'Tis a false accusation, a downright calumny.' So again ; " Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord : yet ye say, Wherein have we spoken so much against thee ?" ' We deny the charge alto- gether.' Now this shews the spirit with which men reply against God himself. But, if we be dared to the proof of our assertions, we will meet the challenge, and adduce our proofs.
[We say, then, of you, my brethren, whether ye will acknowledge it or not, that " ye have robbed God, even this whole nation0." Ye have robbed him of his dues to a great extent. Even in regard to your temporal concerns, who amongst you has been a faithful steward to his God ? What- ever has been committed to you in respect of property, it has been put into your hands, as stewards, to dispose of altogether for your God. But who has not accounted it his own ; and disposed of it rather for the gratification of his own lusts than for the honour of his God ? But, waving this matter, I will speak of other things which God may justly claim as his own. Your Sabbaths, how have they been spent ? God has given you six days in the week for yourselves, and required the seventh to be consecrated wholly to his service. It has been your duty not to do your own works, or speak your own words, or find your own pleasure on that blessed day, but to keep it holy to the Lord. But have you so kept your Sab- baths ? Have you not profaned them by carnal ease and tem- poral occupations, and robbed God of the glory that would have accrued to him by a due improvement of them? But a daily sacrifice of prayer and praise should also have been offered to him, every morning and every evening of your life. And how has this service been performed? Has God seen them ascending from the altar of your hearts, burning with fire that came down from heaven ? Tell me, whether your own consciences do not accuse you of having withheld these sacri- fices ; and whether, when you have attempted to offer them, you have not been content with offering the blind and the lame for sacrifice, rather than the choicest affections of your souls? God has said to us, "My son, give me thine heart:" "your head and your hands you may devote to the world, but your heart must be reserved for me." I ask you then, my brethren, as before God, Whether you have not alienated from him this which he claims as his exclusive property? Had a fellow- creature dealt with you as you have dealt with God in this matter, I need not ask with what name you would brand him. Know, then, that that is the name which belongs to you in the
ver.