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time; and that many graciously constrained, have esteemed the invitation; have cast themselves on the authority of God, and have received, and do possess this great salvation? Is this true? Is it not an encouragement, a motive, an inducement to you also to strive to enter in at the strait gate, and to partake of the ineffable mercy? Has your parent entered, and will not you enter? Has your wife entered, and will not you enter? Has your child entered, and will not you enter? Is there not reason in these circumstances? While many are pressing into the kingdom, while many are repenting of sin, and while many are professing his name—is there not reason, brethren, why you should earnestly and instantly seek also your personal salvation? O there are many under convictions of sin, and you are not convinced; and many whose scruples and difficulties have been overcome, and your's have not been overcome; and many in the high-ways, and streets, and lanes, who never had your privileges, and do not now possess your knowledge, who have actually decided for Christ and entered into his kingdom and blessing.

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"And there is yet room." This is also made an additional encouragement by Christ. You might otherwise have said, O, so many have entered, and so many come, and so many participate, that the company is made up, the number is complete, and there is no room for more. Thus, in the first instance,

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you might stay away under false scruples, until the place seemed to be occupied; and then stay away, because there was no place to be found for you. But yet there is room." Many have come; many are coming; but "yet there is room" for you. O! if you stay away, God is resolved that you shall be left without excuse. There is yet room; room in the immensity of his designs of grace; room in the immensity of the might, and mercy, and merit of Christ, our Saviour; and room, immense room, in that heavenly world of light, in which we are all to be connected together in Christ Jesus, and to be at last resented to the Father. There is yet room. Through every age multitudes have come, and multitudes are still coming; yet there is room: room in the church for you; room at the table for you; room to all the privileges of the Gospel, and the gratifications of the saints, for you. "And yet there is room." Your children have come, and you have not come; but there is yet room for you your parents have come, and you have not come; and yet there is room for you those with less privilege, and less knowledge, and less understanding, have come, and you have dared to stay away: and yet there is room for you. The door is not yet shut; mercy is not yet expended; truth does not yet become silent; but the invitations are here; mercy is abundant; and you are invited still to come, for "yet there is room."

We glance at the remaining part of the subject, which is, that THIS INVITATION, IF ACCEPTED, SHOULD BE ACCEPTED IMMEDIATELY, AND WITHOUT DELAY. There are several expressions supporting this representation. Our Lord sends forth his servants in haste: some have been rejected he sends them forth in haste, commissioned with all his authority to tell others to come. The poor, the blind, the ignorant, those who are sensible of their unworthiness, are to come instantly, that his house may be filled. He renews the invitation, and says not only "Invite them," but "Compel them to come." Surround them with such arguments, fill them with such persuasion, touch them with such

motives. Speak in my name; speak, if possible, as men could not speak: and thus bear witness to their consciences, and "compel them to come in."

All this is designed to shew, that the compliance should be immediate, and without delay. It should be so from the painful example already presented before us. The invitation had been made sincerely; given graciously; given, and repeated with much inducement; and yet those who were bidden did not come. They made light of it; and He who had invited them at last made light of them; passed them by; consigned them to weeping, to darkness, and to despair. Here, then, is the example, the fearful example, on the one hand, of persisting in slighting his name. They did but slight it: many of them might have reasoned as you possibly have reasoned: they meant to do it; they meant to comply with it at a convenient season; after they had tried their oxen, after they had visited their farm, after they had enjoyed domestic delights. They meant, possibly, at a future time, to do all possible honour to this invitation; but the present time was not the suitable time. They made light of it; and God passed them by, and the invitation is no more given. This is an inducement to you to yield an immediate compliance with the invitation. Where there is much mercy there is much judgment: the mercy which melts one, is followed by the judgment which condemns another; and the greater the mercy neglected and rejected, the greater and the more immediate may they expect to be the displays of his indignation and his wrath.

O then, by the very instance of his righteousness and his judgments, you are constrained immediately to comply. Do not make light of it; do not despise it; do not pass it by, and promise it attention and thought another day for others have done so, and others have been ruined in doing so.

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This is the chief concern of life; and therefore it should be complied with instantly and without delay. We deem it wise and necessary to attend to business according to its call, and according to its importance: and the business which we regard of first-rate importance, is the business which we attend to first, whatever other things we may put away. But here is an occupation, and an avocation, and a concern, of infinite moment to each of us. He who does not deem it the first concern of life, has not entertained any just conceptions of his own convictions, or the authority of God, or the religion he professes to acknowledge. It is the chief consideration; and therefore if it is to be attended to, it is to be attended to immediately and without delay. It is not to be put aside until you have made your wealth, until you have discharged your merchandize, until you have regulated your accounts, until you have established your household, until you have got rid of the present burden of care, or the present pursuits of ambition which are occupying your attention. God will not suffer it to be put by for these; but these are to be put by for it. The world is to wait; domestic comfort is to wait; the world's occupations and pursuits are to wait; all the endearments of life are to wait, and the claims of life to wait, rather than this is to wait: you must give your first and chief attention to your soul's salvation, and the claims of Christ upon your conscience.

It demands immediate attention, without delay, because all things are waiting for our good. Our Lord himself has offered an exposition on this subject, and we have had reason to attend to it. It is but an argument for an immediate attention, against all delay, and all scruple and difficulty. All things are

waiting for you. God is waiting to receive you; Jesus is waiting to accept and to bless you; the provision is already prepared, waiting to gratify you. The minister is waiting to see the proof of his invitations and his labours, and his prayer. And angels from heaven, ministering spirits to the church of God, are waiting to see whether you shall accept and honour, or whether you shall neglect and dishonour, the message, the invitation from heaven.

It should be received and accepted at the present time and immediately, because the present time is the day of salvation. It is what God himself condescends to pronounce "the acceptable time:" that is, in other words, the time in which he is pledged to accept you. He is not pledged for other times, but he is pledged for the present time. For instance: in relation to this invitation you are described. You are poor and destitute, and need the very blessings proposed. And you are unworthy, and you would be discouraged by a sense of your unworthiness; and the invitation comprehends you. It describes you that you may have no discouragement in coming. The invitation is presented to you by his ministers; and his ministers are authorized to say, in his name, that if you yield yourselves to that invitation, God is true to receive you, and bountiful to bless you. Then understand, it is for your attention at the present time, and not for the future. There is no invitation that you shall be received to-morrow: there is no promise that is to be realized as to to-morrow, while you are delaying and negligent. And, therefore, scorning the invitation, there is no encouragement for you as to the future. Now is the acceptable time; it is the time to which the promise applies; it is the time when the invitation is given; now is the acceptable time. If you embrace this now; if grace inclines you to come now, then grace is pledged to receive you, and to crown you with its blessings. Now is the acceptable time; but there is no promise that if you neglect it now, and promise compliance to-morrow, that authorizes you to expect it. O to-day is the day of salvation. How many have ruined themselves by to-morrow's hopes, by to-morrow's prospects, and by resolutions made for the morrow, and not made for the present time! Now is the accepted time: if you are disposed graciously to come now, you shall be received, you shall participate in all this goodness; you shall be made heirs of life everlasting.

Then it is an invitation to be accepted instantly, because life is short and uncertain. How uncertain you can witness by what has taken place in your families, in this congregation and church. How uncertain, you can witness by what you observe in life and in the world. The world is full of care, affliction, mortality, and bereavement. Life, therefore, is to you uncertain; and it is irrational, it is sinful, it is most unwise, to put away the invitation which involves all your peace, and all your safety for the life to come, as well as for the life that now is. We cannot tell, my beloved hearers, but this may be the very last time you may have the opportunity of hearing the Gospel; this may be the last time in which you may be freely invited to come and partake of all the riches of your salvation. Life is so uncertain; so many are dying, dying suddenly, dying away from the midst of their privileges-some from the midst of privileges they have never valued, that it is the height of folly, as well as the height of crime, to reject or to neglect this invitation.

Then the day of grace is often shorter than the day of life. It was so with

Jerusalem "O Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her chickens, but ye would not. O Jerusalem, that thou hadst known the day, even this the day of thy visitation! but now it is hid from thine eyes." I verily believe, and the statement of our Lord bears us out entirely in the belief, that there are many instances in which the day of grace is shorter than the short day of a man's life; in which the invitation has been given, has been repeated, has been repeated and again repeated; and in which the invited, at last, under such resistance, has been given up to worship his own idols, to pursue his own course, and to find his own destruction. I beseech you, therefore, look to your salvation; and be not as Esau, that profane person, who preferred the world to God's blessing, and who thus preferring the world to God's blessing, sought a place of repentance with tears, but never found it.

In this service, then, and by this address, the invitation of grace is presented to this congregation. It is so presented as to include all our states, all our circumstances, all our doubts, and scruples, and fears, if we are the subjects of such things. One thing is quite certain on the present occasion, on the presentation of the invitation, the message from heaven. All of you who are capable of thinking and attending to the subject must come to one resolution; it is either the resolution to accept it, or the resolution to reject it.

I have now simply, as the minister of Christ, as responsible for all that is thus said at the last great day, and under a living conviction that I must meet you at that last great fearful day-I have now to ask, since every person in this place, attending to the subject at all, must have a resolution and a decision of mind; I have to ask, What is your secret purpose of mind on this subject? Is this invitation accepted, or is it rejected? There is no medium course. You cannot place it aside; you cannot promise it future attention; you cannot hide it on a coming day. Your mind is exactly before God in this position at this instant—it is either accepting or rejecting this invitation. If not accepted in deep penitence of spirit, in faith in God's word, and in hope of his salvation, then, whatever may be the pretence, whatever may be the plea, your spirit is inwardly rejecting the invitation of divine mercy. I beseech you not to deceive yourselves. Carry this conclusion home to your closets, to implore the grace which can overcome every difficulty, and enable you to yield yourselves joyfully, and for ever, body, soul, and spirit, to Christ as your Redeemer. Amen.

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THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST CONSIDERED IN CONNEXION
WITH HIS CHARACTER.

REV. S. ROBINS, A. M.

CHRIST CHAPEL, NORTH BANK, REGENT'S PARK, GOOD FRIDAY, 1835.

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit."-1 PETER, iii. 18.

WE are, for the most part, familiar enough with the leading topics of Gospel truth, and with the main facts of the Gospel history; those which serve, as it were, for land-marks in the great field of Christian theology. But our especial danger is this that we are so occupied and so engrossed by the things of earth and of time, which though small in their dimensions, yet being near at hand, serve to hide from us the far more gigantic and stupendous interests of our everlasting

state.

And yet those things to which we are so insensible, have fastened to themselves the regardfulness of all the intelligent universe. We believe that the great achievement of redeeming, and restoring the world, is a matter whereon angel and archangel have, from the earliest development of God's design, been continually fixing their regard. And hence it was, that when the Saviour bent the steps of his mysterious journey towards the confines of our dim and far-off world, the angels were ready with their song; and when one sinner is converted, and one soul gathered into the kingdom of Jesus, the angels rejoice over such an one. And we cannot but believe, that when the Saviour hung upon the cross-that when he cried with is dying breath, “It is finished," the angels, who had been so regardful in observing all the progress and the development of God's gracious design, then hanging over the marvels of Christ's dying hour, would rejoice, because therein was the accomplishment of all which God had proposed for their contemplation; then was fulfilled the overturning of the kingdom of darkness. And when the Saviour died, there would go forth trembling and dismay amongst the spirits that had been banded and leagued against God: and there would be raised among the celestial company, anthems of such bursting praise, as never before had been heard, even in the courts of heaven itself.

But it was not only the intelligence of the universe that was thus fixed on the death of the Saviour, and the triumph thus gained for Jehovah; but even mute and inanimate nature sympathized with its dying Lord, and the rent rocks, and the open graves, bore testimony that it was no common death which the earth was thus witnessing. Now, all these things will cast a shame on the

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