vision tarry, wait for it, and the promise standeth sure,") it is still a duty likewise not to cast away our hope. There is no humility in despair. When the calamity foretold by Habakkuk had actually fallen upon God's people, Jeremiah was raised up to say to them, "It is good that a man both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord;"* therefore, let such as know that their sins have called for God's rebukes, at the same time that they settle it upon their minds to say, with reference to those rebukes, "it is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good;" say also, as Micah does, (through faith in the atonement,) "He will bring me forth unto the light, and I shall behold his righteousness." Let them hope to have it shown at last, that God did give them repentance; and to have the song put into their mouths in that day, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage."†

(4.) But such as would walk on their way, "rejoicing in hope, and patient in tribulation," must follow the apostle a step further, and " continue instant in prayer."‡

Here, therefore, in my text is a prayer for

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them; "O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid; O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years; in the midst of the years make known, in wrath remember mercy." It is lawful to be afraid of judgments; lawful, so it be done with submission, even to deprecate judgments, and pray for mitigation of affliction and for its removal, saying, "for the glory of thy name, turn from us all those evils which our sins have most righteously deserved." Say, "revive thy work in the midst of the years," meaning, "renew us in the spirit of our minds," -people must. And say, "revive thy work in the midst of the years," meaning, restore our comfort and our power to be useful," --they may. But then, according to the first sense only must be their absolute prayer. If it be uttered in the other sense, this must be added to it, "Nevertheless, not as we will, but as thou wilt." Let sanctification, salvation from sin, the healing of their backslidings, be the grand blessing for which they strive. As for any thing else, let them not be troubled, because they cannot but desire it; yet be it wholly at God's pleasure to give or to withhold. For their own parts, let them remember their sins-let them consider that they deserve to be destroyed-if God save from that, it is enough. And if at this moment they are in a state in which forgiveness may reach them, and are not gone to their own place which their work has earned, need there is, and need enough, that they should be truly thankful.

(5.) There are other things, however, besides people's sins, which it is their duty to confess; and perhaps some are too apt to forget this when a deep sense of their iniquity is upon them. Praise, and thanksgiving, and confession of benefits received, are duties, as well as acknowledgment of transgression: duties to the penitent or mourner for sin, as well as to others; yea, and to him they may prove means of grace also as well as duties. If whilst bewailing their sins, and recalling the aggravations of them, people duly remembered God's goodness to his church generally, and to themselves specially, and" made mention of his loving-kindnesses which have been ever of old," it might perhaps be better for them. It would not make their sense of sin less, but greater. Against Thee have I sinned," would surely come with a still greater force upon their hearts; but at the same time, such recollections would tend much (and what else doth the Lord require?) to draw them back with bands of love to God. It must strike every attentive reader of the Scriptures, that it

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is not God's method usually to send the great truths of his word into men's minds one at a time. At least it is very remarkable, how awful threatenings and awful exposures of guilt are wont to be intermingled with affectionate expostulation, and to be followed up speedily by promises : and how often mercy is the conclusion of a discourse, which might have been expected to have closed with judgment. Let sinners therefore not confine their meditations to their own sin exclusively; but like Habakkuk, consider also how God hath gone forth for the salvation of his people, and what mercies themselves have experienced at his hands heretofore. Such recollections produced the spirit of adoption" in him who had wasted his substance in riotous living, and gave him confidence and encouragement to return; for how could he have said, " I will arise, and go unto my father," * had he thought exclusively of his own unworthiness, and not at all of what he had been accustomed to from that father's love and bounty. Let every sinner do his utmost to cherish, together with the sense of sin, the like thankful remembrance of his heavenly father's goodness.

And from the prophet's exulting conclusion, we may learn what are likely to be the consequences. Be the frame of the returning sinner's spirit what it may---be his faith and patience what they will--his submission ever so implicit, or his humiliation as sincere as it may ; certainly he may still be afflicted, and have cause enough to say with Jerusalem, "the crown is fallen from my head; woe unto me that I have sinned." * But yet, if the true contrition which is in him, is accompanied by such high and animating views of God's power and love, and parental tenderness, as a due consideration of his mercies in times past is calculated to produce; the sinner may well look to God, as still waiting to be gracious and willing to have mercy upon him; and so at least be enabled to say with the psalmist, " in the multitude of the sorrows which I had in my heart, thy comforts have refreshed my soul." †

Butlet me conclude with a few words of caution. Because there is hope and comfort for the penitent, let no man think there is the same for the impenitent. "If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land," † and may look to do it, "though your sins have been as scarlet." "But if ye still refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth