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steps, and would embrace the same promises, if they could be addressed to him. Now we ask, how a minister ought to conduct himself to such a man? What think you of this question? You know our commission, is to preach peace to such as return to God with sincerity and good faith. The marks of sincerity and good faith are good works, and where circumstances render good works impossible, protestations and promises are to be admitted as evidences of sincerity and good faith. These evidences have been deceitful in the man we speak of. His transition from promising to violating was as quick as that from violating to promising. Have we any right to suppose the penitent knows his heart better this third time than he did the first and second? How should we be able to determine his state, how can we address to him any other than doubtful promises, since God, in some sort, adopts such sentiments in the text? O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud that goeth away.

7. Consider finally the imprudence of a man, who divides his life in this manner into periods of devotion and periods of sin. It seems at first to be the height of wisdom to find the unheard of art of uniting the reward of virtue with the pleasure of vice. On the one side, by devoting only a few moments to religion he spares himself the pains, which they experience who make conscience of giving themselves intirely up to it; and by suspending only for a little while the exercise of his passions, he enjoys the pleasure of hoping fully to gratify them. On the other side, he quiets the storms of divine justice that threaten his rebellion, and thus obtains by devotions of a moment a protection, which others devote a whole life to ac

quire. Let us undeceive ourselves. A heart divided in this manner cannot be happy. The chief cause of the difficulties we meet with in the way of salvation is owing to our partial walking, and to the fluctuation of the soul between religion and the world. The world combats religion, religion combats the world. The divided heart is the field of battle where this violent combat is fought. To desire to enjoy the pleasures of both virtue and sin is to enjoy neither, and to partake of the inconveniences, of both. To be at a point, to take a part, and to take the wise part, is the source of true peace and solid felicity.

Beside, this state of suspension, which God assumes in the text is violent,. and cannot last long. Like motives of patience do not occur at all times: witness the kingdom of Judah, mentioned in the text, which was at length given up to the fury of the Chaldeans; witness this Ephraim, I mean the kingdom of the ten tribes, concerning whose destiny the prophet seems in the text to waver; however, at length God determined their dispersion, and the tribes were confounded with those idolatrous and wicked people, whose immorality and idolatry they had too exactly copied. All the help of history, and all the penetration of historians are necessary now to discover any trace of these people; if indeed the penetration of historians and travellers have discovered any thing about them.

But why go back to remote periods of the world to prove a truth, which our own eyes now behold in abundance of bloody demonstrations? If there ever were a year from the foundation of the world, if there have ever been a year proper to prove these terrible truths, it is that which lately came to an end. The dreadful events that distinguished it, and of which we were, if not the victims, at least

the witnesses, are too recent and too well known to need description. This year will be proposed to the most distant posterity as one of the most alarming periods of divine vengeance. Future preachers will quote it as St. Jude formerly did the subversion of Sodom, and the universal deluge. They will tell your posterity, that in the year one thousand seven hundred and nine the patience of God weary with Europe enveloped in one general sentence friend and foe, almost the whole of that beautiful part of the world. They will say, that all the scourges of heaven in concert were let loose to destroy guilty nations. They will lead their auditors over the vast kingdoms of the north, and shew them the Borysthenes stained with blood, contagion flying rapidly, as on the wings of the winds, from city to city, from province to province, from kingdom to kingdom, ravaging in one week so many thousand persons, in the next so many thousand more. They will tell them of the kingdoms, which were claimed by two princes, and by lively images of the cruel barbarities practised there, they will render it doubtful whether it were a desire of conquering or depopulating these kingdoms, that directed the arms of these rivals. They will represent that theatre of blood in Flanders,* and describe in glowing colors troops on both sides animated with equal fury, some to defend posts, which seemed to need no defence but themselves, others to force intrenchments, which nature and

Our author refers to the battle of Malplacquet fought September the 11th, 1709, between the French army con-sisting of one hundred and twenty thousand men commanded by Marshal Villars, and the confederate army consisting of nearly an equal number under the command of the Duke of Marlborough. The confederate army obtained the victory at the price of twenty thousand of their best troops.

art seemed to have rendered impregnable. They will describe both armies animated with a fury unknown before, disputing in carnage and blood with efforts unparallelled both for the greatness of the slaughter, and the glory of the victory. They will represent the most fruitful kingdom of Europe under all the misery of scarcity, in this more cruel than famine, it inflicts a more slow and lingering death. They will speak of the laborers howling for bread in the public roads; and will tell of "a sudden ferocity next to madness possessing multitudes, men seizing public convoys, snatching the bread from one anothers hands, decency, fidelity and religion being dead."

So many victims sacrificed to divine vengeance, my brethren, so many plagues wasting Europe, so many shocks of the earth, above all, as great a share as our crimes had in kindling the anger of God, should seem to shake the foundations of this state, and to convulse and kill the greatest part of this auditory. Yet this state still subsists, thanks to thine infinite mercy my God, the state yet subsists, and, though afflicted, distressed, and weary with a long and cruel war, it subsists as rich and as splendid as any country in the world These hearers, too, yet subsist, thanks to thy mercy my God, our eyes behold them, and by a kind of miracle they have been preserved to the beginning of another year. Preserved, did I say? They have been crowned. And how doth this And how doth this year begin, this year which we never expected to see, after a year distinguished by the three great evils, pestilence, famine, and war, how doth it begin with us? It begins with the smiles of heaven, with a participation of what is most august in religion, with the descent of the Holy Spirit into our hearts, with the renewing of our covenant with God, and,

if I may be allowed to say so, it begins with an acknowledgment on God's part, that his love will not allow of our destruction, how much soever we deserve to be destroyed. O Ephraim, how shall I give thee up? O Israel, how shall I deliver thee up? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim ? Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. Ah! Why must a joy so pure be mixed with a just fear, that you will abuse his goodness? Why, across such a multitude of benefits, must we be constrained to look at vengeance behind? O republic! nourished by heaven, upon which the eyes of the Lord thy God are always fixed from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year, Deut. xi. 12. why must we be driven to-day to utter unpleasant omens along with the most affectionate benedictions? And you believers, who hear us, why, now that we wish you a happy new year, must we be obliged to foretel an unhappy one?

For what security have we, that this year will be more holy than the last? Have we any certainty that this communion will be more effectual than others? What security have we, that the resolutions of this day will have more influence over our lives than all before? Can we be sure, that the devotion of this day will not be as a morning cloud, and as the early dew that goeth away? And consequently, what security have we, that this will not be the last year of this republic, the last communion, the last invitation of mercy, that will ever be given to all this assembly?

Ah, my brethren, my dear brethren, behold the God, who heweth us by his prophets, behold him, who hath slain men by the words of his mouth, behold him, who in the presence of his angels wait

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