the vast concerns of another life. Delays are dangerous. The
more we have to risk or lose, the greater folly it would be accounted,
to defer securing our property and goods, which we know to be in
danger. What folly, therefore, what madness must it be, to put off with
careless indifference, the concernments of eternity; and to prefer
the trifles of this transitory life to heaven, and the favour of God!
Let the parable of the rich man, who pleased himself with the thought
of having much good laid up for many years, be a warning to
you![Luke xii. 16-28.] That very night his soul was required of him.
Such persons may now deem themselves wise; but ere long they will be
sensible they were fools.

It you consider what a valuable price was paid for our redemptions you
must be convinced that the soul of man is very precious in the sight
of God, and that sin is not so light and small an evil, as many of you
have supposed. To disobey the commandments of the just and holy God,
is, as far as in us lies, to renounce our allegiance to him, and our
dependence upon him, and to set up for ourselves, and even to join
with the devil in open rebellion against our Maker. It is, in plain
terms, to fly in his face, and to bid defiance to his almighty arm. Sin
is such a horrid evil, that unless it is forgiven, and blotted out, by
the blood of Jesus, it will sink your souls lower than the center of
the earth, even into the very depths of hell, never, never, never more
to rise [Mark ix. 44-48].

So heinous was sin, in the sight of God, that rather than permit
it to pass unpunished, he would punish it in the person of his own, his
only, his well-beloved Son, who was made sin, that is, treated as a
sinner deserved to be treated, for us. He was delivered up into the
hands of wicked men, and crucified, that by his suffering and death, he