to my mind as those that a prophet declared to a queen of Israel; I would say, as Ahijah to the wife of Jeroboam, "I am sent to thee with heavy tidings," 1 Kings xiv. 6. And all those tidings are not less true than heavy. I confess my inability to comprehend the facility with which some people apply to themselves the evangelical promises, and arrogate the first place in the kingdom, into which Jesus Christ says, none shall enter without a new birth. Each of the articles in which we have made the nature of this change to consist, supplies us with arguments against this class of people.

of some, "for fear of the Jews," you are not Christians; and thus the proposition of Jesus Christ is just as much demonstrated with regard to you, as with regard to Nicodemus, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

much on terrific truths? Perhaps you will ask | from this discourse, which so naturally occur for whom these discourses are intended which can but directly interest such characters as are out of the reach of our voice? For whom are these discourses, do you yet ask? For some of those who hear us, whom God has saved from these calamities, but who hesitate, perhaps, about à relapse. For whom? For this father of a family, who has left his country, but unable to induce his children to follow, he has established them there; and they will curse him, perhaps, to all eternity, for having procured them worldly wealth at the expense of their immortal souls. It is for this father, that he may feel the horror of a crime which cannot To become a Christian, we must have other be repaired by too many regrets, by too many desires, other hopes, other sentiments, and sighs, by too many tears. For whom? For a other pursuits, than those of the world: unless very considerable number of ourselves, who you are born again, you can neither become a have intercourse with those base Christians, member of the church, nor apply to yourselves to use unremitting efforts, that they may feel the promises made to the church. So long as their situation, and be delivered from it. For you persist in conserving this conformity to the whom? For you, our high and mighty lords, world, though against the better feelings of defenders of the faith, nursing fathers of the your heart, from the sole desire of not renderchurch, so often importuned by our solicita-ing the world implacable, or as the gospel says tions, that you still deign to bear them; and that the protection you have extended to those who take refuge in your country, having but their souls for a prey, may encourage those to come hither, who yet remain in an idolatrous country. For whom? For the whole, how many soever we be, that impressed with the greatest of our calamities, we may endeavour to move by ardent prayers the bowels of a compassionate God, and prevail on him to rebuild the ruins of our Jerusalem, and the dust of our sanctuaries, and to restore to us the great number of souls which the persecution, and more so, the love of the world, have rent away. O God! "God of vengeance, a consuming fire, a jealous God: how long wilt thou be angry with the prayers of thy people? Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence; give him no rest till he establish, and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." O God, though we can indeed resolve to abandon our country for ever, yet we cannot resolve to abandon the soul of our brethren. O God, so long as access to the throne of thy mercy shall be open, we will thither approach to ask for the souls of our brethren; and so long as a single moment of life and strength shall remain, we will raise our suppliant cries, and say, Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this! Return, O Lord, return to the many thousands of Israel." Shut the pit of the abyss which is ready to swallow up the souls of our brethren. Lam. ii. 20; Numb. x. 36.

This last article is worthy of our attention. There are some men, who, if they should follow their inclination, would wholly devote themselves to God, but are deterred from doing so, by I know not what shame, the world is pleased to attach to those who openly declare for virtue. For it must be remarked, that our age is come to that pitch of depravity which attaches a note of infamy on those who openly declare for religion, and thereby exposes them to a kind of persecution. This consideration induces Nicodemus to come to Jesus by night, "for fear of the Jews." Here also is what hinders a vast number of men from glorifying the truth. Why does this young man affect outwardly to adopt certain airs of gallantry and profaneness, which he detests in his heart? It is "for fear of the Jews." Because it has pleased men of fashion to account those vices in youth a sort of courtly graces: it is because they attach a badge of infamy on a young man, who is chaste and pious, and expose him to a kind of persecution. Why is it in politics that one dares not openly avow, that religion is the best policy, and that the most consummate statesman cannot save his country when pursued by the vengeance of But does the proposition of Jesus Christ heaven? It is "for fear of the Jews;" it is besolely regard the Nicodemites properly so call- cause we attach a note of infamy, and expose ed? Are all those Christians who belong to to a kind of persecution, the statesman who Christian communions? Among all our hear- does not make every thing depend on the iners, among those who adhere to our worship, terested maxims of carnal men. Why does who believe our mysteries, and who partake this pastor fail to magnify in his sermons the of our sacraments, is there no one to whom high morality of the gospel? It is "for fear of we may justly apply the words of the Saviour, the Jews:" it is because the world accounted "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man us visionaries, in fact, and persecuted us as be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of disturbers of the public peace, when we confiheaven?" Oh! my brethren, what is the mi-dently enforced the truth. Do you, alas! fear nistry we are commissioned to exercise to-day? What is the gospel which God has this day put into our mouth? I can draw no conclusions

the Jews, like Nicodemus? Then you have need like him to be born again. Do you come to Jesus only by night, like this Rabbi? Then

SERMON XCIX.

his discipline is moderated by the wisest regulations. "All souls are mine," he says in the fourth verse of this chapter, "as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine,

THE CONDUCT OF GOD TO MEN, AND and I will judge them, not only according to

OF MEN TO GOD.

EZEK. Xviii. 29-32..

the Sovereign power which I possess over them, but also according to their mode of life. "The soul that sinneth it shall die." "But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right, and have not eaten upon the mountains," that is, if he has not partaken of the sacrifices, made by the idolatrous nations in the high places; nor eaten of the flesh of the victims sacrificed to their gods. "Neither hath defiled his neigh

Yet saith the house of Israel; the way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal? Therefore I will judge you, O house of. Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent and turn yourselves from all your trans-bour's wife, and hath not oppressed any, but gressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel! For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, wherefore turn yourselves, and

live ye.

'RIGHTEOUS art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee; yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments," Jer. xii. 1. Thus did the prophet Jeremiah formerly reconcile the desire, which is naturally formed by an intelligent being, to inquire into the ways of Providence, with the submission due even to its most obscure dispensations. We ought to possess a strong conviction of the infallibility of God, whose judgments are the rule of reason and of truth. This reflection should always be present in our minds, that his wisdom is able to resolve any difficulties which our finite understandings may suggest; and that the doubts which seem to obscure the glory which surrounds him, only serve to augment its splendour; "Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee."

Nevertheless, we are permitted to pour our cares into the bosom of God, and to seek in the riches of his knowledge for direction, and of his grace for help, to triumph over our corruptions. We may say, "why hast thou formed me thus," not to place our reason on a level with the Supreme Being, who governs the universe, but to obtain some rays of his light, if he deign to communicate them, or to acquiesce with humility, in the dispensations he is pleased to order. "Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee, yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments!" In the temper of mind here expressed, we have meditated on the words read to you; and in this temper you must listen to the explanation of them. They present to us an inquiry, and a conclusion. An inquiry, "O house of Israel, is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?" A conclusion, contained in these words, which is the substance of the two preceding verses, "turn yourselves, and live!"

Before we enter upon this subject, it will be necessary to define the expression, conduct, or in the language of the text, "the ways of God, and the ways of the children of Israel." These terms must be limited to the subject treated of in the chapter from which they are taken. God there declares the line of conduct which he intends to pursue, both with regard to the Israelites and sinners in general. He will indeed act as a Sovereign, but the strictness of

hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment," in a word, "He who hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judg ments to deal truly, he is just; he shall surely live, saith the Lord."

But as the strict administration of justice, in a lawgiver, far from encouraging virtue, serves sometimes for a pretext to palliate vice, and as no mortal can attain to such a standard of holiness, as to bear a rigorous examination, God declares to sinners that he will pardon them on their sincere repentance, "But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die; all his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done, he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God, and not that he should return from his ways and live?" This is what we are to understand by the conduct of God, mentioned in the text, "Are not my ways equal, O house of Israel?" Let us now attend to the conduct of the children of Israel.

We must again refer to the same source for information on this subject, the chapter from which the text is taken. We shall there find that the Israelites, during the time when God governed them as a father and legislator, as well as a sovereign, were bold enough to accuse him of forgetting his characters of father and lawgiver, and only exercising his power as sovereign. They charged him with violating that principle of equity, which is the foundation of all his laws, and which he himself had dictated, contained in Deut. xxiv. 6, and noticed by Amaziah, 2 Kings xiv. 6, in which the judges were forbidden to punish their fathers for the sins of the children, or the children for the sins of the fathers. They pretended that they were the victims of the violation of this law, and expressed this dreadful idea by the proverb, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." These blasphemous thoughts of the conduct of God towards them, influenced not merely their understanding, but regulated the whole course of their lives. They dared to assert that when God thus violated the laws of justice and charity, there was no obligation on them to observe them, and no necessity for repentance when they had broken them. "O house of Israel! are not my ways equal? Therefore