sonal conviction, of their own hearts, and of the evil of sin, and of the power and riches of divine grace, that they decline, and religion dies away in them. Yes, neither our safety nor even our present happiness, is endangered by the admission of a deep, and penetrating, and, for the time, painful conviction of the depravity of our hearts and the sinfulness of our lives, and of the evil and desert of sin: but our danger lies, (and oh, it is imminent,) on the contrary side, in the want of a heart-affecting sense of these things. Yes hence it is that so many of you practically neglect the Saviour in whom you profess to believe, and that all so undervalue him. He is a physician, but you are not sick, or you wound slightly. Hence it is, that little sense of the value of the gospel, and live so little under the influence of its principles. Hence it is, that so many will stay indolently at home, almost within the sound of it, and not give it a hearing hence that so many can come to hear it, merely as the customary employment of one or two half hours in the week; that many can come with idle curiosity, and scarcely even that; many as critics and judges of the preacher, instead of sinners, asking, "What must I do to be saved?" and some almost sneer at the idea of people getting material 'good' by what they hear. O may the

"heal your

we have so

Spirit of God perform his promised office, by convincing you of sin, and what different hearers and readers of the gospel will you become! "The full soul despiseth the honeycomb : but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet." The soul indeed convinced of sin, will understand as no other can do, the meaning of the prophet's words; "how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation ;" and thus directed to the Saviour and receiving from him, " beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness," it will go " and shew forth his praise." It will live to his glory, demonstrating the efficacy of its faith, and adorning the doctrines of its Saviour by all the fruits of righteousness," and ready to proclaim to others the Saviour, whom it hath found so precious

To point to his atoning blood,

And say, Behold the way to God.'

SERMON XI.

ISAIAH LIX. 19.

WHEN THE ENEMY SHALL COME IN LIKE A Flood, the

SPIRIT OF THE LORD SHALL LIFT UP A STANDARD AGAINST HIM.

THE chapter before us speaks largely of the iniquities of Israel, and of the calamities consequent upon them. "None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity and speak lies; they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.... Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.... Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.' But, in the midst of these sad circumstances, it is declared, God will behold, look down from heaven, and visit his church; will

revive his own cause, and establish righteousness

"The Lord saw it,

triumphant in the earth. and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor "-or none to interpose effectually against prevailing evil, and on behalf of oppressed truth and righteousness: "therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness it sustained him.” He is then described as arming himself as a warrior for the conflict. "For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies to the islands he will repay recompence." And then what is the glorious result?" So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord."

What particular interposition of God in behalf of his church and people is specially predicted, I shall not at all minutely inquire. He interposed for them when he restored the Jews from Babylon,

and re-established his long-suspended ordinances among them. He interposed for them in a glorious manner when he sent his Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, into the world; to redeem us to God with his blood, and to revive and extend his church. And to these occasions the passage may in a measure apply. But from the circumstance of its apparently introducing a description of that happy state which the church, and even the world at large, it would seem, is eventually to enjoy ; as well as from the application of it to the future conversion of the Jews, some of the most judicious commentators understand it as referring to times not remote from our own-as describing the fallen state of many professed Christian churches in these latter ages; and the glorious interposition of the divine power and grace which shall restore them, and introduce a happier state of things both to Jews and Gentiles, than the world has ever yet witnessed.

From the words of the text we will consider,

I. What is to be understood by THE ENEMY COMING IN LIKE A FLOOD:" And

I. When "THE ENEMY" is spoken of as "COMING IN LIKE A FLOOD," it seems obvious that a bad state