a counterpart of the punishments formerly inflicted on Ifrael? Did not a righteous God, year after year, withhold from us the rain of heaven, caufing the paftures to fail in the field, and the corn to languifh in the valley? Has he not occafionally fmitten us with blasting* and mildew? Has he not fent among us again and again the peftilences after the manner of Egypt? And is not the accufation, which was brought against Ifrael, at least as applicable to us, Yet have ye not returned unto me, faith the Lord? Where is there any evidence that either our mercies or our judg ments have proved effectual for reclaiming or reforming us? Are the living oracles more generally read, or more deeply revered? Is the fanctuary attended now by those who formerly lived in the neglect of its ordinances? Are the praises of God refounding now in houses where that celeftial melody was formerly unheard? Is the holy Sabbath more confciensciously

* In the summer of 1802, just as the fields began to whiten for the harvest, a mildew pervaded the northern and western parts of this state, and blasted in its course two thirds, perhaps three fourths of the wheat, the staple commodity of this country.

§ Not to mention those malignant, mortal epidemics, which have fearfully scourged our principal cities, the influenza, a species of the pestilence, has taken a general course through almost every state in the Union. So generally did it prevail in the autumn of 1807 that scarcely a family in this town escaped it; and on a particular Sabbath, through the almost universal indisposition of ministers and people, various churches were laid desolate.

fanctified through our land, or does the power of Godlinefs fhine more illuftrious in the lives of those who poffefs the form? Is the charge of pride, extravagance, injuftice between man and man, and ingratitude to the God of our mercies lefs applicable now than in years that are paft? Nay, has not the tide of our impiety and profligacy rifen with the tide of our profperity, and when the divine hand has been ftretched out for our correction we have not feen it, neither have we trembled under these displays of the majefty of Jehovah. Is fuch the fact, beloved brethren, then I cannot addrefs you in language more appropriate than the admonition of the prophet to his nation, prepare to meet thy God, O Ifrael.

THE people to whom the warning is directed are Ifrael, the visible church of God. The fire of divine jealousy burns peculiarly awful around his altar: There the light fhines moft clear; there the voice of admonition is moft frequently heard; there the privileges are most exalted, and consequently there the confumption determined ufually commences its career.Those who rank firft in point of privilege are ordinarily made the first and most fearful monuments of divine indignation. Judgment must begin at the house of God. Rebellion in a fon is both more unnatural and inexcufable, than in a fervant: Our abhorrence is much more excited by an act of treachery in a pretended friend, than in the open, avowed enemy; upon the fame principle the crimes of a profeffing people are most offenfive to God, and expofe to the

F

fevereft marks of his difpleasure. You only have I known of all the families of the earth; I will therefore punish you for your iniquities. The hiftory of the world fully confirms the truth of thefe denunciations.

Those very parts of the earth which were long, and fingularly favored with a pure difpenfation of the gofpel, have been afterwards as fingularly the feat of judgments, both temporal and spiritual. Turn your eyes for a moment to Jerufalem, once the moft diftinguished spot of the earth; that city where the temple was erected; where the living oracles were proclaimed; where the morning and evening facrifice, this lively pledge of our Great Propitiation, was offered up; where the incenfe arofe in facred columns from the cenfer of Aaron the type of the high priest of our profeffion; where the miniftry of our Lord was chiefly accomplished; where miracles the moft fublime were frequently wrought by his hands, and celeftial truth flowed from his lips: Behold alfo Corinth,* Sardis, Smyrna, and Thyatira, cities where

* A modern traveller represents, in a most affecting light, these once distinguished parts of the world. Sardis, according to his account, "was overthrown by a most terrible earthquake, and is now only a poor habitation of shepherds, living in low and humble cottages: howsoever," he elegantly adds, "the antient pillars and ruins lift up their heads, as unwilling to lose the memory of their former glory:" and Corinth which the Roman orator pronounced "lumen totius Græciæ," the light of all Greece, was burnt to ashes for its insolence to thelegates of Rome.-See CALMET's Dic. on Jer. and WELL'S Geog. of the Old and New Test. v. ii. 259, 60. 275, 6.

flourishing churches were early planted by the Evangelifts and Apoftles of our Lord. How has their external importance funk, and their fpiritual glory departed? Juft in proportion as evangelic light formerly fhone clear around, a cloud dark and impenetrable envelopes them, and the wretched inhabitants are debafed by ignorance, by fuperftition, by every fpecies

of abomination.

THIS verfe, thus explained, prefents to our confideration,

1. A SOLEMN event, a meeting with our God; and 2. OUR duty in the profpect of this event, prepare to meet thy God.

EACH individual of the human kind must meet Jehovah at death: The immortal fpirit, immediately after its feparation from the body, is fummoned to the tribunal of its judge; then it is called to render a folemn account of its ftewardship, and afterwards, according to its works, is adjudged to an unchanging deftiny, either of glory or of fhame. It is appointed unto all men once to die, and after death the judgment : Again, we must all appear before the judgment feat of Chrift, that every one may receive according to the things done in his body, whether they be good or evil.

ALL mankind collectively muft meet Jehovah in the hour of general retribution. The Lord God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteoufnefs, by that man whom he hath ordained. The trump of the archangel fhall found; the great white throne fhall be erected; the fign of the fon

of man fhall appear; the judge fhall defcend; all the living fhall be inftantly changed, and all the dead arife then the kindreds of the nations fhall flock to the judgment feat of their common Lord, and receive one general irreversible sentence, When the fon of man fhall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then Shall he fit upon the throne of his glory; and before him fhall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them the one from the other: the deeds done in the present life must then undergo a review the moft minute, the most impartial, and the countless myriads of the human family be awarded to everlasting life, or everlafting perdition.

But the meeting with God to which the prophet alludes, and for which he admonishes Ifrael to prepare, is an event materially different; it belongs to particular communities, or nations, in their public, focial capacity. There are periods of national retribution, no less than of perfonal retribution; periods when the adorable Ruler of the univerfe rifes from his throne, and comes forth to reckon with the inhabitants of a country; when he takes a review of all the privileges bestowed upon them; of all the deliverances wrought from time to time in their behalf; of the duration of their national peace; of the degree of their national profperity, and then chaftifes them for the abuse of their privileges. Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth and all that therein is: For behold the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come and tread on the high places of the earth: For the tranfgreffion of Ja