magisterial authority, and should find it promptly exerted for him when occasion requires. On the other hand, the magistrate, whose office is rather for the suppression of evil than the inculcation of good, needs the aid of ministers, for the effecting of an entire change in the sentiments and habits of the community. Let each, therefore, be found in the faithful discharge of their respective duties ; so may we hope that God's wrath shall be averted from our guilty land, and that his covenant blessings shall be poured forth upon us through eternal ages.
I cannot close my subject without briefly observing, that we all have within the camp of our own hearts many corruptions, which have provoked the displea- sure of the Most High, and which need to be sought out, and prosecuted, and slain. O that there were in all of us a holy zeal in reference to them, and that we would sacrifice them to God with an unsparing hand ! It is said of " all that truly belong to Christ, that they have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." Can we appeal to God that this is our character ? Do our lives bear witness to us, that whilst the great mass of the community care for nothing beyond the pleasures, the riches, the honours, of the world, and those who should stand forth as champions for God, are lukewarm and timid in his sacred cause, we dare to be singular, and firm and zealous in the discharge of our respective duties, and, above all, in the devotion of our souls to God ? Truly we should all, if I may so express myself, begin at home. God has at this moment a contro- versy with the whole nation. And, though magis- trates and ministers may do much to correct the abuses which prevail in external matters, that will be of little avail to pacify our offended God. God looks at the heart. That must be humbled for our past iniquities, and purged from the allowed indulgence of any sin. Yea, that must be consecrated to God, with all its faculties and all its powers : it must first be cleansed in the blood of Christ, and then be sancti- fied by his Spirit. Then shall the chastising hand of