he has also redeemed you. Who can conceive how vast a mercy is, expressed by the word redemption! Call to mind your state as sinners; the guilt and misery which you have brought upon yourselves. Recollect, that in this wretched state Gop looks on: you with pity, and wishes not your death: that" for the great love wherewith he loveth you," he has planned a way for your salvation. To this end, he has not withheld from you his Son, his only Son, but has given him up for you, has given him up to death, even the death of the cross; that thus, by the ransom of his blood, he might redeem you from eternal misery, and open to you the kingdom of heaven. Nay, that nothing might be wanting to complete your salvation, or to shew forth the riches of his grace, to the unspeakable gift of his Son, he has added also the gift of his Spirit to dwell in you, to be your Sanctifier, your Comforter, and your never-failing Friend. Hath GOD done all this for you, and does he not justly claim your services? Is it not the most base ingratitude to refuse to serve Him, who has thus bought you with his own blood, who has ransomed you at such a price? What claim can the world have on you equal to such a claim as this? What has Mammon done to deserve your services?

Instead of furthering your happiness, it has only brought on you trouble and sorrow, sin and shame. Instead of doing any thing to save you from perishing, it has done all in its power to ruin and destroy your soul. Far, therefore, from being entitled to your favour, it deserves your just abhorrence.Choose you then this day, whom ye will serve?' Life and death are set before you. May God give you grace to choose that better part, which shall never be taken away from you! May every one of you be enabled from the heart to say, As for me, I will serve the Lord!'

SERMON IV.

!

MORTIFICATION OF SIN A REASONABLE
DUTY.

MARK, ix. 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48. If thy hand offend thee, cut it off it is better it for thee to enter into life maimed, than hav ing two hands to go into hell; into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hellwhere their worm dieth not, and the

fire

fire is not quenched.

THE service which religion requires, is a reasonable service. It demands of us nothing, but what our own reason, if suffered fairly to judge, must approve: nothing, but what is for our good, and tends to increase our happiness. If some of God's commandments seem to us to be grievous, they only seem,

they are not really so. If they bid us do any thing, which is now unpleasant to our feelings, it is only to save us in the end from something which it will be far worse to bear.

There is in the text a striking instance of the truth of this remark. Our SAVIOUR was enforcing a very painful duty: one which he knew that men would be most unwilling to perform. And how did he enforce it? By shewing that it is a profitable duty. It is one, which we cannot neglect, without manifest injury to ourselves. Painful as it may be, it will be our interest and happiness to perform it. We surely cannot but listen with seriousness and attention to a command, which comes thus recommended to our notice.

In discoursing on it, I shall set before you, I. The Duty here enjoined.

II. The Argument, by which it is enforced.

I. The Duty here enjoined is thus de scribed in the text. "If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut it off; if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out." So that in explaining the duty, it will be necessary to shew what is the case supposed: what is the state: of the member here spoken of: when the hand or the foot may be said to offend. To of fend, in the language of scripture, frequently. means to put any thing in the way of a per

son, which may cause him to fall or stumble: Hence, by a common figure of speech, whatever may prove a snare or temptation to any one, whatever may be the occasion of drawing him into sin, is said to offend him. Thus St. Paul uses the word, when he says, "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak."* Thus CHRIST also used the word, when he said to the disciples of John the Baptist, "Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me;" and again, to his own disciple Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me."+ The Apostle, by urging JESUS to avoid the cross, was a snare and temptation to him. And in this sense the word is used in the text. The member is said to offend, when it proves an occasion of sin. The case supposed is this: that the hand, or the foot, or the eye, become a snare and temptation to us: that they are a continual occasion of our committing sin, and bringing guilt upon our souls. Now in this case, what is to be done? What is the duty required of us? We must part with the offending member. However painful the operation, however * Rom. xii. 21. + Matthew, xi. 6.-xvi. 23.