Lord had mercy in reserve when their afflictions had answered the purpose for which they were appointed, in humbling and reforming

them.

Before God visits his people with consolation he prepares them for it by inspiring a penitential spirit, well knowing that to indulge them with his smiles while they continue obstinate and unreclaimed would neither comport with his character nor contribute to their good. His benignity and condescension are sufficiently evinced in his "waiting to be gracious" in the promptitude with which he pardons the humble penitent. He shows himself attentive to the first movement of the contrite heart, agreeable to his declaration in the passage before us, "I have surely heard Ephraim." In these words we have the picture of the inmost feelings of an humble and penitent heart. We behold it in the deepest retirement, without the least disguise, pouring itself out before God.

In these remarkable words we have an acknowledgment and a prayer.

I. These words contain an acknowledgment-" Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke."

1. This expression we conceive to denote the inefficacy of former corrections. In the Septuagint it is rendered, "As a bullock, I was not taught thou didst chastise me, and I was chastised." This was all; and no other effect ensued than the uneasy pain which chastisement necessarily imparts. Ephraim is represented as conscious that former corrections had answered little purpose. He laments the little improvement he had made, and prays for such an interposition of Divine power and grace as may work an efficient conversion: "Turn thou and I shall be turned." The rebukes of Providence are often represented in the Scriptures in this light.-" And ye have forgotter. the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."

me,

66

Since afflictive dispensations "spring not from the dust," but are ordained of God, who takes no pleasure in the sufferings of his creatures, nor willingly afflicts the children of men ;"t—since a state of innocence would have included an exemption from every sorrow on the one hand, and the sufferings of life are not for the most part destructive -there is no light in which it is so natural to consider them as chastisements; which are effects of displeasure, but not of a displeasure intended for the destruction of its object, but the amendment.

2. Though corrections are calculated to produce amendment, though such is their tendency and design, it is evident, from observation and experience, they often fail in accomplishing the effect. It is not uncommon to see men hardened under rebukes, and to grow more bold and presumptuous in the commission of sin, after having experienced severer trials than before. This melancholy fact is of no recent observation; it is frequently described and lamented in the word of God.

"Thou hast stricken them," says Jeremiah, "but they have n grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return."

Of the inefficacy of mere external correction we hav stri : *g proof in the conduct of the generations who were conducted from Egypt under the hand of Moses. Never were a people more frequently or more severely corrected, and never did a people [show] themselves more incorrigible. While the remembrance of their sufferings was fresh they seemed disposed in earnest to seek God; but no sooner did the sense of their calamities wear off, than they relapsed into all their former disobedience and rebellion. "When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and inquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their rock, and the most high God their redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongue." This is but a picture of what we may observe every day. We see men under afflictive dispensations evince a degree of emotion: they appear in some measure humbled and convinced; and with much apparent sincerity confess their persuasion of the vanity of the world, and of the utter impossibility of finding happiness out of the ways of religion. If they are brought to the brink of the grave, and eternity presents itself to their immediate prospect, we find them making the most solemn resolutions, condemning their former course of life, and resolving, if spared, to enter on a new course. The frivolous objects which before engaged their attention seem to have lost their charm, and a flattering prospect is exhibited of their turning into the path of wisdom. From their subsequent conduct, however, it is manifest their passions were only laid asleep, while their principles continued unchanged. The influence of the world was suspended, not destroyed. The novelty of their situation put new thoughts into their minds, and awakened fears to which before they had been strangers. But as the whole impression was to be ascribed to circumstances, when these circumstances were changed the mind returned to its former state. Their "goodness was as the morning cloud, and as the early dew which passeth away." The serious impressions they felt during the season of affliction were never followed up. They terminated in no regular attachment to the serious exercises of piety; or if they were led to pray at all, they were not sufficiently deep and abiding to produce a perseverance in that duty. The recovery of health or the return of prosperity gradually, but speedily, effaced every trace of serious feeling, and left them perhaps in a state of deeper alienation from God than ever.

3. Ephraim is here represented as reflecting upon it. (Proximate causes of the inefficacy of correction by itself.)

4 Inattention to the hand of God, and as a natural consequence their neglecting to pass from the contemplation of their sufferings to their sins. Religion begins with consideration. Till they are brought to thorough reflection, no real improvement can be expected. It was a

frequent omplaint with the Messiah, "My people will not consider." "The Lord crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it."* If we consider affliction as springing from the dust, and content ourselves as looking on at ondary causes, or human instruments, no wonder *

*

Men are apt to spare themselves; to give way to a dangerous pusil lanimity, by shrinking from reflections which, however useful in their tendency, they find to be painful. They are apt to consider their sufferings as expiatory.

5. In the serious purpose of a religious life, formed under afflictive dispensations, too many depend entirely upon resolutions formed in their own strength. To such purposes may be applied the beautiful image of Nahum: "As the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known."†

II. The prayer," Turn thou me,” [may be] enforced by such argu ments as these:

1. The plea of necessity. There is no other resource. It is evident something is wanting, some Divine [agency], which shall produce the effect which external events have failed to [produce].

2. To entreat God to turn is not to ask an impossibility. The residue of the Spirit is with him.

3. It is worthy of his interposition. The turning the heart is a fit occasion on which Omnipotence may act.

4. The plea may be enforced by precedents. It implies no depart ure from his known methods.

5. We may enforce it by a reference to the divine [mercy].

XXIX.

ON THE COMFORTS OF CHRISTIANS UNDER EITHER WORLDLY OR SPIRITUAL TRIALS.

PSALM XCIV. 19.--In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.‡

LET us take a brief survey of the internal thoughts of a distressing nature which are apt to arise in the mind of a good man; and next observe the tendency of the comforts of the gospel to assuage or remove the uneasiness which they have occasioned.

I. Let us take a survey of some of the distressing thoughts which are apt to oppress the mind of a good man. They may be considered

• Micah vi. 9.

† Nahum iii. 17.

Preached at Leicester, December, 1815.

VOL. II.-K

as relating to these objects: the state of the world, the state of the church, and his own state as an individual.

1. The state of the world. When a good man surveys the general prevalence of irreligion and impiety, when he considers how few there are comparatively who seek after God, or are moved by any impression of a serious nature, he cannot but be affected. "I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved. Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law."* When, again, he considers whither such a course must tend, and in what it will issue, the prospect is still more alarming. It is no want of charity to suspec that the greater part of mankind fall short of the condition of salvation, it is the very consequence of submission to the authority of revelation. "Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat."

2. The state of the church. The palpable inconsistency between the lives of numerous professors of religion and the real import of that profession. The many instances of gross immorality which are found in the Christian church, [supply] the subject of much distressing reflection to the sincere follower of Christ. It was to St. Paul: "For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ." The injury sus tained by the Divine honour, the discredit reflected on the gospel from this quarter, surpasses calculation.

The obstructions permitted to present themselves to the propagation of divine truth are of a sinister tendency, and give birth to many a painful reflection in the minds of such as have the interest of Zion at heart. In how many instances is the introduction of saving light prevented by the exercise of intolerance, while the most detestable corruption and idolatry are sanctioned and upheld by the same means? In how many instances have the fairest prospects of good been suddenly blasted by superior power, the faint embers of the true religion almost extinguished, and its possessors exposed to all the severities of per

secution?

Such is the state of the Protestants in France at this moment.‡ From an authentic statement lately sent me, it appears that they are treated with the utmost cruelty, compelled to quit their habitations, hunted and driven like wild beasts; infants are torn from their mothers in order to be initiated into the mysteries of antichrist; and in some instances, whole families are massacred. Who can fail to be affected? So contrary to recent expectation, so offensively repugnant to the design of Providence and the dictates of prophecy, who can fail to exclaim with the pious Joshua-"What wilt thou do unto thy great name?" "Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread ?"

3. Uneasy thoughts arising from his state as an individual. "Every heart knows his own bitterness, and a stranger intermeddleth not therewith."

Here we may briefly [advert to] trials of a worldly and trials of a spiritual nature.

(1.) Under the first of these, religion neither demands nor boasts a perfect insensibility. The inspired psalmist displayed a great vicissitude of feeling, arising from this quarter; he mourned under the calumny and oppression of his enemies, and gave utterance to cries and tears under his affliction. He felt with agonized poignancy the insults he met with on account of his pious confidence in God: "As with a sword in my bones, while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?" The personal and domestic sufferings of Job are familiar to your recollection, and are penned [that they may] be monuments, to all ages, of the severity with which God sanctifies and tries his people, and of the happy and infallible issue.

(2.) Uneasy thoughts arise on a spiritual account. With a good man, his spiritual [welfare] is always an object of his first solicitude; so that when he contemplates the holiness and purity of God, he cannot but have, at times, many a serious inquiry how he shall appear ɔefore him. When he surveys his own pollution and guilt, the thought of appearing before God is one upon which he can scarcely dwell without secret trembling: "What if I shall be weighed in the balance and found wanting?" When we consider our low attainments in religion compared with our opportunities, our latent corruption, and our frequent miscarriages and failures, we are often tempted to call in question the reality of our religion, and to fear that, after all, we are only "almost Christians." If I am truly regenerate, and a child of God, why am I thus? Why such a mixture of earthly and sensual affections? Whence such coldness and deadness in religious exercises? Why so little delight in the Scriptures,—so little complacency? "My soul cleaveth unto the dust."†

(3.) Under desertion, under the hidings of God's countenance, how many painful thoughts arise! how ready to indulge despondency, and to fear he will never be merciful any more!

(4.) In the prospect before him; in the contemplation of the dangers and temptations which still await him; while he feels in himself nothing but frailty and weakness, how apt is he to apprehend some fatal overthrow! It seems almost too much for him to expect to be more than conqueror; that he shall be able to make his way through such a host of enemies, and pass into the celestial city. He seems to feel himself totally devoid of that spiritual strength and vigour which are requisite for such combats, which are necessary to enable him to vanquish such difficulties. He is ready to cry, "I shall never see that goodly mountain and Lebanon; I shall never see the king in his beauty, nor behold that land which is so far off."

II. Let us briefly notice the consolations of God opposed to these uneasy thoughts.

1. We first adverted to such as arise from the disordered state of the world.

* Psalm xlii 10.

† Psalm cxix. 25.