unto God; and let those for ever bless his name for whom he has turned the dry land into springs of water, to whom Christ has been as rivers of water in a dry place. "I did know thee," says God to Israel, "in the wilderness, in the land of great drought;" and so may he say to every Christian, to whom also that gracious promise shall one day be fulfilled. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; for " the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

From God and happiness we fly

To earth and sense confined,
Lost in a maze of misery,

Yet to our misery blind.

Whene'er the man begins his race
The criminal appears,
And evil habits keep their pace

With our increasing years.

Corruption flows through all our veins,
Our moral beauty's gone,
The gold is fled, the dross remains,
O sin, what hast thou done?

Jesus, reveal thy pardoning grace,
And draw our souls to thee,
Thou art the only hiding place

Where ruined souls can flee.

SERMON XLVI.

SIN OFFENSIVE BOTH TO GOD AND MEN.

1 THESSALONIANS II. 15.

They please not God, and are contrary to all men.

CHARITY to men, and piety towards God, are so necessarily connected together, that where there is a want of the one there will be a proportionate deficiency in the other; hence the apostle gives it as the character of some atrocious and abandoned sinners, "They please not God, and are contrary to all men." Let us contemplate each of these

characters.

I. They please not God. Perhaps the direct meaning may be, that they do not endeavour to do those things that are pleasing to him. Prayer is so; "The prayer of the righteous is his delight." Praise is so; it pleases him better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. Every duty rightly performed is so; for the saints are an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God, acceptable through Jesus Christ. But the persons here spoken of are "to every good work reprobate." Whether God be pleased or displeased is a matter of indifference to them. They please themselves and their own foolish fancies, and that is enough; they walk, as Solomon expresses it, in the way of their own heart, and sight of their own eyes, forgetful of their obligations to God, and the account that they must render to him. But it seems necessary to me, without confining myself to the immediate sense of the apostle, to

consider this character more extensively: and those may be said not to please God,

1. Who are not interested in the merit, or clothed with the spotless and beautifying righteousness of Christ. That the imputation of Christ's righteousness is the sole ground upon which God approves of the persons or services of any, is every where affirmed in Scripture. "The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake, who hath magnified the law and made it honourable." "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Not only well pleased with him, but in him, with those that are in him, for whom he gave himself, and who have given themselves to him. But this is not the case of wicked men; they content themselves with their own righteousness. Some endeavour to recommend themselves to God by their good works, and others set him at defiance by their wicked works, whilst both trample upon the blood of Christ, run the risk of unpardoned guilt, and expose themselves to the Divine indignation. They lie under the curse of the law which they have broken, and shall receive no relief from that gospel which they despise. They set aside the sacrifice of Christ, and there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin.

2. Who are destitute of the sanctifying grace of the Spirit; or, in other words, are in an unconverted state. To this purpose are those words of the apostle Paul,"They that are in the flesh cannot please God." By "the flesh" we are not to understand the body, but that state of corruption in which all men naturally are. There is too much of this flesh in the best of saints. Thus the apostle speaks of sin that dwelt in him; but wicked men are in the flesh; they are, as it were, absorbed by it. They walk according to it, and make provision for it to fulfil its lusts; they live and act under the full power and influence of their unmortified corruptions, and have at the same time a strong propensity to that which is evil, and aversion to that which is good. Now the passage before quoted not only says that

facts bemel, but even the possy of it, without grace. *** THAT LAI THry mings agreeable to the divine law, but Buching KEChea de re Being, who looks at the principle more in de asia As long as we are in İmosta va si we nos be enemies to God, and God at enemy 27 :- My scal loatheth them, their soul also correct me.”

3. Ai mbelevers come under this character in my text; for we are expressly aid that without faith it is impossible to please God. In all arts of worship faith must be exercised in God, who is the great object of worship. "We mast believe that he is, and that be is the rewarder of all them that diligently seek him." And it is equally necessary that as fallen creatures we exercise faith in Christ, as the medium of our worship- No man cometh to the Father but by me." It was by faith Abel offered a more excellent and acceptable sacrifice than Cain; and as this is the first act of worship spoken of in Scripture, it deserves our particular notice. Cain brought a sacrifice of acknowledgment, but Abel of expiation; intimating thereby his firm reliance upon the merits of the Redeemer for the forgiveness of his sin and acceptance with God. Unbelief robs man of his happiness, and God of his glory. Sin is our disease, and unbelief rejects the remedy. The sinner is in a state of confinement, and unbelief is the fetter that binds him. Justice must be satisfied before God is reconciled, and Christ made no satisfaction for unbelievers. In a word, unbelief is the parent of stupidity and hardness of heart, and effectually bars the way to heaven: "They could not enter in because of unbelief."

4. This also applies to all hypocrites and formal professors, whose holiness is a pretence, and their religion vain. Such may please themselves, and please others, as did the Scribes and Pharisees; but as they cannot deceive, so neither can they please God. "To what purpose," says he, "is the multitude of your sacrifices?" Without the religion of the heart the most splendid and pompous services will be unacceptable

to the Searcher of hearts. "Though we give our body to be burnt, and our goods to feed the poor, yet without charity it will profit us nothing." Our multiplied alms will not atone for our more multiplied sins, or the burning of our bodies secure us from the torments of hell. The church at Laodicea was high in its pretences, and equally so in its expectations; but how strongly does God express his resentment at its lukewarmness: "Because thou art neither cold nor hot I will spue thee out of my mouth." Their temper and conduct were so far from being pleasing, that they were exceedingly offensive to God.

5. To these we must certainly add, the openly wicked and profane. It is not likely that profligate offenders, who commit sin without blushing, and persist in it without remorse, should please God; God hath pleasure in uprightness, but not in wickedness. If those that want real piety cannot be pleasing to God, much more those that want common honesty. A froward heart and a profligate life are both alike an abomination to him. See that black catalogue of sins, lying and falsehood, injustice and oppression. It follows, "The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment." I proceed now

To the second character in my text-Contrary to all men. Wicked men are inconsistent with themselves; they serve divers lusts which are oftentimes repugnant to each other: they are also contrary to all men, more or less so, in one instance or another, as their evil tempers and corrupt appetites incline them. Now this character more especially belongs,

Such were the

1. To the bigoted and superstitious. Jews, of whom the apostle is here speaking. They confined religion to themselves, and had a sovereign contempt for all other people; so that the woman of Sychar wondered at Christ asking her for a draught of water. "The Jews," says she, "have no dealings with the Samaritans ;" yet the latter worshipped the same God, though not in the same place, nor exactly with the same rites and ceremonies as