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SERMONS.

THE FOLLY OF TURNING ASIDE FROM

THE LORD *.

SERMON XLV.

I SAM. xii. 21. And turn ye not afide; for then Should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain.

E have been profeffing to forfake your wandering life through the empty creation, and to turn to the Lord as your portion, as your foul's reft, and as your great Lord and Master from henceforth. There is one thing of which I would perfuade you, the faith of which would keep you ever with him; and this is, that if you were to change every day, you can never do better, never do fo well. This is the scope of our text; in which we have Samuel's reason to the Ifraelites for their not turning aside from the Lord in any case; VOL. III. which

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* Delivered at Galashiels, on Sabbath, Sept. 6. 1719、

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which is, "For then fhould we go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain."

Thefe words (without any supplement, and to the fame fenfe, but more forcibly expreffed) may be read word for word thus: "And ye fhall not turn afide, but after vain things," &c.; that is, ye cannot turn afide, but you muft, by doing fo, go after vain things. The text is a defiance held out to men in their attempts to mend their condition by departing from the Lord. In which there is,

1. A cafe fuppofed, which is, That they should turn aside from the Lord; and having done fo, they have the wide world to chufe upon, let them take to the right hand, or to the left, chuse the best they can pitch on, fome or all, that what is wanting in one, may be made up in another. This is the utmost extent to which it can be carried.--There is,

2. The determination in this cafe, which is expreffed in the text with all confidence. Ye fhall not, ye cannot for your hearts, turn afide, but after vain things; I defy you to find out a fubftantial good for yourselves in the whole creation, feparate from God, Betake yourselves to what you will, to idols that are fo already, to other things to make idols of them, make your best of them, you shall never make more of them than vanity, they are unprofitable, empty, helplefs nothings. From this fubject I take the following

DOCTRINE, That no man fhall mend his condition, but will ruin it, by turning afide from the Lord, let him turn to what hand foever he will. For illuftrating this doctrine, I fhall,

I. Offer fome things for explaining this point.
II. Evince the truth of this weighty point.

III. Add the practical improvement.

We are then,

I. To offer fome things for explaining this point. Here I obferve,

1. That no man, by turning afide from the Lord, fhall mend his condition, but ruin it, in point of reft to his heart, and fatisfaction to the defires of it: Ifa. lvii. 19. 20. "I create the fruit of the lips; peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, faith the Lord; and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the troubled fea, when it cannot reft, whofe waters caft. up mire and dirt. There is no peace, faith my God, to the wicked." Every man's heart within him is naturally an hungry, empty thing, which must be filled from fomething without itself, or it cannot reft. Some, hearing of the foul's fatisfaction to be had in God, come away to ordinances, and are for a time found about the Lord's hand, like the mixed multitude from Egypt among the Ifraelites. They do not at the very first find that fatisfaction for which they look, and they cannot wait; but for hafte to be filled, they go back to the world and their lufts. In this cafe, the more hafte, the less speed, they are farther from it than ever. I obferve,

2. That no man, by turning afide from the Lord, fhall mend his condition, but ruin it, in point of comfort and ease to his confcience: Pfal. xxxii. 3. 5. When I kept filence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long. I acknowledged my fin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I faid, I will confefs my tranfgreffions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my fin." This is the true way to get eafe. But fome awakened finners feek ease

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by their tears, confeffions, refolutions, and the like, not by the blood of Christ: but, alas! those plafters will not ftick, they will never draw out the thorn of guilt. Some divert the pain of confcience, by filling their hands and heads with bufinefs, like Cain. Some ftifle it by finning, yet more over the belly of convictions. But the fore healed with any of thefe, which are but mere palliatives, will break out more dreadfully than ever, though perhaps not till there is no remedy. And how is the cafe thus mended? is it not ruined?-I obferve,

3. That no man, by turning aside from the Lord, fhall mend his condition, but ruin it, in point of his intereft and advantage: Jer. ii. 13. "For my people have committed two great evils; they have forfaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cifterns, broken cifterns, that can hold no water." He who changes, changes for what he accounts the better for himself; yet men often find themselves difappointed. Nothing draws perfons more away from God than intereft; but heaven fhall be turned nethermoft, and earth uppermoft in the universe, ere any man, manage as fecurely as he will, fhall ever be a gainer by turning afide from God. For this ye have the concurring teftimony of all true penitents, whofe eyes have been opened: Hof. ii. 7. "And the fhall follow after her lovers, but she fhall not overtake them; and fhe fhall feek them, but fhall not find them; then shall the fay, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now."-I observe,

4. That no man, by turning afide from the Lord, will better. his condition, but ruin it, in point of fecurity from evil : Prov. xxviii. 18. "Whofo walketh uprightly, fhall be faved; but

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he that is perverse in his ways, fhall fall at once." Sin often promifes, but can never afford a folid fhelter. Any hiding-place or defence to which perfons betake themselves, turning away from God, is but vanity, and cannot deliver; nay, it exposes them to the way of eyil: Amos, v. 19. " As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him ar went into the house, and leaned his hand upon the wall, and a ferpent bit him." The Jews, in their crucifying of Christ, are a standing witness to this: John, xi. 48. "If we let him alone," said they, "all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come, and take away both our place and nation." Matth. xxii. 7. "But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he fent forth his armies, and deftroyed thofe murderers, and burnt up their city."-We now come,

II. To evince the truth of this weighty point, That no man shall mend his condition, but will ruin it, by turning afide from the Lord, let him turn to what hand foever he will.-We fhall do this,.

Firft, By confidering to what a perfon turns afide when he turns from God.

Secondly, By taking a view of what he turns a fide from. And,

Thirdly, By infpecting the pretended gain which he acquires by turning afide from the Lord.

First, We are to evince the truth of this weighty point, by confidering to what a perfon turns alide when he turns from God. It is but vanity, which cannot profit or deliver. There are but two things to which a person can turn aside, though.

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