grace

are not long ago delivered over to the curses of the law which you have broken. But for Him, you would have been at this moment shut up in hell. To Him you are indebted for the continued enjoyment of every comfort of this life, forfeited by your transgressions; and for the possibility of obtaining either here or glory hereafter. Now, if you will not love Him who was made a curse for you, you justly deserve to be pronounced accursed by Him. When He only shed tears for Lazarus, the Jews exclaimed, "Behold how He loved him!" But He has shed blood for you: and can you, without the vilest and most criminal insensibility, refuse to return the tribute of your best affections for "love so amazing, so Divine ?" The case would be much less heinous and aggravated, if it were that of a devil, never redeemed by Christ, never indulged with the offer of life and salvation through Him. But if any man, any much-loved and blood-ransomed man, do not love the Lord Jesus Christ, he must be a monster of ingratitude, and justly deserves the severest punishment.

3. Not to love the Lord Jesus Christ implies a contempt of the most illustrious examples.-The eternal Father, the supreme Judge of excellence, "loveth the Son;" and hath described Him as His "Elect, in whom His soul delighteth." Yea, by a voice from the excellent glory, He hath declared, "This is my beloved Son." The holy angels worship Him as their Lord: they accounted it their honour to attend Him and to minister unto Him, while He tabernacled in this lower world. Their estimate of His worth and glory may be learned from their everlasting song:-" And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." Saints in heaven unite with

* Revelation v. 11, 12.

angels in these doxologies, so expressive of love to Christ.* And all genuine saints who ever lived on earth have glowed with a similar affection. Abraham saw the day of Christ, and was glad. Many prophets and kings desired to see His manifestation in the flesh. Simeon, when he actually beheld "the Consolation of Israel," was satisfied with life, and cried, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." Paul counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. And John describes the feelings of all holy souls when he says, "We love Him, because He first loved us : " "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." If you, then, be destitute of love to the Lord Jesus Christ, you dissent from the whole body of the faithful-from the church on earth, and from the church in heaven; and are, of course, unfit for either. Your views and dispositions respecting Christ are so different from those of saints, of angels, and of God, that neither saints, nor angels, nor God can consent, while you are in that state of mind, to your association with them. You reject Him whom they superlatively esteem and love, and must therefore be excluded from their fellowship; for you and they can never walk together except ye be agreed. Of such a state of things, this sentence, "Let him be anathema," is the fit and necessary consequence.

4. Finally. Not to love the Lord Jesus Christ argues a wicked neglect of the gracious information and opportunities which have been afforded to you.-God has given you, not His Son only, but also the full and explicit testimony of a Divine revelation concerning Him. You have both read and heard much of His grace and glory. He has been evidently set forth before your eyes. His ministers

* See Revelation vii. 9-12.

have exalted Him. Pious parents and friends have set forth His character and claims. The Holy Spirit has often been at work upon your minds, drawing you to Him. Had you improved these gracious means and influences, your natural aversion would have been subdued, and love excited. To resist all this grace aggravates your guilt, and justifies the heaviest sentence. Yes, blessed Jesus! it is meet that all who will not love Thee should perish!

III. It only remains to take a brief notice of the suggestion contained in the text, respecting the execution of that sentence which we have thus explained and vindicated.

This suggestion is found in the phrase, "Maran-atha," which is of Syriac origin, and means, "The Lord cometh." It appears to have been used at the commencement of that form of excommunication, used among the Jews, to which I have before adverted; and to have been considered as an intimation that the unhappy offender was solemnly consigned to the judgment of God. This particular expression was borrowed, as some think, from Enoch's prophecy, which, as we learn from St. Jude, began in the same way. "Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all." Now, with respect to the sentence of final perdition recorded in the text,—

1. "The Lord cometh," solemnly and publicly to ratify and pronounce it. It is already fixed and determined in the Eternal Mind. It is already written in the authentic and infallible oracles which announce Jehovah's purposes. But when "the Lord cometh," it shall be proclaimed and confirmed in the presence of angels, devils, and men. Were this a merely human denunciation, you might safely despise it; but it proceeds from the throne of the Almighty; and He will one day acknowledge it as His own decree, and say to all unbelievers, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire."

2. "The Lord cometh," to detect and expose, by His

omniscient wisdom, those who are really liable to this charge and penalty.—It is but too possible, by "a fair show in the flesh," by avoiding outward enormities, and by performing outward duties, not only to escape excommunication from Christian societies, but even to be thought eminent for love and attachment to Christ and His cause. Where this is the case, there is no human remedy. While there are no means of decisive discrimination, the tares, or darnel, must grow with the wheat until the harvest. But the deception shall be short, and the discovery will be dreadful. "The Lord cometh," and then the cheat shall be made universally apparent, and the tares shall be bound in bundles to be burned. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us: and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are : then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last."*

3. "The Lord cometh," not only with inflexible justice to ratify the sentence, not only with omniscient wisdom to detect and expose all who are truly liable to its terrors, but with omnipotent power to enforce it on those who are thus convicted.-On conviction before this tribunal, execution will instantly follow; for from the bar of God there is no appeal,

*Luke xiii. 24-30.

and to the power of God there can be no resistance. Though sinners are now under actual spiritual malediction, and also under the sentence of an eternal curse; yet, while they are in this world of mercy, their case is not without hope. If they will, however late, embrace Christ with a penitent and believing heart, the sentence shall be reversed, and the curse exchanged for a blessing. But, if that sentence be once ratified at the judgment-seat of Christ, there can be no further possibility of deliverance. And, be it remembered, "there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave," whither we are all hastening.

A few words must suffice for the application of the subject. I address,

1. Those of you who do not love the Lord Jesus Christ.You have heard your doom. Perhaps, indeed, you are not infidels, nor persecutors, nor gross apostates, nor notorious profligates. But, be that as it may, if you love not the Lord Jesus Christ with a love supreme, appropriate, and universal, this is your condemnation. Count us not your enemies, if we tell you the truth, painful alike to our feelings and to yours. You may be decent, externally moral, liberal, well-disposed, and well-informed; but none of these things is sufficient to authorize our blessing you in the name of the Lord. For His sentence is express and positive: "If any man"-any rich man or poor man, any young man or old man-any man, however high in religious reputation, or office, or profession-any man, however amiable in domestic life-any man, even though men bless him ever so deservedly for his public virtues or private charities-"if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema: The Lord cometh." Now, how shall we bless you whom God hath not blessed, but placed under a curse ? "If you would give us your houses full of silver and gold, we cannot go beyond the word of the Lord our God, to do less or more." Consider, it is not we, but St. Paul, and God speaking by him, that pronounces this sentence. Instead