them to publish, declare, and offer this redemption to sinful Go ye into all the world,' &c. I will just open the words in the order wherein they lie, and then apply them.

men.

language under heaven.

I will have I will have

You are to

Hear, then, Christ's commission to his disciples. And if his commission, then he speaks by them. Go; it is I send you. Deliver this message in my name. Should any ask you by what authority you declare these things, say you are sent by me, and show them these words of mine by which I empower and command you to go; you and all after you that I shall send forth to preach the Gospel. Go into all the world;' not to the Jews only, but to the Gentiles, to people of every name and Your commission is unlimited, I will have none excepted. Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature;' you shall carry the offer of salvation with you, and make a tender of it to every soul. every creature told he may be saved if he will. every creature invited to accept eternal life in me. pass by no one, neither circumcised nor uncircumcised, Scythian nor barbarian, bond nor free. Let them know that all and every one of them is welcome. I will have my Gospel preached in all the world, and offered to every creature wherever you go. Offer it to the sick as well as the whole, to the bad as well as the good. I will have no one on any pretence passed by; for all are welcome and I will have all told so in my name, and convinced that they are so by this commission which I give you to show them. And to you I declare further, what I require you also to declare wheresoever you go preaching the Gospel, 'He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved.' Whatever sinner heartily accepts this my salvation, preached by you and others unto the end of the world, so as to become my disciple indeed, receiving the Gospel in the whole fulness of it, as a salvation from the guilt and power of sin; and, so believing, is baptized in token of his faith in me and dependence upon me, not only putting away the filth of the flesh, but having the answer of a good conscience towards God; I tell you, and will have you declare publicly, that that man, whatever he has been before, shall be saved. But he that believeth not shall be damned.' That I will have you remember yourselves, to quicken your diligence in preaching the Gospel. And that I

will have you declare in all places as an encouragement to the broken-hearted, that they may know from my mouth, that nothing else but unbelief shall damn men; and to alarm those who lie dead in trespasses and sins, and those who will not receive me: Go therefore into all the world, and say to every creature, He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.'

You see now the force of the words, and the authority we have as Christ's messengers to offer the Gospel to you. I am guilty therefore of no presumption, and go not a jot beyond my orders, when I tell you that I am sent to you by Christ Jesus the Lord of all, the Judge of quick and dead, to offer unto you the forgiveness of all your sins, perfect peace and reconciliation with the Almighty God, and all the blessings of the kingdom of heaven in him. And in the name of Jesus, and by the commission which you see he has given me, I do this day offer this whole glorious salvation to all of you, and to every single soul of you here present. By the same authority I declare to you all this day, that if ye accept the offer, and deal sincerely with God in it, all and whoever among you does so shall be saved. And further, in the name of Jesus, I do also this day charge and require you all to accept it, upon pain of the eternal displeasure of Almighty God, and of your own endless damnation. And remember that no excuse will be allowed; you may not keep back because you are guilty, nor refuse because you have the pleasures or interests of this world upon your hands; for I am bid to tell you in the plainest words, that if you believe not, and whosoever among you believeth not, shall be damned.

Thus I deliver my message. And now I desire to persuade you that you I will accept the offer. And here I will mention two points :

First. The certainty of your ruin out of Christ, and of your salvation in him.

Secondly. The greatness of your ruin if you slight his offer, and of your salvation if you close with it.

First. I beseech you to accept the offer this day made you, by the consideration of the certainty of your ruin out of Christ, and of your salvation in him. Neither of these stands upon

probabilities or peradventures, the one and the other being as certain as the unchangeable truth of God. For what doth the word of God say on the one part and the other?

It says, 'On the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.'* It says, Though hand join in hand, yet sin shall not be unpunished. It declares, The wages of sin is death.' And insists, There is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved, but only the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. § On the other part, it speaks with a like fulness; Whosoever believeth on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.' He that hath the Son of God hath life.' There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.** There is no question about the matter on either side; so that it is alike certain you are ruined without Christ, and may be saved in him. Now therefore consider: the facts against you are incontestable; you have sinned; it is as certain you were born in sin as that you were born at all; as sure that you have lived in sin more or less as that you have lived at all. Then there is no denying God's declarations against sin; and you are not stronger than he to frustrate them, and reduce them to nothing. You are a dying man, and you cannot help it; you must appear before the judgment-seat, and cannot avoid it. But you will perish for ever, unless you have an interest in Christ, as surely so as you live, as surely as you must die, as certainly as you shall be called out another day before the Judge of the quick and the dead. And is it true also that you may be saved and live for ever if you will? Has the Son of God died for the ungodly? Has he commanded that the offer of his salvation be made to you? Is that salvation firmer than the heavens, and will it last longer than they? United to Christ, will you see the earth passing away with fervent heat, and the heavens wrapped up like a scroll, yourself the happy witness of a new heaven and earth, the region of righteousness, and your habitation for ever? Are these things indeed so? And will you hesitate a moment whether you shall close in with the offered salvation while you may assuredly have it? Alas! sirs,

• Gen. ii. 17. + Prov. xi. 21. | John iii. 16.

Rom. vi. 23. § Acts iv. 10, 12. 1 John v. 12. ** Rom. viii. 1.

if you do not come and lay hold on eternal life in Christ Jesus, the real cause is, that you do not believe any of these things; you know indeed that you have done this and that which you have heard God has forbidden you; you know also you shall die, as do others; but you do not believe that sin has entailed God's curse upon you; that you shall certainly appear hereafter before the judgment-seat of Christ; that, being such as you are, you shall certainly be damned; that there is no hope for you but in Christ, and that in him you shall enjoy a life everlasting. You really believe nothing of all these matters, and that makes you neglect this great salvation, and hear the offer of it so coldly as you do. But, though you believe nothing, yet you cannot help seeing and feeling that you are in a world of misery; where (in proverbial language) briers and thorns vex and tear you every day till you shall be laid in the dust. And how think you this comes to pass? Is there nothing amiss, judge you, when God so afflicts his creatures? Can you imagine it is for anything else but their sins? And, if you do not repent, may you not reasonably conclude that all other God's declared judgments against sin, as well as those you see, feel, and fear, will surely be executed? My dear brother, I beseech you venture upon no dreadful experiments. Search seriously into the truth of your case now, and accept offered mercy while yet the day of salvation is not ended. Try yourself by the law for conviction; and then try Christ for salvation; and you will do a work which you shall never repent of hereafter; and I venture to appeal to yourself, whether you are now satisfied this work is already done.

But, Secondly. To the certainty of your ruin or salvation being without Christ or in him, add the greatness of that ruin and of that salvation. The text sets out this in two important words, you shall be saved, you shall be damned. Damned! The very sound is terrible; there is not a sinner in the world that likes so much as to hear the dreadful shocking word. Saved! This is all, you can desire no more. Salvation! It is a word the angels cannot utter with that sensibility of joy that belongs to it. It is the sinner's word, the saved sinner's word of triumph in life, in death, in glory. Damnation! It is the unhumbled sinner's terror; I cannot name it but he

trembles. Damnation! It is the good Redeemer's pity. The thought of it draws tears from his eyes; yea, and the very blood from his heart. He sees, the dear compassionate Jesus sees, the long and horrible chambers of hell; sees the miserable sinners covered over with inextinguishable flames; hears their hopeless cries for pity; knows they shall never, never, never be delivered. The foresight of it melts his soul into compassion; he offers himself to suffer in our place, he makes an atonement, he runs between the living and the dead; he cries, “Here, sinners, come, come to me, and you shall escape that horrible pit; turn, follow me, and you shall be safe; O come to me, and you shall not die." And what! my dear friends, shall Jesus thus pity us in vain? Is there refuge from this wrath to come, and shall we not betake ourselves to it? Alas! do but set salvation in the other scale; over-against the first and second death set resurrection to life, and glory eternal. See, my brethren, what fearful prospects lie in the road of death; misery every step you go in the peaceless road; misery growing more formidable as you draw nearer your end. Then what misery in the departing hour! who can tell? for we have not known it; and they that have may not come back to instruct us in it. Yea, and what misery after death! what misery at judgment, when the whole creation shall as it were die away at the sight of man's ruin! and for endless horrors ! for the fire that never shall be quenched, for the worm that never shall die! Ah, do but compare with these the blessings of salvation! The peaceful conscience walking with God as a reconciled Father, resting in the everlasting arms. The hope full of immortality, sweetening the bitterest passages of life. The departing saint looking up to Jesus, and smiling at death. The spirit made perfect waiting for the resurrection-day with infinite content. The meeting with Jesus in the clouds. The glorified body. The final absolution. The sentence of life. The shout of angels. The entrance into paradise. The sight of God for ever. The sight of Jesus in his glory. The enjoy

ment of God world without end. The services of heaven. The fellowship of saints. The love, the peace, the joy, the rest, the glory, the safety, the security for ever of heaven's inhabitants. This is Salvation. Salvation, the daughter of