"Thou wilt not require it."

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"Because sentence a

gainst an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore "the heart of the fons of men is fully fet in them to "do evil." Nothing is more common, nothing more vile, nothing more fatal than this perversion.

Firft. Solomon does not draw the reflection from a few fingle instances. Nothing is more common than this abuse. Perhaps many of you are examples of it. To decide this I afk, Would you have continued in your finful courses to this hour, had you not been perfuaded that God would bear with you? Would you now perpetrate another crime, if you fuppofed that God would inftantly destroy you for it? Why then it is the long-fuffering of God, that encourages and emboldens you to go forward, and you are evil because he is good.

Secondly. Nothing can be more vile and base than this abuse. Clemency affords you a shelter from the storm, and you enter; and then wound your kind Benefactor, and wound him BECAUSE he had pity upon you. Had you the leaft ingenuoufnefs, you could not help admiring and loving and ferving fuch a Being; but you infult him BECAUSE of his excellencies and loving-kindneffes. You fin because grace abounds, and choose to appear a monster in a garb of ingratitude blacker than hell.

Thirdly. Be affured nothing will be more fatal. "God fhall wound the head of his enemies, and the

hairy fcalp of fuch an one as GOETH ON STILL in "his trefpaffes." Mercy is your final refource; and when this is provoked, to what can you turn? Ifa father difown you, what expectation can you have from

an incenfed adverfary? God is in this cafe peculiarly concerned to fhew his difpleasure. He defigned this long-fuffering to anfwer other purposes; and fhall he be over-ruled and mocked? No; he will not lofe the honour of his patience, though you may lose the advantage. If it be not glorified in your falvation, it will in your destruction. Wrath lofes nothing by fleeping; it grows fresher by repofe. The longer the ftone be in defcending, the heavier it falls. Long preparation indicates the more dreadful execution. Whoever may hope for audience in the day of vifitation, you cannot expect it. "When your fear com"eth as defolation, and your destruction cometh as a "whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon

you, then fhall they call upon me, but I will not "anfwer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not "find me; for that they hated knowledge, and did "not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none "of my counsel, they defpifed all my reproof. There"fore fhall they eat of their own ways and be filled "with their own devices."

Whoever may hope to come off with a lighter doom, you cannot expect it. Thy reckoning is increased by delay; thou" despisest the riches of his goodness and "forbearance and long-fuffering: not knowing that "the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance : "but after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treas"ureft up unto thyfelf wrath against the day of wrath, "and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." “But and if that servant say in his heart, my Lord dé

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layeth his coming; and fhall begin to beat the men "fervants and maidens, and to eat and drink and to

"be drunken; the Lord of that fervant will come in

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"a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour

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when he is not aware: and will cut him in funder, "and will appoint him his portion with the unbe "lievers."

Whoever may hope to be apprized of his danger, furely you cannot expect it. "He that being often "reproved hardeneth his neck, fhall fuddenly be de "stroyed, and that without remedy." "For when "they fhall fay Peace and fafety; then fudden de "ftruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman "with child; and they fhall not efcape."

And do you promise yourself exemption always? Even the patience of the vine-dreffer has an end; he only prayed for another year; and perhaps this was more than eleven months ago. Are you fure that he who waited to-day, will wait to-morrow alfo? Having stood fo long knocking, will he never depart? May he not withdraw this very evening, faying, "O that “ thou hadst known in this thy day the things which "belong to thy peace, but now they are hid from "thine eyes,

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But at present this is not your cafe. Your harveft is not yet past, your fummer is not yet ended. The lives of fome of you are spared even to old age. Gray hairs are here and there upon you; and each of them proclaims the patience of God. You are in his House, and before his Throne, and capable of hearing his Word. He has feen all your fin, and abhorred all. He has had you completely in his power; he could have frowned you into perdition. He has guarded you from accidents, and raised you up from beds of W w

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languifhing. How many, once your companions in folly and fin, have been removed! where are they now? Olet this goodnefs encourage you, not to fin but to pray. Approach and kneel before him. "O him."O thou, who haft given me space, give me alfo grace "to repent. I am now fenfible of my guilt, and of thy goodness. I now know what mifery I have de"ferved, and what a bleffedness thy mercy is ready to "bestow. I am filled with forrow and fhame and “ self-abhorrence, to think that I have fo long transgreffed thy Law, and defpifed thy Gofpel; provo"ked thy justice, and contemned thy grace. If after εσ all thou wilt be favourable to fuch an ungrateful "wretch, and accept the remains of a finful life, I

here devote all I am, and all I have to thee. Thee “I will love and obey. Adieu, my vain and foolish "defires; my degrading lufts, my unprofitable pur fuits-Pardon-Heaven is even now attainable, " and I am following after it. O my God! enable "me to run and not be weary, and to walk and not "faint." May God infpire you with these fentiments, To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.

Amen.

JOHN. iii. 10.

In this the children of God are manifeft, and the children of the devil: whofoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

MY Brethren, When God would admonifh and encourage Jeremiah in the difcharge of his office, he faid, "If thou take forth the precious " from the vile, thou fhalt be as my mouth." This address determines the duty of every Preacher, who would make full proof of his miniftry? It requires him to attend peculiarly to the ftates of his hearers to delineate character'; to bring forward frequently and boldly the difference between the righ teous and the wicked; and to apply with confidence and wifdom the threatenings and promifes of the Scripture, for the conviction of the finner, and the con folation of the godły.2015 zk. A súa bro, qvealT

In this manner our Apoftle ftudied to fhew himfelf approved unto God, "workman that needed not to "be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."