persons are in the state of condemnation! So many unbelievers, so many condemned. That is a sad complaint of the prophet: "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Isa. liii. 1.

Many talk of faith, and many profess it; but there are few in the world unto whom the arm of the Lord has been revealed in the work of faith with power. It is put among the great mysteries, that Christ is believed on in the world, 1 Tim. iii. 16. O what a terrible day will be the day of Christ's coming to judgment, when so many millions of unbelievers shall be brought to his tribunal to be solemnly sentenced! They are condemned already; but then that dreadful sentence will be solemnly pronounced by Jesus Christ, whom they have despised and rejected. Then shall that Scripture be fulfilled: "Those mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me," Luke xix. 27.

2. Hence, learn how great a mercy the least measure of saving faith is for this unites the soul to Jesus Christ; and "there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," Rom. viii. 1; not one sentence of God against them: "By him all that believe are justified from all things," Acts xiii. 39. The weakest believer is as free from condemdation as the strongest; the righteousness of Christ comes upon all believers: "Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference," Rom. iii. 22. The faith that receives the righteousness of Christ may be different in degrees of strength, but the received righteousness is equal upon all believers. O the exceeding preciousness of saving faith!

3. How dreadful a sin is the sin of unbelief, which brings men under the condemnation of the great God! No sin startles less, or damns more surely: it is a sin that does not affright the conscience, as some other sins do, but it kills the soul more certainly than any of those sins. Other sins could not damn us, were it not for unbelief, which fixes the guilt of them all upon our persons: "This is the condemnation." Unbelief is the sin of sins; and when the Spirit comes to convince men of sin, he begins with this as the capital sin, John xvi. 9.

It is

(1.) Estimate the evil of unbelief from its object. slighting the most excellent person in heaven or earth: the vision of Christ by faith is the joy of saints upon

earth the vision of Christ above is the happiness of saints in heaven. It is despising him who is altogether lovely in himself, who hath loved us, and given himself for us.

(2.) It is rejecting the only Mediator between God and man; after rejecting whom there remains no sacrifice for sin.

(3.) Let the evil of unbelief be estimated by the offer of Christ in the gospel. It is one part of the great mystery of godliness, that Christ should be preached to the Gentiles, 1 Tim. iii. 16; that the word of this salvation should be sent to us, Acts xiii. 26; a mercy denied to the fallen angels and the greatest part of mankind, which aggravates the evil of this sin beyond all imagination. In refusing or neglecting Jesus Christ are found vile ingratitude, the highest contempt of the grace and wisdom of God; and in the event, the loss of the only opportunity of salvation, never to be recovered to all eternity.

4. If this be the case of all unbelievers, it is not to be wondered at that souls, under convictions of their miserable condition, are plunged into deep distress. They at Jerusalem were pricked at the heart, and cried out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Acts ii. 37. And so the jailer came in trembling and astonished, and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Certainly, if souls apprehend themselves under the condemnation of the great God, tears and trembling, wearisome days and restless nights, are not without just cause. Those who never saw their miserable condition by the light of a clear and full conviction, may wonder at seeing others distressed in spirit. They may misjudge the case, and call it melancholy or madness: but spiritual troubles do not exceed the cause of them, great as they may be. And, indeed, it is one of the great mysteries of grace and providence, how such souls are supported under sorrows, which, in a few hours, might break the stoutest spirit in the world. Luther was a man of great natural courage; and yet, when God let in spiritual troubles upon his soul, it is said he had neither voice, nor heat, nor blood appearing in him.

5. How groundless is the mirth of unregenerate men! They feast in their prison, and dance in their fetters. 0 the madness that is in their hearts! If men did but believe they are condemned already, it were impossible for them to live in vanity as they do. And is their condition

less dangerous because it is not understood? Surely not, but much more so. O poor sinners! you have found out a way to prevent your present troubles: it were well if you could find out how to prevent eternal misery. But it is easier for a man to stifle conviction than to prevent damnation. Your mirth prevents repentance, and increases your future torment. O what a hell will theirs be, who drop into it out of all the sinful pleasures of this world! If ever man may say of mirth, That it is mad; and of laughter, What doth it? he may say so in this

case.

6. What cause have they to rejoice and praise the Lord to eternity, who have a well-grounded confidence that they are freed from God's condemnation! O give thanks to the Father, who hath delivered you from the power of darkness, and translated you into the kingdom of his dear Son, Col. i. 12, 13. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for if freed from condemnation, you are out of Satan's power; he has no more dominion over you. The power of Satan over men comes in by virtue of their condemnation, as the power of the jailer or executioner over the bodies of condemned prisoners, Heb. ii. 14. If you are freed from condemnation, the sting of death shall never touch you; for it smites men only by virtue of God's sentence: "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law," 1 Cor. xv. 56. If you are freed from condemnation, you shall stand with boldness before the judgment seat of Christ; and verily in this is the love of God perfected, 1 John iv. 17. O! it is a privilege in which the grace and love of God shine as clearly as the sun in its full strength. And you will find cause to lie at the feet of God, overwhelmed with the sense of this mercy, when you shall find yourselves free from condemnation, whilst many others are still under it. Yea, yourselves freed, and others, that had the same external advantages as you had, still in chains, 2 Cor. ii. 16. O, brethren! this is a marvellous deliverance; look on it which way you will, your ransom is paid, but not a particle of it by yourselves; it cost you nothing to procure your pardon; your pardon is full, and not one sin is excepted out of it that you ever committed. You are freed; Jesus Christ procured your discharge; your pardon is sealed in his blood, so that you shall never more come into condemnation: "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath

everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life," John v. 24.

Let them that are so delivered spend their days on earth in praise and obedience; and when they die, let them not shrink from death: it can do them no harm; yea, let them close their dying lips with

Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ!

SERMON XXXIII.

AGGRAVATION OF THE SIN AND PUNISHMENT OF UNBELIEF.

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. John iii. 19.

FROM the verse preceding our text, it has been fully proved that all unregenerate men are no better than dead men, being condemned already. Our Saviour proceeds in this verse yet further to describe the misery of those that refuse him, and to show that those who remain in unbelief and unregeneracy must expect greater wrath than other men; not only a simple condemnation, but an aggravated and peculiar condemnation: "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil," John iii. 19.

1. We have here the aggravation of sin by the abuse of gospel light: "Light is come." By light, we are to understand the knowledge of Christ, and redemption by him in the gospel. He is the Sun of righteousness that arises in the gospel upon the nations, Mal. iv. 2. When he came in the flesh, then did the Day-spring from on high visit us, Luke i. 78. The light may be said to come in either the means by which it is conveyed to us, or in its efficacy, when it actually shines in our souls. Light may come among a people in the means, and yet they actually remain in darkness. As it is in nature; the sun may rise, and a glorious morning be far advanced, whilst thousands are on their beds with their curtains drawn about them. Light may be intellectual only in conviction; or efficacious, bringing the soul to Christ by real conversion, called in 2 Cor. iv. 6, God shining in the heart. Wherever light comes in the last sense, it is impossible that men should prefer darkness before it. But it may come in the means,