Indulge the pleasing dream, that "to-morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant." But conscience secretly starts back with horror at the thought; this monitor within tells thee, and trembles under the conviction, that thou hast a soul to be saved or damned; that there is a judgment to come; that there is a dread, unknown eternity into which thou must speedily plunge. Is it not then folly, and madness, in the extreme, to halt another day without making preparation? The man who hates his own flesh; who obstinately pines away in hunger when bread is before him; who shivers. in the storm of winter, spurning the offers of either a shelter to cover or clothes to warm; who wantonly mangles and tortures his own body, is ten thousand times less cruel to himself than he who "neglects so great salvation." If" he that despised Moses' law di ed without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" -Brethren, compassion to your souls constrains me to use "this plainness of speech;" to propose any consideration that might probably operate either on your fears or hopes. Another period of your time is now closing; the great husbandman has borne with you another year under the care of the

vine-dresser: Will you venture any longer in your present unconcern? I had almost said that if men are determined to remain in their sloth from season to season, the sooner they are cut off the better; they only live to the dishonor of God, and to treasure up for themselves a more intolerable weight of wrath hereafter; in hell they will indeed continue to sin against God, but their sin will not present that coloring of malignity. There, there will be no bible to neglect; no ordinances to slight; no tenders of salvation to reject; no Spirit to grieve; no "blood of the covenant to profane: the enmity of the damned shall eternally rise in opposition to the perfections of God, to the displays of his justice, and holiness, and sovereignty, and power; but they will not have opportunity of trampling on love so tender, on forbearance so immense, on condescension and grace so rich and astonishing. Let every sinner in " this Zion be afraid," lest divine patience, worn out with his delay, yields to the demand of justice, "cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?” And, be it remembered by all, that as the tree falleth so it must lie, and that for ever.

LECTURE II.

HOSEA XIV, 4, 5, 6.

I will heal their backslidings, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. will be as the den unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

THIS prophecy was delivered in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah," a period truly alarming to the nation of Israel.-The cup of their iniquity was nearly filled up, and that cloud which had long been collecting and blackening over their heads was ready to burst forth in their destruction. The prophet therefore addresses them in the following melancholy, heart-melting strains, "rejoice not, O Israel, for joy as other people, for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God: The days of visitation are come; the days of recompence are come My God shall cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him ; and they shall be wanderers among the nations." But the Lord God is long suffering and plenteous in mercy; hisjudgments move slowly along that this infatuated people may enjoy another opportunity for repenting and escaping. Amidst the general gloom, there

fore, a ray of hope beams forth in the chapter which we have read to cheer and encourage them. "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God." Jehovah, in the riches of his condescension, still acknowledges himself to be "their God." To each believing Israelite he stood in a covenant relation which could never be broken; which no chance of time or circumstances could possibly dissolve; and to the Jews in general he stood in an external, covenant relation: He had not altogether rejected them as a people, but was yet known as "the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. O Israel, return." This apostate nation is invited back to God as their portion and glory. "Although ye have wantonly and shamefully departed from me; although ye have changed your God for them" that are no gods," by mingling in the idolatry of the heathen; although ye have trampled on my mercies and hardened yourselves against my judgments, yet I have no pleasure in your destruction, but would rather that you return and live; only acknowledge your iniquity, improve the sacrifice of my Son as the ground of your remission, and be restored to my favor." Mercy may be pronounced the darling perfection of Jehovah; this attribute he eminently displays in bearing with individuals and nations amidst their provocations, and using innumerable means for reclaiming them. Even after the decree for their destruction has seemingly gone forth, its ex

ecution is suspended a little longer, and another experiment is made to see if they will hear and obey. "Go and proclaim these words towards the north and say, return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you." The prophet enforces his exhortation to return, by an argument drawn from those miseries to which their transgressions had exposed them, "thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. The ruin here spoken of may allude to those scourges which they had occasionally experienced from the Egyptians, the Amalekites and other neighboring nations; or it may refer to that invasion of the Assyrian army which they were shortly to expect. They are represented as fallen because, without speedy repentance and reformation, their ruin was as certain as if it had already taken place. Moral causes, in the righteous procedure of God, produce their proper effects, no less than natural causes, and a flood of impiety will be succeeded by a flood of wrath. Although the Lord God "is slow to anger," yet the judgment of a rebellious people will "not always linger, nor their" visitation " "always slumber." Thou hast fallen "by thine iniquity."-Sin is the procuring cause of all misery, whether private or public; whether temporal or eternal. It destroyed "the old world with a deluge ;" it brought "fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other