godliness. Be ye sober, I say, and watch unto prayer, lest Satan take advantage of you; lest you grieve the Spirit of God; and lest, after the lusts of your former ignorance, a wound be inflicted on your hopes that may not be healed, though you seek it carefully and with

tears.

SERMON V.

THE CURSE OF ABANDONMENT RELUCTANTLY

EXECUTED.

HOSEA ii. 8. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah, and set thee as Zeboim ?

THERE is no being in the universe to whom men do so much injustice as the God of heaven. Those who most esteem and love him, are far from giving him that place in their esteem and love which he deserves; while those who hate him, look upon him as a very tyrant, and think and speak of him as the cruellest despot in the world.

The Scriptures exhibit him as lovely, as he is great; as amiable, as he is infinite. And what we are more specially concerned to remark, is, they set forth the tenderness of his character, in those very acts in which he appears to men as hard and severe.

I see not how any person of fair and candid mind can read the text without looking upon it as a most amiable—nay, a most touching view of God. Admah and Zeboim were two cities on the western shore of what is now the Dead Sea, that were destroyed by fire from heaven, when Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed for their wickedness. Ephraim was the younger son of Joseph, and was reckoned among the sons of Jacob. His descendants constituted a distinct tribe,

which in process of time became numerous and powerful. Upon the revolt of the ten tribes from Judah and Benjamin, Ephraim became the seat of empire for the ten tribes, and the whole ten tribes were called Ephraim. From the time of this separation, the ten tribes became to the last degree degenerate, and God threatened to abandon them to the fate of Sodom and the cities of the plain. All hope of reforming this idolatrous people seemed to have died away, and with it all hope of their salvation. Justice seems to have entered upon the process of destruction; but just as the blow was about to fall, the arm of Omnipotence hesitates, and the sword is returned to its scabbard. It is an irrecoverable blow when once it is struck; once kindled, the flame is one that is never quenched. It were God's strange work thus to abandon the creatures he has made to destruction. "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim ?"

I. The first remark suggested by this affecting representation, is, that there are instances in which men are given up of God.

All men who finally perish, wax worse and worse, until the cup of their iniquity is full. We know not where the point is in this descending path, beyond which there is no return; but such a point there is, and when the irrecoverable step is taken, and the sinner is ripe for destruction, it is in vain to persuade him, in vain to pray, or even hope for him.

It is a very common thing for God to deprive such persons of all the ordinary means of salvation. The Bible, the Sabbath, the ministry of reconciliation, the offers of mercy, and all the things which belong to their

peace, are hidden from their eyes. "Where no vision is, the people perish;" they are like the heathen, who, because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, are given over to a reprobate mind. Take away from any man, or any class of men the ordinary means of salvation, and you leave them little hope, because little opportunity of entering the kingdom of God.

From such persons, God also is very apt to withdraw and withhold the influences of his Spirit. He gives his Spirit in order to preserve or rescue men from a reprobate mind; when the sinner is abandoned, these influences are taken away. The Spirit of God no longer convinces him of sin; nor condescends to demolish his excuses and show him his lost condition. His conscience is no longer troubled; he no longer trembles at the coming wrath, nor feels the need of a Saviour. He has so long resisted the Spirit of God, that he has taken his final departure from him. And the consequence is that he laughs and sports on the brink of perdition, and does not awake until he awakes in hell. God has said, "my Spirit shall not always strive with. man." But he also says, "Woe be unto thee when I depart from thee!" When he thus departs, he departs to return no more: the fate of the sinner is sealed. There may be a short reprieve for him; but his fate is sealed. Wherever and however long he may live, and wherever he may wander over sea or land, not one ray of heavenly light shall beam on his way. He has forsaken God; God has forgotten him, and he has no helper.

From those who have thus grieved his Spirit, God also more usually withholds those restraints upon wickedness which are imposed by his providence. His patience has become wearied, and he leaves them to

themselves. They little know how much they are indebted to his restraining and preventing providence ; nor how sad the sentence that is passed upon them, when he commissions these ten thousand restraints and preventives to let them alone. Let the sinner loose from all these, and it takes but little to make his heart like a rock of adamant. Nothing moves him; he is rash and reckless; he is ungovernable and headstrong; he is just fitted for perdition. God suffers his law to have its course upon him and he dies in his iniquity. His character is formed; and the divine long-suffering has done for him all that it can perform. He needs no farther day of grace; it is of no use to wait upon him any longer. Mercy has uttered her last admonition, and given him over to the hands of inexorable justice. He has not a friend in the universe. Heaven has no helper for him now. God himself is his enemy. Justice, so slow to anger, and so long delayed, now takes its course. The tempest beats upon him; keen and bitter are its blasts of irritated and eternal vengeance.

Thus it is that the sinner is sometimes given up of God. Now we say it is a fearful act thus to give him up. A righteous act it is, none may fault it; but it is not the less grievous and fearful. Holiness calls for just such hatred of iniquity as this; justice demands just honors. They have been multiplied in ages that are past, and will be repeated in ages yet to come. Yet it is most reluctantly that such deeds are done, and that such acts of Almighty vengeance must be recorded. We are at no loss to understand the solicitude, the tenderness, which would stay, and if possible, arrest the blow. It is but a natural expression of all that is kind and Godlike in the Deity, that he should be repre