man as a free agent, either to compel your choice at the time when it is first formed, or invincibly to counteract it after it is formed. He will not force such inestimable blessings as pardon, and sanctification, and eternal life, on those who do not desire, prefer, and choose them. "Let Thine hand help me; for I have chosen Thy precepts." Nor will He inflict that unutterable misery which is implied in eternal death on any but those who have wilfully and obstinately chosen the way that leads to it. To such the language of the righteous Judge will be in accord with the memorable words, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." + "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices."+ Choose ye, then, this day whom ye will serve, and what portion you will embrace; whether sin, with its transitory delights and everlasting pains,-or holiness, with its present sacrifices and enduring rewards. Both are before you with you the awful power of election is lodged, by the sovereign will of your Creator. But that you may use that power to your salvation, and not to your destruction, earnestly implore the special teaching and influence of the Holy Spirit, without which you can neither judge nor choose aright. Pray that God may work in you to will in that way which shall meet His approbation, and terminate in your present and everlasting happiness. Adopt for yourselves the * Psalm cxix. 173. † John v. 40. Proverbs i. 24-31. petition of Paul for the Ephesians, "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." Pray for converting as well as illuminating influence; and, when that influence is vouchsafed, yield your will to its operation. Resist not the Holy Ghost; but, by the grace which He imparts, turn from the way of sin, and steadfastly choose Christ and His Cross in preference to all things else. What say you, my dear hearers, to these things? Are you really disposed thus to count all things loss, that you may win Christ? Or are not some of you, through your impious neglect to ask for renewing grace, or your still more impious resistance to its influence, imitating the example of profane Esau, who chose the pottage, and forfeited the continued privilege, honour, and blessing of his birthright ? The Gadarenes, supposing that the presence of Jesus was only to be enjoyed at the expense of losing their herds of swine, besought Him to depart out of their coasts. Beware, I charge you, of preferring the swine to the Saviour,-the mess of pottage to the eternal blessedness for which you were created and redeemed. If such has been your marvellous folly until now, may you at length come to yourselves! Remember, if you obstinately persist in your present choice, you shall infallibly have it. As they who choose life, and the blessing set before them in the Gospel, shall, by God's mercy in Christ, obtain what they desire; so they who virtually choose death and the curse shall as certainly receive the end of their unhallowed, infatuated pursuit. Awake, then, to righteousness, and say, "What have I to do any more with idols ?" 2. These exhortations imply the truth and importance of the second inference which I wish to impress distinctly on your minds, as deducible from the subject now discussed namely, that in every exercise of choice we ought to consider : the objects propounded to us, not merely in their abstract nature, but also, and especially, in their influence on our moral character and everlasting destiny. If Moses had viewed affliction and reproach in contrast with honour, pleasure, and wealth, and had looked at them simply as they are in themselves, and without any reference to God and eternity, his choice would have been very different from that which inspiration has recorded. But he was a man of thought and foresight he looked beyond the surface of things. He considered not only present appearances and attractions, but moral obligations and future consequences; and both his judgment and his conduct were regulated by those more accurate and comprehensive views which were thus exhibited to his mind. His history reminds us, that many things which are not in their own nature joyous, but grievous, may nevertheless be wisely chosen and esteemed; and that pleasures may be so connected with sin that it becomes our duty and highest interest to forego and refuse them. Let these lessons, brethren, be impressed upon your hearts. Look not merely at any present gratification or advantage which may for the time solicit your choice, but at its spiritual and moral tendency. Look not only on things seen and temporal, but on things unseen and eternal. Act with habitual reference to your soul's welfare, to the approbation of your Judge, and to your everlasting happiness. Then you will never choose the pleasures, or honours, or profits of sin; for, "though they may court you in the form of angels," * you will consider them as being really your worst enemies, and will start back from their offered embraces, as from those of demons. "What fruit," you will exclaim, "can I expect from things of which I am now ashamed, the end of which will be death?" Nor will you dare to refuse the yoke of Christ, the burden of the Lord, when called to bear it,-lest such a refusal should fill your death-bed pillow with thorns, and expose you * Lucas. to the bitter pains of eternal death. O that we may all be wise, in every decision of our judgments, in every choice of our wills, in every exercise of our affections, in every transaction of our lives,-wise to think of this, and to consider our latter end, our dying day, our final reckoning, and our everlasting state! 3. From this subject I infer, lastly, the necessity of a vital and operative faith, in order to our imitation of that bright example which is presented to us in the text. "By faith Moses" arrived at his decision. Not by the power of nature, nor by principles derived from education, but by faith, he thus judged, thus chose, and thus acted. It is faith in God's testimony of the evil and danger of sin, that must make us abandon those pleasures which are connected with violation of duty. It is faith in the certainty and excellence of the world. to come, that must enable us to put only a secondary and subordinate value on the transitory enjoyments of the present state. It is faith in the promises and declarations of God concerning His people, that must induce us to prefer a union with them, though connected with affliction and self-denial, to ease and affluence, if these can only be enjoyed on condition of separation and estrangement from the society of the faithful, and the visible church. It is faith in Christ, as the great gift of the Father, the chosen among ten thousand and altogether lovely, the only and all-sufficient Saviour of our souls, that must dispose us to esteem His reproach for His sake, and account the scandal of the Cross a glorious infamy. In a word, it is faith in the recompenses of eternity that must stimulate us to the duties, and reconcile us to the sufferings, of the present time. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. May this faith be Divinely wrought in all your souls! May it have its perfect work, its full and complete operation! May it render all difficult things easy, and sweeten every bitter cup! And by it may you finally triumph, THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB, AND THE WORD OF YOUR TESTIMONY! SERMON XV. THE CHOICE OF MOSES. PART IV. THE RECOMPENSE. HEBREWS xi. 26. FOR HE HAD RESPECT UNTO THE RECOMPENSE OF THE REWARD. THESE words, as used by St. Paul, refer to the case of Moses; pointing out to us one principal source of the holy self-denial and courage which that man of God exercised on an occasion peculiarly trying and difficult. But we may truly affirm that this scripture is of no private interpretation. It characterizes the hope, not of Moses only, but of all genuine saints. In this general view I shall now resume the consideration of it, with the intention of unfolding to you more particularly the instruction which it suggests. The words "recompense 'recompense" and "reward" are variously used in the Scriptures. In some places they bear a general and indefinite sense, including both the blessing annexed to holiness, and the curse which shall rest on sin. Elsewhere they are used explicitly in an unfavourable sense, and refer entirely to the infliction of punishment. And in a third class of texts the same words are employed in a favourable sense, and denote exclusively the felicity which will be conferred on God's faithful people. Now, in this exclusively favourable sense I am disposed to understand the "recompense of reward," as mentioned in the text. I consider the phrase as referring wholly to the promised crown of righteousness, which the Lord will give, in the world to come, to those who |