serve him not.' We must remember, that God interprets our actions; and considers men as speaking those things which their conduct shews to be the secret language of their hearts. And indeed this is strictly just ; for all must allow, that actions speak more forcibly, and more truly, than words. But will not the Lord do good or evil ? Will he not reward those that diligently seek him? Will he clear the guilty, and" suffer them to pass unpunished ? No, assuredly ; " he will put a difference between the righteous and the wicked; between those who serve him, and those who serve him notd." Yet such are the lies which ungodly men are speaking against him. Let any one say, whether this be not really the state of carnal unregenerate men? Do they not thus flee from God's presence, transgress against his laws, and, in their conduct at least, misrepresent him to the world ? Let us look round the world, and see whether this be not a true picture of mankind? Let us look into our own bosoms, and see whether it do not exactly represent ourselves? It may be, that we have not been so openly immoral as others : but yet, if we will examine our own hearts, we shall see that we have been as far from any real delight in secret communion with God as the most profligate man on earth. We have been as far from sacri- ficing all our own interests and inclinations to the will and law of God as the most flagrant rebel in the world : nor have we, in our actions, been living witnesses for the truth of God, any more than those who have denied every word of the Bible. This then is clearly the state of all unregenerate men.]
We come now to shew vou,
II. The peculiar sinfulness of their state —
[If, without attending to any collateral circumstances, we were simply to point out the evil which is contained in the foregoing conduct, methinks the state of such men would ap- pear beyond measure sinful : but the sinfulness of it is greatly aggravated by the consideration in my text ; " Though I have redeemed them, yet have they spoken lies against me."
If we call to mind the mercies which had been vouchsafed to the Israelites, we shall perceive that the malignity of their sins was exceedingly enhanced by the obligations which had been conferred upon them: they had been delivered from their bondage in Egypt, and brought to a land flowing with milk and honey. Such an interposition as this never had been known from the beginning of the world : that God should go and take an oppressed nation out of the midst of another na- tion ; that he should reign over them as their king ; that he
d Mai. iii. 13. g2