When we see, every day, a country selling itself, and sold again by the purchasers, what madness is it to trace this only to political mistakes, and to hope for redress in new hands or measures, instead of turning our eyes on irreligion, on a rejection of the counsels offered by divine wisdom, and on the contempt of her repeated reproofs, as the true sources of our disgraces abroad, and distresses at home?

Having thus refused to answer, when w sdom called, disregarded the stretching out of her hand, set at nought her counsel, and despised her reproof;' we have now but too much reason to expect, in the third and last place, her final sentence, her dreadful dismiss; I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.'

Fearful sentence! a people distressed by a decay of trade! reduced almost to their last morsel of bread! unsuccessful in war! relying on weak and divided counsels! not knowing whom to trust with its administration, lest he should prove a traitor! nor with its sword, lest he should. prove a coward! mortgaged! sold! to false friends at home, and bitter enemies abroad! yet rioting in expense and luxury! rioting and starving! licentious, yet enslaved! torn by various factions, whereof not one hath the least real attachment to its true interests! torn by heresies and schisms, although wholly regardless of religion! and therefore deserted by that only wisdom which is able to retrieve its affairs, that wisdom which it hath, long since, rejected, which it still ridicules! even now, when it is her turn to laugh at its calamity, as equally unavoidable and intolerable, and to mock when its too-well grounded fear of greater evils, than it hath ever yet endured, is come. A new and horrible thing may be seen among us, the vengeance of God, and our unnatural wickedness, treading circularly on each other's heels! following, and followed, so closely, that the crime is committed, the judgment executed, and the crime again repeated, almost in the same instant. Where, or in what is this war with the Almighty likely to end!

Behold the whirlwind of God's wrath,' which threatens to scatter us from our country, and to lay waste our dwell

ing-place!' or to sweep us, with a swift destruction, from the face of the earth, to distress and anguish infinitely more fearful! Behold the whirlwind of the Lord, which is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind, which shall fall grievously on the head of the wicked, whom the Lord shall scatter as with an east wind before the enemy, and shall shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.' In that day shall he that sitteth in heaven, laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision, for in their prosperity they said, they should never be cast down ;' and, therefore, setting up for scoffers in religion, they took pleasure in walking after their own ungodly lusts.' There is, surely, nothing so deservedly the object of scorn, as weakness setting up for independence, and stupidity scoffing at wisdom. It is not, however, till the security of the simple in their sins hath slain them, and the prosperity of fools, notwithstanding the long-suffering patience of God, hath at length brought destruction on them, that the vanity and vileness of such wretches can be set in their own proper lights, and thoroughly exposed.

Go, now, saith wisdom, and look for succour against the sword from your long-vaunted power and courage. Go now to your riches and ask them to bribe the pestilence, and turn away the vial of its poison on some better nation. Go now to your revels, and try if you can shut out the light, on this day of visitation, from the exposure and punishment of your evil deeds, your deeds of darkness. Go now to your infidel arguments, your irreligious taunts, your atheistical blasphemies, and see if they can comfort you under the scourge of an avenging God. Go to your associates in profaneness, and now, that thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee;' but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them.' You knew not the extent of your power, nor the number of your possessions, nor the bounds. of your pleasures, nor the depth of your own wisdom; can none of these deliver you? Surely it is not possible, that one lately so very confident, can now be reduced to a condition, so wholly helpless and abject.

Wisdom, having thus scorned her scorners, and mocked at her scoffers, vouchsafes no longer to speak to them, but turning herself to others, who may profit by the example of

their miseries, she says, then shall these unhappy contemners of wisdom 'call upon me, but I will not answer.' The day of grace is past, and it is now my turn to lend a deaf ear to their cries, as they always did to mine. It is now come to pass, that as I cried, and they would not hear, so when they cry I will not hear.' As, when I stretched out my hand, no man regarded, so now, when they spread forth their hands, I will hide mine eyes from them; yea, when they make many prayers, I will not hear. They seek me early,' but they shall perceive it is too late, for they shall not find me, because, when I sent to them all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them; yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck, and did worse than their fathers ;' and also, because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord.' No, they fled from the light because it reproved their evil deeds,' and affected to treat the fear of God as mean and slavish. They were too wise to learn, and too great to fear. As they would none of my counsel, and despised my reproof,' it is impossible, they should taste the blessed effect of either contentment, for the present, and happiness for ever. On the contrary, for this their rejection of my counsels and reproofs, and for giving themselves up to the guidance of their own counsels, they shall eat the fruit of their own ways, and be filled with their own devices.' It is true, they have adorned the broad way downward with every plant of pleasure, and enriched it on either hand, with fruit-trees in abundance. This they have chosen for their way, and made it an avenue of delights; but they shall soon perceive, that these fruits are too bitter to be tasted, and too poisonous to be safely touched; they shall perceive, when it shall be too late to return, that their way is only an avenue to infamy and destruction. As they have 'plowed iniquity and sowed wickedness, they shall reap the same. They have sowed iniquity, and they shall reap vanity. These backsliders in heart shall be filled with their own ways. Hear, O earth, behold I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law,' but rejected it. They shall have enough of their own counsels, and surfeit on the produce of their own devices; but while the flesh of their

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delicate quails, after which they lusted, is yet between their teeth ere it is chewed, the wrath of the Lord shall be kindled against them, and he shall smite them with a very great plague,' the plague at least, of a palate loathing, and a stomach turning, at every pleasure, and of all the distempers, tortures, terrors, attending on a life of folly and sensuality. 'But whoso hearkeneth unto me, shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease. Surely he shall not be moved for ever. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.' The portion of those who reject my counsels, shall be vanity and vexation now, and the dread of worse hereafter. But the portion of all who lend an attentive ear to my call, and an obedient heart to my instructions, shall be peace of mind for the present, and a well-grounded hope of happiness infinite, and glory eternal, yet to come.

Here you may perceive, is vengeance threatened, and mercy offered; and both founded on the unalterable decrees of God, nay on the very nature of things, insomuch, that he must cease to be just, and the whole scheme of nature be inverted, infinite wisdom must degenerate into folly, and eternal truth into fallacy; or every one of us must have reason to rejoice in what is promised, or to tremble at that which is threatened.

But why do I say, threatened, to a people conscious of their own guilt, conscious of their having departed from the counsel of wisdom, and sensible (if they have any sense) that the avenging hand of God is already laid upon them? As nevertheless the present are probably 'but the beginning of sorrow,' and as a deep repentance, if it becomes general, may avert or mitigate the greater evils yet to be apprehended; let us neither presume in our wickedness, nor despair of God's compassion; but now that he himself, finding his ministers have been either unfaithful, or unheard, hath began to preach to us by famine and the sword, let us hear the rod, and who hath appointed it.' The sincere repentance of those who hear me, will, in proportion, contribute to the relief of the whole community by appeasing in part, the displeasure of Almighty God. If there had been but ten righ

teous found in Sodom, though a large and populous city, their righteousness had saved the whole from fire and brimstone. But although we are too few to procure by our return to God so great indulgence to numbers of hardened and desperate offenders, and their is now not an Abraham among us to obtain, by his faith and piety, so great an indulgence; yet shall not each of us, if we wholly forsake our sins, procure salvation to himself, and save his own soul alive? If when a land sinneth against God by trespassing grievously, and he stretcheth out his hand to break the staff of the bread thereof; or saith to the sword, go through that land, and cut off both man and beast; or send a pestilence into that land to pour out his fury in blood;' if he would not spare it, though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it; yet should these good men deliver their own souls,' at least, by their righteousness;' and surely that would be sufficient to repay all the vigilance and perseverance of good life in them, and to overpay the keenest anxieties of repentance in us.

Let no man presume to say, I have, in this discourse, delivered myself in terms too severe and damnatory. Let him rather consult with his own conscience, and he will find perhaps that no small share of our present public calamities and fears are chargeable to the account of his particular guilt. Let him in the humility of spirit, which ought to result from such a consultation, reflect on the severity wherewith infinite wisdom condemns his departure from her, and denounces vengeance on his head; and then let him, if he dare, censure me for too much harshness in repeating her words. Or if this criminal under sentence, is still bold enough to arraign the Scriptural reproof of his own crimes, let him consider, that God is now speaking to him by his judgments in a louder and sharper tone. If he considers this as he ought to do, he will think it no time to criticise the words of others, when the bolt of God is lanced at his own actions; but will rather learn to hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.'

May God, of his infinite pity, look with patience on the hardened, and compassion on the penitent sinners of this his once favourite, but now unhappy country. May he greatly sanctify all his dispensations, whether of indulgence or severity, to the entire amendment both of our principles and