forget God, lest in his anger suddenly he pluck

you away, and in that fearful hour of sentence "there be none to deliver you."

I cannot think we run the smallest risk of misapplying Scripture, in thus considering the psalm before us. Judge then of its instructive and important use; it were to shut our eyes against the truth, to doubt or to deny that language like to that now quoted speaks of real things. Mark then the subject, and the order of the psalm.

It gives us notice, in the first place, of the judgment itself: not that we are to look to any places of the Old Testament for the more positive proofs of that; but knowing these, as now we do, from other sources, we may most undeniably perceive the doctrine here. It then proceeds to speak of certain ways of men, which are "in danger of the judgment." Are these ways real ways, or are they not? We dare not blind ourselves by saying, that the descriptions given here applied unto the Israelites of old, but in no manner speak to us.

What, if no longer any of

ourselves place trust, as some of them too vainly trusted, in burnt offerings and sacrifices? It is not now the fashion of our covenant.

covenant be this, (as it most surely is)

But if our

"to give

our hearts to God," and in the stead of these we give him little else than outward service, or than vain words, and think ourselves secure for such tribute, and keep our hearts the while for things that perish with the using; we are in danger of divine displeasure too". And this too plainly corresponds with one course here reproved.

As for the other, its existence and its condemnation are among the things most palpable. We cannot doubt that there are multitudes among us, who, while they yet may glory in the Christian name," refuse instruction"-"hate to be re"formed :" it is not matter of belief, but of unwelcome knowledge, that there are thieves," "adulterers," "deceitful persons, ""sinners with "the tongue," at this day. It is beyond our power, by consequence, to doubt that this division of the warning speaks to us. Observe then how the psalm conveys to both the classes under question, a calm, yet solemn admonition; not speaking harshly and beyond the bounds of mercy; not drawing forth its very worst (much less, any unreal) terrors, but in agreement with the very Christian spirit; "on some having compas"sion""—allowing for the share of good that

m See Sermon VI. p. 124.

n Cf. Jude 22, 23.

does belong to them-" making a difference;" the other, "saving indeed with fear, pulling them "out of the fire," but still in patience and in soberness; putting them on guard while there is yet time, and mixing tenderness with fear: "O con"sider this, ye that forget God !"

Can any thing be more real, more instructive? Yet Christians know these things; they learn them here, and every where throughout the Gospel; they have their Lord's own positive description of the day of reckoning; they know the rule by which they shall be judged—namely, by "the word which he hath spoken";" they know, or may know, what that word says ;—and yet they go on, in a thousand cases or ten thousand times ten thousand, as carelessly, or wilfully, or as dishonestly to their own souls, as if no end were thus revealed! It is indeed a strange delusion, but it is a real one.

III. Our further thoughts will be directed to some examination of this almost unaccountable delusion. And my particular reason for inviting your attention specially to this psalm is, that, besides all other lessons, it instructs us-through the verse which has been taken for a text-in one

John xii. 48.

be one of his Psalms. But this is not very material. That it has an eye to Gospel times, and to the introduction of a purer dispensation, of which the rule should be-"I will have mercy " and not sacrifice"-seems very clear; and may be traced more clearly still through a comparison with that familiar chapter of the prophet Micah, (I mean the sixth, which is familiar from being read among the circle of our chosen lessons every year) which surely looks the same way".

But, waving all particular inquiries of this kind, let us consider it, in singleness of impres

* Mr. Townsend, in his Chronological Arrangement of the Old Testament, places it among the "Psalms written during "the captivity." The later the date assigned, the more it will be found to harmonise with the view here taken.

"Within this period (i. e. from the reign of Solomon to "the end of the Babylonian captivity) the prophets bring the "idea of religion nearer to the Gospel in a great and material "point, by explaining the inferior value of the Ceremonial Law, and giving notice of its future abrogation. Where

"with shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before "the most high God?' Not with burnt-offerings and sacrifices,

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answers the prophet Micah. But he hath shewed thee, O

man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, "but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly "with thy God.' And Hosea-'I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burntofferings." Davison Prophecy, pp. 377, 8. first

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on

edition.

sion, as it is practically applicable to a Christian at this day. In this light only, let us view it as affording to ourselves, first, a positive assurance of the fact, that there shall be a day of judgment; and then, as giving us fair warning of the course which that great day of reckoning will take, respectively, with two large classes of professed believers that is to say, both with the insufficiently religious, and with the careless and profane, or those of positively evil lives. I do not mean to say, that there is any regular or artificial method of arrangement in the psalm itself, to this precise effect; but we shall neither harmfully pervert, nor strain its general meaning by adopting this division and therefore I shall venture on it, because it will succeed so well, in natural order, to complete the train of thought pursued in our foregoing views of the two wrong extremes, which lie on either side the way of charity, or true religion. The plan may thus materially help us, while it cannot seriously mislead us; but "I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say "

I. Under this notion, let me first direct your attention to the solemn annunciation of the great day itself, contained in this psalm. Hear it in

c 1 Cor. x. 15.