SER16ION LW. 157 curse shallattend our exercises ofdivine worship : Adrop of this sort of vengeance lighting on us, " will turn our eyes intodark- ness and our hearts into nether mill-stones ; and after all this, his full. indignation may be poured out upon the land, in most sensible instances, nor his anger be turned away from us, but his hand stretched out still." Thus he dealt with the Jews his own people; let us read it and fear the parallel; Is. vî. 10, 11. " Go make the heart of this peoplefat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,,and convert and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long : And heanswered, until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate." The foregoingchap- ters will inform us of the sins that procured this threatening; it will be well if we do not find our names or characters there. I must not break of this part of my discourse without mention of the final consequent of prevailing iniquity, 'and that is, that the inhabitants of such a nation shall go down to hell by thousands ; and England, that bath been lifted up to heaven by divine favours, shall be thrust down to the bottomless pit for her aggravated abominations. Eternal death is the wages of sin; Rom. vi.' 23. and can we bear this thought, that the place of torment shallbe thronged with our neighbours and acquaintance, and the dominions of hell peopled out ofthe land ofour nativity ? "Multitudes, multitudes in thevalleyof decision, when the hea- thens shall be awakened, when the Lord shall sit there to judge the nations round about ;" Joel iii. 12, 14. What a terrible fore-thought is it, if almost all England should be placed at the left-hand of the Judge in that day, and fall under the sentence, Depart ye cursed? And perhaps numbers of our own kindred, ruined by the growing vices of the nation, shall stand amongst the guilty, and expect the vengeance. Let a natural com- passion touch our hearts here, and move us by proper me- thods to put a stop to spreadingwickedness. Let us use our utmost efforts to quench that fire which will burn to the low- est hell. The third proposal was to mention the discouragements that attend this work of reformation, and to try to remove them. I. Reproaches and scandals have been cast plentifully upon the societies for reformation : These are ready to sink the spirits of such as are engaged in the work, and affright others from joining their assistance. But have you so learned Christ, as to shrink at his service, and retire because the world hates you, and gives you ill language? Consider the Captain ofyour Sal- vation, what a sea of malice and reproach he passed through, when he came Gown from heaven to take upon him the work of
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