cupation of our farmers, that every thing is useful and adapted to a specific purpose. The very weeds when burnt improve the ground; manure, which would otherwise be noxious and disgusting, answers the most valuable purposes; as also the straw which is cast out and "trodden down for the "dunghill."

After the process of primary ploughing has been completed, our fields are covered with compost, or some appropriate manure, that the earth may be enriched, and larger crops gathered into our barns; and none, perhaps, but those who have accurately watched the results, can form any adequate idea of the great advantage which ensues from this requisite application.

In the world at large, which is God's husbandry, his judgments, which deface and destroy countries and nations, are clearly intended in their remoter influence, to effect the subsequent fruitfulness of those very spots; and the products of righteousness, in larger abundance, have been ga❤ thered among those people where the full measure of divine vengeance had been previously poured. When his judgments are in the earth, the inhabi tants will learn righteousness.*

* Isaiah, xxvi. 9.

The Church itself has, for its crimes, sometimes been as a ploughed field; until at length that promise has been, after a tedious interval of delay, fulfilled. "And I will sow her unto me in the "earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had "not obtained mercy; and I will say to them "which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God."*

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God's providential government is frequently illustrated by reference to the practices of husbandmen; especially those dispensations, which though certainly, are not so immediately and obviously connected with the benefit of his church. Yes, even the more awful visitations of his hand shall, at the great harvest, when the mystery of God shall be accomplished, appear to have promoted this destined end. Then on mount Zion he shall rest; every adversary "shall be trodden down under "him, even as straw is trodden for the dunghill.”

A large revenue of glory shall thus result to the Divine Being: it shall then conspicuously appear, that the interests of Zion were ever kindly regarded by him; and those words now sighed in the sorrows of faith, “Just and true are all thy ways, thou King of Saints!" shall be sung as the chorus of an eternal anthem of joy.

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*Hosea, ii. 23.'

1

In some confined sense, we discover these results in the present world, when God signally appears as the friend of his Church, and the foe of her enemies.*

Sin renders characters worthless in the Divine estimation; righteousness only, exalteth a people or an individual.

Our text will furnish us with an occasion to establish and illustrate the fact, that Divine vengeance shall overwhelm the enemies of the church, and from their disgraceful ruin, shall result advantage to the cause, and glory to the perfections of Deity.

1. God has revealed his wrath from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; and although slack in executing his threatenings, as some men count slackness, the expected day of the Lord's vengeance will certainly and suddenly arrive.

Sin often appears unnoticed by the All-seeing Judge; especially those peculiarly offensive and

* In our text, Moab is put for all the adversaries of God's people that are vexatious to them; they shall be trodden down, or threshed, and shall be thrown out as straw for the dunghill, being good for nothing but to make muck of.

M. Henry, in loc.

horrid persecutions by which his Church has been assailed and distressed. In the time of Eglon, King of Moab,* Israel was oppressed for eighteen years: then did the Church, as she has frequently in subsequent ages and in similar circumstances, use words such as these, "Thou hast given us like "sheep appointed for meat, thou sellest thy people "for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by "their price; yea, for thy sake we are killed all "the day long, and are counted as sheep for the slaughter." Their adversaries are emboldened by the seeming indifference of Jehovah, and because the sentence pronounced, is not speedily executed, their unhallowed purpose is prosecuted with increasing determination, and they say, "Come and let us cut them off from being a peo

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ple, that the name of Israel may be no more in "remembrance." At length however, the day of vengeance has approached, at the sighing of his servants and the prayers of his prisoners, God has awoke as in ancient times, and has wrecked his wrath upon them as he did on "the Midianites;

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as to Sisera, as to Jabin at the brook of Kison; "which perished at Endor; they became as dung "of the earth."

*

1. However exalted among the great of the

Judges, iii, 14. + Psalm xliv. 11, 22. Psalm lxxxiii. 9, 10

earth offenders have been, the just displeasure of God has been displayed, and vengeance has overwhelmed them. Long delays have occurred for the trial of their faith, who believe that there is a God that judgeth in the earth, from whom no sin is concealed, and who is no respecter of persons. The wicked have indeed, for a season, prospered; the proud, have been called happy; yea, they that work iniquity, have been set up; and because of the power of some exalted persons, God himself hath been insulted and defied: but it has come to pass in the day which God hath appointed, that his church has taken up this proverb, "How hath the oppressor ceased!""For thou "hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into hea 66 ven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of "God, I will be like unto the Most High; yet "shalt thou be brought down to the pit, thou art "cast out as an abominable thing, thy carcase is "trodden down under feet, even as straw is trod"den down for the dunghill."

2. As no person, however elevated, is exempt from the judicial control of the Most High; so no part of the world is found where this truth has not been proclaimed. Among untutored savages, and in polished courts and populous cities, has been heard

*Isaiah, xiv. 419.