glorify his name." I call on you therefore to verify this pre- diction, and " not to receive the grace of God in vain." It is in this way only that you can shew to the Jews what blessings you enjoy, and stir them up to seek a participation of them. And in this way alone can you " walk worthy of your high calling," or " render to the Lord according to the benefits he has conferred upon you."]
Isai. lv. 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near a.
THERE is scarcely any more striking proof of our insensibility with respect to eternal things, than the unconcern we shew whilst death is casting his darts all around us. If our neighbour's house were on fire, we should think of exerting ourselves to secure our own habitation from the flames, or to save our pro- perty : yet we can hear of the deaths of others, and confess that we ourselves also are dying creatures, and yet delay our preparation for death as much as if we were exempt from the common danger. But every fresh instance of mortality is a voice from God to the survivors ; and speaks to them the very lan- guage of the text.
We need not give a formal distribution of the text, as it is our intention only to ground upon it a general exhortation to seek the Lord. Yet, that our plan may not be altogether concealed, we shall arrange our thoughts under the following observations.
I. There is reason to fear that God, though essentially present with all, is spiritually and practically absent from the most of us —
[It is not improbable that some amongst us may live in the occasional, if not also the habitual, commission of known and open sin. In some will be found drunkenness and lewd- ness ; in others, falsehood and dishonesty : in some, pride and envy ; in others, malice and revenge. And are not these
a There is a beautiful plan of a Sermon on this text in Claude's Essay, page 54 of fifth and improved Edition.