youthful lusts," as you would the plots of treason, and to follow the high biddings of godliness, as you would the trumpet-call of patriotism. Your vices, they must shake the candlestick, which God in His mercy hath planted in this land, and with whose stability he has associated the greatness of the state, and the happiness of its families. But your quiet and earnest piety; your submission to the precepts of the Gospel; your faithful discharge of appointed duties; these will help to give fixedness to the candlestick-and there may come the earthquake of political convulsion, or the onset of infidel assault, but Christianity shall not be overthrown; and we shall therefore still know that "the Lord of Hosts is with us, that the God of Jacob is our refuge."

SERMON V.

THE GREATNESS OF SALVATION AN ARGUMENT FOR THE PERIL OF ITS NEGLECT.

HEBREWS II. 3.

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great Salvation?

THERE is nothing affirmed in these words, but the greatness of the Salvation proposed by the Gospel; and from this greatness seems inferred the impossibility of escape, if we neglect the Salvation. And there is, we think, surprizing force in the question of our text, when nothing but the stupendousness of Salvation is regarded as as our proof, that to neglect it is to perish. It is a Minister's duty, whether addressing his own congregation, or those to whom he is comparatively a stranger, to strive by every possible motive to stir his hearers to the laying hold on Salvation, that so, whatever their final portion, he may be free from their blood. And therefore are we desirous to press you this night for an answer to the question, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great Salvation?" We

wish you honestly to examine, whether the magnitude of Redemption be not of itself an overcoming demonstration, that ruin must follow its neglect. We would keep you close to this point. The power of the question lies in this-the peril of the neglect proved by the greatness of the Salvation.

And we are sure that there are many striking considerations, flowing from the fact that the Salvation is so great, which must force you to admit the impossibility of escape asserted by St Paul. We shall necessarily, as we proceed, descend so far into particulars, as to take by themselves certain elements of the greatness in question. But, whatever the constituent parts into which we may resolve Salvation, it must be simply as great that we exhibit this Salvation; and from the greatness, and from this alone, must we prove that none can escape who neglect the Salvation. You see clearly that the peculiarity of the passage lies in this, that it infers the peril of the neglect from the greatness of the Salvation. And in labouring at illustrating the accuracy of this inference, and the pressing on you your consequent danger if careless of the soul, we shall attempt no other arrangement of our discourse, but that which will set before you in succession, certain respects in which Salvation is great, and use each successive exhibition as a proof, that to despise what is thus great, must be to make sure destruction.

Now if we were arguing with an atheist, the man who disbelieves the existence of a God;

and if we desired to convince him on this, the fundamental article of all religion, we should probably endeavour to reason up from the creation to the Creator, using the traces of an intelligent cause, by which we seem surrounded, in proof that a mightier architect than chance constructed our dwelling. But we are quite aware that our adversary might demand a demonstration, that nothing short of an infinite power could have builded and furnished this planet; and we are not perhaps well able to define at what point the finite must cease, and the infinite commence. It may be conceded that certain results lie beyond human agency, and yet disputed whether they need such an agency as we strictly call Divine. What men could not produce, might possibly be produced by beings mightier than men, and yet those beings stop far short of Omnipotence.

We do not, therefore, think of maintaining, that the evidences of wisdom and power, graven on this creation, are the strongest which can be even conceived. On the contrary, we will not pretend to deny that we can imagine them greatly multiplied and strengthened. It is manifest, that the keener our faculties, and the more earnest our investigation, the clearer do these evidences appear; for there is no comparison between those apprehensions of the works of creation which the man of science has, and those within reach of the illiterate observer. And, therefore, it is quite conceivable, that there might be either such a communication of more power

ful faculties, or such a laying bare of the hidden wonders of nature, that our present amount of acquaintance with creation should be as nothing when compared with what might then be attained. What surprizes a man, what appears wonderful to him, because beyond his skill to effect, or his wisdom to explain, does not necessarily present matter of surprise to an angel: the standard of wonderfulness grows with the faculties of the creature; there being nothing to overawe and astonish, till there is something far surpassing its power or its intelligence.

Hence, we should not perhaps feel warranted in saying to the atheist, how can you believe, if you resist so great tokens of a Deity as are stamped on the scenery by which you are encompassed? If we can suppose yet greater tokens, it is possible that he who will not yield to the evidence now vouchsafed, would yield to that mightier which imagination can array. The atheist might say to us, I am not convinced by what I view around me. My own thoughts can suggest stronger witness for a Deity, if a Deity there be, than you think impressed on this earth, and its furniture, and its inhabitants. And whilst my mind can arrange a greater proof, you can have no right to denounce my unbelief as insurmountable, because not surmounted by what you reckon so great.

Now we stay not to shew you, that he who can resist the evidences of an Infinite First Cause, which are accessible to dwellers on this planet, would probably remain unconvinced, if the uni