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unto his people, when they were permitted to behold the power of the prophet smiting the arm of their king, and rending the altar, and pouring out the ashes of its unholy incense; but, even in the solemnity of that saving hour, the sun, from which its glorious beams were seen to issue, went down, and the earth of that iniquitous people was darkened "in the clear day." It was darkened by the gloom of their unrepented sins. Yes, the Word of Prophecy, which spake terror to the evil doers in aftertime, was, by anticipation, realized against these despisers of Divine grace. Their feasts were turned into mourning, and their songs into lamentation : sackcloth was brought upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and "the end thereof" was indeed "a bitter day 2."

God grant, my brethren, that the light of our day of salvation may not so be turned into darkness, nor the end thereof prove bitterness! Upon our land it shines with a lustre more pure and blessed than that which dawned upon the land of Israel; to us the characters of its gracious purity are given, not, as they were to Jeroboam's subjects, amid the confusion of their idolatries, or by the lips of a fellowmortal sinking beneath the burden of that frailty from which he was commanded to rescue his brethren, but with the full knowledge and exercise of

1 See Amos viii. 9.

2 Ibid. v. 10.

truth's prerogatives accompanying them, and ratified by the surest mercies of the Triune God,-the Father ordaining, the Son accomplishing, the Holy Ghost revealing the work of man's redemption. By these are we now warned from evil; by these are we now encouraged to good. Let not the warning or the encouragement pass away unheeded. By these may we be saved from the sin and sentence of the disobedient; by these, be enabled to hold "forth the word of life," and "rejoice in the day of Christ, that" we "have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain 1."

1 Phil. ii. 16.

SERMON VI1.

ON THE SUSPENSION OF DIVINE PUNISHMENT.

ECCLESIASTES viii. 11.

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

It is not among the least conclusive evidences which we possess of the truth of Revelation, that it places before us a description of man, not as our pride or self-love would seek to represent him, but as he really is. We see him traversing each scene of Sacred History, the living image, the exact counterpart, of ourselves; debased by the same weaknesses, inflamed by the same passions, stimulated by the same hopes, restrained by the same fears. And

1 An Assize Sermon, preached before Mr. Justice Park and Mr. Justice Coleridge, in the Church of St. Lawrence, Reading, on Sunday, the first of March, 1835.

this, probably, is the reason, why so many amongst us are unwilling to read and ponder upon the Word of God. They feel that it exposes too strongly their deformities, points too clearly to their dangers, reproves too severely their transgressions. It speaks unto them no smooth things, nor prophesies deceits, but boldly and without reserve, reveals the naked and unalterable truth. Such a revelation, I say, must of necessity, be unwelcome to those who seek only the indulgence of their own appetites. It is a ray of intolerable light forcing its way suddenly into the dark chamber of their sins; a painful startling from that slumber of the soul, in which they would fain continue, without disturbance, and without alarm.

But whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, God's Word must be proclaimed, God's whole counsel must be declared, unto His people. They must be urged to look faithfully unto the guidance which He vouchsafes to them, unto the admonition wherewith He warns them. And certain it is, that, if that guidance be sought, and that admonition be obeyed, on their parts, in the spirit of faithful and fervent prayer; not only will the means of grace and salvation through Jesus Christ, be clearly set before them, but the way thereunto will be made the way of pleasantness and peace. The commandments of the Lord will be no longer grievous. The yoke of Christ will be easy and His

burden light, to those who are filled "with all joy and peace in believing 1."

Now, it is the very converse of such a state of mind, which is set forth in the text; a state not of peace, but of enmity with God; and that enmity, arising from the very fact of God's delaying to execute the sentence against an evil work. A most humiliating description this, and yet a true one; an instance, as strong as any which can be adduced, of the fact which I have already referred to; viz. the reality wherewith the nature and the actions of man are depicted in the Word of God. The proposition in the abstract,-that, a being, endued with reason, should run directly counter to the best dictates of his reason; that, professing to believe in a God of holiness and power, he should yet defy the commandments of that God, simply because the judgments which He hath denounced are not speedily seen to overtake every transgression, would appear diametrically opposed, not merely to all consistent reasoning upon the subject, but even to those first instinctive principles of right and wrong, which guide us in the ordinary transactions of life. And yet, this inconsistency ever has existed, and still continues to exist, in man's nature. The cause of it is evidently "an evil heart of unbelief';" the ascendancy maintained within us by things that are

1 Rom. xv. 13.

2 Heb. iii. 12.

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