are content that it should be overthrown but if deities like these, or of any other kind, will take a different form, or bear another name; if they will take our level, and first stoop, that they may rise, and serve, that they may henceforth govern; "Ephraim, that silly dove," falls into the net of the skilful fowler, and gives them all they ask. Admitted once into the human heart, that temple of the Deity, how soon, "when sitting in the place of God,” are they "worshipped as God!" Obtaining the citadel, who ever dreams of dispossessing of his stronghold him who ever is to us a strong man armed, and who keeps his prisoners in what may be termed a state of peace, though slumbering on destruction's brink? a peace resulting from the absence of thought, the torpor of feeling, and the assistance received from his auxiliary, the world; and which arises from the delusion of its promises, the delirium of its dreams, the intoxication of its pleasures, and the infatuation of its pursuits.

and will be seen farther as a prevailing, a constitutional, a besetting, and a most abhorrent sin. For, ah! who hath never yielded that love, fear, duty, fidelity, preference, zeal, and confidence to something earthly, which heaven alone should claim? Shall we, dare we, prevaricate with Ephraim, and say, respecting this, "I am pure from sin ?"

"Ephraim is joined to idols!" and true it is of many, whether called Israelites or Christians, in this and every place. Far be it from us to contend for the seclusion of the hermit, the rigours of the anchorite, the superstition of the scribe, or the formality of the Pharisee. We are not at all disposed to be cynical ourselves, in principle or practice; we know, too, it is forbidden us to be censorious as to the peculiarities and failings of others; and least of all would it become any preacher of the gospel to abuse his liberty of preaching it, by hurling the thunder of his anathemas on the land in which he is not a subject, but only a stranger priviWithout entering at present into any leged; but no supposed, though mistaken detail as to these several objects to the tenderness to others should render him sight, offerings to the sense, and opiates indifferent or treacherous to his trust. to the mind, it may be sufficient to re- We must be faithful to you, my brethren, mark that, generally speaking, idolatry and to ourselves, though here; and reis represented in Scripture as being member that we cannot, dare not sink, two-fold, it being outward and inter- commute, transfer, or even lessen, benal, public and retired; and that it does cause we are here, one particle due to our not consist chiefly in acts of religious ho- heavenly King, any more than that we mage. Whether in open or private devo- owe to our earthly sovereign. Reside tion, we are sure that there are idols in we where we may, we are not less Brithe heart; there may be also idols in our tish. Why then, or how, can we be less families, idols in our houses, we had al- Christian? "We cannot go where God most said idols in our churches; all is not ;" and whoever reigns, "we have which are neither of wood, nor iron, nor another king, one Jesus." Suffer me, brass, nor stone; there are found, too, then, my fellow-christians, and my felidols in our legitimate callings, permit- low-subjects, to ask of you this day, ted relaxations, and enjoyed pursuits. In "Who is on the Lord's side, who?" a word, "loving and serving" the crea- Whose harness have you girded on, and ture more than the Creator is idolatry, whom is it you serve? Can any thing 'whatever be the object on which that su- be more palpable (we repeat it) than that 'premacy is placed, and that preference be" the multitude follow evil," or any thing shown. Hence covetousness and sensu- more plain than that we are forbidden so ality (Eph. v. 5. Phil. iii. 19) are classed under the degrading term equally with the genuflection of the body, or the more abject prostration of the superior faculty of mind.

It is, then, a present and existing evil,

to do? In proof, what are the societies in which our countrymen, (answering in the text to Ephraim,) yea, so many of them are enrolled? Who are the persons with whom they more intimately associate, and where are the places in

which they feel themselves most delight- | est idolatry which either distinguished ed and at home? We speak not now of Greece, or disgraced Rome, would be any spot distinguished from the rest: it does not become us to select "Chorazin, Bethsaida, or Capernaum ;" but we might say of these, and we may assert of every metropolis especially, be its meridian that of Judea, or London, or Paris, or Rome, what a prelate of our own church (Bishop Watson) observed, (and the thunders of a Bossuet, and the tears of a Fenelon, would have attended him,) that "every such great city is the hot-bed of vice, and the sepulchre of virtue; the grave of the noblest feelings, civil, moral, and religious."

And who, standing on some eminence, and but noticing the heat and turmoil of the day, and not least on this most holy day, ordained to be the Christian's rest; whose spirit but must be "stirred up," as was St. Paul's at Athens, at seeing places so populous, so elegant, so exalted, so renowned, and sometimes so highly favoured too, almost "wholly given to idolatry!" And equally, perhaps, in the sight of the omniscient Being with those who erected an altar to the unknown God, or to Israel of old, when they "joined themselves to Baal Peor, and ate the meat-offerings of the dead!"

"Ephraim is joined to idols;" and it is both a natural and captivating sin; we mean by it one which falls in so easily with our inbred and corrupt propensities 166 -"the evil heart of unbelief, and that so readily departeth from the living God." Evidences of what this abomination that maketh desolate really is, have been already given; we only add, ourselves will afford further proof of the witchcraft and stubbornness of idolatry, whenever we become at all unchristianized, and unchristianized we are if, forgetting our baptismal vow to "renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked wo ld, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh," either here or in any other place, we live not according to the gospel, but forsake the God of our fathers, and the sanctuary of our God. In fact, by so doing, men are already prepared for every evil work; nor can it, we think, be a question but that the gross

more acceptable to thousands than the pure and self-denying doctrines of the gospel. For though we find no employment for Demetrius and his craftsmen to polish the "silver shrines of the goddess Diana," have we no agents to whom this kind of traffic may refer? What, though no fanes arise to Jupiter Olympus, nor do any seek shelter beneath the ægis of Minerva; yet if we find men saying "to the work of their hands, ye are our gods;" if we see them turning with disgust from the Scriptural embassage of peace, and scarcely troubling themselves to frame an excuse from attending "the marriage supper of the Lamb;" if they will openly profess they discern no beauty in the graces of the Spirit, and discover no melody in the praises of Zion; if there be contempt poured on all Christian mysteries, and they who so strive or serve are considered as hypocrites, or bigots, or fanatics, or fools, then can we doubt that those very men who now drink in the very spirit, adopt the very terms, and pursue the very vices by which paganism was distinguished, would be among the first to agonize for the garland in the Isthmian games, to seek advice from the Pythian oracle, to water anew the laurels of the god of war, and to listen entranced to the lyre of Apollo?

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Ephraim is joined to idols ;" and this itself a besetting sin, especially in a strange and foreign land. In ancient times we read that the "sons of God" were ensnared by "the daughters of the land" through which they passed; as, in after-date, many were " beguiled by those enchantresses of Midian ;" and is there not reason to fear that there are those (professed Christians too) who in like manner "have made shipwreck of faith," and yielded here to those temptations which heretofore they had the fortitude to resist? Not so much that the temptations were really greater, but because the restraints were fewer, and former assistances were distant and removed. And, ah! (to the younger part of my auditory I more directly address myself) if any of you should here throw up the

noonday," gorging even the voracity of death, and more than peopling "the house appointed for all living;" and for this war hath also depopulated their crowded cities, and desolated the once fertile plains, while pale famine, in its rear, hath exterminated the small residue of what "these locusts had spared." All these things happened unto them because He was wroth; and they were, as the psalmist expresses it, "the blasting of the breath of his hot displeasure."

reins on the neck of your impetuous de- with "the sickness that destroyeth at sires, how bitter will be the regret, even should any discipline hereafter reclaim you! But the more usual result is, that the bank being broken down, the inundation follows, and that you will proceed "adding iniquity to sin!" Thus, if Ephraim be joined to idols, after their idols they will go. So that neither mercies vouchsafed, nor blessings manifold, nor vengeance threatened, nor visitations dire, nor heights of exaltation, nor lowest depths of wo, have ever aroused them from their fatal slumber, dissolved the enchantment on their senses, or burst the fetters on their mind! Rather have not such shut to the door of their prison-house (or, as a late high-priest of fashion more elegantly rendered it,* "have drawn up the blinds of their carriage, and determined to sleep the remainder of the journey") the better to shroud themselves in darkness, and shield themselves from interruptions? or, having "eaten and drank, and rose up to play," have they not taken "the sackbut and psaltery, and sackbut and flute," and issued forth with modern arts or "antique pomp and pageantry," that, as "at Tophet of old," the melody of the strains may overpower the cries of the expiring victim, and the splendour of the drapery may conceal the deformity of the image.

"Ephraim is joined to idols ;" and it is a most horrible and destructive sin! All sin, indeed, is abhorrent and dangerous; but this has of all others the heaviest sentence, as it has the least excuse; so that the inflictions upon Ephraim for this one thing form a continued commentary of this truth. For this the divine arrows have so often been sent abroad; for this the firm earth hath been shaken to its centre, hath opened her mouth, and such numbers of its inhabitants have gone down quick into hell, wickedness being among them; for this "the floods have lift up their voice, the floods have lift up their waves," and overwhelmed those who thought they stood beyond its highest mark; for this "the pestilence hath often walked in darkness," and hand in hand * Lord Chesterfield. finem.

Vide his Letters, ad

And when these "woes are past," say ye with the uplifted trumpets, and the full-charged vials of the Almighty's wrath, (Rev. viii. 2; xvi. 1,) is there yet "another wo to come?" Supposing all your visitations over; is it possible for us to conceive any thing to exceed the visible and felt judgments of an almighty God? Yes! there is, as to its ultimate effect, a "sorer punishment for sin," a sadder proof of righteous indignation, and something more, perhaps, to be deprecated than the heaviest inflictions of his hand. And what is that? It is the closing of his heart, the saying, "Do not strike, alarm, or threaten; chastise him not; give him not over into the will of his enemies; but give him up (which is worse) give him up to his own heart's lusts, and to follow his own desires ;" give him up to himself. "Ephraim is joined to idols: LET HIM ALONE!" We shall notice,

II. The JUDGMENT upon Ephraim, or the PUNISHMENT of his crime.

In its primary signification, the text is, perhaps, to be understood as an admonition to Judah not to hold any familiar intercourse with idolatrous and backsliding Israel, similar to the injunction of our Lord to his disciples, respecting the scribes and Pharisees in his day—" Let them alone; they be blind leaders of the blind," &c.

But it is of most importance to consider the words (what, in fact, they eventually proved to be) as a sentence of dereliction, and which still hangs over this once highly favoured nation. God hath left them alone, and with an hitherto impenetrable "veil upon their hearts,"

Stand no

Angels! let him alone. longer "in the path of this son of Bozor, who so loveth the wages of unrighteousness." Let not his foot be crushed against the wall, but let him reap the harvest that he soweth. Let him pro ceed "as the ox to the slaughter," and as the fool to the correction of the stocks; let his way be dark and slippery, and let his steps take hold on hell.

And thus those sacred watchers heard, and answered, and obeyed, who had hitherto attended in the temple at Jerusalem. The historian of the Jews relates, that a little before its final overthrow by Titus, and while the priests were minis

for a long night, now approaching to near two thousand years. As a people they have dwelt alone, and not been numbered among the nations:" tribes of "the wandering foot and weary breast," ye have no country, no place to call your home! Yet, O Israel, though "thy house be left unto thee desolate," gross as is thy ignorance, inveterate as is thy prejudice, incurable as seems thy blindness, stubborn as is thy pride, and invincible thine unbelief, yet thou, even thou, "wilt not be left alone for ever:" there is hope in thy latter end, and great shall be the peace, and high will be the privilege of all thy children! To ourselves, however, as we are show-tering, who "by night stood in the house ing, the subject has an aspect, and the threatening has a voice no less than to the Jews. For, notwithstanding, and considered as a nation, so far from leaving us alone, it cannot be forbidden us to think or say, God hath not dealt so with any other nation; sometimes indeed, dis-angelic guard was fled, and “Ichabod, ciplining us by afflictions, but far more generally following us with mercies, and "drawing us by the cords of love." Yet from these very circumstances, if we feel inclined to strengthen ourselves in a false security, we shall but bring upon ourselves increased punishment, as the added culture of the vineyard of the Lord of hosts appears to be the assigned cause why its hedge also should be broken down," and why "the clouds" from above were forbidden to communicate their invigorating influences. (Isaiah v. 3-6.)

LET HIM ALONE! The phrase is evidently elliptical, and leaves something to be supplied. It is addressed to some one or more, but to whom expressly is not said. It is spoken to intelligences we do not see, and it is heard and attended to, probably, by those of whom we have no knowledge-invisible agencies and unearthly forms! Suppose we stand amidst the hallowed circle and obedient hosts, and notice only such as we either know or have been instructed to consider or personify as the instruments of the Almighty's purpose, hearkening to the word, and accomplishing all his will and pleasure? Suppose it said,

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of the Lord," that at that solemn midnight hour, strange voices were heard within the holiest place, when no forms were seen, and where no human agency might enter. And that they said, "Let us go hence !" intimating that now their

their glory, was departed."

Providences! let him alone. Adverse and afflictive as ye are esteemed when often "kind heralds sent in love," ye shall no longer call him "in the day of adversity to consider." Break not upon the slumber of his soul; let him no more be scared by visions, nor disquieted by dreams; let no terrors make him afraid, nor corrections make him humble, nor disappointments keep him safe. Let him alone to pull down his barns and build greater, and interrupt him not in the requiem he is singing to his soul. Let him alone to "prosper upon the earth, and gain riches in possession." Let him alone to riot by day in the palaces of luxury, and repose at night in the pavilion of magnificence. Let him alone to "crown himself with rose-buds, and chant to the sound of the viol, and boast himself, that to-morrow shall be as this day, and yet more abundant."

Ministers of the sanctuary! let him alone. "Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among his prophets." And to you it hath been so spoken"Pharaoh's heart is hardened;" therefore ye may say to him at your last interview, "Thou hast well (or truly) said; 2 N2