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Heb. xii. 1.; in one word, with all your fins of heart and life.--It is,

2. A peremptory charge: Acts, xvii. 30. " And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent." There are no ifs or ands for your keeping your fins, or any of them. Many go about to compound the matter with God. They will part with fuch and fuch a fin, they will only harbour this and that, which is but a little one, a right eye, &c; but in vain, you must part with all. If you would give rivers of oil, or the fruit of your body for your fins, you cannot be allowed to keep any one of thefe accurfed things.-It is,

3. A charge for the prefent time: Pfal. xcv. 7. "To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart." It requires obedience upon hearing of it, a fpeedy and quick compliance, like that, Pfal. cxix. 60, "I made hafte, and delayed not, to keep thy commandments." You are not allowed to advise another day, whether you will depart from iniquity or not. For ought you know, it is now or never with you: 2 Cor. vi. 2. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of falvation." And if you refufe this once more, God may take you at your refufal, and determine your eternal state by it, Prov. i. 24. and downwards. Often refufals are most dangerous: Prov. xxix. 1. "He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, fhall fuddenly be deftroyed, and that without remedy."—It is,

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4. A charge with certification, a charge upon your highest peril: Heb. xii. 25. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more fhall not we escape, if we turn away from him that fpeaketh from heaven." You are charged to depart

from

from iniquity, as you will anfwer it before the Judge of the quick and dead. There is in this inftance a fivefold certification.--There is this certification,

(1.) That if you do it not, you fhall incur the high difpleasure of God: Rom. i. 18. « For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodlinefs and unrighteoufnefs of men who hold the truth in unrighteoufnefs." Who knows the power of His wrath who is able to frown the creature into the lowest abyfs of mifery? His anger makes the hills to tremble, the mountains to fmoke; alas! how can worm man bear it ?-There is this certification,

(2.) That if you do it not, you fhall have no communion with God in duties: Amos, iii. 3. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" You may go to your prayers, but God will not be found of you; he will turn the back and not the face to you: Pfal. lxvi. 18. «If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." You fhall find a feparation-wall built up between God and you: Ifa. lix. 2. "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your fins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." You may come to a communiontable, but your harboured lufts shall separate be twixt God and you: this will make it a faplefs meal to you.--There is this certification,

(3.) That if you do it not, your best services and duties will not be accepted, but rejected as an abomination. Remember that God requires obedience rather than facrifices; and it is in vain for men to think to please God in the external acts of devotion, while they do not make confcience of obeying his commandments in holiness of life : Prov. xxviii. 9. "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer fhall be an abomination."

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abomination." Will men dare to go over the belly of their duty enjoined them from the Lord's word, without ever aiming to comply with it, and yet think to communicate acceptably? There is this certification,

(4.) That if you do it not, you will get a curfe inftead of a bleffing in your approaches to God, Mal. ii. 2. 3. God has made fome monuments of his vengeance, who have prefumed in their fins unrepented of to approach his presence in a folemn manner, Levit. x. 1. 3. But becaufe God does not ftrike men often this way, there are found those who, living in fecret wickednefs, come to the Lord's table to cloak their wickednefs, little confidering the blafting curfe to which they expofe their fouls.There is this certification,

(5.) That if you do it not, you shall perish in your iniquity: Heb. xii. 14. "Follow peace with all men, and holinefs, without which no man fhall fee the Lord." True holinefs is in all manner of converfation. One thing lacking will ruin and fink the fhip of your fouls, as well as a thoufand.

We are now,

IV. To fhew why thofe particularly who name the name of Chrift, are charged to depart from iniquity. All to whom the gofpel comes are so charged, but thofe who profefs Christ are in a fpecial manner thus charged.-For,

1. The practice of iniquity is a contradiction to their profeffion; fo that they cannot have this practice, but they give the lie to their profeffion An holy profeffion, and an unholy practice, are fuch inconfiftencies, as that the one overthrows the other; " for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what com

munion

munion hath light with darkness and what concord hath Chrift with Belial ?" 2 Cor. vi. 14. 15. By their profeffion they are friends of God, by their practice they are enemies; by the one they carry Chrift's yoke, by the other fin and Satan's. Thus the life is woven into one practical lie.

2. Whofoever partakes of Chrift's falvation, departs from iniquity; for falvation from fin is the leading and chief part of Chrift's falvation: "Thou fhalt call his name Jefus, for he fhall fave his people from their fins." Therefore none can justly claim Chrift as his Saviour, who ftill lives in fin. Hence we are told, James, ii. 17. " That faith without works is dead." And a holy life is juft as necessary to evidence our intereft in Chrift, as light is neceffary to evidence that the fun is

rifen.

3. The practice of iniquity in fuch, is in a péculiar manner offenfive to God, and grieving to his Spirit. Sin is offenfive to his holiness, whereever it is found; but the offence is doubled in those who name the name of Chrift: Amos, iii. 2. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: Therefore I will punith you for all your iniquities." Friends wounds pierce deepest; and the nearer that the relation is betwixe the offender and the offended, the offence is the worfe taken, Pfal. xli. 9. and lv. 12. 13. The treachery of a traitor is more grievous than the enmity of an open enemy, and more feverely punished; and accordingly the impiety of thofe who name the name of Chrift, is more heinous than that of others who do not: Matth. xi. 229 "But I fay unto you, it fhall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgement, than for you." The breaking of a covenant, which all the baptifed as well as communicants have entered into,

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is most aggravating, both in refpect of fin and pu nishment. See Matth. xxiv. 51. Compare Jerem, xviii. 34.

Laftly, It reflects a peculiar difhonour upon. God; fuch fins bring a scandal upon that holy name and religion which they profess: Rom. ii. 24. "For the name of God is blafphemed among the Gentiles through you." The loofe lives of profeffors expofe religion to the ridicule and reproach of its enemies; fo that they are the Judafes by whom the Son of man was betrayed.

Religion is the worse of them; and it meets with worfe entertainment in the world, that workers of iniqui ty do profess it.

WE are now,

V. To make fome practical improvement; and this,

First, In an ufe of information.--This doctrine thews us,

1. That all and every one amongst us, by the authority of God who made us, and in whofe name we were baptifed, are obliged to depart from iniquity. You cannot keep it without rebellion against your fovereign Lord, without treachery and breach of your covenant. O that men would seriously reflect on the authority they are under! confider the charge given them from heaven, and how they will anfwer for their difobe. dience to it, when God rifes up to judgement.-This fhews us,

2. That for men to abftain from the facrament of the Supper, to this end that they may not be abridged of their liberty in finful courfes, is not only impious, but childish and foolish. It is impious, as it is a determined disobedience to God's exprefs charge. It is foolish, because this liberty. is already cut off from them, and renounced by

them

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