5. We learn from what has been said, that it is very criminal to obstruct early piety. It is certainly a truth, that the young do meet with many difficulties and obstructions and discouragements, to hinder them from early becoming pious, besides the native corruption of their hearts. They see not a few on the stage of life, who are highly esteemed and respected, though they make no profession, nor exhibit any appearance of real piety; which leads them to imagine that it is not of so much importance as some say. They see those of their age careless and stupid about serving God and doing good, and they naturally conclude that it is as right and safe for them, as for others, to live so. Besides these, there are ringleaders in vanity and vice, who solicit them to banish all serious thoughts from their minds, and run with them in the paths of the destroyer. The proposal gratifies the depravity of their hearts, and disarms them of all the good resolutions they have sometimes made. But greater difficulties are often thrown in their way by negligent, or unfaithful, or irreligious parents. Some parents wholly neglect a religious care of their children, some are far from being faithful to those whom they have publicly devoted to God, and some practically teach their children to be profane and irreligious. But whether the young or old, whether parents or others, obstruct early piety, they do a great injury to the young, to the world, and to themselves. They promote that which lays a foundation for the greatest evils in this world, and for the personal and eternal ruin of multitudes, who might be useful and happy both in time and eternity; which must eventually give them most painful reflections, whether they themselves are saved or lost. These things, however, cannot excuse the young for neglecting piety. If they meet with these obstructions, they ought to surmount them. Young Samuel did. He gave his heart and life to God, which secured the divine presence, direction, assistance, protection and blessing. And every youth may and ought to do the same. The young are certainly to be pitied at this day. Their situation is peculiarly trying and dangerous. And if each individual does not take care of himself, he has every thing to fear, rather than to hope, from the old as well as from the young.

I would now call upon the young Samuels, if there were any here. But there are none. There are, no doubt, aged Samuels, who early gave up themselves to God, and who have enjoyed and still enjoy the divine presence. Your duty is plain, and your obligations are great, in whatever circumstances you are placed, or in whatever station you move, or whatever relation you bear to the rising generation, to use all the means in your power to lead them in that strait and narrow path in which you are walking to eternal life.

SERMON XXX.

THE BLINDNESS OF A PEOPLE TO THEIR OWN

DEGENERACY.

ANNUAL FAST, APRIL 1, 1824.

YEA, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. - Hos. vii. 9.

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HOSEA prophesied after the twelve tribes became two distinct kingdoms, and having occasion to speak to both, he distinguishes them by calling the one Judah and the other Ephraim. He calls the ten tribes Ephraim, and the other two tribes Judah. In the text, he is speaking of Ephraim, as appears by the verse immediately preceding. Ephraim he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not." Gray hairs are a symptom of old age, and old age is a symptom of death. The gray hairs on Ephraim, therefore, denoted his moral degeneracy, or spiritual declension. He is described in this chapter as very immoral, corrupt and profligate, which is that spiritual disorder that leads to ruin. But to give a more alarming view of his danger, it is added, that though he had gray hairs here and there upon him, yet he knew it not. He was so stupid in his degenerate and languishing state, that he took no notice of the visible and mortal symptoms upon him. This is a lively and instructive description of the tribes of Ephraim, while pining away in their iniquities, and insensibly ripening themselves for utter ruin. God undoubtedly recorded the degeneracy and danger of his once pious people, for the

warning and admonition of all other degenerate nations in every part of the world; and it deeply concerns them to hear and fear, that they may escape the danger to which they are exposed.

The text, therefore, plainly teaches this melancholy truth; When a degenerate people are blind to the marks of their degeneracy, they are in a dangerous condition.

I shall,

I. Consider when a people bear marks of degeneracy.

II. Inquire why they are blind to the marks of their degenAnd,

eracy.

III. Show that their blindness exposes them to peculiar danger.

I. The first thing to be considered is, when a people bear marks of degeneracy.

There may be as plain marks of moral and spiritual disorders, as of natural diseases. Our Saviour blamed the Jews for not understanding the signs of the times, or the marks of religious declension, when they were so ready to discern the signs of the weather. They could and did observe the face of the sky, and they might, with equal ease and certainty, have observed the visible marks of their own religious declension. And what they might have done, any other degenerate people may do, when they bear the marks of spiritual degeneracy. I go on to show when a people do really bear such ominous marks. And here it may be safely said,

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1. That a people bear the marks of degeneracy, when they neglect the religious duties which they once practiced. The children of Israel were once a very religious people. So God reminds them by the prophet Isaiah. Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the first fruits of his increase." This generation continued a holy and virtu ous people for a number of years after they arrived in the land of promise. For it is written, that "Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that out-lived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel." But soon after these pious men were laid in their graves, the people began to degenerate more and more. They forsook the house and worship of God, cast his laws behind their backs, and every one did what was right in his own eyes. They profaned the Sabbath, which they once sanctified. They took the name of God in vain, which they once revered. They became formal, insincere, and hypocriti

cal, and negligent in the religious duties which they once practiced, by which they exhibited visible marks of degeneracy, during the days of the Judges. And they were afterwards, from time to time, in some measure reformed; yet, on the whole, they revolted and degenerated more, until the time of Hosea, when they were covered with gray hairs, the sad marks of religious degeneracy.

2. A people bear the marks of degeneracy, when they dislike, oppose, and reject the plain and important doctrines of true religion, which they once professed to love and believe. A people generally become corrupt in practice, before they become corrupt in principle; though this is not always the case; for corrupt sentiments naturally tend to produce corrupt practice. This was verified in Israel. Their corrupt practice first led them to embrace corrupt principles, and their corrupt principles afterwards led them into the most corrupt and abominable practices. God gave them his holy oracles, which contained all the essential doctrines and duties of true religion, which they solemnly professed to believe and love, and laid themselves under covenant obligations, to pay an universal obedience to all the divine precepts and prohibitions. But they soon became unsteadfast in their covenant, and became as corrupt in senti- · ment, as they had been in practice. They disbelieved that there was but one only living and true God, and believed that there were gods many, and lords many. Instead of believing that the only true God was the only proper object of religious worship, they believed that the false gods, the graven images, and dumb idols of the heathen, were proper objects of divine worship. Instead of believing that the only true God governed the world, they believed that he had forsaken the earth, and would not do good, neither would he do evil. They renounced the belief of the pure and precious doctrines of true religion, and embraced the absurd doctrines and delusions of the grossest idolaters. By thus renouncing truth for error, and adopting false doctrines for true, they exhibited visible marks of a deep and awful declension. And when any people renounce the great and essential doctrines of the true religion which they once professed to believe and love, and adopt gross and fatal errors, they bear the visible marks of great degeneracy. So they do,

3. When they run into such irreligious and vicious practices, as they once hated and avoided. This was the case of Israel in the days of their declension. They were once virtuous, and hated and shunned all manner of vice and immorality; but when they became backsliders, they fell into every species of vice and dissipation. Hosea says they were guilty of swear

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ing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and the grossest immorality. And Amos represents them as extremely dissipated. He says, they put far away the evil day; that they lay upon beds of ivory, and stretched themselves upon their couches, and ate the lambs out of the flock, and calves out of the midst of the stall; that they chanted to the sound of the viol, and they drank wine in bowls, and were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. And though the Lord called them to weeping, and to mourning, and to girding with sack-cloth, they persisted in eating flesh, and drinking wine, saying, "let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die." Such a change from piety and virtue, to vice, dissipation and stupidity, was a sad symptom of degeneracy in the people of God. And when any people turn aside from the path of piety and virtue, and run into the paths of vice and dissipation, they declare to the world that they have become extremely degenerate and inconsistent. They practice the evils which they once despised, hated, and avoided.

I must add,

4. It is a mark of degeneracy in a religious people, when they justify themselves and others in the evil courses which they once condemned. While the children of Israel remained pious and virtuous, they disapproved and discountenanced every evil and false way, and condemned in themselves and others every species of vice and irreligion; but when they became degenerate, they justified unholy, unscriptural, and ungodly conduct in themselves and others. Malachi says, "Ye call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered." They countenanced, justified and applauded the wicked for that which they once discountenanced and condemned. They were ready to say, "Let no man strive, nor reprove another; for the people are as they that strive with the priest." And God said, "The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah." They became so corrupt as to deny the distinction between right and wrong. They called evil good, and good evil; they put darkness for light, and light for darkness; they put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter; which led them to justify the wicked for reward; that is, to gain their approbation and esteem. A people often become very wicked before they presume to justify one another in their wickedness. This is one of the most visible and striking marks of a general and gross degeneracy. It argues that they love that which they once hated; that they approve of that which they once disapproved of; and that they justify that which they once condemned. These are some of the most prominent marks of