something which I might yet settle, will be left in confusion. I am in confusion myself. I faint at the undertaking. Consider what a violence I sustain, in leaving part of my family, and leaving them in such a state. A little longer, if it be only to make one more attempt to awaken their minds. Who can tell, but they will hear, and escape with me! At least let me

say, once more, Farewell, for ever!"

'But, while he lingered, the men laid hold on his hand,' and brought him and his family abroad, 'saying, Escape for thy life! Look not behind thee! neither stay thou in all the plain! Escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed!'

This is, indeed, my dear hearers, a striking illustration of our remark: but, as I before hinted, is it an uncommon one? Verily we are but contemplating human nature: we are looking but at man! at ourselves! God is continually rousing us by his Word. by his Providence, and by his Spirit, to awake, to arise, and to escape for our lives; and we are ever finding some excuse or other for lingering.

Jesus said to a certain man, 'Follow me:' but 'he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my Father.' The pretence for lingering is often very plausible, when the principle is bad. Jesus, the judge of motives, said unto him, 'Let the dead bury their dead : but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.'

Another said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go and bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.' Could any, but the Reader of Hearts, have called this man a lingerer? Yet 'Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.'

Thus God calls to lingering nature; and, lingering nature constantly replies, with Lot, "Oh not so, my Lord! not so SOON-not so FAST-not so FAR. I cannot yet escape to the mountain: it is so distant: it

is so high.

There is a little resting place at hand : Is it not a little one?” May I not rest there, and my soul yet live?""

Lingering nature will trifle with the favours, as well as with the terrors of the Lord.

But why do I dwell so much on the case of Lot, or talk of human nature in general as a loiterer? Let us descend into our own bosoms, and examine the fact at home.

The consciences of most of us who are hear before God this day, bear testimony to the truths which we hear in this place. We have confessed that "we have erred and strayed like lost sheep”—that "we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts"—and that "there is no health in us." We also know, that nothing is more plainly declared in the Scripture which we profess to believe, than that, without 'repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,' such sinners must perish eternally. We feel that the world is our grand snare, and that our time in it is short! how short we cannot tell? We know that there is no repentance in the grave; and that we cannot escape, if we neglect so great salvation. We have, perhaps, noticed the blessed effects of this salvation, in the lives and deaths of some of our friends; and in the misery and ruin into which unbelief has plunged others. 'Let me die the death of the righteous!' may have been our cry: Let me 'so run as to obtain.' Yes, indeed, many among us have felt these convictions: but who among us really lives the life of the righteous? Who actually runs the race set before him? Are there not many here present to-day, who, with such convictions, have not even yet SET OUT?

Say! am I speaking truth, or not? Though God has long invited us, has not one bought a piece of ground, and must needs go and see it, and therefore prays to be excused? Have not others bought oxen,

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and must go to prove them? Has not a third married a wife, and therefore cannot come? why not? a family-man, of all others, stands most in need of the helps and comforts of religion : he, therefore, especially should come; and bring his wife with him. No! the lingerer cannot come: he cannot bear to have his new pleasures interrupted: he cannot disturb the feelings of a family, or of a new connection. If they will stay in the city, he must stay there too; if they will stop in the plain, he can go no further; at least, for the present, he cannot come.

Thus men live; intending, at one time or other, to be wise. And thus, too often, they die without wisdom. We set a time: the day comes ; but new hindrances also come with it, and we cannot go forth. Conscience meets a fresh alarm: but now, perhaps, we are depressed: our spirits are in no state for exertion: we are drowsy with labour; we are unhinged by vexation: we are embarrassed by a connection; or we are in doubt about the way, and cannot go on till the doubt is removed: somebody offers to remove it, but we beg to have it discussed at a more convenient

What is all this? Alas! it is lingering nature, which, if the hand of special grace does not seize, will perish in sight of the most awful prospects, and drivel on to destruction, buoyed up with vain purposes never to be performed.

This, my dear hearers, is some account of lingering circumstances like ours; but it is not the whole account. I should be unfaithful to you, as your Minister, if I described it only as Folly or Infirmity. It is much more: it is the Deceitfulness of Sin : it is the Power of Unbelief; it is a Device of Satan: it is Sottish Idolatry: it is Ruinous Presumption, which, in sight of such prospects as ours, still lingers, and objects to the means of an immediate escape, crying with Lot, ‘Oh, not so, my Lord!

Does this seem strange to any one? Does he ask

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what he has to do with the case of Lot? what fire from heaven he need to fear? what warning he has neglected? I would ask such an one in return, Did you ever read your Bible? Is it not filled with awful warnings, addressed to the conscience of every one? Does it not threaten the impenitent and unbelieving with an infinitely more terrible destruction than that which threatened Lot? It was only his body, that was in danger-a body soon to be consumed by worms : but you are warned to fear, lest 'both body and soul' be cast into hell.' Lot was only in danger of having that family separated from him by an untimely death, which was soon to be separated by a natural one: but God hath warned you, that all those who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord;' and, of course, shall be banished from the endearing society of their pious relatives, of their faithful ministers, and of all holy and benevolent spirits.

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Oh wretched men that we are, who shall deliver us from this lingering unto Death! Let us thank God, through Jesus Christ, that an arm of special grace is still stretched out to perform this: though with grief we must still cry, 'Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"

But the report must be made, and therefore we proceed to consider our dependence on the arm of the Lord.

The history of Lot's escape is but a picture of our deliverance by the power of grace. The angels had not only warned him, but they now hasten his escape; and, while he lingers, they lay hold of his hand, ('the Lord being merciful unto him') and bring him without the city. And even now they urge him onward; crying in his ears, Escape for thy life: look not behind thee stay not in the plain: escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.'

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Who does not observe here, divine grace extended like an arm from heaven, tò pluck a brand from the burning ? Who can avoid remarking, with St. Peter, on this very fact, that “the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, while he reserves the unjust to be punished ?'

The gracious arm was much more than that warning voice, which others had heard, as well as they who escaped. Methinks I see Lot resting in his cave, and thus instructing his daughters, while the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire'“Behold, my dear children, the smoke of the coun6 try go up as the smoke of a furnace.” Where now are the mockers? I lingered, indeed, myself; but the Lord being 'merciful unto me, he has brought us hither. Your poor mother looked back, and remains an awful monument in the plain. Let us never forget that we also are monuments, but monuments of another kind,-monuments of grace. Let us often visit the pillar of salt, to keep alive a holy fear in our heart ; lest, after all, we perish by a worse destruction. And, while we cannot help dropping our tears at the sad memorial, let us return to our cave admiring and adoring that arm of special grace, which rescued us, while lingering in sight of impending ruin.”

This temporal deliverance of Lot, may stand as an emblem of every true Christian's spiritual deliverance. The word of God is that warning voice, by which many are called : The Holy Spirit's influence is that mighty power, by which ‘few are chosen.' Do

you say “ This is strange ?”' I say it is a MIRACLE!-a miracle which God continues to work, or Ministers would labour in vain. And, considering its important consequences, it is the most glorious of his miracles. It was for this influence that Št. Paul asked, when he prayed that the Ephesians might not only have the eyes of their understandings enlightened, to know the hope of Christ's calling, but that they

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