ship with those who indulge it, he has threatened to punish it severely, and has actually inflicted the most awful judgments even on his own people, who have ventured on this vile and forbidden ground. And if ever we shall presume to offend him, we must lay our account with the most signal chastisement. For this is a standing and immutable rule in his righteous administration, "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes."

CHAPTER X.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

"Lord! shine on this benighted heart,
With beams of mercy shine!
And let thy healing voice impart
A taste of joys divine."

LET us now attend,

III. To the provision which the Gospel contains for the support and encouragement of the deserted.

Whether this heavy calamity arises from a sinful or a sinless cause; if you retain your love to God, and your attachment to the Saviour; if you are mourning his absence, and humbled and ashamed for the evils which you have done; if you are longing for the restoration of his favour, and seeking his face with your whole heart and soul; however much reason you may have to be cast down, you have no cause for despair. This distress for his absence and this restless impatience for his return, are a token for good; and a proof, that though he has withdrawn the light of his countenance, it is only for a time, and that he has not forsaken you for ever.

If you have reason to fear that, by some secret sin, or open transgression, you have moved him to jealousy, and provoked him to hide his face from you; then let me ask, Are you bewailing your guilt and folly in all the pungency of grief, and in all the bitterness of a broken heart? Does the remembrance of your ungrateful treachery and criminal baseness, lead you to weep in secret places, and abhor yourselves in dust and ashes? Are you daily spread

ing your offences before the Lord; and endeavouring, by renewed application to the blood of sprinkling, to obtain the remission of your iniquity, and the recovery of his presence and love?

If this is your case, then be of good cheer. However painful and deplorable your condition may seem, all shall yet be well. Though your sinfulness may be great; yet if you again flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before you, you shall in no wise be cast out. Though your guilt may be great, and its natural consequences most dreadful; no offences are too foul, nor any case too desperate for the Lord Jesus Christ. Are we not told that his blood cleanseth from all sin? and that he is able to save to the utmost them that come unto God by him? "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Sinners, who never knew his grace, who never entertained any desire for his salvation, who have run to the excess of riot and covered themselves over with impiety and crime; are invited, encouraged, commanded to come to him for life; and are assured that, on their application, none of their trespasses shall be mentioned or brought into mind.

If therefore you have fallen by your iniquity, return instantly to the Lord your God. Take with you words and turn to him. Go to the compassionate and adorable Redeemer, as if you had never gone before. Your case cannot now be more dismal and desperate than it was, when Jesus first found you, lying in your blood, and cast out to the loathing of your soul. And did he bid you live when you were dead in trespasses and sins? And will he now refuse to revive, or maintain the work of his hands? Did he stop you in your rebellious and ruinous career, when you were sinning with a high hand, and revolting more and more? And will he reject your petition and your cry, when prostrate in submission at his feet, and lifting up the voice of penitence and prayer? If thy brother trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.'

And whilst thus we are enjoined to exercise forgiveness to our offending brother, can we believe that similar compassion shall not be found in the God of grace towards his repenting children? We have heard that the kings of Isreal are merciful kings. And we know that with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God.-Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still; therefore my bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord."

if

If you can discover no particular cause for your sorrow; your conscience bear you witness in the Holy Ghost that you have been endeavouring in faith and in earnest to walk with God in peace and equity; to allow no iniquity to obtain dominion over you; that you have preferred God to your chief joy; that it has been your heart's desire and prayer to abide in his love, and to live under the powers of the world to come; then you have reason to conclude that this painful dispensation is not the effect of Divine displeasure, but intended merely for the trial of your faith and patience. Your duty is to submit to it with calmness and resignation: and till God is pleased to restore the light of his countenance and the joys of his salvation, for your encouragement and support, recall the former instances of his favour, and reflect on the immutability of his love.

If ever you have really tasted that he is gracious, you may safely rely on the permanence of the good work which he has begun. Apparent grace may be lost. From him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have. But real religion is the gift of God, which he will not revoke; and his own work, which he will never forsake. Blazing meteors may soon disappear; but the stars keep their stations, and the sun continues from age to age to shine in the greatness of his strength. Preparatory grace may give way. Every child does not

arrive at manhood; and many of the fairest blossoms are blasted, and yield no fruit. And many professors who have run well for a season, and have had the most imposing religious appearance, have afterwards drawn back, and walked no more with Jesus. But genuine godliness is an enduring principle, which will never fail. The righteous holdeth on his way, and he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger. True grace may suffer a decline, and the Christian may be guilty of many a shameful and hurtful fall. In temptation he may be severely tried and sorely shaken: but though the heel may be bruised, the head is safe. The exercise of grace may be restrained, and its consolations for a time suspended: whilst the sacred principle itself retains its existence, and shall sooner or later recover all its former strength and beauty. Planted by the hand of the Almighty, and perpetually under his protection and care, it shall spring up in spite of all opposition, outbrave the fury of every storm, and flourish in undecaying verdure, when tempests shall cease to beat, and the very region in which they were engendered, and where they spent their violence, shall be known no more. The gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. He rests in his love: he hateth putting away: and whom he loves, he loves unto the end. Ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth; and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, if ever the righteous were forsaken, if ever a believer had cause to be ashamed of his hope, if ever the Lord abandoned his inheritance, or finally withdrew his love from a single soul whom he had drawn to himself, and led to fix his affections on things unseen and eternal? Could you assemble the redeemed of the Lord into one, to the praise of the glory of his grace, they would unanimously declare that Jesus is faithful to his trust, that to his sheep he gives eternal life, and that they can never perish, neither can any pluck them out of his hand. He and they are one. Their interests are identified with his own; and because he lives they shall live also. "Who then shall separate you from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,