law:" And again, " I am horribly afraid for the un- godly that forsake thy law." Indeed, how is it pos- sible to entertain light thoughts of this, if we only consider what have uniformly been the feelings of men, the very moment that they have come to a just sense of their state ? See the jailor's agitation ; or hear the cries of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost. Nay, we need only consider what our own apprehensions sometimes have been, when sick- ness has come upon us, or death appeared to be nigh at hand. But, if yet we be disposed to doubt, let us ask, Wherefore is it that God calls on the heavens to "be horribly afraid, and to be very desolate?" Is there no cause for such language ? Is it intended only to alarm us, and to excite unfounded apprehensions ? No, surely : it is founded in truth : it is the effusion of unbounded love ; the compassionate warning of a tender Father. Permit me, then, once more to say, that the forsaking of the Fountain of Living Waters is an evil, a great evil ; and that the hewing out of broken cisterns for ourselves is also a great evil. God views these evils in all their malignity : the angels also that are around the throne, view them with deep solicitude, anxiously desiring to see us escape from them, and waiting in readiness to rejoice over our return to God. O that we might no longer indulge a fatal security ! " no longer say, Peace, peace ! lest sudden destruction come upon us without any way to escape ! " If God were a hard master, and his service irksome, there would be some shadow of excuse for such conduct. But, who ever sought after God in vain, provided he sought in sincerity and truth ? and, whoever found him without finding in him all that could comfort and enrich the soul? God himself puts the question ; " What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?" " Have I been a wilderness to Israel? a land of darkness? Wherefore say my people, We are lords ; we will come no more unto thee ?"
Shall we plead, as an excuse, that religion is a