One of the occafional Prayers appointed for the Day. "WE humbly beseech thee, moft merciful God, that, by thy grace, thou wouldeft keep alive in us, who have this day prefumed to afk fuch great bleffings at thy hands, a conftant sense of thy prefence, and of our dependance upon thee. Suffer us not to return to our former finfulness and disobedience, nor again to yield to thofe evil paffions and defires, which have brought down thy just judgments upon us: But, fave us, O God, fave us, not only from our worldly, but alfo from our fpiritual enemies; and, moft especially, fave us from ourselves,-for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord!" A FAST SERMON, FOR FEBRUARY 13, 1801. EZEKIEL XIV. 12, 13, 14. The word of the Lord came again unto me, faying, Son of man, when the land finneth against me, by trefpaffing grievously, then will I ftretch out my hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will fend famine upon it, and will cut off man and beaft from it: Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own fouls by their righteousness, faith the Lord God. I T will not be necessary to occupy your time in proving that Almighty God frequently visits nations with temporal calamities on account of their sins, in order to call them to repentance; and, should these prove ineffectual, afterwards condemns them to merited destruction. This is a doctrine apparent in A [W. Appleton, Printer, Darlington.] almost a'most every page of the Old Testament: and among the several judgments there recorded, we find frequent notice of that of scarcity, mentioned in our text,---of which the present state of our own land affords but too exact a parallel. "Son of man (saith God to the same prophet, at another time) " behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem and they "shall eat bread by weight, and with care: "and consume away for their iniquity*.""I have saith God, by the prophet Amos) 66 + given you cleanness of teeth, in all your cities; and want of bread, in all your places; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the "Lord+ "Behold, (saith He, by Isaiah) "the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth take from Jerusalem, and from Judah, the stay, and the "staff, the whole stay of bread." This is declared to be one of God's "four sore judgments :" nor is it the only one under which we are now afflicted for our sins; though doubtless it is that of which we more immediately feel the pressure: the ravages of that war in which we are unhappily engaged, with all their accumulated horrors, being hitherto remote.— May an infinitely loving God ever keep them Ezek. iv. 16, 17. See v. 16, &c. Levit. xxvi. 26. Į Ezek. xiv. 21. SO: so:or rather, may he restore to a distracted world, the invaluable blessings of peace! May the sweet inmate come crowned with the ears of plenty! May the Lord cause the earth plentifully to bring forth, and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the "eater*!" May he crown the year with 66 " " "his goodness!" May" his clouds drop fat"ness!" May "the folds be full of sheep; "the valleys also stand so thick with corn, that they laugh and sing +!" Oh happy, thrice happy days, when shall we again behold you! When shall we " turn our swords into plough"shares, and our spears into pruning hooks?" When shall we " sit, every man under his own vine, and under his own fig-tree, and drink "of the waters of his own cistern?" When shall the Lord's awful "controversy" with us be ended; and "nation no longer lift up "sword against nation, neither the people learn "war any more?" The answer to these questions, taking the word of God for our guide, is plain and easy. When, as a nation, we repent ;---when, in sincerity of heart, we turn to God;--when we forsake the evil of our ways;--- when we "fol"low *lfa. lv. 10. A 2 + Pfalm 1xv. 12, and 14. Old Version. Ifa. ii. 4. See Micah iv. g. "low after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, When this our 66 patience, meekness*:". Christian land becomes truly a land of Christians. And 'till this, in some measure, be the case,-He who alone causeth wars to cease in all the earth; who giveth HIS people the blessing of peace; who maketh even their enemies to be at peace with them: He, "in whose "pleasure is life," but whose anger is "a con 66 suming fire ;"-" who maketh a fruitful land "barren, for the wickedness of them that dwell "therein;" -can never be expected to be friendly to us. He, who "putteth down one "kingdom, and setteth up another; and giveth "them to whomsoever he will:" who needeth not bands of warriors to execute his vengeance on a country, but can commission swarms of insects to perform his will; and though the land be" as the garden of Eden, before them, "it shall be, behind them, a desolate wilder"nesst.". He, the Most High, who thus ruleth in the kingdoms of men, can never be expected to withdraw his judgments. Let but our infidelity and wickedness increase as they have done of late, and the awful decree in our text may be expected to go forth against us, as against * 1 Tim. vi. 11. + Joel ii. 3. See the whole of that moft fublime and awful chapter. 66 against the Jews of old; "Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were am ng us, they should "deliver but their own souls by their righte"cusness, saith the Lord God." How awful is this denunciation! No doubt the prayers of the few righteous in our land, whom God esteems as the precious among men, have hitherto warded off the heavy calamities with which we have been threatened; Let but these be decreased and diminished a little more, and the Ministers of Divine Vergeance may be commissioned, without delay, to" sweep our land with the besom of destruc"tion." Where is Nineveh, that "exceeding "great city," of three days journey? Where is Amalek-where Edom? Where is " great Babylon*?" Where is Tyre, the mart of na tions, the crowning city,-" whose merchants "were princes, whose traffickers were the ho"nourable of the earth?" Where is ancient Rome, the mistress of the world? Where the people who crucified the Lord of glory? Hath not his blood been visited on them, and on their children, to this day? Are they not still "a bye-word, and a proverb of reproach in all "nations whither the Lord hath driven them?" And is not our wickedness at least equal to A 3 * Daniel iv. 30. their's, |