ments will not awaken us, heavier and longer muft. For fo the prophet foretells: Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not fee; but they shall fee*. And how much greater evils God may yet cause us to fee, lies hid in the treasures of his own foreknowledge. We are at present in a condition, that may, in various respects, very naturally and very foon become extremely dreadful. And what else we can do to better our prospect, is neither eafy for any person to discover, nor indeed the concern of every person to inquire; but there is one thing, which alone of itself will do incredible good; and every thing befides, very little without it; which we all have in our power, and all feel to be our duty. Come, and ler us return unto the Lord our God; for he hath torn, and he will beal us: He bath fmitten, and he will bind us up+. Both particulars and nations, which fall into a bad way, are ftrangely unwilling, for the most part, to understand the truth of their own cafe. Such was the difpofition of God's ancient people, admirably described by the prophet Hofea : His ftrength is devoured, and be knoweth it not: yea, grey bairs are upon him, and he knoweth it not. And the pride of Ifrae! teftifieth to his face : and they do not return to the Lord, nor feek bim, for all this t. Nay, when the difeafe is much too notorious to be denied, perfons will be ascribing it to other caufes, and inventing other cures, than the right one; putting confidence in schemes unconnected with reformation, and perhaps mending bad with worse. But to these the Almighty himself hath exprefsly denounced: Woe to the rebel lious children, faith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit; that they may add fin to fin: that will not bear the law of the Lord; which fay, caufe the Holy One of Ifrael to cease from before us. Wherefore, thus faith the Holy One of Ifrael, Because ye defpife this word, therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, fwelling out in a high wall, whofe breaking cometh fuddenly at an inftant §. Healing fores in a pal liative unfound manner, only occafions their bursting out again with • If. xxvi. II. + Hof. vi. I. with more threatening fymptoms. If therefore we would truly mend our cafe, we muft go to the bottom of it. We have been wicked, and we must repent. We have defpifed God, and we must bumble ourselves under his mighty hand. But then what shall we reckon is doing fo? Is it merely appointing or obferving a form of humiliation for form's fake? Instead of appeafing God, we shall not fo much as deceive men by this; but only veil irreligion with transparent hypocrify. Is it then being affected and warmed a little, at the time, by what we say or hear in this place, and becoming, almost immediately after, juft the fame perfons that we were before! On the contrary, thefe tranfient fits of piety are mentioned in scripture, as a very discouraging fign: 0 Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away*. While perfons reflect not at all, one knows not how it may operate, if ever they come to reflect. But when, through the grace of God, they have actually been made fenfible of their guilt and their danger, and yet relapse into it; when their convictions have been renew. ed, their good purposes repeated, and yet all fuffered, time after time, to fall back into nothing, what can be expected, but that heaven will at last abandon thofe, who, in so shameful a manner, abandon themselves? Our prefent business therefore is, each of us to imprint on our minds now fuch deep fentiments, as may influence us ever after, that devoutly conforming our lives and our fouls to the will of God, is the very end of our being: to recollect and confefs before him, how grievously and how long both we in particular, and this nation in general, have neglected the obedience we owe him: to acknowledge, that we are altogether in his hands, as pri vate perfons and as a people: to confider whatever hath befallen us, as lefs than our iniquities have merited: to prepare ourselves, with meek refignation, for whatever more he may please to inflict on us: yet earnestly petition him, that whatever becomes of our temporal concerns, our fpirits may be faved in the day of the Lord Jefust; and that if it be confift ent with his holiness and wisdom, he would fpare us even in this world, not for our righteousness, but his own great mercies, in Chrift our Redeemer, for the honour of his name, and the prefervation of his true religion established amongst us; to form folemn refolutions against every fin, against every occafion of fin, for the future: begging at the fame time that grace of our Sanctifier, which alone can make them effectual; and do all these things not only in profeffion, as matter of outward decency, but from the bottom of our fouls; not only with a fudden fervor, excited here in the congregation, but deliberately at home, before our Father which feeth in fe cret t: How eafy, or how hard, it may be for any of us to bring our hearts really into fuch a frame as this, he only knows, who knows all things. Perhaps it is a fort of language, and a way of thinking, to which some of us have never been used, and which others have long difufed. If it be, we have fo much the more need to take it up without delay. For our Maker and our Judge is entitled to the most lowly fubmiffions from his guilty creatures; and there is neither any meannefs in making, nor any greatnefs in refufing, them. In all cafes, the just and the right is the worthy and the honourable behaviour. But in this, above all, it is the neceffary one too. Obftinacy cannot support us; diffimulation will not conceal us; it is God we are concerned with, and our only resource is to throw ourselves on his mercy. The very best of us have caufe to lament our failings, to reiterate our vows, to implore his forgiveness and assistance, yet more ardently than we have done. In proportion to our tranfgreffions and deficiencies, our felf-abafement, our penitence, our fupplications, our ef forts of amendment, ought to increafe. And that our performance of these obligations will be followed, bad as our ftate is, with the happieft confequences, reafon affords comfortable hope, the whole tenor of fcripture expressly declares, and the text with peculiar ftrength implies, bumble yourfelves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. VOL. III. • Dan. ix. 18. Q ૧ ↑ Matth. vi. 6. But But I must not now enter on the illustration and proof of this important connection. May our present humiliation give an experimental proof of it, by effectually inclining us to be reconciled to God*, and inducing him to direct our public counfels into the way of national profperity, and our private conduct into that of eternal bleffedness. * 2 Cor. v. 20. SER THE DUTY OF HUMILITY AT ALL TIMES, MORE ESPECIALLY ON OCCASIONS OF NATIONAL DISTRESS. I PET. v. 6. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that be may exalt you in due time. Tour last meeting on the fame moft neceffary occafion AT which calls us together now, I endeavoured to lay before you, from these words, both the general duty of man's walking bumbly with his God*, and the particular reasons, which we of this nation have, for exercifing a very deep humility towards him, as we have been particularly guilty, befides various other fins, of that unfpeakable fhocking one, pride against him. Too many amongst us have dared to treat the faith, if not of his being, yet of the only thing which makes it valuable, a juft and good providence, with utter contempt; abfurd as it is, that the wife and powerful Maker of the world should not be the Ruler of it, and that the Ruler of the world fhould not reward every one according to his works t. Much greater numbers, if they do not deny his moral government, yet almost entirely difregard it; attend on his public worship but feldom, and then vifibly as matter of mere external decency; never condefcend to pay him any homage in private; nor through their whole behaviour confider him, in the leaft, as what they profefs to acknowledge he is, the Lawgiver, the Inspector and Judge of their lives Qq 2 and |