Hos. vii. 13. Woe unto them ! for they have fled from me: de- struction unto them! because they have transgressed against me : though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
SUCH is the infatuation of unregenerate men, that they always promise themselves security in the ways of sin : but it is certain that they are never more in danger than when they fancy themselves most secure : they may be well compared to a bird that is allured to a net : it hears the notes that call and invite it to the society of some kindred bird : fearless of danger, it obeys the summons : it hastens to the place from whence the sound issues, little thinking that, instead of a companion, it shall find a
foe. The fowler, however, who has spread the net, sees that the unsuspecting bird is quickly to resign its liberty, and perhaps its life. Thus it is with those who listen to the enchanting voice of sin : they follow it, but know not that it is for their life a : The word of Jehovah is gone forth, nor can it ever be reversed : it says, " Woe unto the wicked, it shall go ill with him ;" and, " when he saith, Peace and safety, then shall sudden destruction come upon him as travail upon a woman with child, and he shall not escape." To this purpose God speaks to the Israelites in the passage before us : he says, " Ephraim is like a silly dove, without heart : they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria : but when they go, I will spread my net upon them ; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven." Having thus represented their danger in figurative expressions, he declares it plainly in the most awful terms : " Woe unto them, for they have fled from me ! destruction unto them, because they have transgressed against me ! though I have re- deemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me." From these words, we will endeavour to set before you,
I. The state of men in general —
[To those who can see nothing but the outward conduct, there may appear to be a very considerable difference between the states of different men: the moral and decent may be esteemed exceeding righteous and good, while the openly vicious and profane are execrated as exceeding vile. And it must be acknowledged, that, as far as the conduct of these different persons respects society, there is a great difference between them; but God, who looks at the heart, and esti- mates every thing by the respect it has to him, sees that all men are very nearly, if not altogether, upon a level ; all men appear to him as " sepulchres, full of all uncleanness:" some indeed appear whited and outwardly adorned, while others are open, and discover all their deformity. Still, however, inwardly they are all the same.
In the first place, all " flee from Mm." Adam had no sooner sinned, than he lost his delight in God, and fled from the presence of his Maker. From that time, all his descendants have felt the same aversion to intercourse with
a Prov. vii. 23. vol. x. G