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SERMON X.

WORLDLY-MINDEDNESS.

INIMICAL TO THE RECEPTION OF SACRED TRUTH.

GENESIS, Xix. 14.

"And Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law which married his daughters, and said; Up, and get ye out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law."

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THE city here alluded to was Sodom. Its inhabitants were preeminent in sin. Corrupted by the conveniences, and yet more by the luxuries which they possessed; by abundance, ease, and idleness; they gave themselves up to voluptuousness in its vilest and most unnatural forms. So multiplied and so atrocious were their provocations, that the Judge of all the earth, who cannot do wrong, saw fit to awake his long sleeping thunder, and literally to burn them up in the flames of destruction.

In this miserable city, ripe for the sacrifice of the divine indignation, resided Lot, the nephew of the patriarch Abraham. He was a righteous person, and therefore exempt from the fate of his guilty countrymen. Two angels were sent to him; who appeared in human shape, and were his guests. "And they said unto him; Hast thou here any besides? Sons-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: for we will destroy this place; because the cry of them

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is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get ye out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-inlaw."*

"He seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law." Not that they supposed him to tell them what himself believed to be untrue: his character was too well established to countenance, or even admit such a supposition. But the subject matter of the prediction appeared so improbable, so unlike the ordinary dispensations of providence, that they regarded their father-in-law as the victim of a superstitious credulity.

On what would this vain imagination-these injurious doubts be grounded?

Certainly, the subject matter of the oracle was of no common importance. It was the total perdition and annihilation of their city and its dependencies. There was no time to lose. The fulfilment of the prediction, was, as to time, indefinite. The prediction, in itself, could not but derive weight and consequence from the character of the person predicting. He was a wise and prudent man; his integrity well established, his domestick attachments well approved. It was equally improbable that he should be deceived, and that he should deceive others. Added to this, he evinced a disposition to exemplify in his own conduct what he exhorted others to perform. He manifested this willingness to exile himself from a country which he was anxious to persuade his friends to abandon.

What he announced, was far from being improbable.There could be nothing incredible in the threatened destruction, considering the immutable justice of the Most High, and the inordinate vices of those who provoked it. The simple fact, that Sodom was to be destroyed, was all of which a doubt could be entertained. And even of this Gen. xix. 12.-14.

fact, no doubt ought to have been suffered to remain on the part of those who had been credibly informed of the declaration of the angels appointed to reveal it.

To what, then, shall we ascribe the unbelief of the sonsin-law of Lot? That, like the mass of their countrymen, they were totally insensible to the principles and obligations of religion, is a supposition altogether inadmissible. Whatever modern fathers may do, Lot would never have thrown away his daughters upon irreligious and immoral husbands. But a man may externally make a profession of faith, and, to a certain extent, shape his actions according to the divine rule of right, who, nevertheless, is far from believing in spirit and in truth. A man may lead what is generally called a moral life, and yet perish in the midst of the wicked. Lot's sons-in-law were deficient in that faith which is practical and operative. They walked by sight, rather than by faith. Looking at the things which are seen, they could not forsake Sodom. They were not to be persuaded that a place which had subsisted so long the favourite scat of pleasure and prosperity, should be thus speedily subverted. They apprehended that God was too lenient and compassionate to devote such multitudes to destruction.

Blinded by these and similar misconceptions, they yielded no credence to the representations of their pious relative. He had the mortification to find that all his warnings were lost upon them; to see their hearts still cleave to the threatened city; and to anticipate, with fearful certainty, the execution of that menaced vengeance in which they were about to participate.

And soon did that vengeance overtake them. The angels expedited the escape of their righteous entertainer, his wife and his daughters. The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar, a neighbouring city, exempted, on his account, from the extended desolation. And then the Lord rained upon Sodom, and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven. And he overthrew

those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground."*

Religion is an affair of the utmost moment and solemnity: and yet, how many are there who appear, like the sons-inlaw of Lot, to treat it as if it were a mockery! Whence does this dreadful infatuation arise? and what have they to expect who are chargeable with it?

In the consideration of these particulars; in the answer to these inquiries; you will be possessed of the subject of this discourse.

It is of

In the first place.-Religion is an affair of the utmost moment, solemnity, and, let me add, certainty. Its solemn importance, there lives not the man of sane mind who will deny. It is too evident to require demonstration. all imaginable things the most awfully momentous. In the emphasis of inspiration, it is the one thing needful. To be religious, is to obey the laws-to keep the commandments— to promote the glory-and to secure the favour of Omnipotence. The salvation of the soul is staked upon religion. Eternity, with all its horrours and its bliss, is staked upon it. Yes-religion, bear witness alike ye spirits of the damned, and ye glorified inhabitants of light; religion is solemn as immortality is desirable-momentous, as the redemption of the soul is precious.

But religion is matter of fact. There is all possible certainty in it. Not a doubt can shake its foundations.

The annunciation of the temporal judgment that was to exterminate the guilty countrymen of Lot, as I have already intimated, contained nothing that was improbable; and therefore his sons-in-law were censurable for refusing obedience to it, as though it were an idle tale. But, to say that religion contains nothing that is improbable, would be to say incalculably less than enough. There is not a solitary doctrine, precept, or history, among those which it proposes, that does not approve itself to sound reason and en

* Gen. xix. 24. 25.