February 15

Jeremiah, and murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and bear incense unto Baal; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my Name, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations; yet they trusted in lying words, and said, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord are we. Severely as John censured many of those who came to his baptism, he knew under all their iniquity they were saying in themselves, We have Abraham to our father. But Abraham calls the rich man in hell his son: and God says, I will punish the circumcised with the uncircumcised. The unconcern of Drusilla is rather to be traced to these two things. She had been accustomed to these subjects. Though they were novel to Felix, they were not new to her. The noise of the waterfall that almost deafens strangers, does not even prevent the sleep of those who reside near it. The sparks do not terrify the animal that lies hard by the anvil. Familiarity with divine things takes off from the power of their impression, and exceedingly tends to harden the heart they have not softened. Hence is it that many in our assemblies now hear, hardly awake, those awful truths which once alarmed themselves, and now make others tremble. She had also sinned under greater obligation, and against clearer light; and it is natural for such to wax worse and worse. Having known the way of righteousness, and turning from it, they became tenfold more the children of hell than before. Their peculiar guilt provokes the displeasure of God, and he judicially and generally gives them up to strong delusion, and to their own hearts' lusts; and withholding the influence that can alone render means alone effectual, and withdrawing his restraining grace, he says of them as he did of Ephraim, "they are joined to idols, let them alone."

How serious is the state of many of the children of the kingdom! We have more hope of those that come from the east and from the west. The first shall be last, and the last first.

FEBRUARY 15.—"Felix trembled."—Acts 24:25.

"FELIX trembled"—See the vanity of worldly greatness. We can judge very little of persons by their outward circumstances. As "the mind is the standard of the man;" so it is the standard of his state, as to happiness or misery. Had we seen a prisoner in chains, and a governor on the bench, we should have been disposed to pity the one, and envy the other. Yet had we known all, our pity and our envy would have changed sides: for we should have found the prisoner possessed of the peace of God which passeth all understanding; while the governor was devoured by anxiety and fear, notwithstanding his office, his rank, his authority, wealth and luxury—Felix trembled.

"Felix trembled"—See the power of conscience. Conscience is a bosom friend, or a bosom fury. It is God's vicegerent on earth; his tribunal within; the quarter sessions before the grand assize. Paul speaks of "the conscience bearing witness, and the thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." Is this principle ever entirely suppressed? Some have boasted of the attain-

ment. But there is a difference between pretensions and reality. What are men—not in company, but alone? Whence their dislike and dread of solitude? What are men—not in life, but in death? "Fools men may live, but fools they cannot die." Yet even in life, how hard is it to resist particular apprehensions! And apprehensions which cannot be ascribed to the danger of human detection, or punishment, because there is no fear of either. As the winter-frozen serpent seems lifeless, but is only benumbed, and when brought to the fire, again feels, and uncoils, and stings: so, when conscience is asleep, it is not dead. And it is easily awakened by a particular reflection: the sight of a funeral, or sudden death, or a threatening sickness. The wicked, though not always actually in it, are all their lifetime subject to bondage, through fear of death. Madame de Stael observes, that misfortune has the power to make the strongest minds superstitious. It would be better to say, it has a tendency to revive a belief of a moral Providence, and to remind us of the connexion there is between sin and suffering. We see this in Jacob's sons when in the ward: there seemed to be nothing to lead them to think of Joseph, yet "they said one to another, we are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us." So Belshazzar's knees smote one against another when he saw in the midst of his feast, the handwriting on the wall. The inscription was unintelligible: it might therefore have contained something favourable to him: but guilt was the interpreter. Herod, hearing of our Lord's fame, said, it is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead: and mighty works do show forth themselves in him. If, as Josephus says, he was a Sadducee, he denied the existence of spirits and the resurrection of the body—But his conscience was too strong for his creed.

"Felix trembled"—See the energy of divine truth. The word of God is called "a hammer," and "a fire;" and is said to be quick and powerful, "sharper than any two edged-sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The noblest instance of its efficacy is when it is the power of God to salvation. But where it does not work effectually, as in them that believe, it often produces great effects for the time. Many were astonished at our Saviour's doctrine, and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his lips. The stony ground hearers heard the word with joy, and endured for a while. Herod revered John, heard him gladly, and did many things; performing various duties, and breaking off from some of his vices. We little imagine, when the Gospel is plainly and faithfully preached, what feelings are excited even in natural men, and which will serve to render them inexcusable. For they that preach the truth as it is in Jesus, have a witness even in the experience of the unconverted. When these come from curiosity, or to ridicule, and are made to tremble: when they have forced upon them a remembrance of their sins, as if the preacher had been privy to all they have said or done; when the very secrets of their hearts are made manifest; when, notwithstanding their self-love, the doctrine makes them dissatisfied and uneasy with themselves; when they cannot but own secretly the necessity of the change they strive to