holy haste, and determined aversion, to flee from it? Cry mightily to God, saying, Deliver us from evil? So vile a thing is sin. Let us show,

II. That sentence is declared against it. And a sentence which, permit me to say, is divinely announced, awfully severe, strictly just, and certain of its accomplishment. The sentence against an evil work is,

1. Divinely announced. Who can, who should sit in judgment upon it, but the God against whom it is committed? He now decides on human actions, and he will hereafter publicly investigate them at his dread tribunal, before an assembled world. He has sworn in his wrath that iniquity shall not stand in his sight; he has declared that he will, by no means, clear the guilty that sin shall not go unpunished, is one of the fixed principles of the moral government of God, a rule of which he has never yet lost sight, nor will till the great burning day. On the account of this evil work he has kindled a fire in his anger, which shall burn to the lowest hell: all the curses contained in this book against sin, are affixed to the commission of it, by God, the Judge of all; so that we speak of no trifling thing when we describe the sentence against an evil work. It must strike you, too, if you think at all, that the sentence adverted to in my text is,

2. Awfully severe. God has shown us that we commit a great evil in forsaking him, the Fountain of living waters; he has intolerable pains for the workers of iniquity: the sentence is severe, for it condemns the miserable offender to the torments of conscience, to restless uneasiness, to insatiable desires, even in the present life; and we know that death is the wages of sin; that a painful sepa

ration of soul and body, that a dreary lodging in the house appointed for all living, is the reward of human guilt. Mortality is our portion, death is our inheritance; there is no discharge in that war, no delivery from that trial, no method of escape from the stroke of the last enemy; we are sentenced to death for the commission of an evil; and behold, brethren, the solemnity, judgment and eternity succeed the king of terrors! The sentence pronounced upon us for sin is severe, and it condemns us to shame, and everlasting contempt. It assigns us our lot in "Tophet, which was ordained of old: it is made deep and large; the pile thereof is fire, and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." This is the sentence declared against the evil work, and it is,

3. Strictly just. Would it be at all consistent with the attributes and perfections of the Deity, if he were to be regardless of the contempt that is cast upon his authority: the disaffection men express to his government; or the temerity with which they violate his commands? Would he, then, be a God jealous of his honor? But we know, that to him it belongeth justly to punish sin. Shall sin, which intruded itself into our world, which otherwise would have been a blissful paradise of pleasure-shall sin, which has usurped his dominion, be unnoticed or unpunished by him? To vindicate his own character, to display the glory of his own perfections, especially to manifest to all his unspotted holiness and purity, to show that he will not wink at sin, he has pronounced sentence on all who practice it. You have just viewed the evil of sin, yea, seen that it has occasioned incalculable and irreparable mischief: I

leave it with yourselves to judge, whether the sentence pronounced against it be not just. Yes, brethren, in the confidence of this fact, the justice of God in sentencing sin, "every mouth shall be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God."

This is a sentence, too, that is,

4. Certain of its accomplishment. For hath the Lord spoken, and shall it not be done? Hath he commanded, and shall it not stand fast? Be it known to you, brethren, that though the sons of Belial take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ, and spend their days in wealth, yet in a moment they shall go down to the grave, and the candle of the wicked shall be put out. The sentence that God passes against the workers of iniquity, must be, in all its rigor and severity, put in force, that the terror of the Almighty's frown may be manifested, and the malignity of sin displayed. The fulfilment of the severe determination respecting the doom of sinners, rests on the justice of God; nor is there one threat that goes out of his mouth which he will not awfully put in force, and that to all eternity, upon the devoted head of the impenitent miserable offender. This is the sentence then which is declared against this evil work. But now I am to remark,

III. That the execution of this sentence is frequently deferred.

exe

It" is not," in the language of my text, cuted speedily." This cannot be from any want of power in the Almighty to put it in immediate force, because it requires no peculiar exertion from him, to dash a world to atoms, or send a soul to hell. He could take you away with a stroke; could call you, sinner, from the midst of this con

gregation into eternity; yet he delays, and "sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily." He might, indeed, summon more than he does to appear before his bar, from the scene of pleasure, and from the couch of sensual indulgence; but often, whilst they are doing these things, God keeps silence. Yet shall he, hereafter, come as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, to tear his enemies in pieces. But this circumstance of God refusing to execute the sentence speedily, arises,

There is not

1. From the forbearance of God. a greater truth stated within this holy book, than that the Lord is long-suffering; that he bears with our manners in this wilderness; hence he does not now deal with mankind as he did of old, when he said, he would destroy man, whom he had created, from the face of the earth; but now he in his long-suffering waits: he is, as his word acknowledges him to be, "slow to anger, gracious, and full of compassion;" hence it is that the sons of Jacob are not consumed; since there is this disposition in the Almighty, his sentence is not executed speedily; "his mercies fail not." Here, then, we have human preservation, in the midst of dangers and snares, traced to its proper source, and we see why it is that his wrath delays. Again, is sentence against an evil work, in many instances, yet unexecuted?

2. This represents our life as a state of trial. It shows us that the Lord is leading us in the wilderness, to humble, and to prove us, to know what is in our heart, whether we would serve the Lord our God or not: it proves to us that this is a probationary state it sets this matter beyond the possibility of a doubt, that whilst we are sojourners

and pilgrims here, as all our fathers were, the eye of God is upon us, that he inspects our conduct and spies out all our ways; he gives us space and opportunity for repentance. O that we may, whilst sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, properly fill up our days, and, by fleeing to Jesus, avert the threatened danger. For, if the sentence is yet unfulfilled, I remark,

3. This lays a foundation for hope.

The messenger, Death, has not yet visited you; you may perhaps have yet no peculiar cause to imagine that you are going the way whence you shall not return; then, whilst the lamp of life burns, the trumpet of the gospel sounds; whilst the sentence is unexecuted, the blood of Christ has all-powerful efficacy. This thought, sinner, that as yet you are out of hell, should constrain you to look all around for help; should operate on your mind to lead you to the door of mercy, where, even now, if you knock, it shall be opened unto you. But, O, I am obliged, from the sentiment and spirit of my text, to observe,

IV. That this circumstance, through the depravity of man, often produces the worst effects. On account of it, my text assures us that "the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Here is mercy abused, long-suffering despised, compassion slighted. What ought to be the effect of the patience of God with sinners? It should lead them to repentance. If he comes so often, and so long, seeking fruit, ought he not to find it? But God says, "Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity therefore his taste remaineth in him, and his scent is not chang