lords; we will come no more unto thee." Those who have been under convictions, if those convictions wear off without any good effect, generally become more profligate in their lives, more inflexible in their tempers, and more obstinate in their sinful courses.

III. I proceed to take some notice of the evil of such conduct; and,

1. It proceeds from the most sordid, and may be ascribed to the worst of causes; not only a want of renovating, converting, establishing grace,-as it is said of the stony-ground hearers, that they had no root, and therefore fell away; but to the prevailing influence of the things of time and sense,— as Demas forsook the apostle Paul out of love to the present evil world; and those who rejected the gospel call went one to his farm and another to his merchandise; but above all, to the amazing power of indwelling corruption. This frustrated all their good intentions and resolutions, put an end to their promising beginnings, and, like a mighty torrent, bore down all resistance and opposition. Thus Herbert, speaking of mercies, afflictions, hopes, fears, shame without, and conscience within, adds

"Yet all these fences, and their whole array,

One cunning bosom-sin blows all away."

2. It is very unbecoming in itself; it is tinctured with the basest ingratitude, and savours of the greatest folly. "Hath a nation changed their gods?" where is a single instance of it? They have too high a veneration for them, too good an opinion of them; "but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit." No people ever sinned against clearer light, or greater mercies. Their pretences to that which was good showed conviction, their casting it off, infatuation.

3. It is highly provoking to God, and exposes to his severest displeasure; their conduct itself condemns them, their conscience condemns them, and without a saving change, God will condemn them. The Scripture puts no

difference between apostates from religion and those who never discovered the least inclination to it; nay, it rather fixes a brand of greater infamy upon the former: "It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them." "If I must," says one, "be eternally separated from God, this shall be my last request-Lord, keep me from the hell of apostates!"

O let what has been said awaken our caution, excite our industry, and put us upon the important duty of prayer. Before we make a profession of religion, let us sit down. and count the cost; when we have made it, let us renounce all confidence in ourselves, yet relying upon the Divine wisdom, power, and grace, exert our most vigorous endeavours, that, like Caleb, we may follow God fully, and at length be found of him in peace; persevere in the christian course, and finish it with joy; be faithful in this world, and crowned in the next. "Be thou faithful unto death," saith He which was dead and is alive, to the angel of the church in Smyrna," and I will give thee a crown of life."

With grief and shame I call to mind

How base my conduct and unkind;
What thou, dear Lord, hast done for me,

And what returns I make to thee!

Sins long forgot come fresh to mind,
Oppressive now, no peace I find;
Like a poor captive held in chains,
My struggles but increase my pains.

Exhaustless Source of every good,
Apply the Saviour's cleansing blood;
Thy gracious visits, Lord, repeat,
And still conduct me near thy seat.

his garment,-if I can but surmount my natural timidity,if the surrounding crowd will favour my design, or at least, not oppose it, though I neither speak to him or he to me, yet if I can but touch him, or even his clothes, I shall be whole. He has healed many by a touch; and why should not a touch of him be as efficacious as a touch from him? Here we may observe,

1. The deep and distressing sense she had of the urgency of her case. She was the sick that needed a physician; though she might not understand, or be able accurately to describe, the nature, causes, or symptoms of her disease, yet she knew that she was diseased, in a wretched and helpless condition: and thus it is with the awakened sinner; let his body be in what situation it will, he sees that he has a poor, miserable soul, infected with the plague, and overspread with the leprosy of original sin, so that he is ready to cry out with the Psalmist, "My loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh; my wounds stink, and are corrupt, Lecause of my foolishness." He labours under a disorder which has slain its thousands, and peopled the bottomless pit with its numerous inhabitants; he feels it preying upon his vitals, and is apprised of the fatal consequences, unless speedy relief be administered.

2. Her great humility and self-abasement. She was ashamed to look Christ in the face, and even to make known her case to him. She considered it as too arrogant and assuming. No: if I can but touch his garment, it is enough for me; it is as much as I expect--a favour that I do not deserve. It seems as if she were sensible of another disease than that spoken of in the foregoing verse,-an issue of sin as well as of blood; that she was not only a suffering and distressed, but a polluted and loathsome creature; and therefore, instead of pretending to any familiarity with the pure and spotless Saviour, she kept at as great a distance as was consistent with a prospect of

SERMON LXV.

CHRIST THE PHYSICIAN OF SOULS.

MATTHEW IX. 21.

She said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I skall be whole.

"THE Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister;" and as he travelled from place to place, various were the applications made to him for relief, and none of them unsuccessful. The woman spoken of in my text had been afflicted with a severe disease for twelve years, which wasted her strength and exhausted her spirits. The person concerning whom she speaks was the blessed Jesus, who had in innumerable instances displayed his wisdom, grace, and power, in the case of the most obstinate and inveterate maladies with which mankind could be afflicted; and he does so still: his agency should be no less acknowledged in the blessing a medicine to the restoration of health, than in the working a miracle for that purpose; and to him the relieved should ever ascribe the praise. "Who healeth all my diseases," says the Psalmist. "Art thou in health? give the glory to him to whom it is due; art thou sick? apply to him who hath healed those whom other physicians have been unable to relieve." In another place it is said of this same woman, that she had spent all her substance in seeking relief, but could not obtain it. Let us notice the unusual method she proposed to take, and the confidence she expressed with respect to its success. If I may but touch