than we are, and that infinite knowledge surpasses that which is finite; but if any individuals resolve to reject what they cannot understand, they need not wonder if, at the last, they find those who were but mere babes in knowledge entering the kingdom, whilst they themselves, through the pride of intellect and secret unbelief, are eternally shut out.

Such being some of the causes of profitless attention on the means of grace, the writer would further entreat the reader's attention to some observations on the danger of continuing in this state of mind.

The Scriptures admonish us to guard against moral insensibility, when they counsel us to "give heed to the things which we have heard," &c., Heb. ii. 1.; and also, when they charge us to "take heed lest we be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin," Heb. iv. 13. If the public ordinances of religion were a mere means of mental improvement, we could not neglect a divine appointment with impunity but when we consider that God has promised his special presence and blessing in connexion with the means of grace, in order to promote the moral improvement of the mind, and to prepare us to serve and enjoy him, both in this world and a future, our guilt must be awfully aggravated if we wilfully or carelessly neglect them. But the design of the writer is not so much to admonish and warn those who neglect the means of grace, as to endeavour to search and probe the consciences of such as continue to attend the

means of grace, and still remain hardened against all admonition and entreaty. It is not sufficient that we are regularly found in God's house, nor that we discover some interest in the ordinances of the sanctuary; the word must be heard and

received in the exercise of faith, and it must be reduced to practice, otherwise we are resting in the means only, whilst the end for which the means were appointed is unanswered. The word of God is compared to seed, but it must be sown that it may yield produce; it is also compared to light, and then it is afforded to guide our steps, Psa. cxix. 105; but if we hear the word of God, and know the will of God, and still continue to neglect them, our guilt is fearfully aggravated, and our danger is tremendously awful.

The longer individuals continue unprofited under the means of grace, their evil habits frequently become the more confirmed.

The faithful preaching of the gospel, like afflictive providences, either softens or hardens the heart it either draws men nearer to God, or drives them farther from him, and it will either prove a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. Practical indifference to sacred things is natural to men as fallen creatures, and so long as they live in this state evil habits gather strength, they take firmer hold of the mind, and they produce such confirmed and habitual insensibility to the voice of conscience, of providence, and of God, that all hope of their being ever overcome is greatly diminished; for there is no resistance of this disposition, nor is there any prayer for the grace of resistance. To this state of mind the prophet Jeremiah seems to refer when he says, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" &c., Jer. xiii. 23. The benumbing and carnalizing influence of sin increases, if the grace of the gospel, as the only counteracting remedy, is received or heard in vain; and formalists, and practical unbelievers, continue to reject God's mercies until his just judgments come upon them without the possibility

of escape, as they did upon the Jews of old. Their state is awfully described in the book of Isaiah i. 5-9.

The longer individuals sit under the sound of the gospel, and refuse to receive its grace, the greater is their guilt.

To have the gospel and the means of grace are unspeakable mercies-mercies which include great and solemn obligations-obligations which we cannot neglect without contracting great guilt -great guilt, for which a full and impartial account must be given at the bar of God. This idea is evidently included in our Lord's words to the Jews, John xv. 22, 24.

How fearful, then, must be the guilt of those who have sabbaths and means of grace continued for a long succession of years, and yet evince no genuine love to the Saviour, no practical obedience to his laws, nor any actual fitness to meet him at his coming. Reader, if this is your condition your state is affecting, your guilt is awful, and if you die as you are living, the very heathen will rise in judgment against you, and condemn you, Matt. xi. 20-24. O be persuaded, at the commencement of another year, seriously to consider your state, to give earnest heed to the day of your merciful visitation, and to cry for mercy while Jesus waits to be gracious.

The longer individuals refuse the grace of the gospel, the greater is the danger lest they should provoke God to give them over to judicial blindness and hardness of heart.

It is neither the writer's province nor wish to determine when individuals have so sinned as to provoke God to abandon them, but that this may be the case is a revealed fact, and this very circumstance should arouse us to great carefulness

lest we should so sin as to provoke his displeasure.

Such was the provoking and rebellious conduct of the Israelites, that God "sware in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest;" and from this awful fact we are admonished to "beware lest we also should fall after the same example of unbelief." When, at a subsequent period of their history, the ten tribes daringly and presumptuously revolted from God, Jehovah said," Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone," Hosea iv. 17; and Solomon adds, "He that being often reproved," &c., Prov. xxix. 1. When individuals have so slighted mercies, and warnings, and judgments, as to provoke God to abandon them, they generally disregard the public means of grace, and neglect all holy exercises; or, should they still occupy their places in the sanctuary of God, the word of God produces no impression on their consciences, no emotions of penitence are felt, nor is any love to the Saviour cherished.

How dreadful! how dreadful beyond expression, is the state and prospects of such an individual! He may be busily employed with the cares, the pursuits, and the pleasures of time, but he neglects preparation for eternity; he is daily drawing nearer to death, to the bar of judgment, and to hell; and the moment he leaves the world he will find himself plunged into the regions of hopeless and everlasting despair. O sinners, "that ye were wise, that ye would consider your latter end!" "Kiss the Son," &c., Psa. ii. 12. Again,

The longer individuals refuse the grace of the gospel, the more awful will be their final state, if they die as they have lived.

An infidel on his dying bed said ::-" The day in which I should have worked is over and gone,

and I see a sad horrible night approaching, bringing with it the blackness of darkness for ever. When God called, I refused; when he invited, I was one of them that made excuse. Now, therefore, I receive the reward of my deeds: fearfulness and trembling are upon me; I smart, and am in sore anguish already; and yet this is but the beginning of sorrows. It doth not yet appear what I shall be: but sure I shall be ruined, undone, and destroyed with an everlasting destruction."-Simpson's Plea for Religion, p. 64.

If such are sometimes the dreadful agonies of a guilty conscience while individuals are in the body, what must be their state when death has executed his commission, and when the final doom of the impenitent is sealed, unalterably sealed by God the Judge of all?

Consciousness will follow the lost into perdition; there, their state and circumstances in time will be perfectly recollected. This doctrine is clearly taught in the accounts which the Scriptures give of the process and issue of the last judgment, and by our Lord in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. When the wretched sufferer asked for a drop of cold water to cool his tongue, he was charged to remember, and in that word there was every thing to aggravate his woe. Who can describe the dreadfulness of that misery which the lost will experience in hell, who have perished under the means of grace? misery arising from the consciousness that they were nurtured by the side of the pool of mercy, but that they rejected its cleansing and healing waters; that they were urged and invited to partake of the blessings of the gospel, but that they refused to hearken to the voice of love; that they were charged and entreated to seek for glory, honour,