has often been called by affliction, and still holds out against God, shows an evident token of perdition. But of all men, the man who in former months or years was awakened by the divine Spirit and has relapsed into stupidity, bears the strongest token of perdition. For I read, "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened,-and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance." "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries." Before he received that special call, methinks a voice said, "Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" And another voice said, "Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it; and if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down." That experiment was made; that special cultivation was applied in the very motions of the Spirit which he resisted; and now perhaps he is sealed over, like the fig tree by the way side, to perpetual barrenness, and left to grow drier and drier to feed a fiercer flame; resigned by mercy itself into the hands of justice, with this sentence, "Then-thou shalt cut it down." Of all men this man bears the strongest marks of being abandoned to perdition.

Although I have enumerated these tokens dis

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tinctly, I am aware that in many instances they cluster. Half a dozen of them may be found on the same man; all may be found on some. Let us see how many of them my impenitent hearers can find upon themselves. Vicious habits,-lingering notions of infidelity or universalism or other soothing errors, indications of false hopes and false professions,-unsanctified age,-carnal security,-a satisfaction with worldly good,-a loose, presumptuous confidence in divine mercy,-increasing hardness, profanation of the Sabbath,-neglect of God's house or attendance half a day,-sleeping at church,―neglect of prayer,-contention against the truth and a demand for smooth preaching, the rejection of many calls, and lastly, a relapse into stupidity after being awakened by the Spirit of God. If to bear one of these tokens is so alarming, how ought a man to feel who finds upon himself the greater part of them all? My dear hearer, how many of these marks of death do you find upon yourself? Can you not now see that for a long time 66 gray hairs" have been here and there upon you and you knew it not? One of these marks is more alarming than that which was stamped upon Cain. In what language then shall I address the man on whom six or eight of them cluster? If I saw upon you six or eight of the most decisive symptoms of approaching death, I should give you up for lost : must I do it now? Your danger is doubtless unspeakable. It is impossible not to see that the chances are far greater against you than for you. I know that the power and mercy of God are great:

that furnishes a gleam of hope: but then we have not been accustomed to see that power exerted in many instances equally alarming. What God will do we cannot tell; but when we consider your case in itself we almost despair. Six or eight decisive tokens of perdition clustering on the same person, and that person asleep! Is he distracted or is he dead? Had I an angel's voice I could not paint the madness. Going on to the bar of God; going on to meet omnipotent purity,-to meet all the justice and power in the universe! going on under guilt enough to sink a world, and under an actual sentence of death! going on under six or eight of the most formidable tokens of perdition! Struck with death, with cternal death already, and six or eight of its most decisive symptoms upon you, and you asleep! I leave you there as a monument for affected angels to gaze at, to tremble over, and weep.

SERMON VII.

THE HEATH IN THE DESERT.

JER. XVII. 5, 6.*

Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

The Jews had withdrawn their dependance from God and looked for protection to themselves and the auxiliary powers of Egypt. The consequence was that they were delivered into the hands of the Babylonians to be desolated and destroyed. To this our text had primary reference. But it was intended to apply to men in every age. Instances are never wanting of those who put their trust in man and whose hearts depart from the Lord; and they are always like the heath in the desert.

We find two definitions given of a heath. It is a

• Preached in a revival of religion.

shrub which grows in barren places; and the name is applied to the extended plains of the Arabian desert, which are covered with barren sand, with here and there a few unsightly shrubs. This inhospitable desert, except at the equinoxes, is seldom visited with rain; and the few vegetables it produces barely subsist by the refreshment afforded by the nightly dews. From this neighboring country many images were borrowed to illustrate the subjects and adorn the writings of the prophets. It is not material in which sense the word is understood in the text. It well illustrates the meaning in either sense. Those barren deserts, equally with the languishing shrubs which they produce, do not see when good cometh. Showers may fall on the mountains of Canaan, but neither the sand of the desert nor the parched shrubs imbibe the refreshing moisture. But I choose to consider the allusion as made to the sandy plains. While the trees of Canaan spread out their roots by the rivers and the dew lies all night upon their branches; while the bosom of God's vineyard receives the rains of heaven, and like a well watered garden, sends forth its pleasant fruits, the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys;-while the eye, perched on Pisgah, is filled with the luxuriant scene, spread over the holy mountains, and sees grouped together, in sweet confusion, gardens of myrrh, orchards of pomegranates, and trees of frankincense; the desolate wastes of the Arabian heaths, doomed to eternal deformity and barrenness, never see when good cometh.

We may now look on the text with perhaps in