enlarged. You are saying to yourselves, If it be so, why am I thus? Can I be a child of God, and yet be thus forsaken and distressed? If the Lord indeed regarded me with favour, would he suffer me to be thus overwhelmed with gloom and despondency?'- -In some of these respects, or in others resembling these, your circumstances correspond with those described. You then are the persons, to whom the prophet addresses his exhortation. For you the consolation provided is designed. May the blessed spirit, the comforter, apply it with energy to your hearts, and enable you to appropriate it in all its fulness!

One general attendant on your disconsolate condition is a disposition to conclude, that your situation is without a parallel; that none were ever afflicted like yourselves; consequently that you are peculiar objects of the divine displeasure. Let the examples which have been cited, correct these erroneous sentiments. Many persons have trodden the same dreary paths which you are treading. Many characters eminent for their piety, many distinguished favourites of heaven, have at times "walked in darkness, and have seen no light." Deem not then your case a solitary case. Deem not your affliction any proof that God regards you with abhorrence. Set these illustrious patterns before your eyes. "When their soul fainted within them, they remembered the Lord." They trusted in his name, and were holpen. They stayed upon their God, and their faces were not ashamed. Follow these examples. Trust ye in the name of the Lord; and stay upon your God. Call to mind his infinite perfec

tions.

Though your case desperate, yet it is The Lord's hand is

Remember that God is almighty. be grievous, nay, to all appearance within the reach of almighty power. not shortened that it cannot save: neither does his counsel fail from the want of instruments to accomplish his Sovereign purposes. "Is any thing too hard for the Lord?" There is no depth of misery, out of which he cannot extricate. There is no temptation, from which he cannot make a way of escape. There is no darkness, into which he cannot pour a ray of light. Trust then in the power of the Almighty. Were it an arm of flesh, on which you were exhorted to confide, you might reasonably

object. But it is the arm of the Lord of hosts, on which you are directed to repose. On such an arm you cannot object to confide.

Remember that God is wise. He is infinite in wisdom

as well as in power. He is "the only wise God." Trust then in his wisdom. He discerns what is best for you. He who has appointed your present affliction, knows what particular need you have of it; knows what particular good it is designed to work out for you. You are shortsighted, and cannot see far off. The relief which you are earnestly desiring, if immediately granted, might prove in the end the very reverse of a blessing. Though you are walking in darkness and see no light," yet recollect that "with God there is no darkness at all :" and if he does not instantly dissipate the clouds, which intercept your prospect; it is because he perceives that your present darkness will most effectually promote your future and

eternal interests.

Remember that God is merciful. This is a perfection by which he rejoiceth to be known. When he shewed his glory unto Moses, he "made all his goodness pass before him, saying, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands." Trust then in this perfection of the Lord. Be assured, that while he afflicts, he tenderly feels for you, and pities your affliction. He knoweth your frame: he remembereth that you are but dust. He will not lay more upon you than he will enable you to bear. He will not lay more upon you than he sees is eventually connected with your advantage. Whenever your present darkness can be removed consistently with your own good, it will most surely be taken away. For the Lord delighteth in mercy.

Remember that God is "faithful. He is the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but his words shall not pass away.-Neither shall there fail one word of all his good promise." Trust then in his faithfulness and truth; those glorious perfections which he has so fully manifested in his dealings with the children of Hath he not said, "I will never leave thee nor

men.

forsake thee. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.-Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me?" Is he not faithful who hath promised? "Though you walk in darkness and see no light," is there not a ground of strong consolation in the following declaration of the Lord by his prophet Isaiah?" I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; I will lead them into paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."*

Call to mind the endeared relation, in which this great and glorious being condescends to stand connected with you. He is your God; the God who hath declared of all that embrace his covenant, "They shall be my people, and I will be their God." Yes; "thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, the God whom thou fearest, the voice of whose servant thou obeyest; the God, in whose name thou trustest, and on whom thou stayest, is thy God. He is thy God, though thou art not sensible that he is. He is present with thee, though thou seest him not. All his glorious perfections are engaged to preserve, to deliver, and to bless thee. "In a little wrath he hideth his face from thee for a moment: but with everlasting kindness will he have mercy upon thee. For a short season he may seem to rebuke and chasten: yet his rebukes and chastenings are expressions of his love, and in the end will surely "yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them, which are exercised thereby." The clouds which obscure thy prospects, will be soon dispersed. Thy night shall be turned into day. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself." Secure at length within the wished-for haven, thou shalt look back on the gloomy and tempestuous ocean, on which thou hast been tossed, and with heart-felt thankfulness shalt say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees." Believe and fear not. With David, "encourage thyself in the Lord." With David, in the prospect of approaching deliverance, exclaim, "Why art thou

* Isaiah xlii. 16.

66

cast down, O my soul, and why art thou so disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.

But are there not others, to whom also the subject may be profitably applied: others, who fear not God, and obey not the voice of his servant? To such indeed the text speaks not consolation: but it suggests some highly solemn and momentous reflection. Can you, my brethren, plead an exemption from all those troubles, to which the Godly are exposed? Have you made a covenant with adversity? Are you at an agreement with affliction ? Though your mountain now standeth fast, may it never be moved? Though at present light shineth on your paths, may you never walk in darkness? Be not deceived. "How oft is the candle of the wicked put out!" You have no security against worldly losses and calamities, against bodily pain and sickness, against those dreadful forebodings, and overwhelming terrors, which the prospect of death continually inspires. In such seasons of darkness and dismay, whither will you flee for light and comfort? You can have no confidence towards God; for you fear him not. He is not your God; for you obey not the voice of his servant. You cannot trust in his name: all his perfections are pledged to effect your ruin. You cannot stay upon his arm: it is lifted up for your destruction. Will any of your idols, whom you have feared and obeyed instead of God, in that day afford you consolation? Will they sustain your trembling steps, will they cheer your sinking spirits, when distress and anguish come upon you? Ah! No. They are all lying vanities, which cannot profit. They are all broken reeds, which only pierce the hand of him who leans on them. "Your rock is not as our rock." Hear your doom pronounced by the voice of him who cannot lie. "Thus saith the Lord, cursed is the man, that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. -Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves with sparks, walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.' One only way of escape remains. Now,

* Jeremiah xvii. 5. Isaiah 1. 11.

"while the

evil days come not," make God 66 friend. your Sanctify the Lord God of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread." Obey the voice of his servant. Obey the voice of his Son: that Son, whom he has from heaven commanded you to hear: that Son, whom he hath sent into the world to "give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide, their feet into the way of peace." No longer be deaf to him, who speaketh. No longer shut your eyes against the truth. Lay hold of the hand stretched out to save you. So shall you find rest unto your souls. "The Lord shall be your hope in the day of evil, and his light shall shine upon your paths."

SERMON XVIII.

EXPOSTULATION WITH CARELESS SINNERS.

What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God; if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.—Jonah i. 6.

THE circumstances, which occasioned this address, are as extraordinary as the address itself is striking. "The word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it: for their wickedness is come up before me." But Jonah obeyed not the command. Alarmed at the difficulties of the office imposed on him, he refused to execute it, and foolishly thought, by escaping into another country, to hide himself from the Lord, and to avoid further commissions of a similar kind. any rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." The folly and impiety of this proceeding must excite our astonishment. Can a man hide himself from the Almighty? Did any one ever

"He