not the death of a sinner, sees the fatal tendency of our evil thoughts ? And wherefore this kind impatience in the reproof, but because he sees that the evil, if indulged, will grow upon us ; and that, if not speedily suppressed, it will terminate in our ruin ?
Tenderly then would we exhort you all to mark the secret motions of your hearts. In respect of actions, many of you, no doubt, are virtuous, and, to a certain degree, blameless. But if you will call to mind the "vain thoughts" that have lodged within you, you will find abundant reason to blush, and be confounded before God in dust and ashes1. You will see that you need the blood of Christ to cleanse you from guilt, and the Spirit of Christ to create in you a new heart, as much as the most abandoned wretch on earth : and that, unless you set yourselves in earnest to " cleanse your hands, and purify your hearts"," there can be no salvation for you.
Say, Beloved, when will you begin this necessary work? With a holy impatience we would urge you to begin it in- stantly ; lest, while you are purposing amendment, you be summoned unprepared to meet your God in judgments]
1 Ps. xix. 12. Prov. xx. 9. u Jam. iv. 8. x Isai. lv. 7.
Jer. iv. 19. My bowels, my bowels ! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me: I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, 0 my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm ofivar.
THE propriety of setting apart days for national humiliation is questioned by none, except those who despise all religion, or those whose extravagant prin- ciples of liberty lead them to set at nought all human authorities. The most pious of the Jewish kings endeavoured to unite their subjects in prayer and supplication, as the best means of averting the judg- ments which they either felt or feared : and even heathen monarchs have resorted to it, as that which their own consciences taught them was the most likely way to obtain favour with the Most High. We have reason to be thankful that this nation is now called in the most solemn manner to humble itself before God, and to implore help from him under its