337 / 514
SEEM.
xix.]
NONE
EXCLUDED
FROM HOPE..
.15)
to
'refused
to
receive them.
Thou hast
sat, as
it
were,
-on
the banks
of
the
river
of
life,
and
never
desired
to
taste the
living
water,
Thou hast
dwelt
near
the shadow
of
the tree
of
life,
but
art
an
utter
stranger
to the
fruit.
O
!
with what a
stupid
and
a
careless
ear hast
thou
heard
the
things
of
thy everlasting peace
;
Think
of
it
there
-
fore, and
be
horribly afraid
:
If
the
gospel
be
not
pow-
-erful for
the salvation
of
thy
soul,
it
will
become
through
thy
own
impenitence,
a
powerful
means to increase
tiv
damnation, to make thy
hell hotter,
and thy
eternal
sor-
rows more
intolerable,
Wo
to
thee,
Capernaum
!
IYo
to
thee l3ethsaida
!
o
unto
you,
O
sinners
of
Great
Bri-
tain,
ye
have been
exalted to heaven in divine favours,
and ye
shall
be
thrust
down
to hell,
if
ye
continue
iu
unbelief.
It
shall
be
more tolerable
in
the
day
of
judg-
ment
for
Sodom
and
Gomorrah,
than
for
you,
Mat.
xi.
M1.
But art
thou
indeed,
yet an unbeliever?
Yet
sleeping
the sleep
of
death?
It
may be this
is
thy
awakening
time:
It
may be this
is
the
hour
when thou shalt
'begin
to
hear
the voice
of God
in
order
to
life.
O cherish
such
important
thoughts
as these.
Let
them
arise
with
thee
in
the
morning,
let
them
lie
down
at
night
with
thee,
and
give
thyself no
rest,
nor
give
rest
to.
the
God of
heaven,
nor
to
Jesus Christ
the Saviour, till
he
has
received thy
soul
into the arms
of
his love,
forgiven thy
sins,
and
made thee
a new
creature,
that
the
gospel may
not
be
to
thy soul the savour
of
eternal
death.
Answer
II.
But perhaps the person
who makes this
complaint,
may
be
some humble,
melancholy
christian,
some sincere believer in Christ,
and
yet
under dark
and
timoróus apprehensions, concerning
his
own state.
It
may
be,
poor trembling
soul,
that
thou hast found' the
preaching
of
the gospel
to be the power
of
God
to thy
salvation, though thou
art
not
able rightly to evidence
it
to
thy own
conscience.
Thou
hast
not
the
joy
of
pardon indeed,
but
hast
thou
-
not
some glimmering
hopes?
Surely
thou dost
not aban-
don thyself
to
utter
despair? Thou
hast
not assurance
that Christ
has
accepted
of
thee; but
art
thou
not
sin-
cerely willing to
surrender
thyself
to him,
to receive
his
complete salvation
'in
the holiness
as well
as
the
happi-
ness
of
it?
Dost
thoti
not
long
to be
pardoned
and
ac-