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nificent objects, to be obliged through the frailty of his nature to go down again into the world, and to employ himself, about what? A suit of cloaths, a menial servant, a nothing! Above all, it is very mortifying to him, after he hath tasted pleasures so pure, to feel himself disposed to sin! But after all, this piety, though very imperfect, is genuine and true. It should humble us, but it should not destroy us, and we should be animated with a spirit too rigid, were we to confound this piety with that, which is as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that goeth away.

The piety we speak of lies between these two dispositions. As I said before, it doth not go so far in religion as the second, but it doth go beyond the first. It is sincere, in that it is superior to hypocrisy but it is unfruitful, and in that respect it is inferior to the piety of the weak and revolting christian. It is sufficient to discover sin, but not to correct it; sufficient to produce sincere resolutions, but not to keep them; it softens the heart, but it doth not renew it; it excites grief, but it doth not eradicate evil dispositions. It is a piety of times, opportunities and circumstances, diversified a thousand ways, the effect of innumerable causes, and to be more particular, it usually owes its origin to public calamities, or to solemn festivals, or to the approach of death: but it expires as soon as the causes are removed.

1. By piety like the early dew that goeth away, we mean that, which is usually excited by public calamities. When a state prospers, when its commerce flourishes, when its armies are victorious, it acquires weight and consequence in the world. Prosperity is usually productive of crimes. Conscience falls asleep during a tumult of passions, as depravity continues security increases, the patience

of God becomes weary, and he punishes either by taking away prosperity, or by threatning to take it away. The terrible messengers of divine justice open their commission. The winds, which he makes his angels, begin to utter their voices: flames of fire, constituted his ministers, display their frightful light. Pestilence, war, famine, executioners of the decrees of heaven prepare to discharge their dreadful office. One messenger called death, and another called hell, receive their bloody commission to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, the fourth part of the earth, Rev. vi. 8. Each individual sees his own doom in the public decree. Capernaum exalted to heaven is going to be thrust down to hell, Luke x. 15. Jonahs walk

about Nineveh, and make the walls echo with this alarming proclamation, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown, chap. iii. 4. Or, to lay aside borrowed names, and to make our portrait like the original, your ministers, free from their natural timidity or indolence, despising those petty tyrants, or shall I rather say those diminutive insects, who amidst a free people would have us the only slaves; who while all kinds of vices have free course would have the word of God bound, and would reduce the exercise of the reformed ministry to a state more mean and pusillanimous than that of court bishops, or the chaplains of kings; I say your ministers have made you hear their voice, they have gone back to your origin and laid before you the cruel edicts, the sanguinary proscriptions, the barbarous executions, the heaps of mangled carcases, which were, if I may so speak, the first foundations of this republic. From what you were then they have proceeded to what you are now; they have represented to you the end proposed by

the Supreme Being in distinguishing you by so many merciful advantages; they have told you, it was to engage you to inform idolatrous nations of the truth, to nourish and favor it in cruel and persecuting countries, to support it at home, and so to cast out profaneness, infidelity, and atheism. They have repeatedly urged you to come to a settlement of accounts on these subjects, and they have delivered in against you such an interrogatory as this; are the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees lifted up? Doth superstition cover the truth in any places of your government? Is the affliction of Joseph neglected? Doth religion insolently lift its head among you, and is it protected by such as are bound to suppress it? They have shewn you the Deity ready to punish an obstinate perseverance in sin, and, if you will forgive the expression, they have preached, illuminated by lightning, and their exhortations have been enforced by thunder. Then every one was struck, all hearts were united, every one ran to the breach, to turn away the wrath of God, lest he should destroy us all, Psal. cvi. 23. The magistrate came down from his tribunal, the merchant quitted his commerce, the mechanic laid aside his work, yea, the very libertine suspended his pleasures: vows, prayers, solemn protestations, tears, relenting, promises, sincere promises, nothing was wanting to your devotions. Then the angels rejoiced, a compassionate God smiled, the corn revived, war was hushed, and was dying away but along with the first tide of prosperity came rolling back the former depravity, the same indifference to truth, the same negligence of religion, the same infidelity, the same profanity. This is the first kind of that piety, which is as the early dew that goeth away. Let us study ourselves in the image of the

Jews described in the context. Come, say they, when the prophet had predicted the Babylonish captivity to Judah, and the carrying away into Assyria to the ten tribes, come, and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us, he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two or three days he will revive us, and we shall live in his sight, ver. 12. After they had rest, they did evil again before thee (these are the words of Nehemiah) therefore thou didst leave them in the hand of their enemies. When they returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardst them from heaven, and many times didst thou deliver them, according to thy mercies. O 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, chap. ix. 28.

2. In a second class of transient devotions we place that, which religious solemnities produce. Providence, always watching for our salvation, hath established in the church not only an ordinary ministry to cultivate our piety, but some extraordinary periods proper to invigorate and bring it to maturity. Thus proportioning itself to our frailty. How considerable soever the truths of religion are, it is certain, they lose their importance by our hearing them always proposed in the same circumstances, and the same points of light. There are some days, which put on I know not what of the extraordinary, and put in motion, so to speak, the first great powers of religion. To this our festivals are directed, and this is one of the principal uses of the Lord's supper. Were this ordinance not appointed with this view, as some affirm, had not God annexed some peculiar benediction to it, yet. it would be a weak pretence to keep from the Lord's table, and the use generally granted would

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always be a sufficient reason to induce those to frequent it, to have their salvation at heart. But, however this may be, it is certain, that such days occasion the sort of devotion we are describing, and usually produce a piety like the morning cloud, and the early dew that goeth away.

We do not intend here to describe a kind of christians too odious to be put even into this vicious class. For, my brethren, we have a very singular sort of people among us, who though they live in the practice of all worldly licentiousness, will frequent the Lord's table, in spite of all the pains we take to shew their unworthiness, and to keep them away. They will pass through a kind of preparation, and for this purpose they retrench a little portion of time from their course of licentiousness, set out however, with so much accurate calculation that it is easy to see they consider devotion more in the light of a disagreeable task than in that of a holy enjoyment. They suspend their habits of sin the whole day before, and all the live long day after the communion. In this interval they receive the Lord's supper, all the while determining to return to their old course of life. What devotion, in which the squl burns with love to worldly pleasure, while it effects to play off the treacherous part of love to religion and God! A devotion that disputes with Jesus Christ a right to three days, gives them up with regret and constraint, and keeps all along murmuring at the genius of a religion, which puts the poor insulted soul on the rack, and forces it to live three whole days without gaming and debauchery! A devotion deep in the plot of Judas to betray the Saviour at his own table! These people need not be characterized. We never administer the Lord's supper without protesting against them; we never say any thing to them, but, Wo, wo be

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