in our Power, and all feel to be our Duty. Come, and let us return unto the Lord our God: for He hath torn, and He will heal us: He hath fmitten, and He will bind us up * 1 Both Particulars and Nations, which fall into a bad Way, are strangely unwilling, for the most part, to understand the Truth of their own Cafe. Such was the Disposition of God's ancient People, admirably described by the Prophet Hofea: His Strength is devoured, and be knoweth it not: yea, grey Hairs are upon him, and he knoweth it not. And the Pride of Ifrael teftifieth to his Face: and they do not return to the Lord, nor feek him, for all this. Nay, when the Disease is much too notorious to be denied, Perfons will be afcribing it to other Causes, and inventing other Cures, than the right one; putting Confidence in Schemes unconnected with Reformation, and perhaps mending bad with worse. But to these the Almighty himself hath exprefsly denounced : Wo to the rebellious Children, faith the Lord, that take Counsel, but not of me; that cover with a Covering, but not of my Spirit; that they may add Sin to Sin: that will not hear the Law of the Lord; which fay, Caufe the Holy One of Ifrael * Hof. vi. I. +Hof. vii. 9, 10. to cease from before us. Wherefore, thus faith the Holy One of Ifrael: Because ye defpife this Word, therefore this Iniquity fhall be to you as a Breach ready to fall, fwelling out in a high Wall, whofe Breaking cometh fuddenly at an Infiant. Healing Sores in a palliative, unfound manner, only occafions their bursting out again with more threatening Symptoms. If therefore we would truly mend our Case, we must go to the Bottom of it. We have been wicked, and we muft repent. We have defpifed God, and we muft humble ourselves under his mighty Hand. But then what shall we reckon is doing fo? Is it merely appointing or obferving a Form of Humiliation for Forms fake? Instead of appeafing God, we fhall not fo much as deceive Men by this but only veil Irreligion with tranfparent Hypocrify. Is it then being af fected and warmed a little, at the Time, by what we fay or hear in this Place; and becoming, almost immediately after, juft the fame Perfons that we were before? On the contrary, thefe tranfient Fits of Piety are mentioned in Scripture, as a very difcouraging Sign: O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Ju * If. XXX. I—13. dab, dah, what fhall I do unto thee? For your Goodnefs is as a Morning Cloud, and as the early Dew it goeth away. While Perfons reflect not at all, one knows not how it may operate, if ever they come to reflect. But when, through the Grace of God, they have actually been made fenfible of their Guilt and their Danger, and yet relapfe into it; when their Convictions have been renewed, their good Purposes repeated, and yet all suffered, time after time, to fall back into nothing what can be expected, but that Heaven will at laft abandon thofe, who in fo fhameful a manner abandon themfelves. Our prefent Business therefore is, each of us to imprint on our Minds now fuch deep Sentiments, as may influence us ever after, that devoutly conforming our Lives and our Souls to the Will of God, is the very End of our Being: to recollect and confefs before him, how grievoufly and how long both we in particular, and this Nation in general, have neglected the Obedience we owe him: to acknowledge, that we are altogether in his Hands, as private Perfons and as a People: to confider whatever hath befallen us, as less than our Iniquities have merited ; to prepare ourselves, with + Hof. vi. 4. E 3 meek meek Refignation for whatever more he may please to inflict on us: yet earnestly petition him, that whatever becomes of our temporal Concerns, our Spirits may be faved in the Day of the Lord Jefus *; and that if it be confiftent with his Holinefs and Wisdom, he would spare us even in this World, not for our Righteoufnefs, but his own great Mercies †, in Chrift our Redeemer, for the Honour of his Name, and the Preservation of his true Religion established amongst us; to form folemn Refolutions against every Sin, against every Occafion of Sin, for the future: begging at the fame time that Grace of our Sanctifier, which alone can make them effectual: and do all these Things not only in Profeffion, as Matter of outward Decency, but from the Bottom of our Souls; not only with a fudden Fervor, excited here in the Congregátion, but deliberately at home, before cur Father which feeth in fecret ‡. How eafy, or how hard, it may be for any of us to bring our Hearts really into fuch a Frame as this, He only knows, who knows all Things. Perhaps it is a Sort of Language, and a Way of Thinking, to which fome of us have I Cor. v. 5. + Dan. ix. 18. Matt. vi. 6. never been used, and which others have long difufed. If it be, we have so much the more Need to take it up without Delay. For our Maker and our Judge is intitled to the most lowly Submiffions from his guilty Creatures: and there is neither any Meannefs in making, nor any Greatness in refufing, them. In all Cafes, the juft and the right is the worthy and the honourable Behaviour. But in this, above all, it is the neceffary one too. Obftinacy cannot support us: Diffimulation will not conceal us: it is God we are concerned with, and our only Resource is to throw ourselves on his Mercy. The very best of us have Caufe to lament our Failings, to reiterate our Vows, to implore his Forgiveness and Affistance, yet more ardently than we have done. In proportion to our Tranfgreffions and Deficiencies our Self-Abasement, our Penitence, our Supplications, our Efforts of Amendment, ought to increase. And that our Performance of thefe Obligations will be followed, bad as our State is, with the happiest Confequences, Reafon affords comfortable Hope, the whole Tenor of Scripture exprefsly declares, and the Text with peculiar Strength implies: Humble E 4 yourselves |