repetition, and from being presented in a variety of aspects to the mind.

The words of the text, which I have selected as applicable to my purpose, were addressed originally by God himself to the nation of the Jews, his own covenant people. The chapter from which they are taken contains a general enforcement of the laws which God gave to Israel by Moses, by promises of rewards in case of obedience, and by terrible denunciations of vengeance in case of disobedience. The phraseology of the text is so plain, that it requires no illustration. It is addressed, as you must observe, to a community; and the very obvious, but the highly important lesson it teaches, is simply this: that if men do not grow better under the afflictive visitations of God's providence, they shall infallibly be punished yet more severely for their sins. "If ye will not be reformed by me, by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins." So the nation of the Jews have found it in their sad experience, and they are to us, at this very hour, living witnesses of the faithfulness of God to his threatenings.

Without then detaining you upon the words of the text itself, I at once assume the principle it contains as the basis of my discourse, and as peculiarly applicable to our present circumstances, and proceed to consider the peculiar form, the probable causes, and the Divine purpose of our recent calamity, and the awful danger to which as a city we are subject, if we are "not reformed by these things."

It must at once be very evident, that upon a topic like this, there is no place to "prophesy unto you smooth things;" that when called "to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and unto Israel his sin," the faithful minister of God must deal plainly and honestly and fearlessly with the consciences of those to whom he speaks: and that he can lay no flattering unction to the hearts of his hearers. It is indeed always far more pleasant to the preacher and to the hearer to dwell upon the tender mercies and blessings of God; to exhibit the compassions of his grace; to commend Christians for their diligence, and zeal, and good works; to strengthen the feeble and support the desponding; in short, to be " a son of consolation," rather than "a son of thunder." But there are times and seasons, (and the present occasion peculiarly is one,) in which to flatter men is to destroy them, and not to expose their transgressions is to cherish and strengthen them. Oh! how utterly unfit for his duty, and how utterly unworthy of his station, is that ambassador of Christ, who is afraid of displeasing men; and how unthankful and unsanctified would you manifest yourselves to be as hearers, if you should count us to be your enemies, because we tell you the truth! You know, and I this night remember our commission, " Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions; be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks. And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious."

And

Feeling, therefore, in the place where I stand, that I have nothing to do with the criticisms of men; that I am called to speak, not in my own name, but in the name of Him who is my Master, and will be your Judge and mine, I would endeavour faithfully and affectionately to perform the duty before me, and to answer with all plainness the question, "What meaneth the late visitation of God's providence? Why is it that our city has been thus afflicted ?"

I stop not for a moment, to show, that our recent affliction has been a judgment, and a judgment immediately from God. This truth has already been sufficiently established in your hearing,* and it is therefore unnecessary to spend your time in any formal vindication of the certainty of a particular providence mingling itself in all the affairs of men, and directing all things to the purposes of his own glory.

When that day shall come that "evil" shall be "in a city," and "the Lord hath not done it," then this Bible shall be trampled under foot as a volume of lies, and atheism shall hurl the Omnipotent from his throne.

I. The first thing to which we proposed to advert is the peculiar form of the late judgment of God, or if you please, the especial circumstances accompanying it. We mention this first, because it is of no ordinary importance to be distinctly reviewed, and cor

* The reference is to the discourses previously delivered by the author's colleagues.

rectly understood, inasmuch as the form of his judgments is, generally speaking, the key, the clew to open and unravel the sins for which the judgment has been sent. God generally punishes men in kind. He repays them in their own coin. There is always some analogy or correspondence between the sin and the judgment. Sometimes "God's way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters, and his footsteps are not known." We cannot sometimes discover why he afflicts us; and perhaps in most of his dispensations he has some reasons known only to himself. But there are visitations in which his hand is clearly marked, and cannot be mistaken; where "the man of wisdom" can trace his footsteps, and hear his voice, and understand the meaning of the rod. Now, the judgment which God sent upon us was not the sword, nor famine-but the pestilence; precisely that kind of judgment in which the immediate hand of God in sending it, in spreading it, in mitigating it, and removing it, is more conspicuously displayed than in any other of his judgments: and hence David, when the three judgments, the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, were proposed for his mournful selection, chose the pestilence, and thus expressed his reason for it: "Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord." He selected this judgment, because therein the hand of man was not visible; men were not the immediate authors of his calamity; but here he knew that God himself directly afflicted him; here he could see nothing but God-even the God whose judgments are always righteous, but who, "like as a Father pitieth his children, pitieth them that fear him; for he knoweth our frame, and remem

B

bereth that we are dust." God then was pleased to send upon our city the pestilence-a pestilence highly contagious, voracious in its thirst for prey, rapid in its work of death, dreadfully malignant-spreading from person to person, from house to house, from street to street-scattering dismay and horror as it approached, causing all to flee before it, excepting such as were compelled to remain, and those who would foolishly tempt the providence of God, and many of whom have paid for their temerity by the forfeiture of their lives. It commenced its ravages at a season of the year uncommonly early, and upon a spot heretofore deemed peculiarly healthy, and where none could anticipate its appearance. It travelled along the very healthiest and fairest sections of our city, defying all the expedients of health-officers, and the skill of our ablest physicians. It stripped our wharves of their shipping, and left the mart of business of this proud and splendid port naked, empty, desolate. It silenced the busy hum of commerce. It turned the key upon your counting-houses, and closed up your stores. It drove the merchants from their exchange. It deprived of employment thousands of industrious workmen. It subjected all to many inconveniences and privations. It emptied the most elegant dwellings of their rich proprietors. Along our gay walks of fashionable life, nothing was to be heard, save the solitary and reverberating tread of some anxious watchman upon his lonely and dreary round. It completely depopulated one-third of this great and mighty city; so that in this infected region, where our population is the most dense, and in which the sinews of our commercial strength most abound, the city was literally "desolate, without in