not how soon the late earthquake, wherewith God hath visited us, may return, or whether he may not enlarge as well as repeat its commission. Once, yea, twice, hath the Lord warned us, that he is arisen to shake terribly the earth. Wherefore, 1. Fear God, even that God who can in a moment cast both body and soul into hell! "Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty," Isa. ii, 10. Ought we not all to cry out, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty! Who shall not fear thee, oh Lord, and glorify thy name? for thy judgments are made manifest!" Rev. xv, 3, 4.

God speaks to your hearts, as in subterranean thunder. "The Lord's voice crieth unto the city,-hear the rod, and who hath appointed it,” Mic. vi, 9. He commands you to take notice of his power and justice. "Come and sce!" Rev. vi, 5, while a fresh seal is opening; yea, "6 come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doings towards the children of men," Psa. lxvi, 5.

When he makes the mountains tremble, and the earth shake, shall not our hearts be moved? "Fear ye not me, saith the Lord, and will ye not tremble at my presence?" Jer. v, 22. Will ye not fear me, who can open the windows of heaven above, or break up the fountains of the great deep below, and pour forth whole floods of vengeance when I please! Who can "rain upon the wicked snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest," Psa. xi, 6; or kindle those steams and exhalations in the bowels and caverns of the earth, and make them force their way to the destruction of towns, cities, and countries! Who can thus suddenly turn a fruitful land into a barren wilderness; an amazing spectacle of desolation and ruin!

"Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" "The lion hath roared; who will not fear? With God is terrible majesty: men do therefore fear him." Some do; and all ought. Oh that his fear might this moment fall upon all you who hear these words; constraining every one of you to cry out, "my flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments!" Psa. cxix, 120. Oh that all might see, now his hand is lifted up, as in act to strike; is stretched out still; and shakes his rod over a guilty land, a people fitted for destruction! For is not this the nation to be visited? And "shall not I visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" Jer. v, 9. What but national repentance can prevent national destruction?

"Oh consider this, ye that forget God, lest he pluck you away, and there be none to deliver you," Psa. 1, 22. That iniquity may not be your ruin, repent! This is the second advice I would offer you, or rather the first enforced upon you farther, and explained. Fear God, and depart from evil: repent, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance: break off your sins this moment. "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well;" saith the Lord, Isa. i, 16, 17.

"Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," Luke xiii, 3. "Therefore now saith the Lord, [who is not willing any should perish,] turn ye unto me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments, and turn

unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him?" Joel ii, 12-14.

"Who knoweth ?" A question which should make you tremble. God is weighing you in the balance; and, as it were, considering whether to save or to destroy! "Say unto the children of Israel, ye are a stiff necked people; I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee," Exod. xxxiii, 5.

God waits to see what effect his warnings will have upon you. He pauses on the point of executing judgment, and cries, "How shall I give thee up ?" Hos. xi, 8. Or, "Why should ye be stricken any more?" Isa. i, 5. He hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. He would not bring to pass his strange act, unless your obstinate impenitence compel him.

Why will you die, oh house of Israel?" Ezek. xviii, 31. God warns you of the approaching judgment, that ye may take warning and escape it by timely repentance. He lifts up his hand, and shakes it over you, that ye may see it, and prevent the stroke. He tells you," Now is the axe laid unto the root of the trees," Matt. iii, 10: therefore repent; oring forth good fruit; and ye shall not be hewn down, and cast inte the fire. Oh do not despise the riches of his mercy, but let it lead you to repentance! "Account that the long suffering of the Lord is salvation," 2 Pet. iii, 15. Harden not your hearts, but turn to him that smites vou; or, rather, threatens to smite, that ye may turn and be spared!

How slow is the Lord to anger! How unwilling to punish! By what leisurely steps does he come to take vengeance! How many lighter afflictions before the final blow!

Should he beckon the man on the red horse to return, and say, Sword, go through this land;" can we complain he gave us no warning? Did not the sword first bereave abroad? And did we not then see it within our borders? Yet the merciful God said, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther;" he stopped the invaders in the midst of our land, and turned them back again, and destroyed them.

Should he send the man on the pale horse, whose name is Death, and the pestilence destroy thousands and ten thousands of us; can we deny that first he warned us by the raging mortality among our cattle?

So if we provoke him to lay waste our earth, and turn it upside down, and overthrow us, as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah; shall we not have procured this unto ourselves? Had we no reason to expect any such calamity? No previous notice? No trembling of the earth before it clave? No shock before it opened its mouth? Did he set no examples of so terrible a judgment before our eyes? Had we never heard of the destruction of Jamaica, or Catania, or that of Lima which happened but yesterday? If we perish at last, we perish without excuse; for what could have been done more to save us?

Yes: thou hast now another call to repentance, another offer of mercy, whosoever thou art that hearest these words. In the name of the Lord Jesus, I warn thee once more as a watchman over the house of Israel, to flee from the wrath to come! I put thee in remembrance (if thou hast so soon forgotten it) of the late awful judgment, whereby God shook VOL. I.

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thee over the mouth of hell! Thy body he probably awoke by it; but did he awake thy soul? The Lord was in the earthquake, and put a solemn question to thy conscience, "Art thou ready to die?" "Is thy peace made with God?" Was the earth just now to open its mouth and swallow thee up, what would become of thee? Where wouldst thou be? In Abraham's bosom, or lifting up thine eyes in torment? Hadst thou perished by the late earthquake, wouldst thou not have died in thy sins, or rather gone down quick into hell? Who prevented thy damnation? It was the Son of God! Oh fall down, and worship him! Give him the glory of thy deliverance; and devote the residue of thy days to his service! This is the third advice I would give you, Repent, and believe the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus, and ye shall yet be saved. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish. Repentance alone will profit you nothing neither do ye repent unless ye confess with broken hearts the most damnable of all your sins, your unbelief; your having rejected, or not accepted, Jesus Christ as your only Saviour. Neither can ye repent unless he himself give the power; unless his Spirit convince you of sin, because ye believe not in him.

Till ye repent of your unbelief, all your good desires and promises are vain, and will pass away as a morning cloud. The vows which ye make in a time of trouble, ye will forget and break as soon as the trouble is over, and the danger past.

But shall ye escape for your wickedness, suppose the earthquake should not return? God will never want ways and means to punish impenitent sinners. He hath a thousand other judgments in reserve; and if the earth should not open its mouth, yet ye shall surely at last be swallowed up in the bottomless pit of hell!

Wouldst thou yet escape that eternal death? Then receive the sentence of death in thyself, thou miserable self destroyed sinner! Know thy want of living, saving, divine faith! Groan under thy burden of unbelief, and refuse to be comforted till thou hear him of his own mouth say, "Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee."

I cannot take it for granted that all men have faith; or speak to the sinners of this land as to believers in Jesus Christ. For where are the fruits of faith? Faith worketh by love; faith overcometh the world; faith purifieth the heart; faith, in the smallest measure, removeth mountains. If thou canst believe, all things are possible to thee. If thou art justified by faith, thou hast peace with God, and rejoicest in hope of his glorious appearing.

He that believeth hath the witness in himself; hath the earnest of heaven in his heart; hath love stronger than death. Death to a believer has lost its sting; "therefore will he not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea," Psa. xlvi, 2. For he knows in whom he has believed; and that neither life nor death shall be able to separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus his Lord.

Dost thou so believe? Prove thy own self by the infallible word of God. If thou hast not the fruits, effects, or inseparable properties of faith, thou hast not faith. Come, then, to the author and finisher of faith, confessing thy sins, and the root of all, thy unbelief, till he forgive thee thy sins, and cleanse thee from all unrighteousness. Come to the friend of sinners, weary, and heavy laden, and he will give thee pardon

judgments come in these latter days, yet whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord Jesus shall be delivered.

Call upon him now, oh sinner! and continue instant in prayer, till he answer thee in peace and power! Wrestle for the blessing! Thy life, thy soul is at stake! Cry mightily unto him,-"Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me!" "God be merciful unto me a sinner!" Lord, help me! Help my unbelief! Save, or I perish! Sprinkle my troubled heart! Wash me throughly in the fountain of thy blood: guide me by thy Spirit: sanctify me throughout, and receive me up into glory! Now to God the Father, &c.

SERMON LVIII.-National Sins and Miseries.

Preached at St. Matthew's, Bethnal-green, on Sunday, November 12, 1775, for the benefit of the widows and orphans of the soldiers who lately fell, near Boston, in New-England.

"Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done?" 2 Sam. xxiv, 17.

THE chapter begins, " And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." Again; it had been kindled against them but a few years before; in consequence of which "there had been a famine in the land three years," year after year, chap. xxi, 1, till David inquired of the Lord, and was taught the way of appeasing it. We are not informed, in what particular manner Israel had now offended God: by what particular cause his anger was kindled; but barely with the effect. "He moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.” He,-not God! Beware how you impute this to the Fountain of love and holiness! It was not God, but Satan who thus moved David. So the parallel scripture expressly declares: "And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel," 1 Chron. xxi, 1. Satan stood before God, to accuse David and Israel, and to beg God's permission to tempt David. Standing is properly the accuser's posture before the tribunals of men; and therefore the Scripture, which uses to speak of the things of God after the manner of men, represents Satan as appearing in this posture before the tribunal of God. "And David said to Joab, and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it," verse 2.

2. It does not clearly appear wherein the sin of thus numbering the people consisted. There is no express prohibition of it in any of the Scriptures which were then extant. Yet we read, "The king's word was abominable to Joab," verse 6, who was not a man of the tenderest conscience, so that he expostulated with David before he obeyed. "Joab answered, Why doth my lord require this thing?" "Why will he be a cause of trespass," of punishment or calamity," to Israel?" God frequently punishes a people for the sins of their rulers; because they are generally partakers of their sins, in one kind or other. And the righteous Judge takes this occasion of punishing them for all their sins. In this, Joab was right, for after they were numbered, it is said, "And God was displeased with this thing." Yea, "David's heart smote

nim, and he said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done and now, I beseech thee, oh Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant," 2 Sam. xxiv, 10. Did not the sin lie in the motive on which the thing was done? Did he not do it in the pride of his heart? Probably out of a principle of vanity and ostentation: glorying not in God, but in the number of his people.

3. In the sequel we find, that even Joab was for once a true prophet: David was a cause of trespass, of punishment, to Israel. His sin, added to all the sins of the people, filled up the measure of their iniquities, So" the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, from the morning," wherein Gad the prophet gave David his choice, of war, famine, or pestilence, "unto the evening of the third day. And there died of the people, from Dan unto Beersheba, seventy thousand men," verse 15. "And when David saw the angel that smote the people,"-who appeared in the form of a man with a drawn sword in his hand, to convince him the more fully, that this plague was immediately from God," he said, Lo, I have sinned, I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done?"

4. Is there not, in several respects, a remarkable resemblance between the case of Israel and our own?-General wickedness then occasioned a general visitation: and does not the same cause now produce the same effect? We likewise have sinned, and we are punished: and perhaps these are only the beginning of sorrows. Perhaps the angel is now stretching out his hand over England to destroy it. Oh that the Lord would at length say to him that destroyeth, "It is enough: stay now thine hand!"

5. That vice is the parent of misery, few deny: it is confirmed by the general suffrage of all ages. But we seldom bring this home to ourselves when we speak of sin as the cause of misery, we usually mean, the sin of other people, and suppose we suffer, because they sin. But need we go so far? Are not our own vices sufficient to account for all our sufferings? Let us fairly and impartially consider this: let us examine our own hearts and lives. We all suffer and we have all sinned. But will it not be most profitable for us, to consider every one his own sins, as bringing sufferings both on himself and others: to say, "Lo, I have sinned, I have done wickedly: but these sheep what have they done?" I. 1. Let us inquire, first, What they suffer? And, afterwards, What is the cause of these sufferings? That the people suffer, none can deny ; -that they are afflicted in a more than ordinary manner. Thousands and tens of thousands are at this day deeply afflicted through want of business. It is true, that this want is in some measure removed in some large and opulent towns. But it is also true, that this is far, very far, from being the general case of the kingdom. Nothing is more sure, than that thousands of people in the west of England, throughout Cornwall in particular, in the north, and even in the midland counties, are totally unemployed. Hence those who formerly wanted nothing, are now in want of all things. They are so far from the plenty they once enjoyed, that they are in the most deplorable distress, deprived not only of the conveniences, but most of the necessaries of life. I have seen not a few of these wretched creatures, within little more than a hundred miles of London, standing in the streets, with pale looks, hollow eyes, and meagre limbs; or creeping up and down like walking shadows. I have known families, who a few years ago lived in an easy,