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neglected or despised: they shall be removed; they shall be insulted no longer, the prosperity that made them of no account shall be withdrawn also. The other principle on which judgment proceeds is relative, commercial, colonial, bears expressly upon the point discussed. "Thou hast defiled the sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore wi!! I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more." "By the multitude of thy merchandize they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned; therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire."

This is the judgment of Tyre. Go and look at her now, with every monument of greatness overthrown; every trace of power and dominion obliterated; the very site of her emporium a barren rock, upon which the fisherman spreads his net, amidst silence, and solitude, and desolation. And what has Britain to say in arrest of judgment, when the sentence against merchandize proceeds upon the ground of violence and iniquity? "Shall not I visit for these things, saith the Lord? shall not my soul be avenged upon such a nation as this?" If Tyre was not spared, so neither was Jerusalem―Jerusalem, assimilated no less with us in religious pre-eminence, than Tyre in commercial and maritime power and distinction. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish your iniquities." And what is particularly alleged against this professed and privileged people?" In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these. Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned." Every part of this sentence is full of meaning. It is the soul that has been trifled with; it is the blood of souls that is required; it is the blood of the souls of "poor innocents," who knew not what they did, abandoned to ignorance, to negligence, to misery. The negligence is palpable, multiplied; the consequences deplorable; yet insensibility and security fortify the guilty city, even in the midst of impending retribution; and they justify themselves under the scrutiny of that eye from which nothing can be concealed. The judgment threatened is just.

Again, as in a glass, the crimes, the danger, and the duty of the country, are alike apparent, and the religious claims of her Colonies depicted. Jerusalem is not, because of these oppressions, combined with this other neglect of the souls of those depending upon her: and shall we altogether escape? "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we know it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth he not know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?" The appeal lies here to the conscience of every individual, while the charge goes forth to the country. But woe to the land, and to the professors in it, against whom the complaint shall be raised by the perishing individuals of its Colonies—“ No man cared for my soul." Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandize, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandize, and all thy men of war that are in thee, and in all this company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of thy seas, in the day of thy ruin."

VOL. I.

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"therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire."

The religious claims of the British Colonies resolve themselves into, finally, AN IRRESISTIBLE APPEAL TO HER CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES. "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God." This is the highest of all possible distinctions; the greatest of all possible blessings. And if it were but a presumptuous imagination in the heart of the king of Tyre, or a figure the strongest that could be imagined, of security and felicity, it is unquestionably a reality with us; a reality in respect to privilege; whether a reality in respect to principle, remains to be perceived, and will be determined by the hold which the appeal, so irresistible in its own nature, made to these principles in reference to these claims, shall have upon the conviction, the concurrence, and the energies of the nation at large, and upon the hearts, consciences, and exertions of professors of religion in particular. For it is the work of the nation, and it is the work of the nation in her magnitude, and it has wherewithal to occupy all the labour and talent that can be brought to bear upon it. It is a fitting re-action for benefits received: surely, a portion of the fulness which has poured in through these commercial channels may flow back in other forms of communication upon the colonial relations of a country. Even interest might dictate such a reparation, as certain to make returns more valuable intrinsically, for that which is thus applied in the formation of character, the cultivation of morals, the excitement of zeal and affection, and the establishment of fidelity. If in this single instance the children of this world are blind to their idol, expediency, the national honour claims something on the score of consistency as a nominally Christian nation, which cannot, therefore, be supposed to be wholly indifferent to the state of religion in the world, and which ought to be peculiarly affected to it in its own dependencies.

Professors of religion-I mean those who under some form, and by some name, make a more distinct profession of attachment to religion than those who are merely called Christians by courtesy, and as falling into the mass of a population and a country so denominated-are called upon to listen to the claims advanced, and to act upon them without the least delay. They ought also to remember through every denomination, and to be influenced by the conviction, that it is not a separate interest, nor should it be the isolated work of a party. Here differences should be merged in the prominent object of general concernment, of universal utility, and faithful allegiance to our common Lord. Here, if ever, all envy and strife, all doubts and surmisings, all malice and evil speaking at all times so unbecoming the Gospel of Christ, so unworthy Christian character, so hateful in themselves, so pernicious in their effects, so opposed to the spirit of our Master-should be laid aside; remembering, that during the time that is consumed in contention, the work of God must stand still. Here there should be no emulation, but such as should call forth holy ardour and brotherly affection, and stir up to love and to good works. Here devotion and labour will advance the design, if prosecuted with unity of heart and spirit; and differences may for once produce advantages, if while the watchmen see not eye to eye, with the voice together they shall sing while the Lord buildeth up his spiritual Zion. Let then the labour be divided, but let the spirit be one; and professors lose the littleness of party in the magnanimity

of their occupation Let the nation feel its duty and interest united; and let all ranks and classes combine in an object so majestic and so benevolent. Let our country lead the way to the throne of the Son of God, that the kings of the earth may follow in her train, and bring their glory and their honour unto it. The religious claims of the British colonies may appeal safely to Christians indeed on principle. These will require no argument to convince, no eloquence to plead, no circumstances to excite them; the most that can be necessary, and this is far more profitable, is to stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance. All arguments, all pleadings, all excitements, all that can be necessary to the most active exertions, and the most entire devotedness to this great cause, is found within them: these are lodged already by the Holy Spirit in their own bosoms; and the love of Christ simply and alone, in all the greatness of its single force, will constrain and support them. What they do they will do heartily, as to the Lord, and not to man: they will not stay till temples are built, and forms are established, but remembering that the loss of a moment may place an immortal spirit out of their reach, they will take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea; they will find the cathedral of nature's own construction in the East, with long drawn aisles, and fretted roofs, and religious shade, and majestic extent, and unmatched, unrivalled by human art. In every colony they will find a sanctuary, on the mountain, or on the plain, or in the valley, or by the river, or under every green tree. These have been desecrated to idolatry, or polluted by vice; let them become hallowed by religion and consecrated to God. What Christians indeed do, they will also do liberally; so that what cannot be effected by them personally, may be accomplished by the dedication of their property, through the instrumentality of others: God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you always having all-sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. It is time that the moral scene should change, and that the kingdom of the Son of God should come. It is time for thee, O Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law. With the religious claims of the British Colonies the cries of the universe are heard, and the groans of the whole creation arise on every side. The history of man is a history of guilt, and of misery blood spots the imperial purple, the ermine of the legislator and the magistrate, the robe of the priesthood. Blood is the trade of the warrior. I see blood every where. I turn to thee, O God of love and of peace, the avenger of oppression, unto whom the voice of our brother's blood crieth; to the word of reconciliation, and unto the world of everlasting rest and felicity; and there at length find a sure defence, and unviolated repose.

THE DECEITFULNESS AND WICKEDNESS OF THE HEART.

REV. R. VAUGHAN.

KENSINGTON, APRIL 13, 1834.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" JEREMIAH, xvii. 9.

ALL saving acquaintance with religion must be preceded by a degree of true knowledge in reference to ourselves. Religion now is not as it was when man came forth pure from the hand of his Maker. It then consisted in the natural, the pleasing, and the delightful expression of all the thoughts and emotions of he human spirit. Religion now, however, presents itself to us in the character of a remedy for those who are diseased. It is no longer the mere utterance of devout thought, of holy emotions, the excitement of simply pleasurable feelings: it supposes a condition far removed from that in which human nature was at first: and we shall only judge correctly in religion in proportion as we shall be found to have judged correctly as to the extent of the inveteracy of the malady which it is now intended to counteract.

It is on this ground that the subject to which the text calls our attention is so manifestly involved. The language which the prophet employs must not be understood as referring to any particular class of men, to the men of any age or country. It is language studiously set forth apart from all restricted application: it is of man, in all the broadest of our broad conception of human nature that the prophet thus speaks. Nor must we suppose that in speaking thus, forcible as the language is, he employs strong eastern modes of expression, which are to be subject to very much explanation and softening, ere we arrive at the real amount of meaning which his terms were intended to convey. On the contrary, the passage is a statement partaking of very little ornament; and is meant, therefore, to be received by us according to the usual signification of the terms in which it is expressed. There is no escape, without disingenuousness, from the humiliating contemplation which it urges upon us relative to the present state of human nature. We may regard it as a stain on humanity, we may consider it not a little discreditable to us that it should be at all true; but it is nevertheless the saying of God. That it should not occur to us at once as an accurate description, is to be anticipated from what is generally taught on the subject, in the Scriptures themselves; for here we are especially told that it is not enough that the doctrine relative to the present condition of the human nature should be stated in Scripture, but that, in connexion with all such statements, however forcible and explicit, there should be grace vouchsafed to man to enable him to perceive the truth of these humiliating and alarming descriptions.

When it is not only said that the heart is "deceitful," and "desperately

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wicked," but the inquiry is put, "Who can know it?" it may seem at first as though a charge of presumption would apply to any man who should attempt to ascertain the complex and the subtle character really attaching to it. Yet those Scriptures which tell us of the importance and necessity of knowing our own heart ere we can be partakers of any thing that will constitute a ground of hope towards God; the Scriptures which, beyond this, urge upon us to connect prayer for divine light with the careful perusal of such Scriptures, lay the truth before us in the most obvious and impressive terms. I must urge it, therefore, on you, my dear hearers, very seriously-if the statement in our text should not present itself to your mind, on the first view, as a statement to be literally taken to be very careful that this be not a conclusion suggested by that natural feeling of self-importance and self-confidence, which Scripture, and from observation, to be inwrought with the humanity upon all moral subjects.

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We are to advert to what is stated here as to the heart; first, to its deception“deceitful above all things;" secondly, to its wickedness-it is " desperately

wicked who can know it?"

With regard to ITS DECEPTION, we perceive the indications of this in the readiness with which it can misrepresent things-with which it can conceal from us the tendency of things—and with which it is found even to impose upon ourselves.

The deceitfulness of the heart is manifest from the readiness with which it misrepresents things.

The effect which the fall has had on the human intellect with regard to natural objects is not, of course, the object of the present inquiry. How far it has impaired our powers of discernment with reference to what is just, or proper, or beautiful, in art or science, is another question: that its effects have left humanity only the wreck of what it was, may be clearly inferred from Holy Writ.

We have to do at present with more serious matter. How readily does this treachery manifest itself in the mistaken views which men entertain of God himself. The perfections of the divine nature are not viewed according to the exhibition of them in Holy Scripture by men in general. Not only do men withhold their assent from certain things which are taught of the Divine nature, assuring themselves that they are not verities; but they are found attributing to the Divine Being what is alien from his true character. Accordingly the natural man, the man who is untaught by Scripture, and by the Spirit who has indited Scripture, is described as being "at enmity against God;" his mind is not subject to the law of God, in consequence of the enmity that is in him in reference to the divine nature. The sovereignty of the Divine Being, for instance the traces of which we can observe quite as much in the system of nature and of providence as in any thing that is disclosed in Holy Writ itself the divine sovereignty is commonly felt by men as though it were a wrong inflicted on man on the part of Him who presides over human affairs The purity and the rectitude of the divine nature is not received as it should be, when men can dare to violate to the extent they do the laws of purity and the laws of rectitude; concluding, obviously, one of two things-either that God has not prohibited these things, or that he is not sufficiently their enemy to visit them with punishment.

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