28. Such at present is the religion of this _Christian_ nation! So do we honour him by whose name we are called. And yet was there ever a nation more careless and secure? More unapprehensive of the wrath of God! How can a man more effectually expose himself to the ridicule of those who are esteemed men of understanding, than by shewing any concern, _as if_ the judgments of God were hanging over our heads? Surely then _a deceived heart hath turned_ us _aside, that_ we _cannot say, Is there not a lie in my right hand_? Surely this our confidence is not of God: it is rather a judicial infatuation; a stupid insensibility; a deep sleep, the fore-runner of heavy vengeance. “Ruin behind it stalks, and empty desolation.” Surely never was any people more fitted for destruction! _Impudent children are they, and stiff hearted. Are they ashamed when they have committed abomination?_ When they have openly prophaned the day of the Lord? When they have committed lewdness? Or when they have uttered such curses and blasphemies, as are not heard of among the Heathens? Nay, _They are not at all ashamed, neither can they blush_. And though God send unto them all his servants, rising up early and sending them, yet _will they not hear; they ♦harden their neck: they do worse than their fathers_. ♦ “hearden” replaced with “harden” What _then_ can God _do more for his vineyard which he hath not done_? He hath long tried us with mercies, _giving rain and fruitful seasons, filing us with the flour of wheat_. But still _this revolting and rebellious people say not, Let us now fear the_ Lord _our_ God. Nay, they gave him no thanks for all his mercies; they did not even acknowledge them to be his gift. They did not see the hand of God in any of these things; they could _account for them_ another way. O ye unwise, when will ye understand? Know ye not yet, there is a God that ruleth the world? What did ye see with your eyes? Was the _race to the swift_, or _the battle to the strong_? Have ye forgotten _Dettingen_ already? Does not _England_ know that God was there?――Or suppose your continuance in peace, or success in war, be the mere result of your own wisdom and strength; do ye command the sun and the clouds also? Can ye pour out or _stay the bottles of heaven_? But let it all be nature, chance, any thing――so God may have no hand in governing the earth!