of the Apostle-"How shall we escape, if we neglect "so great salvation?" Could the Almighty have designed any greater method? Could he have shewn more love to the sinner, than by giving up his only Begotten Son to be slain? or, could a mightier machinery than that of redemption have been arrayed against sin? But if the salvation be so great, that nothing under Deity could be more stupendous, and yet, in spite of its greatness, if we postpone the acceptance of the offer, is not every moment's delay an additional neglect? and if we do thus neglect it, oh! dearly beloved, can we be extricated from the grappling question, "how shall we escape ?" Thanks be to God! the day has not yet closed. The SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS still beams upon us, and salvation may be our's. But the chariot-wheels of time are rolling onward, and a thousand messengers meet us at every turn of life; they seem to point the finger, as it were, and cry "Behold!" yea, does not Christ himself, by the voice of prophets, and apostles, and ministers, press you with the most pleading urgency ?—for the twilight is stealing on, and everlasting night is in the rear,— for delay now is the sowing of eternal delay, it is playing with a scythe, and making sport of a whirlwind, for the time you embrace will be your date of happiness,-for the salvation is unspeakably great ;—are not these four reasons persuasive? Behold, now is the accepted time," lose not a moment, "Behold now is the day of salvation." 66 SERMON XIV. THE BELIEVER LIVING AND DYING ROMANS XIV. 7, 8, 9. "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living*. IT has been our object throughout several discourses to explain and enforce the great doctrine of UNION WITH CHRIST-We mean with respect to its * The following Sermon was preached at the time of his late Majesty's lamented death; but that mournful circumstance is only slightly alluded to, as the Author deemed that a discourse of general applicability would be, in a practical point of view, most suitable to the occasion. two-fold operation; first, in the fact of Christ having united our human with his own divine nature, and so in the closest sense having become our Head and Mediatorial Sovereign; and secondly, in the consequent obligation which binds us (if we are really Christians) to accept the union, to unite ourselves practically with Him, as willing and obedient members cheerfully minister to the Head, and as good servants and subjects find it their best interest and happiness to be faithful to a good Master or Sovereign. We have also illustrated this doctrine by various analogies suggested by scripture,-such as the vine and the branches-the corner-stone and superstructure of a building-the head and the members-the bread and the water that sustain our mortal bodies;—and we have purposely used the strongest figures of speech, with the view of stamping deeply, at least in the memory, and, we pray, also in the heart, the practical deductions which arise immediately out of the doctrine. For, permit me to ask, what would be the use of our merely acquiescing in the fact, that Christ has become our living Head, if we forget, amidst the controlling influence of so many temporal masters around us, to keep that living Head always before us, as our great Sovereign, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords-the Divine Being, upon whose breath our life hangs, and on whose unerring judgment will depend either the opening to us of the everlasting doors, or the launching of us into a terrible eternity. These preliminary remarks are intimately connected with the principle and the practice contained in the passage which we now lay before you for examination. The principle involves two points :one is, that no man, whether alive or dead, is in reality his own master; and the other is, that every one is completely dependant upon Christ; consequently, the practical inference must be obvious, that no one, therefore, ought to live as though he were his own master; but how many of us do live as though we were independent of Christ, independent of death, independent of a judgment to come! The principle above stated is clearly implied in the words, "whether we live or die, we are the "Lord's"-we belong to him as members of his body, we are his property, his servants, his subjects-and if so, we cannot escape from the obligation, that, as Christians belonging to Christ, " none of us liveth "to himself, and no man dieth to himself." Unless we practically renounce Christianity, none of us can live just according to our own will and pleasure. It was the maxim of an infidel which St. Paul combated when arguing the certainty of a resurrection"Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die;" therefore, as long as a man does live to himself -live after his own will and pleasure, without practical regard to God who made him, to Christ who redeemed him, to the Spirit who sanctifies him, and to the two distinct prospects of Eternity before him-whatever form or name of religion may be assumed, he surely acts, as far as practice is concerned, like the Deist or the Atheist. No Christian, therefore, "liveth to himself," and it is equally clear that "no man dieth to himself." As far as the circumstances of death may be within his power (inasmuch as a man may be, in a thousand ways, his own destroyer), he has no right, under any plea, to rush unbidden into eternity, and to sacrifice that living property which is the Lord's. But whether a Christian or an Infidel, no man can possibly in one sense "die to himself" he may shorten the span by intemperance, by rashness, or by suicide; but he can only do evil (as the author of evil does) subject to divine permission, and he is still under the absolute control of the "Lord both "of the dead and living;" he cannot add a single link to the chain which connects time and eternity, for his body and soul are the Lord's property, and though he be nerved with the giant's strength, and furnished with all the temporal equipments which might appear to shield him from the King of terrors, though he may have passed unhurt through the hot fire of the battle, and have reached the highest pinnacle of human elevation, and escaped ten thousand darts of death which have shot around him every moment of his existence, one dart must, sooner or later, transfix him to the earth-so true in this sense also is the Apostle's statement as regards |