One Hundred Select Sermons

SERMON XLV.

IN this present Verse before us, we have two General Parts considerable of us: First, The sad and miserable condition of Ephraim simply in itself. Secondly, The aggravation of it, from his senselessness and stupidity in it. His condition itself, that we have laid forth in these words; Strangers have devoured his strength, and gray hairs are here and there upon him. The aggravation of it, from his own senselessness, and stupidity in it; that we have also in these: He knoweth it not.

We begin with the First, viz. The condition of Ephraim, simply considered. And that we have again laid forth in two Branches: First, in their miserable captivity; Strangers, &c. Secondly, in their symptoms of ruin; Yea, gray hairs, &c.

First, (I say) here's the captivity of Ephraim; Strangers have devoured his strength: which is (as I have heretofore intimated) an expression both of their sin, and punishment, one with the other: and each word, it has its several emphasis of aggravation in it. Their strength, and their strength devoured, and devoured by strangers: there's the greatness of the good they are deprived of: there's the manner of their deprival of it; and there's the persons by whom. Each of these are very pertinent to the purpose, and do well deserve our handling of them.

First; The good they are deprived of: that's here expressed to be their strength; which carries a great matter in it, and does imply either what it was really, and indeed; or else, what it was according to their apprehensions, and estimations of it. That which they looked upon as their strength, which they did reckon and value themselves by; that was that which now, upon their rebellion and trespassing against him, God did remove, and take away from them. He delivered their strength into captivity, and their glory into the enemies hand: as we find that expression used, Psal. 78.61. Look whatever it is that wicked men make to be their reliance, that will God the soonest scatter, and spoil, and disappoint them of. And look whatever it is which may be most advantageous to them, that will he soonest snatch away from them. It was not anything which he was here contented to punish, and exercise them in:no, but in their very strength itself.

And the reason of it is this, because they just deal so with him. God sits the punishment to the sin, in this dispensation: for we must still remember that these are both involved in one another, and so we shall still handle them all-along in the prosecution of this Scripture: Strangers had devoured Ephraim 's strength, as to matter of sinning; and so strangers do devour Ephraim 's strength as to matter of punishing: The one follows upon the other.

For as much as the expression is here carried in a a single person, though indeed referring to an whole Nation; therefore we may (if we please) for the more orderly proceeding in it, take notice of it in both notions, (and so we shall) both in the Personal Notion, and in the National: In reference to particular persons, as it is a censure upon such and such men singly considered; and in reference to the whole Nation, as it is a censure upon such and such a people, considered at large.

First of all, Take it in the Personal Notion; Strangers have devoured his strength. And so it is more particularly a censure upon such kind of persons who have past the flower of their years in vanity and sinfulness; that have now gray hairs upon them here and there; that is, are entering into the lists of old age; and when they do reflect and look back upon their former time, they find it to be spent in nothing but that which is contrary to God, and which has no affinity with him; Strangers have devoured his strength, that is, have devoured his youth. The first piercing of the Vessel, that has been given to Satan, and to the World, and Lust. If God will have anything, he must now be content with the very lees and dregs of all, which have run out it may be twenty, thirty, forty years in the world, and yet do not think all this while of conversion to God: They are a Cake as yet not turned, and their strength it has been devoured by strange and exorbitant courses. This is a sense which may very well be fastened upon these words, and accordingly we shall take notice of them; namely, to show what a sad and lamentable thing it is for men to spend their youth, and the strength and prime of their time in the ways of sin: It is that which the Scripture does every-where declaim against, and does also provoke to the contrary. To speak distinctly of it, there are these three evils in it; First, It's very disingenuous: Secondly, It's very hazardous: Thirdly, It is very grievous and uncomfortable in the reflections upon it; when men shall call themselves to a serious reckoning and an account about it.

First, (I say) It is very disingenuous; when men shall give that to their lusts which is due to God: When men shall bestow their best upon vanity, and reserve their worst for him: How contrary is it to all ingenuity and good nature? Certainly, if we have anything better than other to bestow, one would think that God should rather have that from us than anything else. As he is Himself the best, so he deserves the best from us; the best of our time, and the best of our strength, and the best of our employment: Now to deter him, to put him off with the worst, when the other is gone, how sordid and unworthy is it? Cursed be the deceiver which hathin his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing, says the Prophet Malachi, in Mal. 1.14. This is the case and condition of that person that refuseth to give God his youth, and that chooses rather to bestow it upon strange and unwarranted ways: It is in this respect very disingenuous.

Secondly, It is very hazardous; a man receives a great venture that does put it to such a case as this. He that forbears to give his youth to God, he knows not whether God will receive him and accept of him in his old age or no; that is, whether or no he will bestow his grace upon him, which he hath before so often rejected: Examples are but very rare and scarce of this kind, for any to be called into the Vineyard at the last hour; especially which have been called before, and have refused to come at that call and invitation of them. Indeed some persons as have heretofore in the days of their youth been denied the opportunities of Conversion and turning to God, they have at last (through his grace and goodness) had the means afforded unto them, whereby they have been wrought upon and converted; but those which have had the means betimes, and continued a great while under them, and neglected and slighted them; such as these have very seldom in Age found the comfort and benefit of them. God does so far prize and value his own grace, and the means for the working of it, as that he will not easily yield it to those that reject it: Therefore I say, It is a very hazardous business, it carries a great deal of peril and danger in it, for youth to be spent in sin.

Again, Thirdly, It is very grievous and uncomfortable, when men shall come to reflect upon it, and call themselves to an account for it, as sometime they will. There will a time one day come, when men are landing in Eternity, that they will then stand upon the shore, and look back upon the way and course which has been past by them in the Sea of this world; when they will be ready to consider how they have spent their former time: Now when they shall find that it has been in vanity, and in the ways of looseness and ungodliness; how pinching and vexing will it be to them! especially when they shall consider that there is now no revoking at all, or recalling of it. These evils are still the most grievous, which are most incorrigible, which are desperate and past remedy. Now such for the most part is this of which we now speak: Because that time's irrecoverable; it is such, as being once spent, cannot be again fetched back and restored.

The Consideration of this Point may be therefore a very good Item to such persons as are now in their youth, and in the prime of their Age; to mind it, and to have regard unto it, how it is spent by them; as being that which they are accountable to God at another day, and which he will sadly reckon with them for. Take heed here of the censure of Ephraim; Strangers have devoured his strength; strange courses, or strange company; ye may take it of which ye will; and the latter has a great influence upon the former, and upon the devouring of this strength which we now speak of. How many poor mouths are there in the world (especially which have anything of the world belonging unto them) who are ensnared and set upon by strangers, and evil companions, which devour their strength, to whom they are made a very booty and prey for the undoing of them? Now what a miserable condition is this, and how much to be lamented? What need have Parents in these cases to look to themselves, when they shall see it thus with them? But so much for that: As we may take these words here before us in their Personal Notion; as denoting the fin and miscarriage of such particular Persons.

Now further Secondly, We may take them in their Notional signification, and more at large, namely, as setting forth to us the condition of this people of Israel in their latitude and full extent. And so (as I must still put ye in mind of it) we have their sin and their punishment promiscuously, and involved one in the other; forasmuch as the words may be very well applied to either; and (if ye will) to both: we shall see it in the particular explication and handling of them. The word that stands in the front, and which leads on to the two other is strangers, Zarim, as it is the Hebrew Text, which is of a large and various Interpretation: But accordingly as it lies here before us in this present Scripture, may admit of a threefold Reference or Emphasis in it.

First, Strange God's; Secondly, Strange Women; Thirdly, Strange Enemies, (of if ye please) Allies and Confederates. All these are the strangers which had devoured Ephraim 's strength. Strange God's, that we have signified in Hos. 4.17. Ephraim is joined to Idols. Strange Women, that we have signified in the 18th of the same chapter; They have committed whoredom continually. Strange Enemies, or Allies and Confederates, that we have also in Hos. 5.14. Then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to King Jareb: And this diversity and variety of Strangers (to make the connection so much the fuller) it does refer to a variety of strength which is answerably devoured by them; the one is Spirtual, the other is Natural, the third is Temporal: The Spiritual or strength of Grace, that's devoured by strange God's: The Natural, or strength of Temper, that's devoured by strange women: The Temporal, or strength of Estate, and Power, and worldly subsistence, that's devoured by strange Enemies, or such Allies and Confederates as were aliens and strangers to them. Here's the full and perfect connection of these things one with another, and the order in which they lie in the Text now before us.

We begin with the first; Strangers have devoured his strength; that is, strange God's have devoured his grace; false and Idolatrous Worship (which he has for a while addicted himself to) has eaten out the very strength and marrow of Religion, and Piety in him, so that he has nothing left him but the very outside and form of godliness, yea hardly that. This is one thing to be taken notice of by us, and of very great consequence: That whatever's corrupt or amiss in Religion, it does take out the very heart of Religion in those which do give themselves to it, or partake in it. This is true not only of Idolatry, and the grossest kinds of Superstition (as is here principally intended) but also as well (such as we may take notice of) of formality, and a customary service of God in the Duties and Exercises of Christianity which are performed by us. It is not only so in strange God's, but in strange Fire; as it was with Nadab and Abihu: That is (in the application of it) with strange affections, and an undue frame of heart and spirit in those sacrifices which we offer up unto the Lord. And for as much as it is more pertinent and seasonable, I will now fasten upon this; to show how this strange kind of worship, (not only strange for the object and matter of it, as it is in flat and absolute Idolatry ) but also strange for the manner and carriage of it, as it is in formal and customary performances, it does devour the very strength of Piety and Religion in those persons which do give themselves to it, or content and please themselves with it, or allow and favor themselves in it. This is the Point now in hand. Look as it is on the other side, that hearty and lively services, and a spiritual use of the Ordinances, it does keep up grace alive in the heart, and increase the habits and principles of it; so fomal and customary do abate it, and diminish it, and take from it, and make it less, and cause a very great decay of spiritual vigor in those which yield thereunto. When men come to the Ordinances of God carelessly, and hand over head, or behave themselves slightly and perfunctorily, and superficially, and negligently in them, they do many times grow so much the more dry, and withered, and heartless, and sapless to them.

And the Ground of it is this, because they have now so much the less communion with God in them: As all the grace which is in us it comes from God at first; so it is increased and furthered in us according to our larger and fuller applications of ourselves to him, and converse and fellowship with him: This now, because it is intermitted in slight and superficial services, wherein God and men are but as strangers one to another, hence it is that the strength and power of goodness and Religion is much weakened in them; so that of such we may say, Strangers have devoured their strength.

Again, as it holds in Matter of Worship, so it holds likewise in Point of Doctrine also. Here strangers do devour men's strength; not only strange Affections, but also strange Opinions; these will ear out also the pith of Religion in those that look no better to them; especially such as they may be for the nature of them, namely, as such as do entrench upon the very foundation of Religion itself, which do strike at the Principles of Christianity, and the experiences of Christians themselves as to the work of Grace in the heart. A man cannot easily comply with any of these in the smallest degree; but so far forth he will have much of his spiritual strength diminished in him. It is true, I do not deny but that as God sometimes may suffer a Christian (for reasons best known to himself) to fall into a sin of practice, and that also scandalous and notorious, of very high and heinous aggravation; so he may likewise (for the same reason also) suffer him to fall into an Error of Judgment, and that perhaps also fundamental; yea and suffer him for some space of time to abide and continue in it. But then there's this observable with it, that all this while his strength is much devoured: Grace it is at a very low ebb and fall with him; yea the next step to none at all, as Sampson when his locks were cut. A man cannot be a vigorous Christian and an Erroneous both at once: For as the practice of Godliness will much keep out the spirit of giddiness, so strangers of opinion will much devour the strength of Grace. And so much for that first reference: Strangers have devoured his strength, that is, strange God's, his strength of Religion.

Yea, Secondly; Strangers have devoured his strength, i. e. strange women his strength of Nature. And if ye will, his strength of Grace too; for we may take it of both: Though (to make it a distinct head) I choose to insist rather upon the former, which I will in the first place speak now unto. These two, they are very well join'd, and put togther; Idolatry and Adultery, spiritual whoredom, and corporal; strange God's, and strange Flesh. They are both of them strangers, though they are not strangers one to another; but do easily close and conspire in the persons, which are guilty of either. Now this is that which we here take notice of, as that which this people of Israel (as with the other) were charged withal; that they were separated with whores, and sacrificed with their harlots; as it is in Hos. 4.14. That was their sin; this before us now, is their punishment, and the ill consequent attendant upon it: Their strength devoured. And this is that which we may observe, as the lot belonging to such persons as those are. Though I shall not insist long upon it, because, I hope, I have not need much to do it here in this place; yet we may, by the way, touch upon it: and it is that which is suitable to other Scriptures besides. As in Prov. 5.10, 11. Speaking there of avoiding of the company of strange women, Solomon gives this caution about it; Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labor be in the house of a stranger. And thou mourn at the las • , when thy flesh and blood are consumed. So Prov. 7.23. Speaking there of one that follows after harlots; Till a dart strike through his liver, as a bird that hasteneth to the snare, not knowing that it is for his life. Again, Prov. 31.3. Give not thy strength to women, nor thy ways to that which destroys Kings. In all which places, we see how strange women devour the strength.

And so as the strength of Nature, so the strength of Grace and Piety too. As we see in Solomon, with his strange wives; not only strange, as such as were idolatrous; but strange also, as such as were adulterous: It is said, they turned away his heart from God; and so they did. And so likewise they will do with any other besides. Such couuses as these are, they are not consistent with a religious breast, neither do they show any work of Grace in them, which are conversant about them. Drunkenness, and uncleanness, they have a special mark set upon them to this purpose, there in that place, Hos. 4.11. Whoredom, and Wine, and new Wine, they take away the heart, i.e. from God, and that which savors of him. But so much also for that reference; Strangers have devoured his strength, that is, strange women, the strength of Nature, and of Grace, &c.

Thirdly; Strangers have devoured his strength, that is, strange enemies his temporal subsistence. And this now (not excluding the other) seems to be that which is chiefly intended here in this place; and so not so much the sin, as rather the punishment of Ephraim, though also occasioned from sin in him. Where we shall now fall in more fully with the threefold Emphasis, which I before named, though but mentioned to you. In the thing taken from them; the persons by whom; and the manner how: there are all these three in it. Their strength; and their strength devoured; and their strength devoured by strangers.

First; Their strength. We must here inquire what is meant by this; which will easily appear unto us, if we shall but consider what it is wherein the strength of any Nation does consist: look whatever that is, in the full latitude and compass of it, the same is here meant by this expression, in the strength of Ephraim. And God does signify thus much to us, that upon their rebellion, they have been deprived of it. When any Nation, or People, shall provoke God by their sins against him; he will then take away their strength from them, whatsoever it be.

First, their strength of Persons: That's one strength of a Nation, which does very much subsist by such and such men as are in it. These are the Props and Pillars of it, the foundation upon which it rests. I bear up the pillars of it, says David, Psal. 75.3. And that especially (to explain it to you) in a threefold qualification. First, of Fortitude. Secondly, of Counsel. Thirdly, of Piety. The mighty man, and the man of War. Strong, and valiant men; wise, and prudent men: the Ancient, and the Counselor; gracious, and spiritual men; the Judge, and the Prophet; as we find them there suited together, and fitted to our hands; in the third Chapter of the Prophecy of Isaiah the beginning of it. These are (as they are there styled) the stay, and the staff; or (as here) the strength of a Nation, to wit, in regard of the Persons. But now, when a Nation shall provoke God by sinning against him, he threatens to remove, and take away his strength from them.

And that in all particulars, and the several distinctions of it. First, the mighty man, and man of war: Those which have strength of body, young men; and of skill, as those which are trained, and brought up to it. Thus, Isa. 3.25. Thy young men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. This is that which is here threatened to them. And he does accordingly often effect it, not only in them, but in others; we may say, in ourselves. How many have been taken away in their very strength, and the flower of their age; such as are, in a sort, the strength of the Land, in regard of the state and condition which they are in? God finds ways for his removing of them.

Secondly, wise, and prudent men; the Ancient, and the Counselor: God threatens, in case of miscarriage, to take away these likewise. This is a very great judgment. In the multitude of Counselors, is safety; as Solomon speaks. And so consequently, in their decay, is danger. When God removes such as these, which may advise, and direct, and give counsel; he then takes away much of the strength of any people: which is that which he oftentimes does.

And so, Thirdly, gracious, and spiritual men; not only which are so from their calling, ex officio, as the Priest, and the Prophet; but especially from their inward dispositions, and qualifications. Men of sanctity, and holy lives and conversations, which are much in an holy acquaintance and converse with God. These, (though we may think sometimes) they might be very well spared, as weak and silly persons; yet, in truth, they are the very strength of a Nation, which God suffers very much to be: but this best kind of strength, the strength of persons is devoured, either in the discouragements, or removal of them.

The Second is, the strength of Substance. Ephraim 's strength, that is, Ephraim's Wealth; his vast and great treasure: That's a great piece of strength to a Nation, and the very nerves of war itself, as it uses to be expressed. The rich man's wealth is his strong City, and an high wall in his own conceit, Prov. 18.11. So, Eccl. 7.12. Wisdom is a defense, and Money is a defense: and indeed (in a temporal way) it does carry very much with it. It is a very great advantage to any Nation, to abound in wealth; but when that Nation shall begin to be exorbitant, God will then cut it short of it, and take away this strength from it; and he has ways enow wholly to do it. We shall not need to stand long upon this, our own experiences in this Land, and in this City, will give very good testimony and confirmation hereunto, for the making good of this particular to us, among many other.

Thirdly; The strength of Arms, and warlike preparation: Castles, and Strong-holds; Ordnance, and Ammunition; Shipping, and the appurtenances thereof: these are the strength of a Nation; and God takes them away also, upon the same provocations of him. There's nothing which any people can hold to, and boast themselves in, which is so strong as to keep them, and defend them from the judgments of God in their sinnings against him; but he can, and will also, upon occasion, remove it from them. That's the first emphasis here considerable. The thing itself taken away, here called his strength. His strength of Persons; valiant men, wise men, good men: His strength of Substance; Wealth and Treasure: His strength of Arms, and warlike preparation; Castles, and Strong holds; Ordnance, and Ammunition; Shipping, and the accomplishments of it.

The Second is, the persons by whom; that's here expressed to be strangers: This has another Emphasis of aggravation. The sufferings of a Nation from strangers, are a great deal more grievous than those which are amongst themselves; though, in some respects, home-bred contentions may be worse than foreign: yet in others, and in more, are those of strangers worse than those which are dome • iques, and so to be accounted. Thus the Scripture also sets it, and delivers it to us: Therefore we shall find the Prophet David twice together in one Psalm, desire to be kept from such. Psal. 144.7. Rid me, and deliver me from great waters, from the hand of strange children. And presently again, in ver. 11. Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children. Enemies which are strangers, they are the worst enemies of all. And that for this reason especially, because they have nothing of nature to restrain them, or mitigate their fierceness. Where they are of one and the same Nation, there's somewhat in the relation of Country, it may be of kindred, and alliance, which has a curb, and restraint with it: but where they are stangers, there's none of these restraints: there wants those bowels, and pitifulness, and compassion, which in the other sometimes shows itself. As therefore David said, let us fall into the hands of God, rather than into the hands of men: so we may say, let us fall rather into the hands of men at home, than into the hands of strangers; which have an aggravation of enmity, from their condition.

Again, as it is aggravated from the actors of this enmity, so likewise from the sufferers of it also; who are a great deal more content usually to part with that which they have, to those which are neighbors, or of their own Nation; than to those which are strangers, as that which is more easily regained, and recovered by them. Strength which is taken away by strangers, it is not so easily come to again, as by nearer hands. Strangers in any land, though they be friends, may be burdensome enough to it, and eat up the strength and satness of it: but if enemies, then so especially. Thus for the persons.

But Thirdly; Here's an Emphasis also in the manner, and a very great one it is: And that is, devouring. We may not lightly pass over that, which is very significant. It is not, strangers have simply taken it away; no, but they have moreover, devoured it: which is a taking away in an extraordinary fashion, and with some kind of extremity. And there are three things especially signified, and implied in it. First, greediness, and vehemency of desire. He that devours anything, it is a sign he is very cager upon it, and has a great mind unto it. This was the condition of Ephraim 's enemies, and so of all others, which are in Ephraim 's condition; their enemies shall be thus affected towards them.

Secondly, there's also absoluteness of destruction. He that devours, he takes up all, leaves nothing remaining behind him: that's another thing in it. It is a mercy to have some strength yet left; but here, all is laid hands on.

Thirdly, there's also speed and hastiness in it: as we shown heretofore; a cake not turned: which would not stay, but snap it up presently. This again is in devouring: we have a full place to this purpose, in Hab. 1.8, 9: They shall fly as the Eagle, that hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence; their faces shall sup up as the East-wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. And so much of that first Branch, to wit, Ephraim 's miserable captivity; in these words: Strangers have devoured his strength.

The Second is, his symptoms of ruin approaching: Gray hairs are here and there upon him. It is not said, he is gray all over; but gray hairs are here and there upon him. In the Original it is, sprinkled upon him. Seva zarkah bo; which (by the way) is an expression suits very well with the vanity of these present times, in that ridiculous powdering of the hair, both in men and women; it is enough only to name it, and almost too much that. This sprinkling here in the Text, does imply some beginnings of wrath which were towards this people. Gray hairs are here and there upon him, that is, he is in a state of declining, and tendency to ruin. He is not yet quite in his grave; no, nor in absolute decrepit old age, but is making forward, and coming to it. This, in a word, is the sense of the Prophet; that Ephraim had now some tokens and signs of manifest undoing, and destruction upon him. Gray hairs are here and there scattered: Look as (except in some special cases) gray hairs are usually, and for the most part, the symptoms and concomitants of old age, and of life declining: so the circumstances which were at this time upon Ephraim, they were the fore-runners of a period to him.

Now there are many of this nature, which accordingly may be taken notice of by us; The symtoms of ruin to a Nation. First, unfruitfulness under powerful means, and dispensations of Grace amongst them: This is one of the gray hairs bespeaking destruction. The earth, which bears thorns and briars, is rejected, and nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned, Heb. 6.8. If we look into Scripture, we shall still find how this has been made a fore-runner of perdition in sundry places. As the barren Fig-tree was commanded to be cut down, that it might not cumber the ground, Luke 13.7. And the unfruitful Vine cast into the fire, Ezek. 14.4. So that Nation which brings not forth fruit, has the Gospel taken away from it, and given to those who will do it. God will by no means bear with barrenness in his Garden and Orchard, but in such a case root it up.

Secondly; Strange sins, which do abound, and increase in it. This is another symptom to this purpose: when the foundations are as it were destroyed, there the house is not likely to stand long: The foundations of Piety and Religion, in the common principles thereof; and the foundations also of Nature, and Civility, in the common principles thereof: when these things, which are the very sinnews of a Nation, shall once begin to shrink, or be cut asunder, it is too evident an argument of no long continuance for it. What's any Nation whatsoever, but the several states and conditions of it, and ranks and orders of men in it? Now when these shall once begin to fail, what will become of it? when Magistracy shall be slighted, and contemned, and trampled under feet: when Ministry shall be scorned, and reviled, and reproached, and ignominiously handled: when Piety, and Learning, and Righteousness, and Justice shall be suppressed: and instead of these, wickedness, and ignorance, and barbarism, and oppression, shall take place. When the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable; as it is there, in Isa. 3.5. What's the meaning of all this, if it be well and throroughly looked into, but so many gray hairs which are sprinkled upon that Nation and People which are guilty of them, and plainly foretelling nothing else (considered in the causes) but destruction to them?

Add to all this, in the third place, not only sins, but plagues likewise. There are some kinds of judgments which usher in others, and are, as it were, preparatory to the absolute and final destruction. Thus, before the destruction of Jerusalem, there were many calamities antecedent to it. And so our Savior tells us, there shall be also before the final destruction of the world: Wars, and rumors of wars; and famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. There's a sprinkling of judgment, before it comes down in its full showers, and inundations, and streams: and these bespeak it, before it comes in good earnest. There are not more evident symproms to a body natural, of natural death; than there are also (in their kind) to a body politick, of civil destruction. And this is that which is here signified to us: Gray hairs are here and there upon him. And so now I have done with the First General Part of the Text; which is Ephraim 's confidence, in the simple consideration of it; both in his miserable captivity, as also symptoms of ruin approaching. Strangers have devoured his strength; and gray hairs are here and there scattered, or sprinkled upon him.

Now the Second is the aggravation of all this, from his senselessness in it: He knoweth it not. And (which is further also amplified) from the repetition, and ingemination of the words: He knoweth it not. This now follows to be considered of by us. And here (besides the certainty of the thing itself, which is implied in the doubling of the phrase) it may carry a double reference with it, either to their sin, or to their misery. He is in a sinful, and a deluded condition, and knows not that: And he is in a woeful, and destroyed condition, and yet knows not that neither. Wicked men, they have neither right apprehensions of sin, nor punishment; they neither see their wickedness, nor yet do they take notice of their danger: in the very jaws of mischief and ruin, yet do not observe it.

Yet this is not all, which is intimated to us in this expression, (though somewhat it be:) These words, And he knows it not, may admit of a various explication; and there are divers things pointed out in it. First, (that which we now mentioned, and instane'd in;) their simple ignorance, and want of apprehension. He knows it not, i.e. he does not discern it. This is the case and condition of sinful persons; that they are worse many times than they think for, or than they judge of themselves: In the very gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity, and yet do not know it. This was the state of the Church of Laodicea, (in Revel. 3.17.) a people of Ephraim 's temper, neither hot nor cold, a Cake not turned: We shall hear what Christ there says of them, Thou sayest that I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked. This people they were wretched, and miserable; and notwithstanding for all that, they were ignorant of it. They knew not in what a bad state they were: And so here now, Strength is gone, and gray hairs come upon them, and they do not know it.

This proceeds first, From the deceitfulness which is in sin itself; it oftentimes palliates itself, and puts on the cloak and appearance of Grace and Virtue upon it: Prodigality goes for bounty, lust for love, pride for magnanimity, passion for zeal, and and so of the rest. Now in regard of this counterfeiting, is not sin always so fully apprehended. Take heed (says the Apostle) lest ye be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin, (if it be not better looked to) will have that effect with it.

Secondly, Satan, he also colors it for them: The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, 2 Cor. 4.4. It is he which casts a mist before their eyes, whereby they may not see it; sometimes, as it may make for his purpose to provoke men to absolute despair, there he gives very hideous discoveries and represenrations of it to them; but otherwhile as it may lull men asleep, and make them secure; so he conceals it, and hides the vileness and filthiness of it from them.

Thirdly, There is a deceitfulness also in a man's own heart itself, and a blindness contracted by custom and continuance in sinning. That which is ordinary and usual it is not many times so easily discerned and apprehended by us, because it is in a manner natural and familiar to us; so it is here with sin.

And so it is with Judah likewise. Men upon the same consideration do not see nor discern that neither; My people know not the judgment of the Lord, Jer. 8.7. Strangers have devoured his strength, yet he knows it not. Where there are two things (by the way) which may be intended; either their ignorance of the evil itself, or the instruments and conveyance of it to them. They knew not that their strength was gone from them; or if so be they did in some manner knowthat, yet they knew not that this was brought about by strangers: That strangers did it, they did not discern it: This is the misery and great unhappiness of many people, to be undone, and not to see who hurts them, that so by this means they might be the more shy and wary of them, as in all likelihood and probability they would be, if it were otherwise with them, whereas now their ignorance, and confidence, and presumption, it does expose them to further ruin and destruction: He knows it not: This does imply their simple ignorance: That's the first thing here intended, in not knowing.

Secondly, Their willfulness and obstnacy; He knew it not; that is, he would not know it. He diverted and turned away his mind from attention to it, and consideration of it: This is another thing which may be meant by this expression. The sins and miscarriages of Ephraim were so gross and notorious in them, as that they could not but in some manner discern them: And their calamities were likewise so pressing, as that they could not but be sensible of them: But thiy did not know them, that is, acknowledge them and confess them, and lay them to heart: They did cast away all kind of thoughts and reflections upon them: And this discovers to us another piece of distemper which is upon the spirits of many sinful persons; that though their sins testify to their face, as it is said afterwards here of Ephraim, in ver. 10. of this present chapter, yet they will not be convinced of them, or brought to accuse themselves for them. They thus know them not.

Would ye know the reason of it? namely, That pride and self-love which is in men's hearts; this makes it to be thus with them. As those which would be counted young, they will not own the gray hairs which are upon them, and they have their arts and devices to conceal them. Even so is it also with men here in spiritual respects, because they would be counted good and righteous, and innocent, and free from defilement, therefore they will not own their defilements, though never so much abounding in them, and so as not their own sins, so neither God's Judgments. There are many which had rather bite in the pain, than once acknowledge the justice of God in punishing of them, or meekly and humbly submit to his chastisements which he does inflict upon them. This is commonly man's humor and disposition; either it is no sin, or it is no punishment for sin, but some common and ordinary dispensation.

Thirdly, They know it not practically: Here's denoted their want of due carriage and behavior, and demeaning of themselves upon the knowledge of it. And here divers things are also included.

First, He knows it not so as to be humbled and cast down for it: Then we know anything indeed when as we know it with such affections as are due to the knowledge of it: And so we know either our own sins, or God's Judgments, when we know them so as to lament them, and to bewail them, and to tremble at them. God never makes account we know them to any purpose, till we know them thus. To know sin, and to justify it, and to allow it, and to defend it in ourselves, this is worse than to be ignorant of it, and not know it at all; but to know it indeed, it is to be grieved and troubled for it, and to be sorry for our guiltiness of it.

Secondly, He knows it not so as to amend it, and to be reformed and bettered by it. Then we know Judgment when we yield to it; and then we know sin, when we forsake it; otherwise we know them not. When Afflictions have their errand upon us and message, which they were sent to us for, then we know them: And when sins are left by us, and we purged and purified from them, then we know them also, but till then we may be said in a manner to be ignorant of them. Those which know they have gray hairs, will pluck them out, as thinking them a disparagement to them. And so here for sinners; those which know them will rid themselves of them.

Thirdly, He knows it not so as to prevent it, and keep it off for time to come, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . We use to say, That the Child when it burns it, it then knows the fire; knows it, i. e. is afraid of it, and dreads to come near it; and so will we if we have either sin or punishment to purpose; we will be afraid of coming near them, of having anything to do with them, of the temptations, and occasions, and tendencies which lead unto them; whiles it is otherwise than thus with us, whatever speculative knowledge we may at any time have of them, we do as yet not know them. That's the third Explication: He knows it not, that is, knows it not practically.

Lastly, He knows it not, i. e. knows it not cireumstantially, in the latitude and extent of it, with all the disparagements and aggravations which are upon it; some slight kind of conceits he has of it, but does not think it to be so bad a matter in good earnest as indeed it is. Not to know a thing thoroughly and perfectly, is so far forth not to know it at all; and so here expressed. Why, but if he do not know it, all the better, there's the less evil in it: That misery which is not known, it is not felt, it is as good as no evil at all, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Nay, but soft, take heed of that; this makes it to be so much the worse, if we duly consider it. There is a double evil in sin or Judgment not known, as an aggravation of it: The one in regard of the symptoms, which are concurrent with it, and the other in regard of the effects which are consequent to it.

First, It is an ill symptom, in regard of the concurrences with it: It is an Argument of a greater distemper. Look as in matter of the body, when sickness is not felt, it is a sign the Patient is so much the worse, and his disease has more predominancy upon him, and prevalency over him. Even so is it also in case of the soul; where there's senselessness, there's the greater distemper: It is a sign that wickedness is more wrought and incorporated into men's hearts than otherwise: Where there is some tenderness, and reluctancy, and remorse, there's an Argument of some life; but where all's quiet, and no stirring, there's nothing but spiritual deadness which has seized upon it. Therefore the Apostle speaking of the Gentiles, makes this to be an aggravation of their sinfulness, that they were past feeling, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Ephes. 4.19. Who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to commit all uxcleanness with greediness. It is ill for the symptom.

Secondly, It is ill for the effects: It is of the more dangerous consequence to those which are in such a condition. Sickness, where 'tis not felt, it is desperate; the Patient is in an unrecoverable condition, no helping or curing of him: And so here, Those that know not either their sins or Judgments, will still persist and go on in them, and so expose themselves still to further danger and inconvenience from them, as not discerning the snares which they are in, nor the evils whereof they are likely to partake. It is ill for the effects.

What does all this now teach us, as the use which we are to make of it? Two things especially; First, Pity to others; Secondly, Caution to ourselves: There's both of these which do issue from it.

First, (I say) Pity to others: When at any time we see any poor wretches in such a sad condition as this is, whereof we now speak; lying under great miscarriages, and yet not knowing it, or exposed to great Judgments and Punishments, and yet knowing it not; we see here what couse we have to commiserate them, and to have compassion upon them, as being indeed most miserable. We pity men who are so in bodily distempers. When we see a mad-man triumphing in his chains, ah poor creature, say we, that knows not the misery which he is in: And how much more cause have we to do so likewise even in spiritual. We see how the Prophet does here bewail it in Ephraim, &c. Especially considering this, that it will not always be so with him. If people, as they do not know their misery now, so they could ever be ignorant of it, there might be somewhat in it, but that they cannot; conscience will one day be awake, and they shall know whether they will or no; yea perhaps when it is too late for them; and they shall then know to purpose: God will make them then to know, as Gideon did the men of Succoth, Judge. 8. The days of visitation are come; The days of Recompence are come, Israel shall know it, Hos. 9.17.

Secondly, Here's Caution also for ourselves, to take heed that we be not willingly ignorant, but labor thoroughly to know the state and condition which we are in, either in regard of sin or Judgment. Consider what a sad thing it is to be in a fools Paradise, and to go on laughing and singing to Hell: Do but think of that how dangerous a thing it is here not to know; and therefore search and study our own hearts, and lives, and conversations, and God's providence towards us, and be mindful of everything which we see to happen out unto us. Yea, for this purpose desire God himself herein to help us, as David himself did, Psal 139.23, 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts: See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. So much also of the second General: The aggravation of Ephraim 's misery from his stupidity: He knows it not; yea and he knows it not, twice repeated.

SERMON XLVI.

IN the Text itself there are two General parts considerable. First, a desperate Conclusion. Secondly, a peremptory Resolution, or Determination, following thereupon. The Conclusion is in that word, there is no hope. The Resolution upon it in those, But we will walk after our own devices.

We begin with the first, viz. the Conclusion, There is no hope. The Hebrew word is Noash, the same expressly which is in Jer. 2.25. There is no hope, &c. which is differently rendered by Interpreters; we shall take notice of that which is most probable: our own Translators give it according to the Reading which I have made of it, Desperatio est, No hope. Now this may be explicated by us according to a threefold reference, which may be made of it; for it seems to respect three sorts of persons; either first, themselves; or secondly, the Prophet; or thirdly, God. Themselves thus; There is no hope; i. e. there is no hope of us; our lusts do so far take with us, and prevail with us, that there is no hope we should ever get the mastery or victory over them. The Prophet thus, There is no hope, i. e. there is no hope in regard of thee and thy Ministry amongst us; thou mayest for thy part put up thy pipes, and hold thy tongue, and save thy breath, and spare thy pains; for we tell thee thus much, thou art not likely to do any good upon us. God himself thus, There is no hope, i. e. no hope of favor from him; though we should haply change our course, and amend our lives, and reform our ways, as he desires us to do; yet we should be still where we are, there is no likelihood or probability that we should be ever the better for it; or that he, notwithstanding all this, would show any mercy to us, or divert his judgments from us. This word and expression before us, it has the force and emphasis of all these senses with it.

First, in reference to themselves, to begin with that; There is no hope in regard of us, that we should ever get the better of those lusts and corruptions in us, or that we should ever return to God, we have no heart or mind at all to it; nay, we are utterly averse from it, and find our spirits and inclinations against it; with despair in this point of ourselves, as to our amendment and and reformation. This is the state and condition of many Persons and People in the world, that they are desperate in this regard. And there are two things which do make up this unto them, and seem to be involved in this distemper. First, an absolute indisposition and averseness to all kind of good. Secondly, an absolute thralldom and subjection to all kind of evil.

First, an indisposition and averseness to good: There is no hope; as if they had said, We have no heart or affection in us at all to God and to his ways; we cannot love him, or close with him. Thus the Chaldee Paraphrase expounds it, Aversi sumus a cultu tuo, We are averse from thy Worship and all Religion. And another Translation, Expectoratum est, We are heartless, and our minds are off from them. This is the sad condition which many sinners are brought unto, to have their hearts quite taken off from all that is good, and to have no savor, or relish, or sense of Religion in them; yea sometimes, though they have formerly made some show and profession of it. This is the complaint of these people here of themselves, upon their own experience; they know not what's the matter with them, but they wish the Almighty to depart from them, for they desire not the knowledge of his ways, Job 21.11.

This distemper, it hath sundry grounds and causes of it from whence it proceeds; as First, A neglect and intermission of the Duties and Exercises of Religion, or of the powerful and fervent acting and performing of them. Christian and Religious Exercises, they are great means to keep up the heart in a gracious and holy frame, and to dispose the Soul to God in a blessed course of communion with him: But now when these are intermitted, or are carelessly and negligently per formed, without any life, or power, or zeal, there does from thence for the most part grow a deadness and awkness upon the mind, and listnesness to that which is good; men from hence grow strangers to God, and he to them; and as strangers in regard of communion, so likewise in regard of affection and spirit which may dispose thereunto. So dangerous a thing it is for any to be guilty in this particular, of neglecting Prayer, or neglecting Hearing, or neglecting the search of their hearts, Meditation, and communion with Saints, and such things as these are. This neglect it breeds averseness.

Secondly, A persisting and wallowing in some base and filthy course of life. This it doth also wonderfully take off men's hearts from God, and all favor of goodness, that they have no contentment nor delight in it, or in those things which tend unto it. Hos. 4.11. it is said, That whoredom, and wine, and new wine, they take away the heart: Fornication, and Drunkenness, and such courses as those are, which are more scandalous and notoricus, they make sad impressions upon the Soul in this particular, they do enervate it, and take away the strength and sinews of it. A lustful heart will always be an unsavory heart, so far forth as lust is predominant and prevailing in it: We may see it even in David himself, who whilst he lay under those grievous miscarriages, his heart was very much taken off from God, and he found a wonderful alteration in him over what he was before, which made him so to pray for the creating of a clean heart, and the renewal of a right spirit in him, and the bestowing of a free spirit upon him, Psal. 51.10.

Thirdly, A walking contrary to light, and knowledge, and conviction, and the dictates of Conscience; a quenching of the motions of God's Spirit and suggestions to the heart. This does very much take off the heart also, and cause a flatness of spirit upon it: For it is a grieving of the Spirit of God himself, and it provokes him to withdraw his help and assistance; which being done, there can be no good temper expected in any whatsoever.

Lastly, Worldliness, and too deep an implunging in earthly and secular affairs. Those whole hearts are full of the world, they are for the most part empty of God, and of such thoughts, and affections, and dispositions as do tend unto him. There is a great deal of danger in such a course as this is; Ye cannot serve God and Mammon both at once. These and the like are the occasions of this heartlessness and indisposition to God, which is one thing here considerable.

Another thing here impli'd, is a thralldom and subjection to evil; from whence men come to despair of ever getting the mastery of their lusts, and the corruptions which are in them. There are some kind of people in the world, their sins and and impieties do at the present so prevail upon them, as that they are quite out of hope of ever getting the better of them; they now begin to lay down the buckler, and to think it is in vain for them to resist them, and to set themselves against them; they say, There is no hope. This is that which in a special manner seems to be intended here in this Scripture.

And there are divers grounds of this also, as well as of the other. First, a piece of spiritual laziness and sluggishness which is in them. There is a mollities and softness upon some spirits, which makes them impatient of resistance and fighting against sin; who rather than they will endure the conslicts and combats of it, do rather yield the cause; they find temptations so strong, and violent, and frequent upon them, and their corruptions so fiercely to beset them, that they think they had as good now give up, and so they do. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, says the Apostle in Heb. 12.4. Nay, they give themselves over to lasciviousness, to commit all uncleanness with greediness, Ephes. 4.19.

Secondly, Men come to despair of conquering their lusts and corruptions, from Infidelity which prevails in them; because they believe not those blessed and gracious promises which God has made to this purpose. This is that which sometimes even the servants of God themselves are too much guilty of, who are ready to conclude in this case, that they shall one day perish by the hand of Saul; not considering what God has promised for their encouragement, that he will subdue their iniquities for them, and that he will put his Spirit within them, and that he will cause them to walk in his statutes, &c. This Infidelity it breeds Despair, and the want of Faith, it is the cause of the want of Hope with it; therefore there is so little of the one, because there is so little or none of the other; there is a questioning of God in his Promises.

Thirdly, Carnal confidence, and reliance upon men's own strength. By his own strength shall no man prevail, 1 Sam. 2.9. those that think to do so may be disappointed, and so they will be. Now this is that which most men do, and are thereby at last driven to despair. Men go about the conquering of their lusts by their own strength, and neglect Christ, and so it is no wonder if they be at last out of hope. Alas, what hope is there in ourselves? I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me, that was the conclusion of the Apostle, and so it must be of everyone of us; we must use our own endeavors, and do all we can for the resisting of sin in us; but in them all depend still upon Christ, and fetch strength from him; which not doing, we shall quickly be out of heart. It is not the strength of Natural Reason, it is not the peremptoriness of Vows and Resolutions, it is not fear or penal restraints, which will be able to mortify sin, (though there be also use of these) but the grace and power of Christ: My grace is sufficient for thee, as the Lord said to Paul, 2 Cor. 12.9.

Fourthly, Another thing which makes men to despair of being better, and of getting victory over their temptations, is, because indeed they have false hearts, and have no good mind to the thing itself. Those who are resolved are courageous, and where they have a mind anything should be done, they do not question the doing of it. But it is otherwise here with men in this particular, there is no hope they should be better, because indeed they are well contented with their present naughtiness, that they are so bad as they are; as it was here with these people before us in this present Text.

The use which we ourselves are to make of this Observation, is as much as may be to free ourselves from this miscarriage, and to prevent this distemper i us: Let us take heed of giving so much advantage either to Satan, or to our own evil hearts, as to lie under the power of our corruptions, and to yield ourselves up unto them; Oh by all means take heed of that: take heed of base despair, and infidelity, and hardness of heart; to say, ye shall never be able to overcome such and such sins. It is that sluggishness, and softness, and falseness which makes you to say so, because ye are indeed willing to be overcome by them. As there is no evil whatsoever which is above the Blood of Christ, as to matter of pardon and remission of it, so there is no defilement whatsoever which is above the Spirit of Christ, as to matter of power and Dominion over it. There is enough in the grace of Christ to mollify the stoutest heart, and to purge away the greatest corruption; and therefore make use of that upon all occasions. First, labor to be in Christ, and to be at first incorporated into him by a Faith of Union. And then, be daily fetching strength from Christ for the subduing of corruptions in thee, by a Faith of Communion. But to despair, and to cast off all hope, it is to betray thy Soul into the hands of Satan himself, and to shut thyself out of Heaven itself in the conclusion of all. What was that which lost the Israelites their earthly Canaan, a great many of them? Why, it was their Despair and Infidelity; they were afraid of the Sons of Anak, those mighty Gtants which were in the Land, and whom they thought they should never be able to conquer, Numb. 13.33. and they doubted of the power of God for them. It is said, They could not enter in because of unbelief, Heb. 3. And so it is that which will hazard the loss of the Heavenly Canaan too, if we look not to it; for which cause we should beware of it. And that's the first reference of this expression here in the Text, namely, to the People themselves; There is no hope in regard of us, that we for our parts should ever be better, or get the victory over our present corruptions.

The second is in reference to the Prophet Jeremy, There is no hope, namely, of Thee, that thou shouldst ever be able to do any good upon us, by all thy arguings and reasonings with us, or preaching or discoursing to us; thou dost but spend thy labor to no purpose, for we are resolved and determined in this business what to do. This is agreeable to some other Translations of the Text. The Septuagint reads it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , We'll play the men; the Arabic and Syriac, Let us take heart and courage to ourselves; namely, as these, who will not be beaten off from our own devices. This is another description of the temper of evil and sinful persons, to labor to discourage even the endeavors of the Ministry amongst them, if it will be discouraged by them: that those who should heal and recover them, may have no hope of them. Of this we shall find an express instance in another place of this Prophecy, in Jer. 44.16. Then all the men, &c. answered Jeremiah, faying, As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. There they tell him as much to his face. The People that Ezekiel had to do withal, they are said to be briars and thorns, and a rebellious house, Ezek. 3.6. Briars and thorns, there is no touching or handling of them: And so were they in cap. 33.32. They come unto thee as the people cometh, &c. and they hear thy words, but do them not.

There are divers Fortifications to this purpose which men raise to themselves, to hold out against the workings of the Ministry, that it shall have no force or efficacy upon them.

First, Pride and Self-conceitedness; that's a great hindrance and impediment thereunto. Jer. 44.2. Then spake Azariah, &c. and all the proud men, saying to Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely. Pride, it is a great obstruction to effectual working upon the heart; therefore St. James advises, that wereceive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save our souls, in Jam. 1.21. And the Promise of instruction is made to meek persons especially, in Psal. 25.9. The meek he will guide in judgment, and the meek he will teach his way.

Secondly, Another Fortification is Carnal confidence. Men, by cavillings and wranglings against the Word, and the Ministry of it, think thereby to make it void. The preaching of the Gospel, it is foolishness to men of the world, and they think themselves too witty for it. In Acts 13.45. They spake against the things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting, and blaspheming. The Ministry, it is to deal with strong-holds, and imaginations, or reasonings; as the word properly signifies; in 2 Cor. 10.5. Thus, in the learned Greeks.

Thirdly; Prosperity, and outward Welfare, and security from thence: that's another encouragement. Thus it was with them there in that place, Jer. 44.17, 18. What was that which encouraged them in their opposition against the word which was preached unto them, and the going on in their sinful courses. Why then (say they) we had plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil: But since we left off, &c. we have wanted, &c. When men shall thrive for the present in evil courses, and ways, it is a very great encouragement to them in them, and does fortify them against all those which shall go about to take them off from them.

The consideration of this Point, may serve to give us a very good account of the little good which is many times done in the Ministry, as to the success of it. It is, because that people are so much hardened against it; so that let the Prophets say what they please, yet they are resolved to do what they list; and do as good as tell them, that they are not likely to prevail anything with them, as indeed they are not.

But yet this, for all that, ought not to take them off from their work: though these would discourage them, yet they are not to be discouraged by them, but to do their best notwithstanding, to win them, and work them, and bring them home to God: because the work is not theirs, but his; who is able to conquer and subdue the stoutest heart, and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, 2 Cor. 10.5. Thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will not hear, Ezek. 3.7. In the mean time, we may take notice of the desperateness of such a condition: Those Patients that are resolved with themselves against all means and helps of recovery, are most irrecoverable of any other. And such kind of persons are these. And so much also of the second reference of this expression: There is no hope; as it may be carried to the Prophet Jeremiah; no hope, in regard of thee.

The Third is, in reference to God himself; There is no hope, i. e. there is no likelihood, that if we should turn, and amend our ways, yet that God would be merciful to us, and divert his wrath from us. This is another sense of this expression. And it does serve to discover to us another piece of sad distemper which is in wicked men; even absolutely to despair of the mercy and goodness of God, upon the conditions of repentance: and so consequently to conclude, that it is in vain to return unto him, and to make their ways, and their doings good, as he had advised them, and invited them to do, in the verse before the Text. Thus it was with wicked Cain; My iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven, Gen. 4.13. And so many others besides. They despair of the Grace of God in Christ, and call it into question.

This they come to do thus; partly, First, from the suggestions and temptations of Satan, who does intimate as much unto them. The Devil knows, that if he can work men once to this, he shall sufficiently prevail with them; for if all endeavors to the contrary be vain, and to no purpose, then they had as good still follow their lusts. This is that which he makes them to believe, and thereby does most effectually work upon them.

Secondly, it proceeds also partly from the infidelity which is in their hearts. A naughty and corrupt heart, as it abounds with many other lusts and corruptions besides; so, amongst the rest, with unbelief, and a doubting of the truth of God revealed, and made known in his word. It hearkens herein to Satan, rather than to God; as it did at first, in the first temptation.

Thirdly, for a measuring of God by themselves. Despair, it is a fruit of carnal reason, and proceeds from that. And therefore God, to cure it, does call men to right reason, and the actings of that. Isa. 1.18. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: Though they be red, like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing, and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the Land. And again, Isa. 55.7, 8, &c. Let the wicked forsake his way, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, &c. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor my ways, &c.

That which we learn from hence ourselves, is, to beware of such a frame of spirit as this is, which is most dangerous and pernicious of all other; as that which is both most against ourselves, and against God likewise: and so must needs be very bad, and to be avoided.

First, against ourselves, in two things; both in point of Grace, and of Comfort. In point of Grace, as it is most obstructive to that, and does lay open the way to the greatest wickedness that can be thought of: For whereas hope of avoiding punishment, by keeping from evil courses, is a great restraint upon man's spirit; where this hope shall be taken off, by despairing of the goodness of God, there is a gap open to all licentiousness, and profaneness, as following, and consequent thereupon.

Then, in point of Comfort; it is much against ourselves there: for those that despair of mercy, can be filled with nothing else but horror, and astonishment of soul. They must needs live in Hell itself, and be tormented before their time, Thus is it against ourselves.

Secondly, it is also most against God, of anything else. Despair, it is the sin which does oppose him in his main design and project in the promulgation of the Gospel. What's God's design in the Gospel, and the promulgation of it? it is to advance the free riches of his Grace and mercy, in his Son Jesus Christ; to set forth the exceeding bowels of his love in him, 1 Tim. 1.14. Now Despair, and saying, There is no hope, it quashes this, and makes this of none effect at all.

All this laid together should (I say) take us off from this desperate disposition, and teach us to trust perfectly to the grace that is brought unto us by Jesus Christ; (as the Apostle Peter advises us, 1 Pet. 1.13.) We should believe the Promises of the Gospel, which are made to poor sinners upon their Repentance and turning to God, and draw out the comfort of them to ourselves, as we have occasion for them; and never suffer ourselves to be undone and to perish eternally; with saying, There is no hope, as the desperate wretches in the Text are implied to do. That's the third sense of the Expression, as it refers to God, in calling to question his Goodness and Truth: And so I have done with the first General part of the Text, which I propounded to be considered, viz. The Desperate Conclusion, There is no hope.

The Second is the Peremptory Resolution or Determination taken up thereupon, in these words; But we will walk after our own devices, and we will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart.] Which passage is considerable of us two manner of ways; First of all, simply and absolutely in the thing itself. Secondly, Reflexively or Derivatively, as coming from these particular persons.

First, Take it simply and absolutely in the thing itself: This is that which is here declared by these people, That they will walk after their own devices, &c. In which expression there are divers things considerable: First, as implied, That the nature of man is very prone and subject to devices. This is that which is here implied and supposed your own Devices. And it is agreeable to other places of Scripture; as Eccles. 7.20. God made man righteous, but they have sought out many inventions. So Prov. 19.21. Many devices are in the heart of a man, nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand. Devices, and many Devices. This is that which the nature of man is very subject unto: Full of projects, and devices, and contrivances, which they apply themselves to.

By Devices we are to understand evil Devices, especially such Devices as tend to evil, and to the promoting of it. These are the Devices and Imaginations which are here meant. Mans brain, it is fruitful and copious: And being by nature sinful and corrupt, is from hence fruitful in evil, and copious in devising and contriving of that which is naught; every imagination, or purpose and desire, Col jesser, the whole frame of the thoughts of his heart is only evil, and that continually, or every day, Col ha-jom; as the Lord himself declares concerning it, speaking of it in Gen. 6.5.

This is the difference betwixt the servants of God, and other men. When a man begins once to be good, and to have his heart changed by grace, and to become a new creature, his thoughts, and contrivances, and devices, are from hence tending to Goodness. The liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand, Isa. 33.8. But till this good work be wrought in him, he has other devices with him; as it is here also expressed in ver. 6, 7. His heart will work iniquity. And he deviseth wicked devices, &c. Thus it is said of the Gentiles (among other sins which were reigning in them) That they were inventers of evil things, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Rom. 1.30. They were not content to take evil as they found it, as it was offered and brought to their hands: No, but moreover they invented it, and found it out, and studied to do so.

This is that which we should all in a special manner be wary of. If we will needs devise, let us devise how to be good, and how to be better; how to be more useful and serviceable in the places wherein God has set us; how now to promote his glory, and to advance our own salvation, and the salvation of others with whom we live. These are things which are worth our thoughts, and which deserve to be devised by us. But as for evil and wicked devices, it becomes us to be far from them, whether considered as men, or as Christians, and who have the Image of God stamped upon us. Our wits should be used to better purpose, as being ordained to a better End, in the first conferring and bestowing of them upon us. But that's that which we may here first observe from this expression in the Text: That man's nature is prone to these devices, as that which is implied and supposed.

Now further, there is here also expressed the Affection which is in many people in reference hereunto: We will walk, &c. And here are divers things one after another.

First, Their obstinacy and perverseness, We will walk after our own devices, &c. This is that which is observable in the disposition of carnal men, even a peremptoriness and willfulness of Resolution. Whatever can be said to them, they are resolved and determined in themselves to do that which is evil. This was the case of this people: And so it is of many more of the same mind with them: They are still roving in the world. Thus in that place before cited, Jer. 44.17. We will certainly do whatever goeth forth out of our own mouth. And so the place cited before in this Book, Jer. 2.25. Thou saidst, There is no hope; no, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go: As who should say, none shall restrain us.

This is a sure Rule in matter of evil, That the more there is of the Will in it, so much the greater sin. And thus it was here in this place. These people they do not plead ignorance, nor they do not excuse themselves, as they did in the Gospel, for their not coming to the marriage-supper, from such and such hindrances and avocations; no, but they understood themsleves well enough, and yet would venture upon it. There was malice and willfulness in them: They would do evil, because they would do it.

This is that (I say) which is observable in many more; and that from these Causes. First, From the Connaturalness which is betwixt them and their lusts: Thus lusts are seemingly sweet and pleasing to them, and therefore they are bent upon them, and will not by any means be withdrawn or taken off from them, but are carried after them with a great deal of violence and importunity of spirit Thus in Jer. 8.6. No man repented him of his wickedness, saving, What have I done? Everyone turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle: The horse, and the war-horse, especially which is there meant; it hath a great deal of fierceness and impetuousness with it, whereby, when it discerns the battle, ( though afar-off, as Job speaks) it rushes into it: Eagerly, with a great deal of vehemence: and desperately, with a great deal of resolution: and dangerously, with a great deal of hazard, as rushing upon the Pikes and Guns. Even so, in like manner, do wicked men rush upon evil courses, and the ways of sin. They are herein like the horse and mule, which have no understanding; and their sins are pleasing to them, as the battle is to such kind of creatures as the horse is.

Secondly; This obstinacy and perverseness in sin, it is grounded upon security, and presumption. Because as yet they find no hurt by their sins, but scape well enough with them, therefore they are resolved upon them. As, Eccl. 8.11. Because sentence against an evil doer is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. If God should strike men dead presently in their wickedness, this, it may be, would a little affrighten them: But now, whiles he spares them, and lets them alone, and does nothing as yet unto them; this heartens them, and encourages them in evil.

Thirdly; It does proceed from the power which Satan has over them. The Devil, he is said to be the Spirit that works in the children of disobedience, Eph. 2.2. And certainly so he does in a great many persons. Those who will not have Christ and his Spirit to reign with them, they are oftentimes in just judgment given up to the Spirit of Satan, by whom they are taken captive at his will. And he hurries them, and carries them on headlong to all manner of evil whatsoever. Thus it is said of Judas, that the Devil entered into him. And thus 'tis said of Ananias, that Satan had filled his heart. And thus Elymas the Sorcerer, he is said to be a child of the Devil. Now those which are such, it is no wonder if they be thus bent upon sin, as being such in whom Satan himself rules.

Fourthly; Infidelity, and unbelief: because they are not persuaded of the truth of those things which they hear and read in the word, concerning the vileness of such courses, and the danger which they involve them in. They think these things are but scare-crows, and bug bears, to fright children; which have no truth or reality in them. And therefore it is, that they are no more affected with them, so as to bear their evil ways.

Lastly; The reason here in the Text: and that is, a desperate frame of spirit; because they think there is no hope: no hope that they should be better, having so long been accustomed to evil: Nor no hope, if so-be they were better, yet that God would be gracious to them, and preserve them from ruin and destruction. This is that (among other things) which makes them thus vile and incorrigible. And that's one thing, and the main here considerable, viz. Their obstinacy, and perverseness.

The Second thing is, their conspiracy, and combination: We will everyone, &c. It seems it was a set plot and design amongst them, against the Lord and his Prophet; even one and all. If some few of them had resolved to do so, it had been bad enough so, and a very great evil that: But it seems they were well agreed, and they were so jointly: it was everyone, without exception. Sin is always so much the worse, as it is anything the more general, and universal: It is not an excuse, as some sometimes are ready to make it; but rather an advancement, and aggravation, as showing the malignity to be so much the greater, and more improved. And thus it was here.

Thirdly; Here was their willful transgression, and sin even against knowledge; for they do plainly acknowledge their ways to be evil, and yet for all that, they do resolve and purpose to persist in it notwithstanding. We will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart. It is not, we will do what we think in our judgment to be best. Jeremy, You think our ways to be evil, and therefore would have us to refrain them: but we are of another mind, and therefore will continue still in them. But you and we are both agreed in one, that our ways are evil; and yet notwithstanding, we are determined to go on in them still, though never so bad. This is a fearful case indeed. And thus much of the words, considered simply, and absolutely, as they be in themselves.

Now further, Secondly; We may look upon them in their reflection, as coming from this people; and that is, they said it. All that do so, do not say so; but, it seems, they said so, and are so recorded here to have done. This may be understood by us two manner of ways; either in their words, or in their actions: either expressly, and totidem verbis, with open mouth; or implicitly, and interpretatively, and by consequence, in that which was done by them.

First, Expresly, and in so many words; They were not ashamed to do this: to say, and declare, and to profess to all the world, that they were resolved, whatever was said to them, to persist, and to go on in their wickedness. Thus, Psal. 12.3. We read of the tongue that speaketh perverse things. And ver. 4. Who have said, with our tongue we will prevail, our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? So, Mal. 3.13, 14. Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord: ye have said, it is in vain to serve God, &c. And Job 21.14. They say unto God, depart from us, &c. It is a sad thing, when it comes to this; yet sometimes we may observe it to do so. So much impudence there is upon men's spirits, as that they blush not to proclaim their wickedness with open mouth: And that's one sense of the expression.

Secondly; It may be understood implicitly, and interpretatively, and by way of consequence. They said it, namely practically, and effectively in that which they did, and which was acted by them. They said to the Prophet, there was no hope, i. e. they so behaved themselves, as he could conceive no hope of them, that they would ever be better. And they said, We will walk after our own devices, &c. i. e. they did still continue and persist in them, without amendment, and reformation: and did give occasion to believe, that they were resolved to do so still, even for time to come. This is the nature and quality of all perverse and obstinate sinners, such as live in any course of sin, without repentance, though warned, and admonished of it. They do as good as say, that they are purposed to do so continually: And (in the words of this present Text) that they will everyone do the, &c.

Therefore accordingly let us hence learn to judge of them, and to discern them what they are: What, though they do not say so in plain terms, and with open mouth? It may be fear, and shame, and hypocrisy may restrain them from that. But as long as they do so, they say so; whiles they come to the preaching of the Word, are made partakers of these divine admonitions, hear their sins protested against, and laid before them; and yet, for all that, still go on, and persist in them; and, it may be, worse than ever before: which is commonly the effect of such courses, to be worse by means of betterment. As long, I say, as they do thus, they do as good as speak it, and profess it with their lips.

Now therefore it concerns them very much to be humbled and abased hereupon, as those who hereby add to their iniquity; and so consequently, to their condemnation. Those sins which are but single only before admonition, they come to be double afterwards; and the judgment is so much the greater, which waits upon them. If I had not come, and spoken unto them, they had had no sin, (says our Savior;) that is, not so much, and so deeply aggravated: But now they have no excuse for their sin, Joh. 15.22. After so many Lessons, and Instructions, and Sermons which have been preached to you to this purpose; still to go on unreform'd, and to keep your old ways, and evil courses; it is a thing which will admit no excuse or apology at all for it.

And therefore look to it, lest it bring judgment with it at he heels. The Sword of Jehu comes after the Sword of Elisha: I have hewn them by my Prophets, and I have slain them by the words of my mouth, says God there of them, Hos. 6.5. And when this would not do, he proceeded to judgment against them: and so he will do still, if he be not prevented. Eluam a me hanc picem gladio; I will wash off this pitch with the Sword; as the Arabians speak in their Proverb. So will God indeed do, if he be provoked unto it. We know what this is already, and therefore should so much the more shun it, and those things which are the causes of it. So much for that. And also of this whole verse before us: And they said; There is no hope, &c.

SERMON XLVII.

IN this present Verse before us, we have exhibited and laid forth unto us the miserable condition of sin, which we may take notice of in two Branches, as may serve to make up to us the parts of the Text: First, in its Defilement. And secondly, in its Intanglement. The Defilement of sin, that we have here propounded unto us from a double Resemblance, the blackness of the Ethiopian, and the spots of the Leopard. The Intanglement of sin, that we have expressed from the unmoveableness and unchangeableness of either of these, it being as hard, and difficult, and impossible to do the one, as it is to do the other; as hard for those to do good which are accustomed to do evil, as it is for the Ethiopian to change his skin, or for the Leopard to change his spots.

We begin in order with the first of these parts, viz. the Defilement of sin, in the resemblance of the Ethiopian and Leopard, that it is of a polluting and of a deforming nature; it makes the person in which it is, who is filled and overgrown with it, ugly, and very unlovely, so indeed, as nothing else does in all the world. There is nothing which does so ill become a man, nor render him so full of ignominy and reproach, as sin itself does; there is no Ethiopian or Black-moor which is so unamiable in reference to the Body, as a sinner is in reference to the Soul; and that though ye take and consider him under never so many excellencies and perfections besides, whether Corporal or Spiritual: Let it be beauty of Body, sin it will take off from that, and cause a loathsomeness and disdainfulness notwithstanding: It is like a jewel of gold (says Solomon) in a swine's snout, where there is beauty void of grace, and fairness of skin without understanding of the things of God. Those therefore that take pride, and prank up themselves in the one without the other, they do exceedingly deceive themselves, as being indeed most unlovely and deformed. So again, let it be beauty of mind, that is, of wit, and natural parts, taking the mind of man so; yet this sin it will discolour that, and cast a disparagement upon it, and very frequently does so. How odious and abominable is a great and prodigious Wit, with a loose and scandalous conversation; like a dead fly, which makes the ointment of the Apothecary to cast out a stinking savor, so is a little folly in him that is in reputation for great wisdom, says the Preacher, Eccles. 10.1. Great and raging lusts, they cast a shadow upon great parts, and take off from the comeliness of them. Let men be what they will be, or what they can be, yet if defiled with sin, they are so far forth very unlovely.

Indeed they are not so (it may be) in their own apprehension, and to the judgment of a carnal eye, that can see no such ugliness, and deformity, and filthiness in sin, as indeed there is in it: As the Ethiopians and Black-moors (to keep to the resemblance of the Text) they do not perceive their own blackness, nor are much sensible of it; nay, they think themselves so much the fairer hereupon, they count their Blackness their greatest Beauty, and by how much the fouler they are in the truth and reality of their complexion, by so much the fairer they are in their own thoughts and conceits. Well, but this does not make them to be ever a whit the comelier in truth for all this, they are still that which they are, howsoever they may imagine or apprehend: And so is it likewise with sinful persons, those which lie under any great corruptions which prevail upon them, and are yielded unto by them, they are most ugly and deformed creatures.

And this they will likewise appear to be, and be convinced of, when they shall come to search and examine themselves by the perfect Glass of the Law of God, which has a discerning quality in it. Those that never look into the Glass, they do not see the spots which are upon them, but think themselves very beautiful, even then when they are altogether besmeared: and so it is here in this particular as concerning men's hearts and lives. When people take things absolutely for granted, without any further disquisition or inquiring into themselves: When they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves amongst themselves, as the Apostle speaks, 2 Cor. 10.12. that is, when they judge of themselves according to their own fancies and corrupt affections; here they may easily be deceived, and think better of themselves than they are: But when they shall bring themselves to the unerring Rule of the Word of God, and be tried by that; there their ugliness and deformity will appear, and be made manifest to be that which it is indeed, which accordingly they should be careful of, and desirous to apply themselves to, all that may be, that their condition may hereby be discerned; and especially desire of God himself to discover themselves to themselves, and to show them sin in the true colors of it; which when it does, they will then see it, and apprehend it as it is indeed, and not before: They will then perceive, that they have been hitherto mistaken, and that howsoever they have as yet thought of it, there is no such deformity as this of sin: That this is such as does most misbeseem them of anything else, and that however it may be with them otherwise, yet this is the great miscarriage of all, which defiles the whole man, and does disturb 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the whole course of Nature itself, as is imported.

To open this Defilement and Deformity which is in sin a little the more unto us. we may take notice (by way of amplification) of four particulars more; all which are involved in the Text, and do set this forth unto us. First, the Inherence of sin, it is natural, it is such as the sinner does contract from his very birth. Secondly, the Monstrousness of sin, it is preternatural; it makes the sinner to degenerate into a nature worse than his own. Thirdly, the Multiplication of sin it is various; it does sprout and spread itself forth into divers and several branches. Fourthly, the Extent of sin, it is universal; it is such as does pollute the sinner in every part of him. Each of these particulars is exhibited to us in this Text, for the defilement of sin.

First, The Inherence of it, it is natural; it is such as the sinner does contract from his very birth; therefore compared to the blackness of the Ethiopian, and to the spots of the Leopard, which are both of them natural to each. The Ethiopian, he is black from the womb, and the Leopard, he is spotted from the birth; what ever deformity there is in either of them, it is rooted in their very nature itself. Why thus now it is likewise with sin, in the heart of a sinner: See it (for example) even in him, who is said to have been after God's own heart, the Prophet David himself; yet he, for his nature was polluted, as we have his own acknowledgment for it in Psal. 51.5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. And so St. Paul, another of the same temper, he puts himself there in the number, Ephes. 2.3. We are all by nature the children of wrath, even as others. As for those which are absolutely naught. it is taken for granted in them, Psal. 58.3. The wicked they are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. This is their condition. In a word, it is the of condition all. Whosoever has sin in them (as there is none but have) that their sin is natural to them. We are all Ethiopians by our birth, even the best that are. Our father an Amorite, and our mother an Hittite, as it is in Ezek. 16.2.

What does this teach us for our improvement, but from hence to be so much the more sensible of it, and affected with it, and laying it to heart. It should so much the more humble and abase us in the consideration of our own vileness, and make us even abhor ourselves in dust and ashes. Here is that which does aggravate sin, and make it to be exceeding sinful: That it is a business which lies in our very bones, and is got (as I may so say) into the very substance of us. There are many which think they excuse their sins sufficiently from hence, when they say, 'tis their nature: Alas, 'tis therefore so much the worse, and the more to be disliked in them; therefore it is more general, and therefore it is more constant, and therefore it is more spreading, and therefore it is more incorrigible; there is so much the greater iniquity and mischiefs in it. If sin were a thing which men sell into only by chance, which were no more but (as it were) adventitious and accidental to them, there might somewhat more be said for it; but now, whiles it is inbred and natural, it is from hence so much the more abominable.

Therefore let this serve to direct us in the prosecution of the work of Humility upon our soul, where to take our rise, and where to lay our stress, when at any time we call ourselves to an account in such businesses as these are, and that is at the sin of our Nature; let us begin and end there; be humbled for that first, and be humbled for that most, as that which most calls for contrition, and humiliation from us: And herein we shall follow the example of other of the Saints, who have done as much afore us. As the instance before mentioned David, when he was cast down before God for those sins of Murder and Adultery, which he had committed; he does not only rest himself in them, but he reflects upon the sins of his Nature, and is afflicted for that; as we have it in the place before cited: I was shapen in iniquity, &c. And so Paul he has respect to that likewise, Rom. 7.24. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death! That is, this corrupt nature in me, which has all the lineaments of the Old man, which it does extend itself unto. This was that which the Apostle was so troubled with, and so should we be likewise, especially upon occasion of any corruption breaking forth in us; we should have recourse hereunto: That where sin takes its rise and beginning, there Repentance may take its also. If the streams be so foul and unsavory, what may we think of the Spring and Fountain which they issue from? That's one Improvement to be made of it.

Again, We see here what cause we have to desire that God would change our Nature, and bestow New Natures upon us, while originally we are so defiled: That God would give us a new heart, and a new mind, and put new principles into us, which might work in the manner of a new Nature in us. The more settled we are in corruption, we should learn hence to be so much the more desirous to be strengthened and confirmed in grace: But so much of that first patticular, viz. The Inherence of sin; it is Natural, and such as the sinner does bring with him into the world, like the skin and spots of the Leopard and the Ethiopian.

The Second is the Strangeness or Monstrousness of it; it's praeternatural; as we have seen it in it's Generation, so we may look upon it in it's Degeneration also: It is such as turns the sinner into a nature far inferior to him, and worse than his own. It alters the condition of a man's Country, turns an Israelite into an Ethiopian; and it alters the frame of a man's Being; turns a man into a Leopard, that is indeed, into a very Beast. These are the Resemblances whereby the Holy Ghost in Scripture lays forth sin before us, thereby to make it the more odious to us, and to convince us of the sad estate of those wherein it is.

First, (I say) It alters a man's Country, causes a degeneration there; and so is expressed: Because men do oftentimes very much pride themselves in that, and count it a glory to them to come of such a race and stock; therefore does the Lord show that sin does disparage them even in this particular; insomuch as they do not deserve such an honor to be put upon them: So that here now in this expression of the Ethiopian, there seems to be a secret gird, and exprobration, and upbraiding of this people, who had so far debased themselves by their miscarriages, as that they had now lost the very name of the Country whereunto they did belong. Here's Ami turned into Lo-ami, that is, my people into not my people; as it is in Hos. 1.9. That which was a Noble-Vine, and wholly a right-seed, turned into the degenerate Plant of a strange Vine unto the Lord; as it is also in Jer. 2.21. And this we shall likewise find in divers other places besides; as in Ezek. 16.3. When God speaks of the Genealogy of that People, he will not vouchsafe to call them by Abraham, but rather by the Canaanites. And in Isa. 1.10. He does not express them by Judah and Jerusalem, but by Gomorrah and Sodom: Hear the Word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom, and give ear unto the Law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To signify thus much unto us, that God makes no account of men's Countries, where they make no account of their own ways, and lives, and conversations. Judah is Sodom, and Jerusalem is Gomorrah, and Rome is Babylon, and London is Rome; where the sins of one place do prevail and abound in the other: If the same Vices and Abominations be amongst us which are in Judah, or Turkey, or Italy, or any of those Countries; we are Indians, and Turks, and Italians also ourselves; though the climate or the situation of the soil be never so different; yea and that also which is much to be observed, a great deal worse. Sinners when they are transplanted or transported from one Country into another, they are worse in that Country which receives them, than in that which conveys them. The sins of Italy in England, are so much the more Italian, and an English-man Italianate (we use to say) is a Devil incarnate. Thus does sin alter a man's Country, makes an Israelite an Ethiopian, and causes a degeneracy in him.

So again Secondly, Does it also alter a man's nature, and cause a degeneracy there likewise. It gives a man the quality and disposition even of the beasts, and brute creatures themselves. And so does the Scripture again often represent it unto us, setting forth more desperate sinners by such means as these are, of Wolves, and Tigers, and Bulls, and Bears, and Vipers, and Lions, and Leopards: To intimate thus much likewise unto us, how far sin does unman us, and take away our very reason, and the glory of our nature from us, as indeed it does, transforms us into mere Swine themselves; like Circe 's Cup, makes us like so many Tigers, and wild creatures that run about in the Forest. And that as we may conceive of it, especially in two particulars: First, As to matter of Understanding: And Secondly, as to matter of Affection; sin-it does cause a brutishness in either of these: For the Understanding first; it does mightily besot that, and take it away there where it prevails; and so has been confessed by those who have best understood it. It is that which the Prophet David delivers in general concerning all: That man being in honor, and not understanding, is like the beasts that perish; in Psal. 49.20. And it is that which he delivers in particular concerning himself, when a temptation prevailed upon him: So foolish was I, and ignorant, I was as a beast before thee. And so in like manner the Wise man argues, Surely I am more brutish than any man; I have not the understanding of a man. And then, as for the Judgment, so for the Affection; sin it does inbrutish here; it makes men cruel and savage like to beasts; Homo homini Lupus, one man • s a Wolf to another, that is ready to destroy and devour. There's no such cruelty and fierceness like that of men where it does once prevail, and take place in the heart, with opportunity for the venting of it, and putting it into execution. Thus does sin even alter a man's nature: And so ye have also the strangeness and monstrousness of it; it degenerates, and debases, and puts the sinner far be low himself, and makes him an Ethiopian and a Leopard.

The Third is the Multiplication of it: Its various, expressed here by the Leopards spots, which are many and numerous, and so it is likewise with sinners; there are divers sorts and kinds of it: Its a beast of divers colors, and divers marks, and spots which are upon it, so many, as it is hard to reckon up the number of them: we shall find a good large Catalogue in Gal. 5.19. where the works of the flesh are made manifest; and when all's done, the Apostle is fain to close it, and to make it up with an &c. at last, as leaving many more behind, which as yet he had not mentioned There are sinners belonging to every calling, to every condition, to every relation, to every temper and constitution whatsoever; and when one is anything prostrated, another rises up in its place, and supplies the room of it.

This shows what cause Christians have to be jealous and suspicious of themselves; and not at any time to be secure; for as much as they are always in some danger and hazard or other; if not in this kind, yet at least in that they are never absolutely free; nor can promise themselves so to be in this respect, and that in regard of the variousness and multiplicity of sin, which has so many windings and turnings in it, and does one way or other ensnare them. There are not more spots in a Leopard, than there are lusts in a corrupt heart: And that's the Third thing, the Multiplication.

The Fourth is the Universality or Extent; it is a deformity in all the parts, not one excepted; so is the spots of the Leopard; and so also is the Blackness of the Ethiopian: Nay then (if ye go to that) it is a little more; for the Ethiopian, though his skin be black, yet his teeth in the mean time are white; and though perhaps he may be ill-coloured, yet he is sometimes well-featur'd for all that; though he be black, yet still he may be comely; but a sinner he is not so, his very shape and figure is ill-favor'd; he is nothing else but ugliness and deformity: And so does the Scripture represent him, and set him forth unto us. My heritage is unto me as a speckled Bird, Jer. 12.9. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceiving, whiles they feast with you, 2 Pet. 2.13. So in Jude epist. v. 12. These are spots in your feasts of Charity, &c. Evail men are still presented as spots, and as spotted all over.

Again, on the other side, good men are freed from these spots: Thou art all fair my Love, and there is no spot in thee, says Christ to his Spouse the Church, Cant. 4.7. Not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, in Ephes. 5.27. Found without spot, and blameless, 2 Pet. 3.14. Keeping himself unspotted from the world, James 1. ult. And hating even the garment spotted by the flesh, Jude v. 23. Look as Grace it extends itself through the whole man (I pray God sanctify you wholly, 1 Thes. 5.23.) So also does sin too, it makes a man universally sinful and polluted in every part and member of him without any exception, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, Isa. 1.5. The whole frame, or all the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man is evil, and only evil continually, Gen. 6.5.

Now lay all these things together, Sin for the rise of it, it's natural; for the effects of it, it is praeternatural; for the improvement of it, it is various; for the extent of it, it is universal: And what a wretched and miserable creature is a sinner all this while! how full of silthiness, and ugliness, and pollution, and absolute defilement! who can now fall in love with himself, and be proud of any excellency which is in him otherwise, whiles he lies under such disparagements as these are, notorious debasements! I beseech ye let us seriously consider of these matters, and lay them to heart: Let us not look upon these things as mere metaphors, and expressions, and resemblances, and rhetorical enlargements, but as carrying a manifest truth and reality in them; let us believe them, and be affected with them, answerably to the seriousness of them.

And further, let all this carry us so much the nearer and closer to Christ, and cause us to admire so much the rather God's free Grace and Goodness in him, who is set forth as a Propitiation for sin, and is that Lamb of God which takes away our sins from us. The use of the vileness of sin, and the filthiness which is in that, is not only to make itself loathsome and odious to us, but occasionally to make us in love with that which is so far, opposite and contrary thereunto. The end of aggravating of sickness, is from hence to advance our Physician, and to make us in love with that means which is appointed for the recovery of us, which is the Gospel, and the Grace of God in Christ. All Declamations against sin they tend to this, and so they should be entertained by us; otherwise they are no other but mere sounds and words to no profit. And therefore whensoever (as now we do) we hear of such things as these against it, and against ourselves for it, it should have this work and efficacy upon us, as to hate and detest sin itself so much the more, and be humbled in our hearts; so to bless and praise God for him who has freed us from it; and to repair and to have recourse unto him for this purpose: And so now I have done with the first General part of this Text, which is the Condition of Sin, in the Defilement, expressed in the blackness of the Ethiopian, and the spots of the Leopard.

The Second is of Sin in its Intanglements, expressed in the Unmoveableness and Unchangeableness of either of these: As the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, or the Leopard his spots, no more can those which are accustomed to evil, do good. In which present passage before us, we have again two things more: First, the qualification of the Persons, these which are accustomed to do evil. Secondly, The invincible necessity which is upon them, that they cannot do good.

For the first, the qualification of the Persons; that we have expressed to us in these words, Ye which are accustomed to do evil; yet this is a little too narrow, it being in the Original Text of somewhat larger signification than our own Translation seems to carry it; for there it is, taught to do evil, as ye have it also in the margent of your Books. In the Hebrew, [Lim • ̄dhe hareang Edocti ad malum ] Those which are taught to do evil, it is hard for them to do that which is otherwise. Now this, men may be said to be especially three manner of ways: First, by Doctrine. Secondly, by Example. And thirdly, by Practice. Where though the latter be only here mentioned in our English Bible, expressed by custom, and it may be is chiefly intended in the scope of the Text, (which therefore we shall stand longer upon when we come unto it) yet the two other are questionless included, and may very well be taken in which it, to make up the sense, which therefore we shall lightly touch upon, and speak a word or two unto them.

And first, to begin with the former, namely, that of Doctrine and Instruction, which are taught to do evil so; this is properly teaching, and has therefore the name of it put upon it, and 'tis appliable to this business of sin. There is a great deal of such teaching as this is oftentimes in the world, a Talmnd as to matter of iniquity. Thus in Matth. 5.19. Whosoever shall break one of the least of these commandments, and teach men so to do, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. So Tit. 1.11. Teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. And Mark 7.7. Teaching for Doctrine the commandments of men. There is a great deal of ill teaching in the world now and then, and ill-learning also following thereupon; people are here very quickly taught, so capable and apprehensive are they: yea, they seek to themselves teachers to this purpose, and Lessons also, as we have it in 2 Tim. 4.3.4. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and be turned into a fable. Teachers after their own lusts; that is, such Teachers as, by their Doctrine, do nourish and strengthen their lusts in them, as many Teachers and Doctrines do. There are divers and sundry Teners and Opinions, which have very great influence upon the life for the perverting and corrupting of it; and those which are tainted with them do much miscarry in that particular; yea indeed, they cannot well do otherwise, as it is here implied in the Text. Those which are thus taught to do evil, cannot do good, there is an impoiency, and there is an indisposition upon them to all good, and proneness to all manner of evil. This is the condition with them. There is nothing more leading and conducing to a vicious life, than is the infusion of unsound Principles, and the sucking in of erroneous Opinions, especially such as they may be for the nature and kind of them: As in Popery, and Pelagianism, and Antinomianism, and such as these. Those which are taught and principled thus, they must needs miscarry. If they do not always actually break forth into the very enormities themselves, yet they have that within them which does carry them to them; and whensoever they have an opportunity for them, they are in great hazard and danger of them. This shows what great cause we have to be advised, and take heed hereunto; to be careful what we teach, and what we learn, (especially we which live in these places of Teaching and Learning, the Schools of the Prophets.) It is a matter of great concernment both to ourselves and others, as to the regulating of our lives and conversations. How can ye which are taught to do evil, do good? that is, taught in a way of Doctrine and Instruction. That's the first Explication.

Secondly, In a way of Pattern and Example; Which are taught so. Such a kind of teaching as this is, there is also sometimes, yea, and that no less effectual than the other, if it be not more. That which men see to be done and practiced before their eyes, they do the more easily fall into to do it, and in nothing sooner than in sin: Here, wickedness is taught, There, where it is seen; not only as acted upon the Theatre, but especially as acted in the life; which has been the reason why some of the very Heathen have withdrawn their children from beholding the miscarriages of their servants, lest seeing them, they should be tainted with them. It is a dangerous thing to converse in places of scandal, and ill example, and to be present in evil society. Here sin is quickly learnt, and 'tis not easily un-learnt where it is so; it is a very hard and difficult matter to escape the temptations of it, and not before one's aware to be involved in it. How can ye which are taught to do evil, do the thing that is good? that is, taught by evil patterns and examples. That's the second Explication.

The third is by Practice and Use, which are taught so; that is, as 'tis here in our own Translation, Which are accustomed unto it. Use, it makes perfect; and as in other things, so also in sin, which the more that any are exercised unto, the more prompt and ready they are in it. There is an Art even in wickedness itself, although a bad one; and therefore we read of some who are wise to do evil. This (as others) is got much by practice; those which are but young beginners, they are Bunglers as it were at it, and they go about it with some kind of awkness, and difficulty, and averseness unto it; especially as their education at any time has been better and more Religious than others: when such as these do first of all enter upon sinful courses, they are not so expert and expedite in them as one would think they should be, but do a little stop at them; Swearing, and Drinking, and Gaming, and such sins as these, they do some what stick with those sometimes, who have been better taught: but now after a little while, when they have been used and accustomed unto them, they now grow experienced in them, and are carried to them with a great deal of violence and importunity of affection: They drink in iniquity as water, and they draw on iniquity as with cart-ropes, and they commit all uncleanness with greediness; and they do evil with both hands earnestly; they turn unto their course, as the horse rusheth into the battle, &c. These are the phrases and expressions which the Scripture puts upon them. Here in the Text it is said of them, that being so accustomed to do evil, they now cannot do good. This for the Qualification of the Persons.

Which leads me now to the second thing considerable here in this passage, namely, the Invincible necessity which follows upon custom in sin; those which are used unto it, they know not how to free themselves from it. Ye may as soon wash a Black-moor white, or scrape off the spots of a Leopard, which are expressions of Labor in vain, as ye may reduce an habituated sinner. To open this Invincible Necessity and Tyranny of accustomed sin so much the better unto us, we may take notice of it in two particulars whereof it consists: First, in an impotency to good. And secondly, in a precipitancy unto evil. Each of these are here implied, though but one expressed. Custom in sinning, it is both obstructive, and likewise provocative; it hinders men, and takes men off from good, that they cannot do that; and so it also furthers men, and puts men on to evil, that they can do nothing but that. Each of these are the inconveniences of evil custom, and accordingly to be considered by us.

First, Impotency to good, that is here expressed in the Text, which it is said, that such as these they cannot do; they cannot do good. Take a man that lives in a vile and sinful course, and his heart is off from all good whatsoever, he has no mind not list unto it, cannot pray, cannot read, cannot hear, cannot communicate, cannot sanctify a Sabbath, cannot perform any duty of Piety or Religion which is required of him, but is very backward and averse thereunto. Or if it may be he may come off to the bare work, and outward performance, yet his heart is altogether flat and dead in it; he has no life, no spirit at all in him, nor favor or spiritual relish of that which he goes about, but is as 'twere out of his Element. Nay further, let it be one who has some beginnings of Grace in him, and who is in some manner changed by the Spirit of God; yet so far forth as he has any sin, which is prevailing and domineering in him, so far forth will his heart and Soul be much averse and indisposed to any goodness, and he will find a great deal of difficulty in himself as to the managing of it. Ye know how it was with David, a man (as I said before) after God's own heart, whilst he lay still in those great sins whereof he was guilty, how his heart was from hence out of frame and temper as to that which was good; and therefore when he begins to recover, and to come to himself, he prays to God for a clean heart, and a new spirit to be bestowed upon him; and then he could teach transgressors the ways of God, which before he could not do in that manner as he ought. As Paul says of himself, The good which he would do, he could not do. And as he tells the Galatians, Ye cannot do the things that ye would; that is indeed, that ye ought. This is the great thralldom and slavery which sin brings men into. Men may do that which is good materially, though evil; but not good formally.

Secondly, There is precipitancy to evil; that's another thing here considerable, and is impli'd, though it be not expressed, as we may see, if we make up the comparison in its full force; for the strength of the sense runs thus: As the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, but as he is black, so will he be black still, and never but black: And as the Leopard cannot alter his spots, but as he is spotted, so will he be spotted still, and never be otherwise: In like manner is the case with such a person as is accustomed to do evil; so he does, and so he will do continually, and never give over. A man that's rooted and confirmed in sin, by daily and constant practice, it is an hard matter ever to wean him, or to pull him from it; he has (upon the point) taken up his course, which he will hold on, and persist in, to the end: His heart is fully set in him to do evil, as ye shall find that expression used by the Preacher, Eccles. 8.11.

The ground of this prevalency of Custom, is the fixedness and setledness of it, it being, as it were, a second Nature, which is sure and constant to its Principles. Naturalia non mutantur; Those things which are natural, are unchangeable; and this custom seems to be, and therefore compared to those things, which what they are, they are by a Natural impression upon them; as it is with the fore-mentioned resemblances which we spake of before. Custom in sin, it breeds an habit, and that is such as it is not easily removed; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but is as radicated as Nature itself.

The use which we may make of all this to ourselves, is briefly this: First, take heed of anything to do with sin at first. What Solomon says of strife, it holds good as to any other miscarriage, The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water; therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with, Prov. 17.14. The same we may say to this purpose concerning sin, Principi • s obsta, stop it in the very beginning, and the first entrance upon it of all; if we do not, we know not where we shall make an end after we have begun, but are in danger of proceeding from one degree of wickedness to another; from lust to consent, from consent to act, from act to custom, and from custom to hardness of heart; which being brought to the perfection of it, as the Great Transgression of all, proves unpardonable. It is a good and safe course for a Christian not to think slightly of any sin at all, though never so little, for lesser sins make way for greater, and beginnings make way for proceedings in such persons as dare to venture upon them. Take heed, brethren, says the Apostle, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, in Heb. 3.13. and it is good counsel, for sin will harden, where at any time our hearts are inclined and carried unto it; yea, and it will entice too, and bring the sinner from snare to snare, till it has quite undone him, and overwhelmed him in absolute destruction. There are many people which are ready to think, when they make bold with such and such evil practices as the occasions which tend unto them, that they will certainly go no further: Alas! when they are once got into the briars, they do not know how to get out, or to expedite themselves, but, like those which run down the hill, they are at the bottom before they are aware. We see it again in the example of David, who when he had once begun, he had almost never done, but was miserably perplexed.

Again, secondly, If any should perhaps by chance fall into sin at the first, yet, as near as they can, let them not stay and abide in it still, but hasten out of it as soon as may be. Shall we continue in sin, says the Apostle? God forbid; No, but as those which are out of their way, and perceive and know themselves to be so, they get into it as soon as can be, because every step which they take otherwise, leads them so much the further from home than they were before. Even so should it be here with us as to the ways of Godliness and Religion, where we find our feet anything to slip and turn away, be careful presently to rectify them, and bring them into rights again. Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Heb. 12.13.

Again further, thirdly, Take heed of Relapses, and falling back to sin again. If sin be such a Tyrant as it is, and especially a slave in sin, let then those which are in any measure delivered and freed from the Tyranny of it, take heed of coming within the compass and snares of it again: For who, being set at liberty from imprisonment or captivity, or any great bondage, would willingly return to it again, and undergo the miseries of it? Especially if we shall also further consider, that in this case it proves a great deal worse than it was before, for so it does. Those which are anything accustomed to do evil, they are in great bondage; but those which are so after some freedom from it, are in the greatest thralldom and bondage that may be, and the case is a great deal worse with them than it was before: those that have broke themselves of some custom, and do again fall into it, they are for the most part very miserably entangled with it; as the Apostle Peter hints unto us in 2 Pet. 2.20, &c. If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, they are again entangled and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning, &c. Satan, and their own lusts, do, in such cases, set more violently upon them than ever they did, and driving them headlong into perdition itself. So dangerous is any evil custom re-assumed and taken up again; and the habits of sin returned to, and revived in us; for which cause we are to take heed of it. But when is sin come to an habit? or how may this be discerned by us so to be? In brief, we may know it by the consideration of three particulars, which makes it up: First, Frequency. Secondly, Facility. Thirdly, Delight. These three are considerable in an Habit, which when sin is once come unto, it is then discovered to be habitual.

The First: I say, is Frequency: when it is often and familiarly committed, then there is an habit of it contracted. This is properly, and in the first acceptation, custom in sinning, when men act it again and again, and renew the commissions of it time after time. This is that which many do, and they that do so, are hardly taken off from it. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , says the Philosopher, That which is often, is next to that which is always, and it very suddenly falls into it. Those therefore that find themselves thus, yea, though only in desire and inclination, their corruption does so far forth proceed from an habit in them.

The second is Facility. An habit, as it makes a man to do anything again and again, so it makes one expedite in the doing of it, to do it with a sleight. When therefore it is thus with men in sin, they are habitual in it. In 1 Joh. 3.9. it is said of him that is born of God, that he doth not commit sin, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that is, he does not make a trade of it, he does not do it as his proper work, or that which he is trained up unto, because he is born of God, that is, has another principle in him, which does dispose him, and incline him, and carry him another way, and does indispose him hereunto. But now with an unregenerate heart it is far otherwise; such an one as this is, he has learned the art and trade, as I may so call it, he is very prompt and ready at it.

The third is Complacency and Delight. Those that work out of an habit, they work with a great deal of pleasure and contentment in that which they are about. And thus it is likewise with an habituated sinner, there is nothing which is more pleasing to him than sin is. They count it pleasure to riot in the daytime, 2 Pet. 2.13. And, They delight in lies, Psal. 62.4. When wickedness comes once to this height, it is then come up to a sad condition, in those who are corrupted with it, and it then proves very hard and difficult to wean them or reclaim them from it. And so much therefore for that point, to wit, the Invincible Necessity which lies upon an accustomed sinner.

But now for the further unfolding of this Text still unto us, it may not be amiss for us to consider how far forth this is true; for this at the first hearing seems to be a very uncomfortable Doctrine, that an accustomed sinner is unreclaimable, and seems to carry a great deal of disheartening and discouragement in it: For what shall then become of all those, who have been anything enured to sin, and for a while persisted therein? what? are they altogether lost? and is there no hope of recovery of them, but to remain still as they are? What may we think of such a point as this is? For answer hereunto therefore, we must know how this is to be understood, that we may rightly conceive of it: and that is, that it be not taken absolutely, and peremptorily, but with due limitation. If we speak of it simply, and strictly, so indeed it is not altogether impossible. It is a thing which, in itself, may be done, and there is one that can do it; that can reduce, and reform, and reclaim even an habituated offender. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? says Job, surely not one. That is, not one man; yea, but there is one God that can do it, and can do it effectually. As, Matth. 19.26. With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. The Lord, when he sets in by his powerful and converting Grace, he is able to bring all these things in frame, and rights again: He can change the skin of the Ethiopian, and take away the spots of the Leopard; and make the most notorious sinner (if he so please) to be a very good Christian. He stands not upon the Country, but can remove the disparagements of that; nor he stands not upon the nature, but can take away the stubbornness of that. And there are instances and examples enow of his power to this purpose: In Manasseh, in Paul, in the Jailor, in Mary Magdalene, &c. He can turn an Ethiopian into an Israelite, and a Leopard into a very Lamb; and he has done so many a time. In Isa. 11.6, 7. It's made the consequence and effect of Christ's Kingdom, and the preaching and dispensation of the Gospel: That the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. And in Psal. 68.31. Princes shall come out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. If ye look but into the 8th of the Acts, ver. 27. ye shall there find a plain and remarkable instance of it; of an Ethiopian changing his skin, upon occasion of the preaching of Philip: and many more there are of that nature. So that the thing itself is not (I say) altogether impossible, but done it may be. The Lord is able, by his Almighty power, to bring it to pass; who therefore may very confidently, and comfortably be repaired unto for it, as any have occasion to do it, for those whom they are interested in, and do belong unto them, in any condition or relation whatsoever. But when 'tis expressed here under such repugnances as these are, we must take it with this explication: First, Can he do it? i. e. can he of himself do it? it is not done by a man's own skill, and power, it is a work of Heaven. Secondly, Can he do it? i. e. can he easily do it? It is not done with a mere sleight, or turn of the hand; it is a work of difficulty.

Each of these limitations are implied: And First, of the former; He cannot do it, that is, he cannot do it of himself. An unregenerate person, or such an one as is accustomed to evil, he cannot alter his own heart, or course. This is one thing here implied; as the same Prophet also else-where: O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh, to direct his steps, Jer. 10.23. We see here the impotency of nature, and the inability of free-will to the doing of anything which is good. It is possible for the heart to be changed, but this is not within its own power. Therefore it is worth our observing; that it is not said here; Can the Ethiopian's skin be changed? in a passive expression; but, can the Ethiopian change his skin? in an active: that is, can he do it himself, and by his own power? No, he cannot do it. We are not able to think anything of ourselves, our sufficiency is of God, in 2 Cor. 3.5. And it is he which worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure, Phil. 2.13. We can no more alter our corrupted nature, than we can our created: no more make ourselves of bad, good; than we can of men, Angels. We can no more convert ourselves, than we can create ourselves; give ourselves a spiritual being, than we can a natural; nor raise ourselves from the death of sin, than we can from the death of the grave. That's the first limitation.

Secondly; He cannot do it, that is, he cannot easily do it; it is a business of some work, and labor, and which carries some difficulty in it: the reclaiming of such an one, which is used and accustomed to any sin; yea, and that even there, where there is some work of Grace wrought in the heart, and so some ability confer'd and bestowed in order hereunto, yet the thing is not so easily brought to pass. Those that let themselves loose to any evil, or vicious custom, it costs them a great deal of pains with their hearts, ere they recover, and get up again. Naturam expellas furca licet usque recurret; Still there will somewhat arise, and bubble up, of the old corruption in them.

The ground of this difficulty (if we would know it) lies in this: First, because Satan will be very busy in the presenting of his temptations; where he has a long time conquered, and prevailed, he will not easily there go over his hold, but will keep his ground as long as he can, and will not endure to be dispossessed, without a great deal of trouble.

Secondly; Lust, in the heart of man, will also have its course and vent, and being unhappily wrought into the soul, will work forth, and show itself, as there is any occasion for it so to do; especially when the object is strong, and enticing, which is propounded unto it. The flesh lusts against the spirit, &c. says the Apostle, Gal. 5.17.

Thirdly; Grace is oftentimes asleep, which should suppress, and keep sin down, and restrain it from breaking forth. And when that is so, sin, and the flesh, takes occasion to work in the room, and place of it. These are the reasons why sin, where 'tis rooted and habituated, is not so easily removed. And thus much of those Points and Doctrines, which are mainly intended as the chief scope of the Text.

Now, besides these, there are divers others which are collaterally observable: from it, and which do also implicitly lie in it. As to instance in one or two of them: First, observe here thus much; that it is not enough for us to abstain from evil, but we must likewise do good. This we may gather from the manner of the expression here before us: According to the proper manner of speaking, the words should have run thus: How then can those, which are accustomed to do evil, cease to do evil? but the Holy Ghost was not content with that, to say no more but so; and therefore he adds likewise further; to do good: why? and upon what account? namely, that hence he might teach us what is required, and expected from us. This we shall find also in other Scriptures; as Psal. 34.14. Depart from evil, and do good, &c. Isa. 16.17. Cease to do evil, learn to do well. Rom. 12.9. Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good, &c. Still we are put upon this practice of virtue, as well as upon the abstaining from vice; and doing good, as avoiding of evil.

Therefore this meets with your negative Christians, which are always harping upon this, that they are inoffensive, and do no no hurt; like the Pharisee there in the Gospel, that he was not as other men; no Extortioner, no Thief, no Adulterer, nor even as the Publican. Well, but what are they in the mean time? and what good do they do, according to those abilities and opportunities which are afforded unto them? This would be demanded of them, as being that which God himself does look for. That's one thing which we may here observe by the way.

Again, Secondly, observe thus much; That sins of commission, they have sins of omission in them. They that do that which they should not, they neglect to do that which they should. This is also in the Text; for ye see here, that they which are accustomed to do evil, they are taken off from doing good: the one, it still follows upon the other, and ye shall always observe it. And that upon a threefold account, which may be rendered as an occasion of it. First, they want the opportunity. Secondly, they lose the ability. Thirdly, they betray the assistance.

They want the opportunity. First, we may observe that. Those which are much in sin, they have little leisure to anything else; they are so addicted, and given to their vile and vicious courses, that they have no time for anything besides; they are so hot in the pursuit of their lusts, that they cannot mind those things which are better, and contrary to them. Hence it is that evil men do so delay, and put off their repentance, or any other good work which is to be done by them.

Secondly; They lose the ability: If they had time and leisure for good, yet they have little strength or power unto it, which is eaten out by the strength and prevalency of lust and corruption in them, as I, in part, intimated in a point before. Every new sin, as it increases the habit of evil; so it weakens the habit of good in us.

Thirdly; They betray their assistance: for God himself, in such cases, does withdraw his Grace from them, which should be helpful to them in that which they undertake. The Spirit of God being grieved by them, through their miscarriages; it will likewise grieve them again, by his own desertions. Which made David so much to cry out, as we find him to do there in the Psalm: Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not away thy holy Spirit from me, Psal. 51.11.

The consideration of this should still make us so much the more wary, and shy of sin, and of doing anything which is evil, and unlawful: forasmuch as it involves, and contracts a double guilt with it; not only that which is consequent, and attendant upon the commission of sin, but also upon the omission of duty. As we must not only abstain from evil, but we must also do good; so as we desire to do good, we must be careful to abstain from evil: For these two, they go together; Sins of commission, have sins of omission in them. That's a second observation.

Thirdly; Observe also further this; That no man can do any good, till his nature be first changed, and altered in him. There must be a rectitude of principles, before there can be a rectitude of actions: we must be first of all good ourselves, before good can come from us. This is also plainly in the Text: for mark how the Prophet here sets it; Can the Ethiopian change his skin, &c. then may ye also, which are thus and thus, do that which is good. As who should say, when those which are accustomed to the doing of evil, are once changed, and renewed in their natures, then good may be done by them; but because that is so difficult, therefore this, so contrary, is impossible. Accustomed, and habituated sinners, they cannot do good: why? because they abide still the same which they were before, in their natural condition; there's no change, or alteration at all, which is wrougth in them.

And this is grounded upon that common rule and observation: Orta attestantur principiis, & effectus non excedit virtutem suae causae: No man gathers grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles, in the words of St. James: or, if ye will, in the words of our Blessed Savious; An evil tree bringeth not forth good fruit. Whether ye take it for an evil man, or an evil heart, which is the condition of everyone by nature. Men are taught to do evil, from their principles, and the corruption of nature which is in them. Look as created nature teaches the creatures such actions as are suitable to their particular kinds; so corrupted nature teaches wicked men such actions as are suitable to their wicked condition. We would wonder to see such wickedness as there is sometimes in the world, and might ask who teaches it? but that herein we have answer from corrupt nature itself; this suggests such lewdness to them. Whiles they sin against nature, in the creation of it; they sin from nature, in the corruption of it.

Secondly; By Doctrine: Corrupt opinions cherish corrupt principles, and improve them so much the more. So the Apostle tells us; that without Faith it is impossible to please God: the work whereof does imply a change.

And therefore we should still look to this, in all we do: That our hearts be right in it, and that whatever comes from us, flow from a spirit and principle of Grace and regeneration in us, which will make it to be of the true stamp and character indeed, and also acceptable, and well-pleasing to God; who will still own his own work in us. We should not satisfy ourselves in the multitude of performances, and the doing of such things which are only good in their own nature, and for the matter and substance of the action; but desire and endeavor that our own consciences may be upright, and sincere; that whatsoever we do, we may do it in God's strength, and likewise to his glory. Otherwise they will find no acceptance or approbation with God at all, but he will reject them, and cast them away from him, as things which he does abhor. Thus we shall find him to do there, in Isa. 1.12, 13. &c. Bring no more oblations, incense is an abomination unto me, &c. And so probably also here in this place. It is likely these people in the Text, that they did many good things, for the matter of them: and yet, says the Lord here of them: How can ye do any good? These, and the like observations may we gather from these words in general, as they lie in themselves. Now further; We may likewise (if we please) look upon them reflexively, and as coming from the Prophet himself. And here there are these things in them, which may be observed, and taken notice of by us.

First; The Prophet's confidence and assurance of that which he did deliver; he speaks it with a great deal of boldness, and freedom, and certainty of mind in that which he speaks, concerning the thralldom and captivity of accustomed sinners: Therefore it seems to be a kind of challenging, and triumphant expression: Can the Ethiopian change his skin? or the Leopard, &c? Do ye think that to be possible? did ye ever see that in all your lives? can that enter into you to believe? This is the force and emphasis of these expressions: whereby he does, as it were, come upon his Hearers, and surprise them before they are aware. There's somewhat more in these rhetorical interrogations, than there is in bare and positive assertions, to make the thing itself more effectual.

Secondly; Here's the Prophet's faithfulness, in that he brings it home to their own particulars; and expresses it, as concerning themselves, in the second person. It is not, how can they which are thus and thus? but how can ye? He lays it at their own doors, and desires to make them sensible of it, which were corrupted, and polluted with it. This is another thing which a Minister ought to do, as he has ground and occasion for it; that so his Doctrine, and Reproof, and Exhortation, may have the more power and efficacy with it. Thus does Jeremy here in this place.

Thirdly; Here's the Prophet's courage, and undauntedness, and impartiality; that he speaks here absolutely, and indefinitely to all, which were sinners, and guilty, without exception. As in the 18th verse before; Say unto the King, and the Queen, humble yourselves, &c. So also here; Ye which are accustomed to do evil. He spares not any, whether great or small; as he had no cause, coming on God's errand. In verse 15. Hear ye, and give ear, be not proud; for the Lord hath spoken, &c.

And thus now also have ye the observations collaterally and reflexively arising from this Text, which we have here undertaken: and so likewise with the whole Text itself. Can the Ethiopian change his skin? or the Leopard his spots? then may ye also which are, &c.

SERMON XLVIII.

IN this present Verse before us, we have two General Parts considerable of us: First, the Prophet's Compellation, or Title which is given unto him. Secondly, the Prophet's Injunction, or Command, which is laid upon him. His Compellation, that ye have in these words; Son of man. His Injunction, that ye have in these; Set thy face, &c.

We begin in order with the First, viz. His Compellation; Son of man. There are but two persons in Scripture, which have eminently this name put upon them, of the Son of man: The one is, our Blessed Savior, in the New Testament; and the other is, this Prophet Ezekiel here in the old. For our Savior, it is the name put upon him in sundry places; I shall not need to instance in any particulars, they are so frequent in every page of the Gospel: and it was not without very good reason; namely, as hereby to discover the truth of his humanity to us; that amongst those many miracles, and wonderful works which were wrought by him, from whence he did appear to be God, he might have somewhat also fastened upon him, declaring him likewise to be man. Besides, as suitable to his present state of abasement, and humiliation, and future passion; that he might be looked upon according to that view wherein he tendered himself to the world; and that those which were about him, might be prepared for what should happen unto him, he thought it fitting thus to be called: In the mean time likewise, encouraging them, upon these terms, to close with him, as who having taken their nature upon him, was not now ashamed to call them Brethren. This, for our Blessed Savior.

But now, as for the Prophet Ezekiel, why this name should be put upon him, this is a thing further considerable: especially, why upon him rather than upon any other of the Prophets besides, as we do indeed find it to be; the Prophet Daniel only excepted: who once, and no more but once, is distinguished by this compellation, Dan. 8.17. Understand, O Son of man. It is the general sense of Divines, that it was for this reason especially, namely, to humble him in the midst of those many divine visions and revelations which he was partaker of, That, though in regard of his work and employment, he was a companion of Angels; yet, for his condition, he was numbered amongst Men: And so, in that respect, had a double disparagement upon him, which serve to abase him; both of mortality, and sinfulness. Of mortality, Son of man, that is, one who is subject to death as well as others. The Prophets, and Apostles, and all other Ministers of the Church; they have this treasure in earthen vessels. Again, of sinfulness; Son of man, that is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as was said of the Prophet Elias; A man subject to like passions and infirmities with other men. Look as the Apostle Paul, when he had been caught up into the third Heaven, and heard such words, as it was not possible for a man to utter; he was buffeted with the messenger of Satan, thereby to debase him; and had a thorn in the flesh sent him, thereby to keep him from being exalted with the abundance of the revelations. Even so was it likewise here with the Prophet Ezekiel, in this his present employ; which, that he might consider what he was, in the midst of this great favor which God did now vouchsafe unto him, in being made partaker of these heavenly apparitions, he is qualified by this Title which is given him; Son of man.

But we may add also another reason here in this place, and in reference to the present occasion, and matter in hand, for the giving of it: and that was, not only to breed in him an humble spirit, but likewise a pitiful, and compassionate.

The business which he was now employed in, and the message which he was now sent about, it was a matter of judgment, and terror; it was a threatening, and foretelling of God's wrath and indignation against his people. Now this, it did require some bowels, and tenderness in him, that he should do it; and therefore, Son of man was a very fit and proper compellation; that so, being a man himself, he might the more commiserate the rest of his brethren. Remember those which are in bonds, as bound with them; and those that are in adversity, as being yourselves in the body. It is the Apostle's counsel to the Hebrews, Heb. 13.3. Those who are themselves in the body, have cause to tender others in adversity, as being, in that respect, subject to the same afflictions and calamities themselves. Therefore it is said of Christ, that in all things it behov'd him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, &c. And so Ezekiel is here admonished of his human condition; that so he might, with the more tenderness of affection, denounce God's judgments against men, as himself was, that he might not too insultingly triumph over them; but carry himself with meekness, and lenity towards them, as being one in the same nature with them. And so now I have done with the First General Part of the Text, viz. the Prophet's Title, or Compellation; Son of man.

The Second is, the Prophet's Injunction, or Command, which is laid upon him: and that is, how to carry himself in the denunciations of God's judgments against his people. This is expressed, and laid forth in three clauses: First, To set his face towards Jerusalem. Secondly, To drop his word towards the holy places. Thirdly, To prophecy against the land of Israel. Where ye have a full and perfect enumeration of all kind of places, and conditions, and persons, as the objects of Divine wrath and vengeance, which is threatened against them. First, the City, expressed in Jerusalem. Secondly, the Church, signified in the holy places. Thirdly, the Country, or whole Community, implied in the land of Israel. Here's God's judgments extended to all sorts and ranks of men: To the Civil State, to the Ecclesiastical, and to the Popular. To Jerusalem, where the Princes were: To the Holy places, where the Priests were: To the land of Israel, where were most of the people.

We'll begin with the Civil. The Lord's voice crieth to the City; as it is, Mic. 6.9. So here, Set thy face against Jerusalem. Jerusalem, it was the Metropolis, or chief City in the whole Nation; and the Lord directs the Prophet first of all to begin with that, in his threatenings of judgment, and to set his face against it. There's two things which we will here take notice of: First, the place which is threatened; and that is, Jerusalem. Secondly, the gesture, or manner of threatening of it; and that is, by setting of his face against it.

For the First; The place threatened, it is Jerusalem; which (as I said) was the Mother-City in the Land, the habitation and residence of the Princes and Governors of the Nation. This is that which God begins withal in the denunciation of his judgments against his people here in this place. And this, it carries in it God's anger and indignation against great ones; the Nobles, and Princes, and Judges, and Magistrates of the Land: Those which were of any eminency amongst them, whether for Birth, or Place, or Authority, or Power, or Wealth, or any other such advantage; these sinning, and transgressing against the Lord, were not without their correction; nay, God thinks fitting to take aim at them first of all: Set thy face against Jerusalem. It is that which we may observe, and take notice of in in many other places besides; how God has set himself still against the City, and in particular, this City of Jerusalem, the prime and chief City of all. Thus, Isa. 1.21. How is the faithful City become an Harlot? &c. Therefore, in ver. 25. I will turn mine hand upon thee, and purely purge, &c. So Lam. 1.7, &c. through the whole Book. How doth the City sit solitary, that was full of people? how is she, &c? And we know Christ wept over Jerusalem, for the desolation which should come upon it, Luke 19.42, 43. If thou hadst, &c. Still Jerusalem, and so other Cities with it, have been a great mark for the arrows of God to be shot against it.

Now there is a very good account which may be given of this dispensation: First, because such places as these are, do abound with greater mercies, and so opportunities of doing good: therefore they rebelling against the Lord, and provoking him, do become more obnoxious. The chief and principal City, it is the storehouse of all the riches of the Land; it has the confluence of all kind of blessings fastened upon it. And whenever God comes once to reckon, there are none which are more liable to judgment, than those which are greatest sharers in mercy.

Secondly; Because the sins of these are more exemplary, and scandalous. The more eminent any are in place, the more notorious are their miscarriages: everyone looks upon them as so many patterns to all the rest. Thus is it with Towns-Corporate, and Cities; they are places of note, and eminency, which do more easily convey wickedness into other places of the Land besides.

Thirdly; They are populous places, and they are such places wherein the flower and glory of the whole Land is gathered together. The strength, and riches, and state of any Nation, are in their chief Cities. Now therefore, when God has a mind to stain the pride of all glory, he does especially aim at these.

What's the use of all this, but a good warning therefore to ourselves here in this place; that we take notice of God's method here before us, in beginning with Jerusalem. It is a seasonable Item to London, and the inhabitants hereof: for we cannot plead more at God's hands, than that City could do; and if God dealt so with it, how may we expect he should in like manner deal with us? Especially considering that we have as great abominations amongst us, as were in her: nay, we justify them by our exceeding, and going beyond them in sin: In pride, luxury, uncleanness, cozenage, oppression, contempt of the Ordinances; what not? And amongst the rest, our little profiting either by the mercies of God on the one hand, or by the judgments of God on the other: yea, our improving and advancing in sin so much the rather; that the more God strikes and afflicts us, the more we offend, and provoke him, as if we would contend with him, and see who should be weary soonest; either he of smiting, or we of sinning. And so much for that, viz. the place threatened; and that is, Jerusalem, the chief and prime City.

Secondly; Here's the Prophet's gesture, which he is required to use to it: And that is, to set his face towards it. Set thy face towards Jerusalem. The setting of the face in Scripture, does carry a different notion in it.

First of all, it is a note of attention. Thus it was in the Prophet Elisha; when he settled his countenance upon Hazael, to consider the mischief which he would do to the people of Israel: 2 King. 8.11. It is said, he looked steadfastly upon him, till he was ashamed. He would look him, as it were, out of that wickedness which was in him. Thus now Ezekiel towards Jerusalem: God would have him to set his face upon it, by way of serious consideration; to take notice of the manifold corruptions and abominations which were in it. And thus now is it the concernment of other Prophets and Ministers besides, in like manner to do: not to shoot their arrows at random, or at rovers, rashly, and unadvisedly, they care not how; but as being thoroughly apprehensive of the guilt of the persons themselves they deal withal. As those which will shoot at a mark, they will take aim before they begin: Even so it should be with us here; we must shoot our reproofs, and threatenings, and comminations with due advice, and discretion; and, for this purpose, mark and observe what we do. That's the first thing in it, as it is a note of attention.

Secondly; It is a note of compassion, and commiseration: So we also find it sometimes in Scripture. As our Blessed Savior, Luke 19.41. When he foretold the destruction of this City, the City of Jerusalem, it is said, he beheld it, and wept over it. This was another thing also agreeable to the Prophet Ezekiel in this Text; who, that he might denounce God's judgments against it with so much the more tenderness of affection, is required here to set his face towards it. There's nothing does more become an Herald of judgment than this does; a bleeding and compassionate spirit: not as delighting in any one's destruction, but rather as grieving, and mourning or them, and lamenting over them. That's the second emphasis in this expression.

Thirdly; It is a note of displeasure, and indignation: So it is used also sometimes in Scripture; Thus, Jer. 21.10. I have set my face against this City for evil, and not for good. So Ezek. 25.2. Set thy face against the Ammonites. And Ezek. 28.21. Set thy face against Zidon, and prophecy against it. And Ezek. 29.2. Set thy face against Pharaoh, &c. So here now, Set thy face towards Jerusalem; that is, as expressing thy displeasure and distaste against it. This is another thing which does also very well become those which are Ministers, to testify against sin in their very countenance, where they see anything which is unworthy, or unfitting to be done by any, even to discountenance it, and frown upon it, and discourage it all that may be. This is that which is here commanded Ezekiel. And so much may be spoken of the first clause, of judgment; which is here specified to be denounced, namely, in reference to the City. Set thy face towards Jerusalem; the State Civil.

The Second is, in reference to the Church, or State Ecclesiastical: And drop thy word towards the holy places. This, it respects the Temple, which is expressed by the plural number, in regard of the chief and principal parts of it. Here's God's judgment denounced against this; the Lord's Sanctuary. Now this (as well as the former) has two things considerable in it: The place which is aimed at, and that is, the place of holiness; the Temple, and house of God. Secondly, the carriage which is required of the Prophet towards it, and that is, to drop his word upon it; and drop towards the holy places.

For the first; the place; it is the Church, and house of God. Here's God's vengeance threatened against that, as to the destruction of it. This is worse than the former; by how much spirituals are better than temporals, and any prejudice to our souls, worse than to our outward estates: yet this is that which God here threatens by his Prophet Ezekiel, when he will have him to proclaim against the Sanctuary. It is a judgment in spirituals. The Sanctuary here in this Text, must be taken in the full extent and latitude of it; and then it does imply three things in it, which are here threatened. First, the place. Secondly, the persons. Thirdly, the performances. The place, that was the Temple. The persons, they were the Priests and Ministers in it. The performances, they were the Ordinances. All these have their several judgment and punishment denounced against them, in this dropping upon the holy places.

First; Here's a threatening of the place, the Temple itself; which was afterwards verified, and made good, in the destruction and rendition of that: Not one stone left upon another, as our Savior likewise speaks of it. God threatens to take away that visible token of his presence from amongst them, which was one step of this punishment.

Secondly; Here's a threatening of the persons, the Priests and Ministers: there's an heavy judgment belonging to them; sorasmuch as they had corrupted themselves, and others with them. It is a judgment upon the Church of God; when God's wrath is anything poured upon those which are Ministers about it, and employed in the services of it. The Temple and Sanctuary suffer in this dispensation. As to instance in some particulars.

First; In the removing of their persons: When God shall once begin to do this, as in Isa. 3.2. The Lord there threatens to take away the Prophet. This was a great judgment: when those which are Watchmen, and should give warning of the dangers which are approaching, are taken from any people; this is a great evil to them. As Psal. 74.9. We see not our signs, there is no more any Prophet; neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. It is that which God has done very lately amongst ourselves: many Ministers, in divers places of the Land, have been taken away; which certainly is a very sad affliction, if it be thoroughly considered; and which has more evil attending it than itself.

Secondly, the taking off their hearts and affections; that's another thing. A discouraging of them in their spirits, that's, in effect, as bad as the other, and (in some respects) worse, if it be duly laid to heart: when they shall not have that freedom, and cheerfulness, and alacrity in their work and employment, as formerly they have had.

Thirdly, the restraining of their Gifts, or the exercise and improvement of them. As Acts 16.7. The Spirit suffered them not. These, and the like, are a judgment upon the Sanctuary, in respect of the persons; the Prophets, the Priests, and Ministers.

In the third place, in reference to the performances; The Ordinances, and Ministerial dispensations. God drops upon the Sanctuary, when he threatens to suspend these, as oftentimes he does: when he sends a famine of his word; as he speaks in Amos, chap. 8. ver. 11. I will send a famine of hearing of the words of the Lord: This is a very great evil, and none like it; and it is that which the Lord is sometimes provoked unto. Especially, when his Ordinances are neglected, and laid aside; when there's no heed or regard unto them: in such cases as these, does God remove them, and otherwise bestow them: neither is there anything here which shall stand in the way of his judgments.

It might seem a strange kind of business, that God's wrath should be upon the holy places, of all other places besides: For what should exempt from judgment, if holiness could not? nay, but even this will not suffice, or serve the turn, where sin once gets into them. It is not holiness of profession, which is able to make amends for unholiness of conversation. These holy places are called so, in regard of their dedication, the use which they were at first appointed and ordained unto; but now being employed to another purpose, we see here what's their destiny; which is, even to be destroyed. When Bethel shall once be turned into Beth-aven, the house of God into the house of sin, and vanity, there can nothing else now be expected, but misery, and ruin, and destruction attending thereupon: nay, here rather than any-where else.

Let this be the use then which we make of this observation; not to trust, and rest ourselves in such refuges as these are: not in the strength of our Walls, or our Towers, or warlike preparations; sor God s • ts his face against Jerusalem, which was a great and fenced City, even the City of the Great King, as it is sometimes cal • ed. No, nor yet to trust in our Temples, that is to say, in our profession of Religion: To cry, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, are we; as they did in Jer. 7.4. For see here how God's wrath's upon the Sanctuary, and the holy places: It will be no booty to us, to keep us from the judgments of the Lord, that we have the Ordinances in such plenty amongst us: nay, it will rather be an advancement, and an aggravation of God's judgments upon us. Forasmuch as having better opportunities, we have improved no better under them, nor proved no better by them; but rather have been the worse for them.

Therefore, in Ezek. 9.6. When the destroyer is sent to Jerusalem, he is bid to begin at the Sanctuary, there to take the rise of judgment. And, 1 Pet. 4.17. Judgment begins at the house of God. And Amos 3.2. You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore will I punish you for your iniquities. And so much of the first particular, to wit, the place itself: The Sanctuary, the Temple, or Holy Places: not the High places, but the Holy places.

The Second is, the carriage and proceeding towards it, and that is, expressed here by dropping: And drop thy word toward, &c. I have spoken lately of the dropping of the mountains with new wine, out of another place of Scripture, in Joel. This before us, is not much unlike it here in this place; of the dropping of the Prophets, which is a most emphatical expression, and very significant. It carries these following Emphases in it.

First, a leisurable proceeding; one thing after another, in a succession. The judgments of God, they are not to be denounced all at once; that were enough to astonish men, and wholly overwhelm them: no, but by steps, and degrees. They must first be acquainted with lesser judgments, and then afterwards with greater. As here in the very Text itself; the Lord drops one thing after another. First, he begins with the City, and then he proceeds to the Sanctuary; and after that, to the whole land of Israel. He conveys his words in droppings. Thus should it be also with us. And our Blessed Savior told his Disciples, there were some things which he did not tell them of as yet, because they were not able to bear them. And so St. Paul tells the Corinthians, and the Hebrews, that they were but babes in Christ, and so not fit for some kind of Doctrines to be taught them, and administered unto them. It is a great part of wisdom in a Teacher, to have a regard to the capacity of the persons whom he deals withal, that so he may the better instill good principles into them.

Secondly, a gentle proceeding, not boisterously, with over much rigor; but mildly, and with the spirit of meekness: That's another thing in dropping. Drops, they are but moderate dispensations, having no fierceness, nor vehemency with them. So likewise should be our words in the Ministry: though with zeal, yet likewise with moderation, and in the bowels of Christ. We should speak even of terrible things, with mollified, and qualified expressions; and cover our Pills, as it were, with Gold, as Physicians do theirs.

Thirdly, a constant proceeding. Dropping, it has frequency in it; so should it be with us here: Precept upon precept, and line upon line; as it is Isa. 28.10. We had need again, and again, to inculcate the same things upon you, that so they may take the deeper and fuller impression upon your hearts. Frequent drops, they are able to soften, and to make hollow even Marble itself: and so these words, in like manner, upon the heart. And so now I have done also with the second part of the denunciation, in reference to the Church: And drop thy word, &c.

The Third, and last, in reference to the Community, and whole Nation in general; in these words: And prophecy against the land of Israel. There's two things again likewise in this, as well as in the two other before. First, the place threatened, the land of Israel. Secondly, the carriage towards it, and that is, prophesying against it. This is that which Ezekiel is commanded.

These words, the land of Israel, do carry two things in them, which might seem, at the first hearing, to plead for exemption from punishment. First, Israel, God's own peculiar people. Secondly, the land of Israel, that is, a great number of them; yet it will not do, or serve the turn neither. Though it be Israel, God's own people; though it be the land of Israel, all states and degrees amongst them; yet sinners, they must not shun judgment.

First, Israel, the people of peculiarity to God, whom he had in a special manner made choice of for his own, and done so many great things for them; even they must go to it, when they sin, for all that. As God will not spare his Sanctuary in these circumstances, as we shown out of the former clause; so neither will he spare his Land and Nation itself: If Israel sin, Israel also shall be punished: take notice of that, that so we may not make any former privileges, and prerogatives, which ourselves have at any time enjoyed, and been partakers of, to be any grounds of security to us. God is not bound to do still as he has done, where we apostatize, and depart from him; but if we change our course and carriage towards him, he will, in like manner, alter his carriage and behavior towards us. Israel itself is not exempted, God's peculiar people.

Secondly; The land of Israel: No freedom or exemption of them neither, in regard of their multitude. Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, Nahum 1.12. Number is no privilege against punishment, where 'tis attended with sin, and provocation. God will also be revenged upon that.

Nay further, to make it more effectual: It is so far from being hence exempted from punishment, as that indeed, it is so much the more involved in it, if we rightly consider it. When sinners are once grown to a multitude, the places in which they are, are so much the rather exposed to judgment. If it were only some few persons in Israel which were transgressors, God might perhaps be persuaded to spare them, and not to take vengeance on it for so few: But now, when 'tis come to the whole Land, and Nation, here it calls down for punishment amain, and in all haste to be executed upon it.

And therefore let none shelter themselves under such sorry pretences as those are, when at any time they do anything which is sinful; why, 'tis the fashion, and the custom, and the like: there's more do it besides myself: it is common and general practice. Why therefore (say I) so much the worse, and more in danger, to procure God's judgments to be executed in the earth, than before. As we see in the old World; When all flesh had corupted itself, then came the flood. And in Sodom, when they were all wicked, from the least to the greatest, then came fire and brimstone from Heaven. And in Israel, when everyone was an hypocrite, and an evil-doer, and every mouth spake folly; then his anger was not turned away, but his hand was stretched out still; as it is there in that place, in Isa. 9.17. That may be spoken of the first thing; the place threatened, The land of Israel.

Now the Second is, the carriage towards it, and that is, prophesying: Prophecy against the land of Israel. This was a very ill message, and very unwelcome, which Ezekiel was sent with; but yet he must carry it, for all that: He must prophecy against them, that is, declare God's punishments upon them for their sins and provocations of him. This is that which he is commanded to do: And so not only here in this Text, but indeed all along through this Book, do we find him charged with the same instructions as here he is; even to proclaim God's wrath against his people. We see then here from hence, what is the duty of all other Ministers, as they have occasion for it; not only to prophecy to, but also sometimes, to prophecy against: And not only to lay open God's mercy in the gracious promises of the Gospel, but likewise now and then also his judgments in the terrors and thunderings of the Law. This is that which by turns lies upon us. We must save some with fear, pulling them out of the fire; as it is in Jude 23. Thus also we have it, in Isa. 58.1. Cry aloud, and spare not; lift up thy voice like a Trumpet, &c.

This will appear very requisite, upon these following considerations. First, the diversity of Gifts which God has furnished his Minisiers withal to this purpose. There are not only Barnabasses, which are Sons of Consolation; but likewise as well Boanergesses, which are Sons of Thunder.

Secondly, the diversity of tempers and dispositions which are in people themselves. As there are some who have need to be comforted, so there are others who have need to be awakened, and to have their sins opened, and charged upon them. Now the Ministry of the word, it is fitted and accommodated hereunto.

Thirdly, the diversity of God's Providenees and Dispensations of himself in the world; this, it calls for this carriage likewise. As God does not only show mercy, but also execute judgment; so his Ministers are not only to signify, and publish the one, but also to signify, and publish the other.

The consideration of this Point should therefore persuade people patiently to bear such things as these are. As Ministers are sometimes to speak of them, so you also to hear them, and to hear them likewise with willingness and alacrity of spirit, and without offense at us for them. For ye see upon what grounds we go, and such as are unavoidable to us. It is God's charge, and commission, which must be followed, and obeyed by us: Prophecy against the land of Israel.

Besides, there is this also in it; that the giving warning of any evil, is no cause of the coming of it, but rather the contrary: because in so doing, we do take a course whereby to make them to avoid it. The hearing of judgment threatened, is a ready way to the escaping of it. Therefore away with all those who ( Isa. 30.10.) cry, Prophecy to us smooth things, prophecy deceits.

But the land of Israel, that was a large, and a wide place; how could the Prophet Ezekiel be said to prophecy against that? which was at such a distance one place from another, and his voice not able to pierce into every nook and corner of it? how then to the whole land of Israel?

First, by prophesying to those which were the principal, and chiefest amongst them, and, as it were, the representatives of them; their Princes, and Priests, and Prophets, and the prime of the people. That Doctrine which comes to them, it does successively reach also to the rest.

Secondly, upon all occasions, and in all places wheresoever he came, to make this Doctrine sound in their ears: God's determination of judgment against them, to be executed upon them.

Thirdly, against the land of Israel: It is a signification not only of the persons which were to be prophesied to, but likewise as well of the matter and business which was to be prophesied in. This was that which God would have Ezekiel now to preach, viz. his anger and indignation against Israel.

If any shall now object, that it was not likely that all should be wrought upon, or moved by this Doctrine, and therefore this instruction of his, it might seem to be in vain.

The answer hereunto is easy. First, that there were hopes of some that might be wrought upon in the crowd amongst the rest, who should now have this benefit by it, so as at least to redeem and deliver their own souls: And it were worth prophesying, if it were no more but so.

Then secondly, that it was also possible, that the amendment and reformation of some few, it might be consequently beneficial to the rest. Forasmuch as God does oftentimes in Scripture, save a multitude for the sake of some few which are mingled with them. According to that in Job 22. ult. The innnocent shall deliver the Island, and it is delivered by the pureness of thy hands. As God offered to spare Sodom, if there had been in it but ten righteous persons, Gen. 18. ult. This is a sufficient encouragement both to Ministers, as concerning their preaching; and to people, as to their closing with what they hear from them; and for everyone to set upon the amendment and reformation of his own particular person.

And so now I have done also with the third part of the Prophet Ezekiel 's Instruction. And prophecy against the land of Israel. So much for the second verse of this Chapter.

SERMON XLIX.

IN the Text itself there are two general parts considerable: First, the Persons mentioned. Secondly, the care or regard which is had to those Persons. The Persons mentioned, they are those that sigh and cry, &c. The care which is had of them, that is expressed in those, Go and set a mark upon, &c.

We begin in order with the first, viz. the Persons mentioned, those that sigh and cry, &c. from whence we may observe thus much, That such persons there are that do so, and it is their duty so to do, even to sigh and cry for the abominations, all of them, that are done in the midst of the City. We read of divers in Scripture which have been noted for this disposition in them: Thus it is said of just Lot, that he was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling amongst them, in seeing and hearing, vext his righteous soul from day today with their unlawful deeds; as it is in 2 Pet. 2.7, 8. David, he beheld the transgressors, and was grieved, because they kept not God's word, Psal. 119.158. and rivers of water ran down his eyes, because they kept not his law, in verse 136. of the same Psalm. Jeremy, his soul wept in secret places for their pride, &c. Jer. 13.17. And Paul, his spirit was stirred in him at Athens, when he saw the City to be wholly given to idolatry, Acts 17.16. Thus have the Servants of God been still affected with the abominations of the places and people whom they have lived withal, and amongst whom they have at any time conversed.

And this, it hath proceeded thus in them upon divers and sundry considerations. First, out of their inward hatred and antipathy even to sin itself. The children of God being born again, and become new creatures, and having grace in their hearts, they cannot but abhor anything which is opposite and contrary hereunto, from that new nature and spirit which is in them. Look as on the other side, wicked men, they are troubled at the slourishing of Religion; where they see any to improve in goodness, and to be anything more forward in piety, their hearts and spirits rise, as it were, against them, and boil in them, from the devilish disposition which is in them, and hatred even of goodness itself. So here, those that fear the Lord, they are as much troubled at the improvements of sin, from that work of Regeneration which is in their hearts.

Secondly, Out of love to God, and a tenderness of his honor and glory. Where abominations are at any time committed, there God is exceedingly dishonor'd, his Laws are slighted, his Attributes are questioned, his Name is blasphemed. Now those that are good themselves, they have a great regard hereunto. Those that are God's children, they are very jealous of God's honor, as any other children besides are of the honor of their earthly Parents; and so accordingly they cannot but grieve when there is any trespass at any time upon it. Those that areotherwise, they show but little love and affection which they bear unto him.

Thirdly, Out of respect to themselves, and their own advantage. The more sin there is abroad, the more are all men concerned in it; not evil men but good, who are from hence in so much the greater danger; and that in a twofold respect, both as to matter of defilement, and of punishment. They are more in danger from hence to be polluted, and they are more in danger from hence to be afflicted; and this makes them to be so much troubled at it.

First, In order to Defilement; they are more in danger from hence to be polluted. Great and reigning sins and abominations are usually great temptations, which do hazard the souls of many persons that converse amongst them; and therefore there is cause to be grieved for them. What is it that which makes men now so troubled to hear of the spreading of certain sicknesses and diseases? Why, it is because they think, that themselves may haply come to feel them, and to be infected with them; that which befalls others, they think at last it may light upon them. And so is it likewise with gracious persons as to spiritual distempers; when they hear of such corruptions and wickedness which are abroad in the world, they are therefore much afflicted with them, because they fear lest they themselves should be anything defiled from them; they are jealous of their own hearts in case of the prevailing of such sins, and so do grieve and mourn for and under them. And this they do it in order to defilement, as being in danger to be polluted.

Secondly, In order also to Punishment, as being in danger to be afflicted. Common and public abominations, they beget common and public plagues and judgments which follow thereupon: This those that are wise and prudent Christians know and discern well enough. Evil men understand not judgment, but they that seek the Lord understand all things, says Solomon, Prov. 28.5. Fools make a mock of sin; and those that are wicked and ungodly, they are commonly hardened and secure in the midst of the greatest wickednesses that are committed: Because they do not suffer for them presently, therefore they think they shall not suffer at all. Yea, but the children of God, they are otherwise persuaded; they know that sin will sooner or later come to a reckoning: and when they see it to increase in the world, they foresee the judgments that attend it, and therefore tremble at the sight of it, as knowing that God is so much the more provoked by it, and so will at length proceed to the punishment of it.

There are two things in the increase of sin, and the spreading of more nauseous abominations, which to this purpose do very much affect the children and servants of God: the one is, they are conscious of God's anger and displeasure in the cause of them: And the other is, as they are prognostics of God's wrath and judgment in the effects.

First, I say, as they ar consequents of his anger and displeasure; for so they are. There is nothing which is more redious to God's children, than the anger and displeasure of God. Now reigning abominations, they are a symptom and discovery of that; they are a sign that God is very much offended with those places and persons where he suffers them, and permits them to be in them, and gives them up to them: We many times make light of it; but believe it, for any people to be given up to more notorious wickedness, is the greatest argument of God's anger that can be; and in that regard, a special ground for mercy to those that are good. As it is a sign of God's anger against a person to be given up to strong and strange lusts; An whore is a deep ditch, and he that is abhorred of God shall fall into it: so it is a sign of God's anger against a Nation, when he gives them up to more eminent sins and abominations in any kind whatsoever. And so there is very great cause to grieve at it.

But secondly, As those raging abominations, they are the consequents of God's anger in the causes of them, so they are the Prognostics of God's wrath in the effects; they do as good as foretell some judgment ere long to be brought upon such places, especially when they come to be common, and general, and universal, then they bespeak speedy destruction. That which many people take as an excuse and shelter to them in in; that is indeed, if it be duly thought of, the greatest matter of affrightment and aggravation, which is this, that it is usual, and ordinary, and that more are guilty of it; for then it is an argument, that sin is shameless, and impudent, and incorrigible, and in a manner desperate, and that there's nothing almost to be expected but ruin and desolation. And is not this then just matter and ground for mourning, to all such persons as understand themselves?

Lastly, The servants of God have herein also a respect to others, even sometimes to wicked men themselves, whom considered as men they lament and mourn for, whiles they are guilty of such and such miscarriages. Those that cannot mourn for themselves, through the obstinacy and hardness of themselves; yet they have in those cases others better than themselves to mourn for them. Thus we see what grounds there are for God's children's mourning in this particular; for their sighing and crying for the abominations which are done in the places in which they converse.

Therefore this may very much satisfy us, when we observe it at any time to be so, when we see any to be thus affected, that we may not think it a superfluous business, or more than needs; for there is very great causes and reasons for it: And accordingly it does condemn the contrary neglect which is in many persons. There are a great many of people in the world, who as they lay not to heart the afflictions of other men in a way of compassion; so they lay not to heart the abominations of other men neither in a way of compunction: As they are not humbled for their own sins, so neither for the sins of others whom they converse withal. Yea but now those that belong to God, they are careful to do this, as it is here intimated to us in the Text. And so accordingly should we all labor and endeavor to do likewise; we should labor to get such a publicness of spirit, such an hatred and detestation of sin, such a love to God, and zeal for his glory, as to lament and bewail men's sins and miscarriages wheresoever we find them, and to be really affected with them; some persons there are that do so, and we ourselves should be careful to be of this number. As for spreading judgments and calamities, men are perhaps a little sensible of them, and may now and then, so long as they are upon them, express some kind of sorrow for them: But who takes notice of the sins and iniquities which are the causes of these judgments? This were well to be thought on by us, as being that which the Lord does require and expect from us. Surely some there are that do so, as it is here signified to us, though in comparison but very few.

For the better opening of this passage, we may here pertinently take notice of the several expressions which are here used; and there are three things here considerable. First, the expressions of sorrow, that sigh and cry. Secondly, the occasion of this sorrow, and that is the abominations that are committed. Thirdly, the extent of those abominations, for the acting and committing of them, that are done in the midst of the City.

First, Here are the expressions of sorrow, and they are two, sighing and crying. In the Hebrew Text they are very emphatical, as carrying an elegant Parekaa or Paronomasia with them; Hanneenwchim ve-hanneanckom, both of them terms of sadness. The first, which is sighing, that signifies such a mourning as is more secret and retired in itself. The second, which is crying, that signifies such a mourning as is more open, and exposed to observation. Both of them such as are agreeable to the occasion and business here in hand. Those that are the servants of God, they do both of them upon these occasions; they do both inwardly conceive grief, and also they do outwardly express it.

First, They conceive it inwardly, and that is here signified in sighing, and it is all that sometimes they can do to any purpose: When they see wickedness to abound in any place, as now and then they do, they have no remedy left them but sighing and bewailing it in their own breasts, betwixt God and themselves. As in the place before cited out of Jeremy, Their souls weep in secret, which is the best and truest weeping of all. This is that which they may do, this is that which they ought to do, as the least, and sometimes the most, which in some cases especially can be done by them.

It may so fall out sometimes with the Servants of God, in regard of the manifold abominations that are committed in the places wherein they live, that they can neither complain of them, nor redress them; neither openly testify against them, nor yet actually resorm or amend them: yea, but in the mean time they may sigh for them for all that; and this is that which is required of them, and which is here commended in them.

First, I say, it may so sall out, that they cannot openly complain of them; that is, either with safety or success; not with safety, because men are apt in such cases to rise against them, and, as it were, to trample them under their feet, as our Savior speaks. Wicked and profane persons, they do not love to hear of their abominations, though they love to commit them; and therefore they are ready ever and anon to flee in the faces of them that reprove them for them, and bear witness against them: As St. Paul was the Galatians enemy, because he shown them the truth. He that rebuketh a scorner, begetteth to himself a blot, as Solomon tells us. Well, but there is no danger in sighing, and in secret mourning all this while; this may be done very quietly and safely, and accordingly it is wisdom to do it, and God's Servants are careful of it; they put up many a sigh to God, and she many a tear before him, for those sins and abominations, which otherwise they could not safely complain of.

Again, As not with safety, so not with success; they may be likely to do little good by open complaining of them: For those which are guilty of them may be so far interested and engaged, as that they would hear no complaints which should be made against them. There is that obstinacy in many people's hearts, that the more sometimes they hear of their wickedness, the more resolved and bent they are upon it; which harden their necks being often reproved,