394 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l793 



The acknowledgment of his divine power and goodness, in the deepest humiliation 

 and abasement of soul ; the sincerest confession of our manifold sins and transgressions 

 of our duty; contrition and sorrow for the neglect and forgetfulness of God's former 

 mercies; earnest repentance and supplications for forgiveness, joined to sincere pur- 

 poses and steadfast resolutions of future amendment and obedience to his holy will 

 and laws. 



Thus humbled, prepared and melted into love and gratitude, by a 

 due sense of "God's mercies and long-sufferings to us ward (He not 

 being willing that any should perish, but that all should come to re- 

 pentance*)," our prayers, praises and thanksgivings this day, we trust, 

 will ascend as a sweet incense and sacrifice, holy and acceptable before 

 the throne of his grace. But, without this preparation of the heart, if 

 we could pray and praise and give thanks with the tongue and voice of 

 angels, it would all be vain and empty — nothing more than as sounding 

 brass, or the tinkling cymbal. f 



In this preparatory part of our work, therefore, let us in good earnest 

 enter into our own hearts, examine their plagues, as in the presence of 

 the Almighty, and not deceive ourselves, or think we can deceive him 

 (like the people in our text) by "flattering him with our mouth, and 

 lying unto him with our tongues, while our hearts are not right with 

 him, and we are not steadfast in his covenant," made with our 

 fathers, nor in our purpose of future obedience to his holy laws and 

 commandments. 



But, more especially, this becomes the duty of those who appear as 

 the preachers of righteousnes.s— the ministers and messengers of God 

 (of every degree and denomination) — to stand forth, awfully impressed 

 with the weight of their subject, and not to be afraid of the faces of 

 men, but to speak boldly, even to authorities and dignities and 

 powers; not to deal treacherously, or seek "to heal the hurt of the 

 daughter of God's people slightly, with the enticing words of man's 

 eloquence, 'saying. Peace, Peace, when there is no peace; '| but to 

 probe the wounds to the bottom, by means of ' the word of God, which 

 is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing 

 even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and 

 marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.' " || 



But although it falls to our lot, in preaching repentance, on this great 

 occasion, more immediately to the inhabitants of the city of Philadel- 

 phia, who were among the primary and chief sufferers under the late 

 awful visitation of the Almighty ; and although great and manifold are 

 the sins for which, in his righteous judgments. He might have inflicted 

 this calamity upon us; yet it ought not to be considered that it was for 

 our reproof and sins only, but those of United America, that the Lord 

 chose us as among the first to speak to in his fierce anger. The appli- 



*3 Peter iii. 9. f l Cor. xiii. I, J Jcr. vi. 14. || Ilcb. iv. 12, 



