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.SERM." for our rock is not as their rock, even our enemies "themselves being judges.'

CLXXII.

And we have been too like the people of Ifrael in other refpects alfo, fo fickle and inconftant, that after great deliverances we are apt prefently to murmur and be difcontented, to grow fick of our own happiness, and "to turn back in our hearts into Egypt;" fo that God may complain of us, as he does of his people Ifrael, that nothing that he could do would bring them to confideration, and make them better, neither his mercies nor his judgments. Ifa. i. 2, 3. "Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! For the "LORD hath spoken; I have nourished and brought "up children, but they have rebelled against me. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the afs his master's "crib: but Ifrael doth not know, my people doth

not confider." And fo likewife he complains, that his judgments had no effect upon them, ver. 5. "Why should ye be fmitten any more? Ye will "revolt more and more." Well therefore may it be faid of us, as it was of them in the verfe before the text, "they are a nation void of knowledge, "neither is there any understanding in them." And the wifh that follows in the text is as feasonable for us as it was for them, "O that they were wife, that they understood this, that they would confider "their latter end!"

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And by parity of reafon, this may likewife be applied to particular perfons, and to perfuade every one of us to a ferious confideration of the final iffue and confequence of our actions, I will only offer these two arguments.

I. That confideration is the proper act of reafonable creatures, and that whereby we fhew ourselves men. So the prophet intimates, Ifa. xlvi. 8. "Re

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"member this, and fhew yourselves men; bring it SERM. again to mind, O ye tranfgreffors!" that is, con- CLXXII. fider it well, think of it again and again, ye that run on fo furiously in a finful courfe, what the end and iffue of these things will be. If ye do not do this, you do not fhew" yourselves men," you do not act like reasonable creatures, to whom it is pecu. liar to propofe to themselves fome end and design of their actions; but rather like "brute creatures, "which have no understanding," and act only by a natural instinct, without any confideration of the end of their actions, or of the means conducing to it.

II. Whether we confider it or not, our latter end will come; and all those dismal consequences of a finful course, which God hath fo plainly threatened, and our own confciences do fo much dread, will certainly overtake us at laft; and we cannot, by not thinking of these things, ever prevent or avoid them. Death will come, and after that the judgment, and an irrever fible doom will pafs upon us according to all the evil that we have done, and all the good that we have neglected to do in this life, under the heavy weight and preffure whereof we muft lie groaning, and bewailing ourselves to everlasting ages.

God now exercifeth his mercy and patience and long-fuffering towards us, in expectation of our amendment; he reprieves us on purpose that we may repent, and in hopes that we will at last consider and grow wifer; for "he is not willing that any should "perish, but that all fhould come to repentance :" but if we will trifle away this day of God's grace and patience, if we will not confider and bethink ourfelves, there is another day that will certainly come, "that great, and terrible day of the LORD, in which the heavens fhall pass away with a great

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"noife, and the elements fhall melt with fervent "heat; the earth alfo, and the works that are therein "fhall be burnt up.'

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"Seeing then all these things fhall be," let us confider seriously "what manner of persons we ought to "be in all holy converfation and godlinefs, waiting "for and hastening unto the coming of the day of "GOD; to whom be glory now and for ever."

SERM.

CLXXIII.

SERMON CLXXIII. The danger of impenitence, where the gofpel is preached.

MAT T. xi. 21, 22.

Woe unto thee Chorazin, woe unto thee Bethfaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in fackcloth and afhes. But I say unto you, It fhall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.

FTER our bleffed SAVIOUR had inftructed,

A and fent forth his difciples, he himself went

abroad to preach unto the cities of Ifrael; particularly he spent much time in the cities of Galilee, Chorazin, and Bethfaida, and Capernaum, preaching the gospel to them, and working many and great miracles among them; but with little or no fuccefs: which was the caufe of his denouncing this terrible woe against them, ver. 20. " Then began he to upbraid the cities, wherein most of his mighty

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<< works were done, because they repented not. Woe SER M. "unto thee Chorazin," &c.

In which words our SAVIOUR declares the fad and miferable condition of thofe two cities, Chorazin and Bethfaida, which had neglected fuch an opportunity, and refifted and withstood fuch means of repentance, as would have effectually reclaimed the most wicked cities and people that can be inftanced in any age, Tyre and Sidon and Sodom; and therefore he tells them, that their condition was much worse, and that they should fall under a heavier sentence at the day of judgment, than the people of those cities, whom they had always looked upon as the greatest finners that ever were in the world. This is the plain meaning of the words in general; but yet there are fome difficulties in them, which I fhall endeavour to clear, and then proceed to raise fuch obfervations from them, as may be instructive and useful to us.

The difficulties are these :

I. What repentance is here spoken of; whether an external repentance, in fhew and appearance only, or an inward and real and fincere repentance.

II. In what fense it is faid, that " Tyre and Sidon. "would have repented."

III. What is meant by their "would have repent"ed long ago."

CLXXIII.

IV. How this affertion of our SAVIOUR, that miracles would have converted Tyre and Sidon, is reconcileable with that other faying of his, Luke. xvi. 31. in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, that "those who believed not Mofes and the prophets, "neither would they be perfuaded, though one rofe "from the dead."

I. What repentance is here spoken of; whether a mere external and hypocritical repentance in fhew

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SERM. and appearance only, or an inward and real and fincere repentance.

CLXXIII.

The reafon of this doubt depends upon the different theories of divines, about the fufficiency of grace accompanying the outward means of repentance, and whether an irresistible degree of GOD'S grace be neceffary to repentance: for they who deny fufficient grace to accompany the outward means of repentance, and affert an irrefiftible degree of God's grace neceffary to repentance, are forced to say, that our SAVIOUR here fpeaks of a mere external repentance: because if he fpake of an inward and fincere repentance, then it must be granted, that fufficient inward grace did accompany the miracles that were wrought in Chorazin and Bethfaida, to bring men to repentance; because what was afforded to them, would have brought Tyre and Sidon to repentance. And that which would have effected a thing, cannot be denied to be fufficient; fo that unless our SAVIOUR here speaks of a mere external repentance, either the outward means of repentance, as preaching and miracles, must be granted to be fufficient to bring men to repentance, without the inward operation of GOD's grace upon the minds of men; or elfe a fufficient degree of God's grace must be acknowledged to accompany the outward means of repentance. Again, if an irrefiftible degree of grace be neceffary to true repentance, it is plain, Chorazin and Bethfaida had it not, because they did not repent; and yet without this Tyre and Sidon could not fincerely have repented; therefore our SAVIOUR here must fpeak of a mere external repentance. Thus fome argue, as they do likewife concerning the repentance of Nineveh, making that alfo to be merely external, because they are loth to allow true repentance to heathens,

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