the justice of the law, and should not have come into condemnation, “but had been passed from death to life;" but they would not take shelter there; they would venture to meet the justice of God in its fury, wherefore now it shall swallow them up for ever and ever. And let me ask further, is not he a madman who, being loaded with combustible matter, will run headlong into a fire upon a bravado ? or, that being guilty of felony or murder, will desperately run himself into the hand of the officer, as if the law, the judge, the sentence, execution, were but a jest, or a thing to be played withal? And yet thus mad are poor, wretched, miserable sinners, who flying from Christ as if he were a viper, they are overcome, and cast off for ever by the just judgment of the law. But ah! how poorly will these be able to plead the virtues of the law to which they have cleaved, when God shall answer them, "Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised," Ezek. xxxii. 19. Go down to hell, and there be laid with those that refused the grace of God.

Sinners, take my advice, with which I shall conclude this use-Call often to remembrance that thou hast a precious soul within thee; that thou art in the way to thine

end, at which thy precious soul will be in special concerned, it being then time to delay no longer, the time of reward being come. I say again, bring thy end home; put thyself in thy thoughts into the last day thou must live in this world, seriously arguing thus-How if this day were my last? How if I never see the sun rise more? How if the first voice that rings to-morrow morning in my heavy ears be, "Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment?" Or, how if the next sight I see with mine eyes be the Lord in the clouds, with all his angels, raining floods of fire and brimstone upon the world? Am I in a case to be thus near mine end? to hear this trump of God? or to see this great appearance of this great God, and the Lord Jesus Christ? Will my profession, or the faith I think I have, carry me through all the trials of God's tribunal? Cannot his eyes, which are as a flame of fire, see in my words, thoughts, and actions enough to make me culpable of the wrath of God? Oh how serious should sinners be in this work of remembering things to come, of laying to their heart the greatness and terror of that notable day of God Almighty, and in examining themselves, how it is like to go with their souls when they shall stand before the Judge indeed! To this end, God make this word effectual. Amen.

THE STRAIT GATE;

OR,

GREAT DIFFICULTY OF GOING TO HEAVEN:

Plainly proving, by the Scriptures, that not only the Rude and Profane, but many great Professors, will come short of that Kingdom.

"Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."-Matth. vii. 13, 14.