But we declare, my brethren, a cloud comes over the bright scene of this solemnity. I fear, shall I say the forty? Alas, I fear the four succeeding days! These doors will be shut, this table will be removed, the voice of the servants of God will cease to sound in your ears, and I fear the Lord will say of you, they have quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them.

Let us not content ourselves with foreseeing this evil, let us endeavour to prevent it. This is the design of the present discourse in which we will treat of transient devotions. To you, in the name of God, we address the words, the tender words, which will occasion more reflections than they may seem at first to do, but which no reflections can exhaust, 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.

O Almighty God! We humbly beseech thee, enable us in the offerings we make to thee to resemble thee in the favours, which thou bestowest upon us! Thy gifts to us are without repentance, thy covenant with us contains this clause, the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed. I have sworn that I will not be wroth with thee! O that our offerings to thee may be without repentance, O that we may be able to reply, the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my fidelity shall never depart from thee, neither shall the dedication, which I have made of myself to theee, ever be removed! I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments. Amen.

O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? Ephraim, Judah, are terms of the text, that have very little need of explication. You know, that the people of God were united in one state till the time of Jereboam, when he rent a part from Rehoboam the son of Solomon, thus two kingdoms were constituted, that of Judah and that of Israel. Jerusalem was the capital city of Judah, and of Israel Samaria was the metropolis, and it is sometimes called Ephraim in scripture. By Judah and Ephraim the prophet then means both these kingdoms. This wants no proof, and if there be any thing worth remarking on this occasion, it is that most interpreters, who are often the echoes of one another, describe the ministry of Hosea as directed only to the kingdom of Israel, whereas it is VOL. V.

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clear by the text, and by several other passages, that it was addressed both to Israel and Judah.

But of all unlucky conjectures, I question whether there be one more so than that of some divines, who think our text prophetical. In their opinion the goodness mentioned in the text is the mercy of God displayed in the gospel. The dew signifies Jesus Christ. The morning, thy goodness is like the morning dew intends the covenant of grace. As every one proposes his opinion under some appearance of evidence, it is said in favour of this, that the expression, thy goodness, does not signify the goodness of the people, but that which is manifested to the people, and in proof of this the idiom of the Hebrew tongue is alleged, with divers passages that justify this tour of expression, as this, my people are bent to their backsliding, that is to backsliding from me. The dew, say they, signifies the Messiah, for he is promised under that emblem in many passages of scripture. They add further, the morning signifies the new dispensation of the gospel, which is often announced under this idea by the prophets, and all this text, thy goodness is as the early dew which goeth away, opens a wonderful contrast between the law and the gospel. The law was like a storm of hail destroying the fruits of the earth, but the gospel is a dew that makes every thing fruitful; the law was a dark night, but the gospel is a fine day; thy goodness is like the morning dew which goeth away, that is to say, which cometh. Here are many good truths out of place. ·Thy goodness may signify, for any thing we know, goodness exercised towards thee; the Messiah is represented as a dew the gospel œconomy is promised under the emblem of the morning, all this is true, but all this is not the sense of the text. The word goodness, which is the first mistake of the exposition just now given, may be understood of piety in general. It hath that meaning in many passages of scripture. The substantive derived from it is usually put for pious persons, and according to a celebrated critic, it is from the word hasidim, the pious, that the word essenes is derived, a name given to the whole sect among the Jews, because they possessed a more eminent piety than others. A goodness like the morning dew is a seeming piety which goeth away, that is of short duration, and all these words, 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, are a reproof from God to his people for the unsteadiness of their devotions. In this

light we will consider the text, and shew you first the nature -and secondly the unprofitableness of transient devotions.

I. Let us first enquire the nature of the piety in question What is this goodness or piety, that is as a morning cloud, and goeth away as the early dew? We do not understand. by this piety either those deceitful appearances of hypocrites, who conceal their profane and irreligious hearts under the cover of ardour and religion, or the disposition of those. christians, who fall through their own frailty from high de-. grees of pious zeal, and experience motions of sin after they have felt exercises of grace. The devotion we mean to describe goes further than the first: but it does not go so far

as the last.

The transient devotion, of which we speak, is not hypocrisy. Hypocrisy cannot suspend the strokes of divine justice one single moment, and it is more likely to inflame than to extinguish the righteous indignation of God. It is not to hypocrites that God addressed this tender language, O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah what shall I do unto thee? Their sentence is declared, their punishment is ready. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Wo unto you, scribes and pharisees, hy-, pocrites. The portion of hypocrites shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matt. xv. 7. xxiii. 13. and xxiv. 51.

Nor is the piety we mean to describe that of the weak and revolting believer How imperfect soever this piety may be,. yet it is real. It is certainly a very mortifying consideration to a believer that he should be at any time hemmed in, confined, and clogged in his devotional exercises. In some golden days of his life, forgetting the world, and wholly, employed about heavenly things, how happy was he, how delicious his enjoyment, when he surmounted sense and sin, ascended to God like Moses formerly on the holy mount, and there conversed with his heavenly Father concerning religion, salvation, and eternity! O how richly did he then, think himself indemnified for the loss of time in worldly pursuits by pouring his complaints into the bosom of God, by opening all his heart, by saying to him with inspired men, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee! It is good for me to draw near to God! My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joy

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ful lips! I say, it is a very mortifying thing to him, after such elevations in the enjoyment of such magnificent 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 ani mated 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 threatening 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 heli, 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

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 favour 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 lighting, 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,