do not strive for it, with that engagednefs of heart, that conftancy of refolution, that perfeverance of application, with which combatants contend for victory, or with which men ordinarily purfue their worldly ends. If they feek, yet they feek not first the kingdom of God. If they attend at all to the care of their fouls, yet they attend not to it as the one thing needful. There is no reafon to think, that such a seeking as this, will avail. The gofpel injoins a different kind of feeking. Strive to enter in at the ftrait gate.' "So run that ye may obtain." "Labour not for the meat which perifhes, but for that which endures to everlasting life." "The kingdom of heaven fuffers violence, and the violent take it by force they prefs into it." This is the feeking which God requires, and in no other way can we promife ourselves fuccefs.

The object in view is fo great, that our prayers to obtain it cannot be too importunate our labours to fecure it cannot be too earneft, conftant and perfevering.

We need not fear, that we fhall ftrive with too much engagednefs. But we must be careful that we place not a wrong kind of dependance on our ftriving. We may hope for fuccefs, when we feek with carneftnefs and diligence, because God has required us thus to feek. But ftill we must remember that we are unworthy creatures-that our fins have forfeited every bleffing-that whatever good we obtain, it is a gift of grace-that we have no claim on God's justice in virtue of any thing we have done, nor any claim on his promife, till we have actually complied with the terms of it; and, that as long as we remain impenitent, we are expofed to the condemnation of God's law, whatever pains to efcape it we have

taken. We are to ftrive earnestly, but humbly; we are to rely not on the value of what we have done to obtain falvation, but on the grace of God, who has offered falvation to us, awakened our defires to fecure it, and excited our diligence in feeking it.

If we indulge the proud thought, that God would be unjust and cruel, to deny us falvation after we have done fo much in the business-or that he is unkind to keep us fo long in fear and fufpenfe, when we have been fo importunate for the affurance of hope or that he is partial in withholding from us thofe comforts and joys, which others have obtained in a shorter time and with less pains; we then turn our strivings into a vain and offensive self-righteousness; we dishonour God, and defeat the otherwife hopeful fuccefs of our endeavours; we discover the fame haughty and impatient fpirit, which God condemns in fome ancient hypocrites. "Your words have been ftout againft me Ye have faid, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it, that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hofts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they who tempt God are e ven delivered."

2. Another cause why many will not be able to enter, is dilatorinefs. "Strive," fays our Lord, ftrive now," for many will feek," will feek bereafter, and "fhall not be able to come in."

But why fhall they not be able? Because the door will then be fhut. Thus it is added, "when once the master of the house has rifen up and has fhut to the door; and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, faying, Lord, Lord, open to us; then fhall he fay unto you, I know you not whence ye are." You will here observe,

for it is worthy to be obferved for your encour agement, as well as for your caution, that Christ does not fay, "Strive, for many who now ftrive, will fail." But "ftrive, for many will, at another day, feek to enter, and fhall not be able." Here is no intimation, that your present striving is of doubtful fuccefs: but a folemn warning, that there will be a future seeking, which shall be unavailing.

There are few, I believe, who entirely give up the purposes of religion. Though they feel a prefent difinclination, or indifference to it, they have a fecret defign to engage in it by and by. They know they muft die; and they cannot but fufpect, at leaft, that there is fomething serious and important to follow after death. For fo great and certain an event as death they wish to be prepared. They, however, fee no reason to conclude, but that they may live fome years longer: or, if death fhould come fooner than they expect, they hope it will make a gradual approach and give them fome warning; fo that they may at last refort to the refuge of a death-bed repentance. Thus rafhly prefuming on a future opportunity, they delay to fecure an entrance, until the door is fhut. Then they will cry for admiffion; but, alas! they will cry in vain. "In that day, many will fay to Chrift, Lord, Lord, open to us; but he will answer, I know you not.”

By the day here mentioned may be intended the day of final judgment, when all muft appear before Chrift to receive according to the deeds done in the body; or the day of death, when confcious finners feel themselves going to the awful prefence of their judge. The latter will be an event as decifive as the former. This will terminate their probation, and fix their eternal condi

tion. In this extremity many, who defpifed the voice of mercy, while it pleaded with them, will plead in vain for that mercy which they have defpifed. "When diftrefs and anguish come upon them; then," fays wifdom, "fhall they call upon me, but I will not anfwer; they fhall feek me, but shall not find me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord."

We will not, indeed, presume to say, what the mercy of God may do for finners. We hope, it may arrest and deliver fome in the latest period of a guilty life. But if we confider, that the deathbed confeffions and prayers of the guilty ufually proceed from the terrors of impending deftruction, rather than from a calm and fober fenfe of fin; that their repentance, in fuch a fituation, is òrdinarily attended with much perplexity of mind, and confufion of thought; that there is a moft criminal abuse of God's mercy and patience in delaying repentance to fo late and unfeasonable a time; that promifing appearances made in fickness are often diffipated by returning health; that the powers of the mind, in fuch a condition, are very uncertain; that ftupidity on the one hand, or despair on the other, may incapacitate finners for any religious exercises, and that the fuddenness of their death may prevent the application of this intended remedy; we muft fee that the least confidence in it is the madness of prefumption. They may not have an opportunity, or a capacity to cry for mercy, when death comes, or they may cry and not be heard. Or, if dying prayers may be accepted; yet this is certain, death will eternally feal the guilt and fix the doom of those who die impenitent in their fins, and no entreaties will, after that, be regarded. The workers of iniquity must go away into everlasting punishment. They

who will not come to the throne of grace for pardon, will find no grace at the throne of juftice.

3. Falfe dependences are another caufe of the deftruction of finners. "Many will ftand without and knock at the door, faying, Lord, open to us; and he fhall anfwer, I know you not, whence ye are. Then fhall they begin to fay, We have eaten and drunk in thy prefence, and thou haft taught in our streets. But he fhall fay, I tell you, I know you not; depart from me."

Thefe words of our faviour are defigned to fhew, how much dependance many will place on their profeffed relation to Chrift, their enjoyment of fpiritual privileges, and their attendance on inftituted ordinances. Such confidence will they have in these things, that they will hardly be undeceived, when they find themselves in another world. But this confidence, strong as it is, will utterly fail them. Christ will fay to them, "I know you not."

As long as men fatisfy themselves with a loose, partial, careless religion, they will not strive to enter heaven by the ftrait gate, for they hope to enter by a wide gate-they will not fubmit to the ftrict terms of the gofpel, for they have propofed to themselves eafter terms. If they truft in their profeffion, their privileges, their obfervance of ordinances, their performance of external duties, their freedom from grofs vices, or any thing short of the religion of the goipel, they will reject, as impertinent to their cafe, this command of Chrift, "Strive to enter in at the ftrait gate," because they imagine, they have fecured an entrance by a freer paffage.

Be careful, then, that you form juft conceptions of the nature of religion-that you gain an acquaintance with your own hearts and that you