The works of the Rev. William Thom, late minister ... - waughfamily.ca

SERMONS.^^nobles, do, and call upon us to do the fame. SubjedVs,it is faid, are prone to imitate the vices of princesand of perfonages in high rank ; would it not bewife and right rather to imitate their good qualities ?Moll certainly •, it is to be deeply lamented, becaufeit feems to be a prognoftic of national ruin, that afpirit of irreligion hath unhappily come athwart atleaft the northern part of thefe united kingdoms :Few, who are either born to an eftate, or who makea fortune by fuccefsful trade or induftry, few of eitherfort have any public profefiion of religion at all.But can hiftory furnifh out a fingie inftance oT anyempire or kingdom that continued long in profperity,whilft it had loft all regard to any fort of religion ?For my part, I know no inftance of that kind. Andif this kingdom doth not contribute to its depopulationand ruin by its fond purfuit of this tedious Americanwar, God hath m.any other arrows in his quiverto ruin a people who defpife him, and who of courfedifregard the everlafting laws of fobriety, of truth, ofintegrity, of juftice, and honour. But I will not deviatefrom the text before me. — Joftiua did not yet4cnow the caufe of the defeat, the chace, and affront,that had happened to three thoufand of his army j hehad fallen down, and he ftill lies with his face upcnthe earth j but God comes to comfort him, and gracioullycalls upon him to arifc. " The Lord faid unto.Jolhua, Get thee up ; wherefore Heft thou uponthy face ? rife up," thou art innocent ; but " Ifraeihath finned, and they have alfo tranfgrefled my covenantwhich 1 commanded them." In times of ignorancethere hath been much idle talk about the covenantswith God, and the number of them. Everycommand of God, as we fee here, is a covenant ; andevery covenant is a comm.and ; for, properly fpeaking,it is impoffible that weak mortals can bargain orcovenant with the fupreme God. " Ifraei hath fin-rip led," Slid the feverai aggravations of that fm, as I