Farewell to the First Congregational Church in Norwalk, Conn. (bound with other addresses)

2. The final condition of those who die impenitent f vnll be unut- terably dreadful. So great, even in this world, is the power of sin, that it has converted the earth into an arena of violence, where hatred and revenge, oppression and cruelty make happiness an alien ; where justice bleeds at every pore, and virtue weeps over her fallen altars. Yet here numerous causes conspire to soften its -virulence, and obstruct its operation. The social affections, which still bloom in the waste of our degenerate nature, like lonely flowers upon a mouldering ruin — the force of public opinion — the intercourse and example of the pious — and, above all, the counteracting principles of the gospel — continually exert upon it a repressing and modifying influence. But in the abodes of endless punishment all these restraints will be re- moved. There the corruption of ungodly men -will have free scope ; and their passions, which are now comparatively in their infancy, will start up into giant strength, and rage uncontrolled. How terri- ble, then, must be their state, when they shall be thus abandoned to the unbridled workings of their own depravity ! Suppose a company of maniacs, s^arated from all communion with the sane and rational, confined together in a gloomy cell, and left to the raving impulses of delirium, — and you have but a feeble emblem of the bitter execra- tions, the wild uproar, the raging madness, which will fill the prison of despair, when the wicked, of all ages, and from all quarters of the world, shall be shut up in its bottomless dungeons ; and when — ^shorn of every amiable quality that adorned them here, exiled from hope, pursuid»by the furies of remorse, and tortured into phrensy by the view onthe far off heaven which they have lost forever — ^they shall curse thMselves and each othfer, and lift up their eyes, and blaspheme their Maker bedause of their plagues ! From a spectacle so replete with horror, who m us must not turn shuddering away, and fervently implore Almighty God to prevent us, by his grace, from realizing it 4n our own esjjjerience ? * ' 3. How unS^kably precious, MORAL INSANITY OF IKRELIGIOUS MEN. 281 does the Savior appear. He alone can heal the insanity of sin, and quench the incipient hell which it has kindled within us. And this he ,js not only afele but wiUing, to do for all who truly apply to him. It is his own declaration, " 0, Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help." It is his own invitation, "Look unto me, all ye ends of the earlh, and be ye saved." It is his own promise, " He that believeth in me shall never perish." As he calmed, with a word, the fury of the demoniac among the tombs, and placed him at his feet, " clothed, and in his right mind ;" so he re- moves the moral madness of those who seek him by faith, washes tlt^ in his blood, and prepares them, by his Spirit, for heaven. To Tilm, therefore, I would most earnestly invite you. Repair, without delay, to the fountain which he has opened, and bathe your distem- pered hearts in'its healing waters. Hasten, this very hour, to the great Physician, lest. While you linger, the malady now preying upon your souls, reath that incurable malignity, which is the sure precur- sor of the second death. Will you, can you, feel secure in a situation so perilous 1 Can you sit still, and hope that all will be well, and cry, " Yet a little more sleep, a little more slumber," while the lep- rosy of sin is raging through all your faculties, and the angel of mer- cy — loiig grieved and resisted — stands ready to take his returnless flight, and leave you to incorrigible impenitence'? Shall God com- mand and intreat you in vain ? Shall the Redeemer stoop from heaven, and die for your salvation — and yet will you spurn his grace, and trample on his bleeding love 1 0, be persuaded to re- nounce, at once, this desperate and unnatural conduct. Seek the Lord while he may be found — call upon him while he is near. List- en to the voice of infinite compassion, cast yourselves, in penitent sul> mission, at the feet of the omnipotent Savior — and he will renew your polluted natures, forgive your aggravated offences, and deliver you from the utter ruin, in which your present course must inevitably terminate. Followers of the crucified Jesus ! Professed disciples of him who poured out his blood to cure the madness of rebelUous men ! Is it from such a doom as, we have described that his grace has rescued you 1 What gratitude, then, to the Author of your redemption should you- feel and exhibit ! What intense devotedness — ^what holy spir- ituality — what estrangement from the world and its follies — should pervade and influence all your actions ! How should your views, your aflections, your purposes, and your whole lives, prove, that you are illumined by celestial light, and guided by heavenly wisdom. What deep and active solicitude, too, should you cherish fcr the con- version of the impenitent around you. Thesigh,t of a worWl^'^Jying in wickedness," and rushing to perdition, led the Son of .God to ex- change a throne for a cross, and drew tears from his eyes, and blood from his heart. And if you have aught of his Spirit, you will follow ■with yoTir efforts and. prayers the perishing multitudes of yoiur fellow ■.•vi '%.;,, .j'-i'iav mBiil TiRfaffe in Christ, or sink- bevond reach SERMON CCCXI'^. By Eev. EDMN HALLj TKE MANNER. OF WORSHIPING 60D. " Keep tiiy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and Be more ready W hear than to give the sacrifice of fools ; for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let jiot thine heart be hasty tautter anything before God : for God is in heaven, and- thou upon earth ; therefore let thy words be few." — Ecclesiastes v. 1, 2.. These vf Olds concetn the manner of worshiping God. I shall, I. Mention some reasons why we should be exceedingly cautious and watchful over ourselves while engaged in the worship of God : and , II. Make some particular remarks relating to the manner of wor- ship. I. Reasons, 8fe. When the Lord descended upon Sinai, and the ■whole moimtain was filled with a cloud and thunderings and light- ning, and the' voice of the trumpet exceeding loud — " the trump of God," probably, that which shall waken the dead, and call the world to judgment ; the people trembled and removed and stood afar off; and said to Moses, " Speak thou with us, but let not^ God speak with us, lest we die." We come into the presence of the same God. We are not indeed' come to the mount that burned with fire ; we are come imto mount Sion. But the Lord God is still a jealous God ; he hath not abated, aught of his majesty or his holiness. " The Lord is in his holy tem- ple, let all the earth keep silence before him." Were the angels to come iijjjo' the sanctuary, thfeir eyes would behold the King; they would •veilr their faces and cry, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." The Lord is here ; hating irreverence- and presumptioit as much as when he commanded Moses to go dima to charge the people not to come near the mount, or break throughto touch it, lest thdydie. Christ hath opened for us a new and living v^Tay within lihe veil, to thevery mercy seat; but wp. shnnlrl i-BirKsmVinr tivat ^t ja THE MANNER OF WORSHIPING GOD. 283 the holy of holies still. The L'ord is still a holy and jealous God. He seeketh such to worship him as worsljip in spirit and in truth. He searches the heart ; he trieth the reins. " The Lord is a great God, and a King above all gods." " The Lord your God, is God of gods, and Lord of lords ; a great God, a mighty and terrible, which re- gardeth not persons nor taieth reward." "The great, the mighty God, the Lord of Host is his name." An earthly king will be served in state. Shall we come to worship, and to petition the living God in matters for which he is angry ] for which he has sentenced the world to death j for which he will cause the .very earth which has been de- filed by our wickedness, to be burned up ;; shall we, worms of the dust, and ready to perish under his frown, come into his presence, and come thoughtless and irreverent, as though we beheved the Lord no God, or as though we were approaching a dumb idol 1 Shall we come rudely before him, with vapid and empty words ; indulge in slovenly attitudes, and remain in a slovenly frame of mind; while engaged in. a work. which would fill the highest angels with awe? " Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling." " God is greatly to be feared, in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him." " I will be sanctified in them that come nigh unto me," saith the Lord. How dangerous it was to Uzzah to put forth an irreverent hand to ike ark, otherwise than God had commanded. Remember how Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, offered strange fire before the Lord, which he com- manded them not. " And there went out fire from the Lord, and de- voured them; and they died before the Lord." The day of such mir- aculous interpositions is past ; but these are left on record to teach the 1 world forever, how solemn and reverent it becomes those to be, who \appear before the Lord. It should be remembered, too, that we are hot holy beings, who come, like the angels, to render homage to their Creator, who takes pleasure in them. Even they veil their feces when they come into his presence. But we are sinners, altogether unclean. It does not become us to be bold, and to ofier the sacrifiqe of fools. It does not become us to be rash with our mouth,'or to let our heart be hasty to utter any thing before God. We have another errand before his throne than that of the angels. We are to be reconciled to an offen- ded God, and to be cleansed from our iniquities, or we are soon to perish from the way ; then how solemn should we be, when we come into the presence of the Lord ! Think not, when you come into the sancturary with scarcely a thought of God ; think not, while yOu take an apparent part in the worship of God, but with no design of wor- shiping in spirit and in truth j think not, while your thonghts are on your business, or meditating sin, or roving with the fool's eyes to the end of the earth, that the Lord is as indifferent and as dioughtless of your conduct as yourself. He searches your heart. He is proving you. Not the least part of your probation is going on ; you think little of it ; but not so the Lord. He regards that insensibility -. .. f.. .1 17. -.--.^--a <> ,;jRt irreverence toward God | •284 THE NATIONAL PKEACHER. that -want of fear ; that -want of fe^h. He marks the insult. He marks the awful profaning of tfcings sacred. You tread ufon holy ground ; you stand in an awful place. If you felt it aright, you would say with Jacob, " Behold, God is in this place, and I knew it not. How awful is this place ; this is none other than the house of God ; this is the gate of heaven." Whether you feel it or not, the Lord regards it. Scarcely can you have a more solemn ac- count to render concerning any part of your life, than that which you must render concerning the manner in which you have attended on the worship of God. II. Partiadar remarks concerning the manner of worship. Here I remar^,