of sanctity render it only the more detestable in his sight, whilst the life corresponds not with his professions. To the Philadelphia!! Church, God says, " I would thou wert cold or hot: but, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth V To our ears, this very expression is so offensive, that, if it were not the very word of God himself, we could not venture to use it : but the more offensive it is, the more it serves to illustrate that which I am endeavouring to mark — the odiousness of sin. Let us remember, that there is nothing of gross sin imputed to these persons : nothing is laid to their charge, but a want of zeal in the service of their God : yet of them is it said, that they fill Jehovah himself with such disgust, that he cannot endure the least connexion with them, but casts them off with utter abhor- rence. What can shew sin in its true colours, if this do not ?]
4. In those who, after some profession of religion,
turn back from it —
[To these is applied a proverb, which places them in their just light: "They turn back with the dog to his vomit, and with the sow, that was washed, to the wallowing in the mire." Take these images : ponder them in your minds : conceive what a taste they display : and then transfer the idea to a man's returning to sin. Is it possible for language to convey, either in more appropriate or more disgusting terms, the truth I am insisting on ? Only let us realize these images, and we shall need nothing further to shew us " the exceeding sinful- ness of sin."]
From this view of the odiousness of sin, let me pro- ceed to state,
II. What reason we have to humble ourselves before God on account of it —
Men will not acknowledge themselves so vile as God represents them to be : and, even when he him- self accuses them, they will insolently deny the charge, just as those did whom the prophet addressed in the words before us. It is remarkable, that to every dis- tinct charge of the prophet, whether implied or expressed, the Jews returned the very same challenge: " Return unto me." " Wherein shall we return ?" that is, ' We do not know that we have ever departed : how then can we return?' So in the text: "Ye have robbed God." ' Wherein have we robbed him?
t> Rev. iii. 15, 16.