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THOU ART THE MAN.

our deficiencies. Probably, my brethren, we have been "leaning too little upon the hope of this heavenly grace;" we have been relying upon our own perception of right and wrong, our own choice and decision, our own feeble resolutions; if so, no wonder that we have failed, in our work of repentance and spiritual change. "Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned :"* here lies our hope and our strength, in the renewing influence of the Spirit of God. As we do desire, so let us fervently pray, that we may, in our course of penitence, imitate the example of the royal psalmist, and let contrition "have its perfect work ;" that we may, here below, with heart and soul, join in the pious and repentant strains of David's harp, and thus may be admitted to sing to other harps hereafter, in the chorus of the Redeemed above.

* Lament. v. 21.

SERMON XI.

THE WAY OF THE LORD EQUAL.

EZEK. Xviii. 25.

Ye say, the way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?

THE main purport of this chapter was, to obviate some objections which had been groundlessly entertained against the dealings of God with His people. They were at that time suffering in a state of captivity; and the calamities attendant upon it had been threatened long before, as a punishment for the sins of their ancestors. The Jews, therefore, assuming that this was the only cause of divine vengeance; imagining, in the blindness

and pride of their hearts, that there were no delinquencies of their own to deserve such retribution, presumed to charge the Almighty with injustice, for this visitation of His wrath.

The prophet, in the opening of the chapter, thus remonstrates with them: "What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel?" (concerning the evils with which it is afflicted,) that ye say, in the language of accusation and reproach, "the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge?"-thereby meaning, that the present generation are unjustly punished for the transgressions of their forefathers. "As I live, saith the Lord, ye shall not have occasion to use this proverb any more in Israel." I will make so visible a discrimination between the righteous and the wicked, between those who tread in the steps of their wicked progenitors, and those who take warning by their examples, that you shall not have any further occasion to use this proverb amongst you.

The Jews, in this as in many other instances, misunderstood and perverted the dispensations of the Most High. God

had declared, that He would "visit the sins of the fathers upon the children," and that He "would shew mercy unto thousands of those that loved Him;" from which they inferred, that worldly calamities, in the one case, and prosperity in the other, constituted the sole recompence, which they were severally to expect: they supposed, that when a nation was punished, on account of the general depravity, no respect was had to the different merits of individuals, of which that nation consisted; and that, when a people were prospered and exalted, as the reward of righteousness, they were all, of necessity, the objects of divine favour. Whereas, these temporal rewards and punishments formed but a part of the dispensation, under which they were placed. God had far other means in store, to bless the faithful and to afflict the transgressor. Under every visitation, His unerring eye could

discern between the evil and the good; the one, however prosperous in a worldly point of view, He could mortify and humble; and the other, in whatever evil they might be involved, He could favour and bless.

But there was still another consideration, to which the Jews, though they practically disregarded it, were specially directed; a consideration, which might have taught them, how the seeming irregularities, of which they complained, would be completely rectified; it was that of a final judgment, of a world to come. Their prophet Isaiah expressly says of the transgressors, that "their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched."* And Daniel more particularly intimates the awful difference between the conditions of the righteous and the wicked in a future state; "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." But

* Isaiah lxvi. 24. + Dan. xii. 2.

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