in putting off his demands to be heard?--in preferring the world, in any of its forms, to him and to his proffered love?-in treating with lightness and disregard what he pronounces, and, as "the only wise God," cannot but pronounce, of incomparably higher importance than the objects on which these persons expend their thoughts, their time, their labour, their anxieties, and their regrets? Is there no guilt in the apology. offered for such neglect "We have no time?" What! Have you not your time from God? Is it not in him that "you live, and move, and have your being?" And has he no right to dictate how that time shall be employed?—no title to claim any portion of it for himself?—or what he does claim, are you at liberty to refuse him?-And yet, it is not so much for himself that he makes the demand:—it is for your own best interests. It is not the demand of angry authority, insisting on homage: it is the demand of tender mercy, wooing its object to happiness, and making that your duty, which he knows

to be your felicity. He can be happy without you ;-you cannot, without Him. You cannot in time; you cannot in eternity. Your refusal, therefore, to listen to his voice, is characterized not less by ingratitude, than by impiety and folly. What! no timepresumptuous worm of the dust-no time to think of God!" the God, in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways!" -on whom thou dependest for every instant of that life, which thou art spending in despiteful disregard of Him !-to whose justice every thing has been more than forfeited by thee, and who, in sovereignty, and in righteousness, has thy being and thy well-being at his disposal!-No time to think of God !— of his nature and character-of his relations to thyself of his claims upon thee-of the intimations to thee of his mind and will— of his denunciations of vengeance, and his kind proposals for thy good!—And is there no criminality in drawing excuses from self for forgetfulness of God;-from time, for the neglect of eternity;-from "trifles light

as air," for disregard of the weighty interests of the immortal soul,-which God has shown that he values so highly, by doing so much, and giving so much for its redemption! O! if it be true, that God has "so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life,”—is there no guilt in slighting this love and this life?

Let me suppose a son to have transgressed against his father, and to have incurred his merited and heavy displeasure. The af-. fectionate parent is anxious to speak with him. His bowels yearn over his child. He longs, painfully longs, to open his heart.* He has proposals of forgiveness, and of returning kindness to make to him, to bring him to a right mind, to subdue him to penitential sorrow, and restore him to confidence and favour. With the dignified energy and persuasive tenderness of paternal affection, he addresses him:-and the stubborn and scorn

full youth turns short on his heel, and tells him he has not time to hear him-he has got other things to mind; discovering at once contempt of his father's displeasure, and supercilious disregard of the offers of his reconciliation and love! Would not you, with indignant severity, pronounce on such conduct the unhesitating sentence of reprobation, as unnatural, and monstrous? Would not you be shocked by his light-heartedness, by his busy application to other concerns, and by every indication about him of his being, in such circumstances, capable of any enjoyment? O how much more, then, ought you to be shocked, when you see a sinner refusing to listen to the voice of a beseeching God?-telling him he has not leisure to attend to what he says!" making light" of his invitations, and going off" to his farm or his merchandise!" Surely the language of God to such is right, and reasonable, and just "Therefore, it is come to pass, that, as I cried, and they would not hear;

so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of Hosts."*

If we are at a loss to find ground of application for the words of our text-" their deeds were evil"-to this case, surely we ought not to be so. The principle of the whole character of such men is evil. For what is it? Is it not a preference of the world to God? How amazing the deceitfulness and wickedness of the heart-that allows men to be guilty of this without the consciousness of its being evil! Evil it is; and deeply evil: and all the deeds that are dictated by such a principle, partake of the evil of their principle, and incur righteous condemnation. Men may fondly flatter themselves, that whilst, in their pursuit of the world, they give every man his due, add humanity to justice, and do harm to nobody-no one has any title to say aught against them. But they forget, that there is ANOTHER who demands His due,—and who,

* Zech. 7. 13.