a bitter thing to forsake the fountain | of living waters, and to hew out to themselves broken cisterns that could hold no water. By many awful judgments in the wilderness, and afterwards in the land given them for a possession, they were bereaved of their most valuable enjoyments. Their contempt of the word of God, and the transgression of his laws, brought upon them the most terrible calamities, which their history abundantly testifies. The deplorable state of the Jewish nation at the time this prophecy was delivered, and in succeeding periods, is here graphically described. They are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses; they are for a prey, and none delivereth -for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. Under the reign of Ahaz they were reduced to this miserable condition by the Syrians and Ephraimites; and their nation and their situation became still more calamitous at the memorable era wherein they were led captive into Babylon, when these predictions in force received a further accomplishment. They had their final accomplishment in the dreadful period when wrath came on them to the uttermost, for their contempt of the person and doctrine of the Messiah; for then their state, and temple, and nation, were all destroyed by the Romans. Isaiah saw with his eyes the former of these melancholy events; to the two latter he looked onward with the spirit of prophecy. In those seasons of distress the inhabitants of Judah were deprived of their liberties and privileges; they were spoiled and robbed of their glorious possessions. An awful instance of the divine judgments! The invasion of their country, and the persecutions they suffered, constrained them to hide themselves from the fury of their enemies, and to seek for shelter in holes, and pits, and caverns of the earth. Great numbers of them, also, having been seized by their pursuers, were closely confined in prisons. Others were plundered of their most valuable effects, and became a prey to their relentless foes. Thus they were a people robbed and spoiled.

In our text it is asked, " Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers?" Who was it? Jehovah delighteth in mercy he doth not afflict wil

lingly, or grieve the children of men. Their sins were the cause. They would not walk in his ways-they would not hearken to his statutes; therefore he does this. He gave them up into the hands of their enemies. On account of the obstinate discontent and disobedience of the people, God suffered those judgments to overtake them which are set forth under the well known emblems of fire and sword. These illustrations are well adapted to rouse those to whom they were directed from the state of lethargic stupidity into which they had fallen. Of all the natural causes that serve to awaken man from unconcern and insensibility, there are none more alarming than being encompassed with fire and flame-none more fearful than devastation and slaughter. Notwithstanding these dreadful calamities environed the posterity of Jacob, they did not consider the causes from which they proceeded; they did not lay to heart the just displeasure of the Almighty to which their sins had exposed them. Such, brethren, it is to be feared in general is the case in reference to ourselves. We are ready to cast the blame any where, on any body but ourselves; not laying to heart that what we at present suffer, as a nation and individually, is the just consequences of our transgression. Now so it is if we are thwarted and spoiled in our commercial and agricultural interests. If there is a loss of public confidence, and ruin stares us in the face, it is not to be ascribed to men and measures, to which we are so prone to ascribe it, but it is to be ascribed to our sins against the Lord. This is the cause of our present suffering, the fruit of our transgression against God. Oh, that they may be overruled to work favourably, and especially to lead us to the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, that we may escape the recompense of sin in the world to come. For the wages of sin is death, banishment from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his throne. Scourges and judgments here, however afflicting and distressing, are nothing to be compared to what awaits the impenitent transgressor hereafter. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality,

God will raise to eternal life; but unto them who are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man that doth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile." Do you believe that there is no respect of persons with God? Give evidence that you do so by your manner of life and conversation.

In the Third place, THE ONLY ME

THOD TO ESCAPE DIVINE JUDGMENT IS

HERE SUGGESTED. "Who among you will give ear to this? who among you will hearken for the time to come?" Having been frequently admonished of the procuring cause of the evils with which you are oppressed, and which threaten your future destruction, who among you will be so wise, so considerate, as to listen with eager attention, and diligently consider, and lay to heart, the affecting subject in which you are so deeply interested? The Prophet did not address the upright and faithful of his countrymen, who were doubtless ever ready to receive instruction, and who mourned over the evils with which they were surrounded; he directs his discourse to the hypocritical and disobedient, who were averse to admit light into their minds, to admit conviction of their sin and danger. They were neither affected by the calamities which they felt, nor feared those with which they were threatened, though the storm was gathering thick around them. Of such people the Jewish nation were mostly composed at the time of the prophecy; and the Prophet inquires, Who among you will give ear to this, and hearken for the time to come?" You have shut your ears as regards the time that is past-you have shut your ears to the voice of the charmer, charm he ever so sweetly you have been unmindful of the voice of God. Who among you will give ear and hearken for the time to come?

This is true-this is a fact as it respects ourselves. We have been unmindful of Jehovah's voice when speaking to us both in the way of judgment and mercy. We have slighted his admonitions, and would not listen to his reproofs. We have turned to him the back and not the face; and it may be truly said of us as a people, and many

of us as individuals, "Oh Lord, thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved: thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return." Ah, brethren, inattention to the judgments of the Almighty, in the messages delivered by his servants, was not confined to the Prophet's time, but hath discovered its pernicious influence in every age; and spiritual blindness and hardness of heart have generally been succeeded by fatal indifference and security. Who then among you-who among you will give ear to this, and hearken and hear for the time to come?

Such appears to be the method here suggested, in order to escape the judgment of the Almighty, and to avert those calamities which seem to threaten our land. The blessed Redeemer in the parable of the Sower, represents three out of the four classes of hearers of the word as unprofitable; and therefore every one of us ought to take heed that he give a becoming reception to sacred truth. "Wherefore," says the Apostle, "lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass : for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." Though those who are planted by the rivers of water be a great multitude like the trees of an immense forest, fruitful hearers, it is to be feared, are few. Innumerable obstacles from within and from without combine to obstruct attention to the operations of Providence, and the instructions of the divine word.

Who then ́among you, brethren, while Jehovah's judgments are observed in the earth, and his word is yet proclaimed in your hearing-who among you will give ear to this, and hearken and hear for the time to come?

But he knows what is best; and our business is to be patient, and to wait quietly, and see what the Lord designs, and understand. In the things which are not joyous, but grievous, there is divine loving kindness. It seems strange that Christ should ever deprive us of the means of grace-that he should cast us to a distance, as it were, from those regions that are peculiarly lighted with the beams of his countenance. But it is thus he makes us feel the value of religious ordinances, of spiritual opportunities, and the loss we sustain from his temporary absence. By allowing a cloud to separate us for a moment from him, he makes us long more earnestly for his returning, that by the scattering of the cloud we may see Him in whose beauty there is infinite joy and glad

ness.

It is probable, that when the disciples first embarked, there was every reason to expect a safe passage to the other side: but when they had gone only a little way from the land, the sea arose; and they found that, notwithstanding all their efforts, and their straining at the oar, they were not able to surmount the waves so as to make any considerable way. And is not this the state of the church? Is it not as a flimsy bark on the stormy ocean? Brethren, is it not with you-with regard to all of us-with those who enter upon the Christian course, casting away into the deep that they may pursue their course to the heavenly shore -that very often all seems inviting at first; they have every reason to expect they shall have a prosperous voyage? The sky is bright-no cloud as big as a man's hand appears to threaten them with any disaster; and in their ignorance of God's dealings with his children, they expect to pursue their course with the same ease and alacrity, through all hindrances and dangers, that they experienced at setting out. It may be it doubtless is the case, that the blessed Jesus causes the ocean to be smooth and calm when they first launch their bark, that they may be invited to enter on their course as the father causes the fatted calf to be killed for the prodigal son, that by this display of the joys and comforts of religion he may be invited to enter into its paths; so it is

with the young convert-the blessed Jesus allures him to enter on the voyage by thus smoothing the waves, and preventing any very terrible opposition presenting itself in the first instance. He floats down the tide, and imagines perhaps that hardly any exertion will be necessary to keep him steady in his course; difficulties vanish from his eyes, and no future trials are appre.. hended. But when they do arise (and depend upon it the children of God will meet with them, sooner or later) they are sent by an angry Providence? Oh no: it is the mercy of the Lord Jesus that sends them, that we may understand the nature of his religion. Thus he wins us from the world; and thus he makes us understand our own weakness, and the need we have of continual supplies of grace from him, the advantage of being continually in his presence, and cleaving to him with an unalterable faith; and this, when he comes to our succour, increases our reliance upon himself as an ever present help in time of need, and endears him the more to our own hearts. Oh, doubtless, brethren, doubtless in the course of their danger and difficulty, the Apostles would cast many a longing eye to the shore they had left they were ready, it may be, to utter some murmurings; some discontent, some little indignation did arise in their hearts at the idea, that they had been sent forward on SO dangerous a mission, and their Master not there. "Why did he send us from his presence? Why did not He, in whose word there is so much power, attend and assist us from the moment of our embarkation?" Is it not possible, too, that they might be smitten in conscience with the recollection that they did not value his presence as much as they should?-for even these holy men experienced, as we do, that at times the weakness of the flesh is too much even for the willingness of the spirit. Now, it is under such circumstances, when we are languid in the service of Christ, and not anxious for the direct and powerful communications of his Spirit, that he leaves us to ourselves, that he brings upon us some painful trial; and thus teaches us by affliction, how great the value of the Lord, and how great the sin of neglecting to retain him with us in all