timents, or by other once existing circumstances; now all join in one common hallelujah, and in one loud amen. The Saviour has the satisfaction of finding himself to be the joy and wonder of them all, for "He shall bear the glory."

Their acclamations, too, will be uninterrupted. They will honor him, then, not with frail, but with incorruptible bodies they will never feel languor or weariness; being so glorified, that every thing in their constitution, when on earth, which was calculated to impede their devotions, and to control their holy pleasures, shall be known no more. Wandering thoughts, cold affections, and earthly desires, shall not break in upon their solemnities, or cause them any more to render an unacceptable sacrifice, or to present to Jehovah the blind and the lame. And there, too, “the wicked will cease from troubling, and the weary be at rest.” How great, then, must be the honor which they will present to the Saviour, if it were only from the consideration that it will be uninterrupted.

He will also bear surprising glory, because the acclamations of his redeemed will be eternal. As they see fresh wonders in him; they will present to him fresh praise and new honor: they will not grow weary of adoring the name of Jesus: but whilst unnumbered ages pass along, they will adore him, and cause him to "bear the glory." For ever and ever will they adore his wisdom in conducting the affairs of his church; his triumph in completing that spiritual temple and while immortality endures, all their harps, and all their songs, will be employed in praising Jesus, the God of Zion.

Let me tell those who do not love to praise the Saviour now, that they are totally unfit to join the grand assembly above, and that they cannot be admitted into heaven, till

they have higher thoughts of Jesus Christ, and lower thoughts of themselves: yea, till they are divinely taught to hate sin, and live here with that holiness without which no man can see the Lord. Let me beg of the obstinate sinner, for his own sake, not to go on insulting this lovely, this glorious Redeemer, because he will certainly slay his enemies, with the sharp two-edged sword that goes out of his mouth; he will consume them with the brightness of his coming. Let me excite you all to join in praising Jesus: your obligations to him, Christian, are infinite: diffuse then the savour of his name in every place; ascribe to him the kingdom, the power, and the glory: say, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him." Blessed be his glorious name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.

SERMON XII

THE WILFUL OBSTINACY OF THE IMPENITENT SINNER.

"As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee."*-JEREMIAH xliv. 16.

UNDER Johanan, the son of Kareah, the Jews fled into the land of Egypt, contrary to the expostulations of the prophet Jeremiah, and dwelt in the country of Pathros. When they were there, he delivered his own soul of their blood, by faithfully setting before them their idolatry and impenitence, and clearly prophesying their utter destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; declaring to them, that God would take this remnant of Judah, who had set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and cause them all to be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt: "That they should even be consumed by the sword, and by the famine; and that they should be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach."

You are, perhaps, ready to suppose, that when the mourning prophet had delivered this heavy burden of the

* During the vacation, Mr. Spencer preached at Dorking; on closing his labors there, he repeated all the passages from which he had preached, and then announced this text.—Ed.

word of the Lord, they, like the inhabitants of Nineveh, clothed themselves in sackcloth and ashes, and cried mightily, saying, "Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not ?" No such sentiments pervaded their minds; no such expressions dropped from their lips; and judge what hard hearts they must have possessed, when you hear that our text contains their impudent reply to the word of God by his servant. "For all the men and all the women that stood by, even a great multitude, yea, all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, "As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But," say they, "we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth; and then they acquaint him with their decided determination to pursue their idolatrous and impious course, notwithstanding all that the prophets of the Lord could say against it. And since the unrenewed heart is still hard and impenitent; since the will of man, by nature, is obstinate and perverse; and since the love of sin predominates in the hearts of the unregenerate; mankind frequently pay no better attention to the messages of the heralds of salvation, than these deluded Jews did to the warnings of Jeremiah. Faithful ministers are frequently obliged to return to their closets with an aching heart, under the idea that many are saying in their hearts, and by their conduct, "As for the words which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee." These words, then, lead me to show,-that it devolves upon ministers to address sinners in the name of the Lord;-and to point out the unpleasant reception with which their message often meets.

I. We will show, that it devolves on ministers to speak to sinners in the name of the Lord.

These impious Jews, in our text, mention the word which Jeremiah had spoken to them in the name of the Lord. We said, that it devolved on ministers to speak to sinners in the name of the Lord. Yes, brethren, to sinners. Foolish, and inconsistent with the tenor of Scripture and apostolic preaching, is the idea, that the people of God only are to be addressed from that awful place called a pulpit. The messengers of Christ have to alarm, exhort, and reprove their embassy is calculated to interest those who are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity, as well as those who have believed through grace. The watchmen upon the walls of Zion are to endeavor to dissuade those who are without from living and dying ignorant of the way of salvation, as well as to tell the church that her warfare is accomplished, that her sin is pardoned, and that she shall receive of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Those ministers who are held as stars in God's right hand, lead men to avoid the blackness of darkness for ever, as well as guide our feet into the way of peace.

We find that the prophets addressed the vilest of men : the voice of Wisdom itself is directed to the foolish, and those who have no understanding. John the Baptist calls upon those whom he terms a generation of vipers, to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus Christ himself expostulates with, and exhorts, and weeps over sinners to sinners the apostles preached, whose danger affected their hearts, and excited their earnest prayers; so that no wonder they cried, "Why will ye die!" and, Ye fools, when will ye be wise? Ministers of the present day,