ledge the force and natural effects of the chastise ments of GoD. And if, from the effects which war and pestilence have had, we may form a judgment of the moral effects which this last terror is likely to produce,-it is to be feared, however we might be startled at first,-that the impressions will scarce last longer than the instantaneous shock which occasioned them.-And, I make no doubt, -should a man have courage to declare his opinion," That he believed it was an indication of God's anger upon a corrupt generation,”—that it would be great odds, but he would be pitied for his weakness, or openly laughed at for his superstition. Or if, after such a declaration,—he was thought worth setting right in his mistake,-he would be informed,-that religion had nothing to do in explications of this kind;-that all such violent vibrations of the earth were owing to subterraneous caverns falling down of themselves, or being blown up by nitrous and sulphureous vapors, rarefied by heat ;-and that it was idle to bring in the Deity to untie the knot, when it can be resolved easily into natural causes.——— -Vain, unthinking mortals !-As if natural causes were any thing else in the hands of GOD,-but instruments, which he can turn to work the purposes of his will, either to reward or punish, as seems fitting to his infinite wisdom.

Thus, no man repenteth him of his wickedness, saying,-What have I done?—but every one turneth to his course, as a horse rusheth into the battle. To conclude-However we may underrate it now,-it is a maxim of eternal truth,which both reasonings and all accounts from history confirm,—That the wickedness and corruption of a people will sooner or later bring on temporal mischiefs and calamities.And can it be otherwise?-for a vicious nation not only carries the seeds of destruction within, from the natural

workings and course of things,-but it lays itself open to the whole force and injury of accidents from without ;-and I do venture to say,-there never was a nation or people fallen into troubles or decay, but one might justly leave the same remark upon them, which the sacred historian makes in the text, upon the misfortunes of the Israelites; for so it was,-that they had sinned against the LORD their GOD.

Let us, therefore, constantly bear in mind, that conclusion of the sacred writer,-which I shall give you in his own beautiful and awful language:

"But the LORD, who brought you up out of the Iand of Egypt, with great power and a stretchedout arm, him shall ye fear and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice :-And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the coinmandments he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore. The LORD your God ye shall fear, and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies."

Now, to God the Father, &c.

END OF VOLUME THIRD.