cease from before them; if he will prophesy of wine and strong drink, he shall even be the prophet of this people."

31. I am sensible how nice a subject this is, and how extremely difficult it is so to speak, as neither to say too little nor too much, neither more nor less than the cause of God requires. I know also that it is absolutely impossible, so to speak as not to give offence. But whosoever is offended I dare not be silent; neither may I refrain from plainness of speech: only I will endeavour to use all the tenderness I can consistently with that plainness.

In tender love then, I ask, Are there none among us, (I speak to you, my brethren, who are priests and prophets of the Lord, set apart to "minister in holy things," and to "declare the word of the Lord,") are there none among us who commit lewdness, as did those by whom "Israel was defiled?" Hath not the Lord seen a horrible thing, in some of the prophets of this land also, even, that "they commit adultery, and (to conceal it) walk in lies?" God forbid that I should affirm this. I only propose (not maintain) the question. If there be such a wretch, I pray God to strike him to the heart, and to say, Thou art the man!

Are there none of you, like them, "mighty to drink wine, men of strength to mingle strong drink?" Yea, are there none that "err through strong drink, that are swallowed up of wine?" Are there not found those who say, "I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant ?"

Alas, my rother! Is this the voice of a minister of Christ? “A steward of the mysteries of God?" Suppose you find at any time trouble and heaviness, "is there no help for you in your God?" Is not the God whom you serve able to deliver you from any plague or trouble? Is the being drunk with wine a better relief, than being filled with his Spirit? Do you not understand this? Do you not know the Lord? Take heed you do not destroy both your own soul and them that hear you! O beware! If you know not his love, fear his power! Make haste to flee from the wrath to come, lest he smite you with a curse great as your sin, and sweep you away from the face of the earth.

32. Can such as you be said, to honour or fear God, any more than those spoken of by Malachi? May not God complain, "These priests have violated my law and profaned my holy things?" Yea, whensoever you presume with those unhallowed hands, to touch the mysteries of God: whensoever you utter his name or his word with those unhallowed lips! But is it on this account only that God may say, "Both prophet and priest are profane?" May he not add, "They have put no difference between the holy and the profane; therefore I am profaned among them?" For is it not so? Do you put a difference between the holy and the profane, him that feareth God, and him that feareth him not? Do you put an effectual difference between them, even in the most solemn office of our religion? At the table of the Lord, do you take care to "separate the pre

cious from the vile ?" To receive all those who (as you may reasonably believe) "draw near with penitent hearts, and lively faith, and utterly to reject those who testify against themselves, that they are without hope and without God in the world?

Nay, who dares repel any one of the great men in his parish from the Lord's table? Even though he be a drunkard or a common swearer? Yea, though he openly deny the Lord that bought him? Mr. Stonehouse did this once. But what was the event? The gentleman brought an action against him, for the terror of all such insolent fellows, in succeeding times. And who was able and willing to espouse the cause ? He alone who took it into his own hand; and before the day when it should have been tried here, called the plaintiff to answer at a higher bar.

33. O my brethren, is it not for want of your making this difference, as well as for many other abominations, that, with regard to some among us, (how many God knoweth,) that Scripture is now also fulfilled, "His watchmen are blind, they are ignorant, they are shepherds that cannot understand."-"The Lord hath poured out upon them the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed their eyes: the prophets and the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed!"

If you ask what those other abominations are? I will speak in love and in the spirit of meekness. There are found among us covetous men, men "who mind earthly things," who seek themselves and not Christ crucified, who "love the world, and the things of the world:" men in whom these words are still fulfilled, "Who is there among you that would shut the doors for naught? Neither do ye kindle fire on my altar for naught. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of Hosts." Yea, are there not those at this day, (O that I might be found to fear where no fear is!) who "make themselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel?" Are there not those, who now, "enlarge their desires as hell, who are as death, and cannot be satisfied?" Who, though they want neither food to eat nor raiment to put on, yet seek more and more preferment? Who are continually studying to "join house to house, and to lay field to field?" To grow rich in the service of that Master, who himself "had not where to lay his head?" Is it not to these that those dreadful words belong, enough to cause the ears of him that heareth to tingle, "They are greedy dogs which can never have enough; they all look to their own way, (not the way of their Lord,) every one for his gain from his quarter ?"

Is it strange if, among these, there should be some who are cruel, oppressive men? Inasmuch as covetousness knows no mercy, nor can a lover of money be a lover of his neighbour. Have not some been known even to "grind the face of the poor?" To strip, rather than clothe the naked? Some, who while they cried out, "as the horse-leach, Give, give," would take if it were not given; like VOL. 8.-Dd

those of old who said, "Thou shalt give it me now, and if not, I will take it by force :" or those spoken of by Micah, "The prophets bite with their teeth, and cry peace: and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him." Very great is the sin of these men before the Lord. If there be ten such now in the land, may God smite them this day with terror and astonishment, that they may have no rest in their bones till their sin is done away! 34. Are you as watchful and zealous to gain souls, as those are to gain the gold that perisheth? Do you know by experience what that meaneth, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up?" Or are you one of those watchmen who do not watch at all? Who neither know nor care when the sword cometh? Of whom the prophet saith, "They are dumb dogs that cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber?"

Can it be supposed, that such shepherds will feed the flock? Will "give to every one his portion of meat in due season?" Will these "warn every man, and exhort every man, that they may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus ?" Will they take care to "know all their flock by name, not forgetting the men-servants and womenservants?" Will they inquire into the state of every soul committed to their charge? And watch over each with all tenderness and longsuffering, "as they that must give account?" Marking how they either fall or rise? How these wax "weary and faint in their mind;" and those "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ?" Who can do this, unless his whole heart be in the work? Unless he desire nothing but to "spend and be spent for them;" and "count not his life dear unto himself," so he may "present them blameless" in the day of the Lord Jesus?

Can any shepherd do this (and if he do it not, he will never "give any account with joy") who imagines, he has little more to do, than to preach once or twice a week? That this is the main point, the chief part of that office, which he hath taken upon himself before God? What gross ignorance is this! What a total mistake of the truth! What a miserable blunder touching the whole nature of his office! It is indeed a very great thing, To speak in the name of God; it might make him that is of the stoutest heart tremble, if he considered, That every time he speaks to others, his own soul is at stake. But great, inexpressibly great as this is, it is perhaps the least part of our work. To "seek and to save that which is lost," to bring souls from Satan to God, to instruct the ignorant, to reclaim the wicked, to convince the gainsayer: to direct their feet into the way of peace, and then keep them therein; to follow them step by step, lest they turn out of the way, and advise them in their doubts and temptations; to lift up them that fall, to refresh them that are faint, and to comfort the weak-hearted; to administer various helps, as the variety of occasions require, according to their several necessities. These are parts of our office; all this we have undertaken at the peril of our own soul. A sense of this made that holy man of old cry out, "I marvel if any ruler in the Church shall be saved:"

and a greater than he says, in the fulness of his heart, "Who is sufficient for these things?"

35. But who is not sufficient for these things, for the taking care of a parish, though it contain twenty thousand souls, if this implies no more than the taking care to preach there, once or twice a-week; and to procure one to read prayers on the other days, and do what is called the parish duty? Is any trade in the nation so easy as this? Is not any man sufficient for it, without any more talents, either of nature or grace, than a small degree of common understanding? But, O! what manner of shepherds are those, who look no farther into the nature of their office, who sink no deeper into the importance of it than this! Were they not such as these concerning whom the "word of the Lord came unto Ezekiel, saying, Wo be to the shepherds that do feed themselves: should not the shepherds feed the flock? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool; but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost. And they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became meat to all the beasts of the field. Yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them."

I conjure you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, who hath bought them and us with his own blood, apply this each to his own soul. Let every man look unto God and say, Lord, Is it I? Am I one of these idle, careless, indolent shepherds, that feed myself, not the flock? Am I one that cannot bark, slothful, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber? One of those who have not strengthened that which was diseased, neither healed that which was sick? "Search me, O Lord, and prove me; try out my reins and my heart. Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

36. Have I not at least, "Healed the hurt of thy people slightly?" Have I not said, "Peace, peace, when there was no peace?"-How many are they also that do this! Who do not study to speak what is true, especially to the rich and great, so much as what is pleasing? Who flatter honourable sinners instead of telling them plainly, "How can ye escape the damnation of hell?" O what an account have you to make, if there be a God that judgeth the earth! Will he not require at your hands the blood of all these souls, of whom ye are the betrayers and murderers? Well spake the prophets of your fathers, in whose steps you now tread: "They have seduced my people, and one built up a wall, and another daubed it with untempered mortar. They strengthen the hands of the evil-doers, that none doth return from his wickedness. They prophesy lies in my name, saith the Lord. They say unto them that despise me, Ye shall have peace, and unto them that walk after the imagination of their own heart, no evil shall come upon you.'

How great will your damnation be, who destroy souls, instead of saving them! Where will you appear, or how will you stand, "in that great and terrible day of the Lord!" How will you lift up your heads, when "the Lord descends from heaven in flaming fire, to take vengeance on his adversaries!" More especially on those who have so betrayed his cause, and done Satan's work under the banner of Christ! With what voice wilt thou say, "Behold me, Lord, and the sheep whom thou hadst given me, whom I gave to the Devil, and told them they were in the way to heaven, till they dropped into hell?"

Were they not just such shepherds of souls as you are, concerning whom God spake by Jeremiah? "Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot; they have made my portion a desolate wilderness:" by Ezekiel, "There is a conspiracy of her prophets, like a roaring lion, ravening the prey, they have devoured souls:" and by Zechariah, "Thus saith the Lord, Feed the flock of the slaughter, whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty! and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich; and their own shepherds pity them

not."

37. Is not this the real ground, the principal reason of the present contempt of the Clergy? And long since was it assigned as such, by him who cannot lie. The same men of old, who made the Lord's people to transgress, thereby made themselves vile. They were despised both as the natural effect, and the judicial punishment of their wickedness. And the same cause the prophet observes to have produced the same effect, many hundreds of years after this, "Ye are departed out of the way, saith the Lord; ye have caused many to stumble-Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people."

I have now, brethren, " delivered my own soul," and in so doing, I have (as I proposed at first) "used great plainness of speech," as not studying "to please men, but the Lord." The event I leave to him in whose name I have spoken, and who hath the hearts of all men in his hand.

I have brought you heavy tidings this day, and yet I cannot but be persuaded, that some of you will not count me your enemy, because I tell you the truth. O that all of us may taste the good word which we declare! May receive that knowledge of salvation, which we are commanded to preach unto every creature, through the remission of sins! My heart's desire is, That all of us, to whom is committed the ministry of Reconciliation, may ourselves be reconciled to God, through the blood of the everlasting covenant: That he may be henceforth unto us a God, and we may be unto him a people; that we may all know as well as preach the Lord from the least unto the greatest: even by that token, "I am merciful to thy unrighteousness: thy sins I remember no more!"

III. 1. I have hitherto spoken more immediately to those, who profess themselves members of the Church of England. But inas