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SERMON XXVI.

FAST-DAY SERMON FOR MARCH 21st, 1832.

(Preached at Market Bosworth, on Wednesday, March 21st, 1832, being the day appointed for a General Fast.)

ISAIAH, xxvi. part of ver. 9.

When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

THE faculties of man are too limited to comprehend the nature of the divine judgments. The direction of events in the moral government of the world baffles his investigation. We have indeed the best authority for asserting that the administration of God's providence embraces the most minute, as well as the most stupendous, portions of his works. He "feedeth the fowls of the air."He" causeth the bud of the tender herb to spring forth."-He" numbereth the hairs of our head:" and without Him not a sparrow falleth to the ground."-On the other hand, "He looketh to the ends of the earth,

and seeth under the whole heaven."-He "ruleth in the kingdoms of men."-"He stilleth the raging of the sea, and the noise of his waters, and the madness of the people." We may, therefore, fearlessly "tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is King; and that it is He who hath made the round world so fast that it cannot be moved; and how that he shall judge the people righteously."

Still we see very darkly into those dispensations of Omnipotence, which we call "judgments." They are either in kind, or degree, or mode of operation, something which we cannot comprehend. That which we do know respecting them is this: they are, to all appearance, visitations of extensive evil and destruction, of either a moral or physical nature, proceeding unexpectedly, though perhaps gradually, and by means, it may be, perfectly intelligible, from the hand of God. As instruments of the divine will, they are of course irresistible, and continue their dreadful agency so far and so long, as his inscrutable purposes require. Thus, when the mandate has been given, "Sword go through the land!" or "Let there be in that land famine, pestilence, blasting, locust," — the work of ruin advances, however slowly, partially, or irregularly, yet steadily on to the completion of its object, whatever that object may be.

With respect to individuals, those afflictions are improperly called "judgments," which may be merely instances of trial or discipline, or even of highly beneficial example. As there has been revealed to us a future state of retribution, where every man "will receive according to that he hath done;" and as the secrets of the heart are open to God alone, it must be ever a presumptuous want of charity so to judge another, as to assert in any case that he has fallen under the direct and manifest wrath of God. That which we call judgment, may in that instance be the medium or instrument of the greatest spiritual good.

And this presents us with a distinction, well worthy of our consideration. Although in extensively fatal accidents, as they are termed, we shall do well to apply the question of Our Saviour with respect to the Galileans slaughtered by Pilate, and the eighteen crushed by the tower in Siloam, yet we can seldom err in calling those evils which visit a nation, by the name of "judgments." We may justly consider them as the penalty and correctives of a people's sin. For, as such collective bodies may have national iniquities of a flagrant kind, and as they can exist in that collective capacity of sinning as nations, only in this world, we may conclude that such wide visitations of evil are

nothing less than national chastisements, or a general penal discipline of the people so afflicted. Still their object is always some ultimate good. This good may be secured by working in them "that godly sorrow" for their sins, which by producing true repentance, averts the anger of an offended God. Or these judgments may, by breaking down the stubbornness of the rebellious heart by scenes of continued havoc, and misery, and devastation, as it were, in spite of their hardness and unbelief, force upon them the salutary conviction that they have fallen into the hands of the Living God. "Lord! when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see; but they shall see." Thus that which appeared unmixed evil, may operate so as to change at last "the heart of stone" for " the heart of flesh," may vindicate to man the majesty of Heaven, and leave to the wicked of all future generations a lesson and example, "the which whosoever heareth both his ears shall tingle."

We are this day called upon to address ourselves to the tender mercies of Almighty God by a public solemnity of national fasting and humiliation for our many sins and provocations; in consequence of the state of the country and the arrival amongst ourselves of one of God's fearful judgments. A pestilence to be tracked by the regular route of intercourse and con

tagion from the shores of the Indus and the Ganges, has traversed the whole extent of Europe, and is at this moment spreading its excruciating ravages as well in other places, as in the very metropolis of our own country; from whence it may at length be communicated to every town and village in the kingdom. This dreadful plague is in its very nature slow and insidious; and though, like many other contagious maladies, it may appear capricious in the selection of its victims, yet it creeps on steadily and unrelentingly; and in our dense, and, I regret to say it, in many instances, distressed population, may find still among us an abiding-place for many a dreary month; nay, for many a dismal year. Melancholy as must be the condition of this country under such a visitation at any time, there is at the present moment much in our political and moral situation to render it peculiarly affecting; much in the future prospects of society to weigh down the serious and reflecting mind. It is impossible not to connect the two ideas most closely; to trace amongst ourselves a moral pestilence far more to be dreaded than the physical; and to apprehend some signal removal of blessings, which we have of late been too wicked and conceited to appreciate; too impious and thankless to acknowledge. "When, however, God's