wisdom; to regulate the life by the precepts of the gospel. How often have you been admonished of this duty? how often urged to its performance? and how have you been affected? Have you listened incredulous of the evils of which you have been warned? If you acknowledge the Scriptures as true, how can you cherish any doubts upon this subject? In them the certain doom of the wicked is fearfully portrayed ;-their uniform language is, "Oh wicked man, thou shalt surely die." But in reply to the gospel message, have you said, and do you now say, with undecided minds, "Go thy way for this time; at a more convenient season we will call for thee?" How often have you thus deferred an attention to your most important interest! How do you trifle with that interest! what guilt and what danger attend this proceeding! This more convenient season may never arrive, and then, if the Scriptures do not err, what will be your condition?

But have you been for a time affected and resolved to turn, but the love of the world has been restored as your excitement has worn off, and your goodness has been as the morning cloud and early dew, which pass away? We mourn exceedingly over such an occurrence. Nothing so grieves the soul of those who labor for your spiritual good, as to witness the withering of these buds of promise. Over it, perfected saints and angels weep, if tears be ever theirs. In view of it, the spirit of evil

triumphs, and exultation pervades his gloomy empire.

May God in his mercy grant that such may not be the passing nature of any impressions which may now be made. And may every one who has not yet made his peace with God, engage with earnestness in this great work, remembering that the night of death will shortly come, when the season of probation will terminate forever.

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SERMON V.

NECESSITY OF SEEKING TRUE RELIGION.

MATT. vi. 33.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

WHEN John, the forerunner of our Lord, entered on his ministry, his declaration was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He had reference to the opening of a new dispensation, when there would be a full revelation of the will, an affecting disclosure of the mercy, and a glorious exhibition of the saving power of the Almighty. This state of things is here denominated, the kingdom of heaven; elsewhere, the kingdom of God. It is thus designated, because Jesus Christ, by the performance of the object of his mission, has established on earth a spiritual dominion, which,

in the righteousness and peace which it promotes, furnishes some representation of the state of heavenly purity and happiness, where God is revealed in the fullness of his majesty and the brightness of his glory. And this mode of expression was probably induced by an acquaintance with a sublime prophecy of Daniel vii. 13. "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." Our Redeemer taught his disciples to pray for the coming of this kingdom, that "the will of God might be done in earth as it is in heaven "-and in his sermon on the Mount, he exhorts them "to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness."

What is meant by seeking this kingdom? and what is the righteousness here spoken of? These are questions which now demand our consideration.

Those to whom our Lord addressed this admonition, would understand him as exhorting them, instead of being solicitous about inferior things, to expect earnestly the full manifestation of the kingdom of God, to seek a knowledge of it and subjection to it as far as revealed, and to obtain

the righteousness which was required by Jehovah to render them acceptable. This righteousness involved repentance, and the natural fruits of repentance, and was obtained through the instrumentality of that faith, which is the appointed means of sal

vation.

But how does this injunction respect us? Jesus Christ has fulfilled his ministry on earth; his kingdom has been established; its laws are promulgated; no farther revelation is to be expected; all that remains, is that its borders should be extended. To us, then, the language of the text conveys this instruction. Become a subject of this kingdom by repenting, believing, and obeying the gospel. Let your anxiety be, in the first place and in the highest degree, directed toward this object. Inferior good should be the object of a subordinate regard, and may ordinarily be expected to attend the subjects of the divine favor. This, then, is the design which I have had in calling your attention to the passage of Scripture under our view; to exhibit the supreme importance of possessing true religion, and to urge upon you the necessity of acquiring it.

On the present occasion, I suppose myself to be exclusively addressing professed believers in the Christian revelation. Many such there are who are not pious; and with them I would confer upon their own admitted principles, without deviating from the