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But God is so merciful and longsuffering, that he does not execute his wrath suddenly upon us; but, when we begin to decline from his word and ways, he sends his messengers, the true preachers of his word, to admonish us of our duty; that as he, for the great love he bore to us, gave his own Son to die, that we might be delivered from death and restored to life, and might dwell with him for ever, and be partakers of his glory; so we should lead a godly life, as becomes his children, And if we shall still continue disobedient to his word and will, not knowing, loving, nor fearing God, nor placing our reliance on him, and being guilty of all manner of sins to our neigh bour, then he threatens us with terrible t threatenings, swearing in his wrath that we shall never enter into his rest, that is, the kingdom of heaven.

Now, if neither these gracious warnings nor these awful threaten ings have their due effect upon us, then will God. pour out his auger upon us, and take from us his aid and protection. Thus, as the Evan gelical Prophet teaches us, did God deal with his chosen people. He had placed them as a vineyard in a fruitful field, which he fenced, and planted with the choicest vine, building a tower and a wine-press in the midst of it; and when he looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes. "And now I will tell you," saith God," what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall, thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay, it waste it shall not be pruned, nor digged, but there shall come up briers and thorns upon it: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." Thus are we taught, that if we, who are now the chosen vineyard of God, bring not forth good grapes (good works, pleasant in his, sight), but rather sour grapes, (evil works),

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then will he take away all our de fence, and suffer all manner of evil: to light upon us. And if these judgments produce no effect, then will he let us lie waste, he will give us over, and turn away from us: he will dig no more about us, but suffer us to bring forth such, fruit as we will, brambles, briers, and thorns (all vice and wickedness), until they shall entirely overgrow and destroy us.

But worldly and carnal men are not sensible of the great wrath of God in being thus left to them¬ selves. On the contrary, they regard it as a great privilege, and they live as if their carnal liberty, were the liberty of the Gospel.: But God forbid that we should desire such liberty! For, however God may suffer the wicked to have their pleasure in this world, yet the end of an ungodly life is everlasting destruction. The mur muring Israelites had what they longed for they had quails till they were weary of them; but even while the meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of the Lord was kindled, and he smote them with a great plague. So, if we live ungodly, and God suffers us to follow our own will and our own delight, without correction, it is because he is utterly displeased with us: and although it may be long ere be strike, yet when he once strikes, it may be for ever. So that when he does not correct and chasten us, but suffers us to run headlong into all ungodliness and worldly plea, sure, it is a dreadful token that he no longer loves or cares for us, but hath given us over to ourselves.re

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If a man prunes his vines, digs about them, and manures them, it is a proof he sees in them some signs of fruitfulness; but, when be ceases to bestow cost and labour upon them, it is a sign that he expects no good from them. The father, also, who loves his child corrects him when he does amiss but if he leaves the child to his own waywardness, it is a sign that he

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intends to disinherit him, and east him off. Nothing, therefore, should so afflict and alarm us, when we know that we have grievously offended God and are living in sin, as to perceive that God smites is not, but quietly suffers us to remain in the course of sin in which we delight. Then it is high time to cry out, "Cast me not away from thy presence Take not thy Holy Spirit from me-Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit." Let us, then, be stirred up, by a view of their danger from whom God turns his face, to cry unto God with our whole heart, that we may not be brought into that state a state of inexpressible and inconceivable misery; in which we lie under the wrath of God; are forsaken of him; deprived of the grace of his Holy Spirit, the source of all goodness; and fit only for the condemnation of hell.

The passages of Scripture already quoted sufficiently shew, that God will forsake his unfruitful vineyard, and punish its unfruitful ness. He will not cultivate it, and he will command the clouds that they shall not rain upon it. To use an expression of St. Paul, he will neither plant it nor water it. That is, he will take away his holy word from such as be faithless and disobedient, so that they shall no longer be of his kingdom: they shall be no longer governed by his Holy Spirit: they shall be deprived of the grace and benefits they enjoyed, and might have continued to enjoy, through Christ they shall be deprived also of the hea venly life and light which they had in Christ, whilst they abode in him they shall be, as they once were, as men without God in this world, ör în a state still worse than before: they shall be given into the power of the devil, who beareth rule in all those who are rejected of God, in all the children of disobedience and unbelief.

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Let us then beware, lest, rejecting

the word of God, by which we obtain and retain true faith in God, we be at length cast off so as to become the children of unbelief. Of these there are two descriptions, very opposite to each other, yet both very far from returning to God. One description, comparingtheir own sinful lives with the righteousness of God's law, cannot be persuaded in their hearts that God can or will take them again into his favour. The other, hearing the large promises of God's mercy, and viewing them not aright, make them larger than God intended them to be: they trust, that, though they should continue to live in sin, yet that God, at the end of life, will shew them his mercy and cause them to return to him. Now though both these sorts of men are in a state of condemnation, yet God, who willeth not the death of the wicked, hath shewn how both, if they take heed in time, may yet escape.

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The first class are so far right in dreading the justice of God in punishing sinners, and in despairing as to any hope in themselves. But, then, they ought to know and be lieve, that the mercy of God is the appointed remedy for such despair, not only in their case, but in that of all who are truly penitent, and who lay hold on that merey, Such shall doubtless obtain mercy and salvation of the Lord, whatever may have been their sins in times past. "If the wicked" turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right, none of his sins shall be mentioned unto him; he shall surel ly live, he shall not die!" dar

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Those who continue in sin ought to reflect, that the promises of the Gospel belong not to them while in that state, but only the Law, and those passages of Scripture which contain the wrath and indignation and threatenings of God. These should convince them, that as they continue to presume on the mercy of God, and to live wickedly, so will God more and more withdraw his mercy from them, and that he may at length be so provoked as to destroy them suddenly. While they are saying, "Peace and safety, then sudden destruction.cometh upon them, and they shall not escape."

Let us, then, beware of such impious boldness in sin. For God, who promises mercy, even at the eleventh hour, to the truly penitent, hath not promised to the presump tuous sinner, either that he shall have long life, or that be shall have true repentance at the last. And he has made the hour of every man's

death uncertain, for this purpose, that he might not place his hope on a death-bed repentance, and in the mean time continue daringly to insult God by an ungodly life.

Let us then follow the counsel of the Wise Man: let us make no delay in turning to the Lord, no, not even for a day; for suddenly shall his wrath descend, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy the wicked. Let us, therefore, turn to God betimes, praying him to forgive us our sins and receive us graciously. And if we turn to him with a truly humble and penitent heart, he will receive us to his fa vour and grace, for his holy Name's sake, for his promise sake, for his truth and merey's sake, promised to all the faithful followers of Jesus Christ: to whom, the only Saviour of the world, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, glory, and power, world without end. Amen.}}

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To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I AM that neglected female, who some time since applied to you with success to make my complaint known to the public. You know sir, that patience is one of those characteristic graces by which our family is distinguished: and I am happy in informing you, that that patience has long been supported by the encouraging assurance that my complaint, already made, has not been made in vain,

I concluded my former address with an intimation, that at some subsequent period I would specify my particular grievances: but it affords me no small gratification, that, instead of the language of un

* Christian Observer, Vol. xi. 771.,

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qualified complaint, I may now address you in terms at least savouring of those of congratulation and hope. Nor, indeed, should it excite any surprise, that, as one part of our family is brought into notice and challenges regard, every other member of it should receive a proportionate tribute of esteem: as my grandfather, the Bible, becomes daily more known, it is but reasonable to conclude that our mother, the Church of England, should be more truly valued : and I am well convinced, sir, that as our mother is esteemed, a due proportion of res gard will be paid to us, who are her daughters, the Liturgy, the Articles, and the Homilies."

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As many of the objections made to my resuming my former impor tance in my mother's family have

since my last address quite worn themselves out, I shall only specify two or three heads of complaint, and pass on to those more animat ing topics I have already alluded to...

It was first objected to my re-ap+ pearance, that I was unfit for mos dernsociety, on account of the oldfashioned character of my language; that it was so antiquated and obso lete, as to be unintelligible to the poor. But do not all our family speak the same language? What difference is there between my grandfather's language and mine? Do not my two sisters prove that the same mother was the common parent of us all, by the striking similarity of our sentiments and conversation? Indeed, the same lips taught ust one speech. And is it not something singular, that the same objections should not be made to the rest of our family? But it is notorious, that every excess of encomium is lavished on the beauty and simplicity of their language; and that whosoever should drop the least hint of alter ing their phraseology, would be considered as my mother's decided foe. And may I also plead the fact, that, since I have been again recommended to public notice, I have been peculiarly acceptable to the poor; and that, not only on ac count of the heavenly subjects of my conversation, but also of the simple and intelligible language in which these subjects have been expressed ?* .

It is also objected to me, that my re-appearance is unnecessary, for that my sentiments are become obsolete as well as my languages But is it not declared that I preach Sa godly and wholesome doctrine?" Surely, sir, the doctrines of the Bible, the Liturgy, and Articles, have not changed with the times:

See the instances in which the poor have expressed this sentiment in the two Reports of the Prayer-Book and Homily Society.

CHRIST. OBSERV, No. 104.

and if their sentiments are not avowedly obsolete, why then should mine be so, since inine are the same as theirs? How many are deceived by a vain confidence in a name! How many profess to believe the Bible, who know nothing of its doctrines, and pay no regard to its precepts! How many repeat the Liturgy, without understanding or relishing its heavenly petitions! How many subscribe the Articles, who at least do not understand the doctrines they set forth! And can it be wondered at, that such should esteem me to be obsolete? And in such cases it is too much to be feared that real piety is obsolete also, and every branch of my family is suffering under the pressure of blind attachment or unmeaning prejudice.

Another objection to my re-admission to popular regard is, that my sentiments are "methodistical ** You may well suppose, sir, that Í cannot have occupied every station, from the archiepiscopal library to the second-hand book stall, for so many years, without having heard the word " Methodism" in all its diversity of signification. I could unfold many a tale of which you have little idea, concerning scenes that have passed while I have stood undusted and unobserved in the library, either among the obsolete folios on the lower, or the equally obsolete duodecimos on the upper shelf; of fears, alarms, and appre hensions, at the increase of Methodism, and of schemes to resist or subdue it: or of what I have heard from many a casual passenger, who has observed me on the book-stall and again almost instantly disre garded me, exclaiming, "Homilies! ah! Methodism, I suppose," But, to return from this digression: where, I would ask, is the consistency of these objectors, in commending those who gave me birth for the

• This objection to the re-production of the Homilies, has been made more than once in the express terms quoted above.

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excellency of their lives and principles, and in objecting to me on account of my disseminating those very principles for which they are commended, and which they taught me to express? Suffer me, sir, to appeal to one or two of those dear friends the fostering guardians of my early youth, for testimonies in my favour. Ridley, in his last "Farewell," before he sealed those doctrines with his blood which he taught me to speak, says, alluding to the blessings then experienced by my mother in the various branches of her family: "It had also holy and wholesome Homilies in com mendation of the principal virtues which are commended in Scripture, and likewise other Homilies against the most pernicious and capital vices which use, alas! to reign in this realm of England." Latimer also, while encouraging King Edward to read the Bible, expresses his disapprobation of those who did not shew me due respect." But how shall he read this Book? as the Homilies are read? Some call them homelies; and indeed so they may be well called, for they are homely handled for though the Priest read them never so well, yet if the parish like them not, there is such talking and babbling in the church, that nothing can be heard: and if the parish be good and the priest naught, he will so hack and chop ft, that it were as good for them to be without it for any word that shall be understood: and yet the more pity, that is suffered of your Grace's Bishops in their dioceses unpu nished." You see, sir, I was dear to those excellent men: and how can it be, that they should be commended who commended me, and that I should be rejected by the very persons who commend them? Have we ceased then, sir, to speak the same language? Or, pray inform me, were those good men Methodists?

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on account of my Methodism, seriously reflect how high an encomium they pay, unwittingly indeed, to those principles they would condemn. Alas! is it not real piety to which they object, when an equal brand of ignominy is attached to Homilies, Methodism, Calvinism, and Enthusiasm?

But I love not the language of complaint. Let me rather felicitate both you and myself, sir, on the following subjects of congratu lation and hope.

And, first, I have had a compliment paid to me in these days which scarcely distinguished those of my youth: a body of men have arisen, who have associated my name with that of my two sisters, and have expressly designated themselves by our joint names as the title by which they are known. This is an honour which my sisters have long thought due to me; and which, I can assure you, sir, they rejoice not a little in seeing conferred on me, as well for their own sakes as for mine: for my eldest sister says, that since I have been suffered to speak, her petitions have been bet ter understood; and my second sister confesses with joy, that my voice is so much in unison with her own, that her definitions of our Grandfather's will are much less questioned than they used to be.

How can I be sufficiently thank ful for the various modes which these good friends have adopted of again recommending me to general notice! I told you, sir, in my former address, that my size was much against me, and frequently exeluded me from scenes into which my two elder sisters found easy mission on account of their more slim and agreeable persons. But, would you believe it, sir? these kind friends, by a new process, have rendered me admissible into places from which before I had been wholly excluded*, I have had

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*About 200,000 Homilies, in tracts have been circulated since the founda tion the Society

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