requited the Lord ? Oh ! compare your lives with what has been before spoken, and with what you cannot but acknow- ledge to have been your bounden duty. Which of you, in the
retrospect, has not reason to blush and be ashamed ?
And as for the generality amongst us, is there not just ground to utter against them that complaint of the Prophet Jeremiah, " This thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people : and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imaginations of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward f?" In truth, this is but too faithful a picture of the generality amongst us. And what can be expected, but that God's wrath should break forth to the uttermost against such a sinful and rebellious generation ?]
Let me then add a word,
2. Of affectionate admonition —
[" I call heaven and earth to record this day against you all, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that ye may liveg." You can- not but acknowledge that every thing which God requires of you is both good in itself, and conducive to your greatest good. " Observe, then, to do as the Lord your God hath commanded you: you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left11." You surely have every inducement to serve God that your hearts can wish. Oh, be not stiff-necked : be not like that faithless generation, respecting whom " God sware, in his wrath, that they should never enter into his rest :" but " to- day, while it is called to-day," devote yourselves altogether to His service ! And " then shall ye not be ashamed, when ye have respect unto all his commandments1."]
f Jer. vii. 23, 24. e Deut. xxx. 19, 20.
h Deut. v. 32. * Ps. cxix. 6.
ecu.