evermore !
It is for your partiality in this respect that God has punished you now these eighteen hundred years, and is punishing you at this day. He told you, " he would require of you" your rejection of this Prophet; and he has required it more severely, than he has all your other sins ever since you became a nation. O repent of this evil, and turn to God in his appointed way! so shall his wrath be turned away from you, and " you shall be saved in the Lord with an ever- lasting salvation."
We cannot conclude our subject without suggest- ing a suitable improvement of it to our Christian brethren —
As the Jews were constantly assailed by idolaters who sought to draw them from the worship of the true God, so are you by infidels, or worldlings, to draw you from the belief or practice of the Gospel. But do infidels assault you ? Ask them whether their objections, all of which arise from ignorance alone, are sufficient to invalidate all the evidences which may be adduced in support of our religion ? If not, then " hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering." Do worldlings tell you that God does not require you to renounce the world, and to give yourselves up entirely to him? Ask them, what proof they can give, that God has authorized them to set aside the plainest declarations of his word. You may expect at least that they shall be possessed of mira- culous and prophetic powers, or else they have not so much as the semblance of true prophets. But even if they had these powers and displayed them evidently before your eyes, yet ought you not to regard their counsels, because they seek to turn you from God to a poor perishing and worthless idol ; from God, who has redeemed you by the blood of his only dear Son, and given you all things in and with him, to an idol, that never has done any thing for you, nor ever can. Be firm therefore, even though your father or your mother, your brother or your sister, or even the wife of your own bosom, should seek to turn you from the Lord. Your plain answer to them all is, " Whether it be right to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." Whatever temptations they offer, or menaces they employ, let nothing induce you to draw back from following the Lord fully. " Be faithful unto death ; and he will give you a crown of life."