coming here to seek remedies for their evils, come in search of vain ornaments, which amuse without curing the afflicted, which are the means of our pleasing the sinner, but have no influence toward making the sinner displeased with himself. They come here, it would appear, to say to us what the inhabitants of Babylon formerly said to the captive Israelites, — " Sing us one of the songs of Zion." They come in search of harmony and delight, in the serious and important truths of the morality of Jesus Christ; in the sighs of the sorrowful Zion, captive in a strange land; and require of us that we flatter the ear while publishing the threatenings and the rigid maxims of the Gospel.
O! you who now listen to me, and whom this Discourse regards, reflect for a moment, I entreat of you, upon yourselves! Your case is, as it were, desperate in the eyes of God; your wounds, become virulent through their long-standing, no longer leave almost a hope of cure; your evils press; time is short; God, wearied with having so long borne with you, is at last on the point of striking and of surprising you: behold the eternal miseries which we foretel to you, and which happen every day to your equals. You are not far distant from the fulfilment: we show you the terrible sword of the Lord suspended over your head, and ready to fall upon you; and, far from shuddering at the after part of your destiny, or taking any measures to avoid the impending blow, you childishly amuse yourselves in examining whether it shine and have a lustre! and you search, even in the terrors of the prediction, for the puerile beauties of a vain eloquence. Great God! how despicable and how worthy of derision doth the sinner appear when we view him through thy light!
For, my brethren, are we then here upon a profane tribunal, for the purpose of courting, with artificial words, the suffrages of an idle assembly, or in a Christian pulpit, and in the place of Jesus Christ, to instruct, to reprove, and to sanctify you, in the name and under the eyes of him who sends us? Is it here a dispute for worldly fame, an idle exercise of the faculties, or the most holy and the most important ministry of faith? O! why do you come to loiter away with our feeble talents, or to seek human qualifications where God alone speaketh and acteth? Are not the humblest instruments the most suitable to the mightiness of his grace? Do not the walls of Jericho fall when he pleaseth, at the sound of the weakest trumpets? O! what matters it to us that we please, if we do not change you? Of what consequence is it to us, the being eloquent, if you continue always sinners? What fruit can we reap from your applauses, if you reap none yourselves from our instructions? Our only praise, our only glory, is the establishment of the reign of God in your hearts; your tears alone, much rather than your applauses, can prove our eulogium; and we covet no other crown than yourselves, and your eternal salvation.
