SERMON XLIII.

THE GREAT DANGER OF NOT KNOWING THE DAY

OF VISITATION.

LUKE xix. 41-44.

4; 90. 12;

21. 34;

And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it; See Ps. 39. saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, Mark 13. the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid 33; Luke from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine 1 Pet. 2. 12. enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side; and lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee: and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

I MUST tell you, in the first place, that all these things came to pass exactly as our Lord foretold, within less than forty years after His death.

The Romans besieged the city of Jerusalem so close that not a man could escape; and after the most dreadful siege that ever was heard of, they took it, destroying all before them, and not leaving one stone upon another of one of the finest cities and temples in the world.

Our Blessed Lord could not forbear weeping, because He foresaw that this would certainly come to pass, and because He saw that that people would not be persuaded, by any thing that He could say or do, to prevent it by a timely repentance. He knew this was their day of grace, and He saw they despised it, and that it would end in their destruction. And this made our compassionate Saviour bewail, with tears,

SERM. the miseries they were bringing upon themselves, and upon

XLIII.

[Heb. 12. 14.]

their posterity.

And this should teach all christians how to behave themselves on such occasions; namely, not to be pleased with and laugh at the sins of others, as people are but too apt to do, but rather to pity and bewail the blindness of sinners, who do not know the judgments they are preparing for themselves; and to beg of God to open their eyes, that they may see their error, and sad condition, before the day of grace is at an end.

And, God knows, we have great reason thus to mourn, whether we consider the general state of Christianity, or the wicked lives of particular christians. For not to mention the heresies, the divisions, the idolatry, that is to be met with in many Christian Churches; not to mention the sins of whoredom, adultery, injustice, drunkenness, and such like, which every body knows will shut men out of heaven; we need only consider the lives of very many christians, who fear no danger, and yet live like heathens; we need only consider this, in order to excite our grief, and fetch tears from our eyes.

To see people, for instance, who profess to have here no abiding-place, yet setting up their rest upon earth, as if they were sure, as if they desired, never to leave it; to see christians, who are bound by their profession to love one another, rejoicing and taking pleasure in the misery and ruin of each other; to hear people beg of God to forgive them their trespasses, as they are ready to forgive others, and at the same time resolving not to forgive the least offence against themselves without full satisfaction; to see the rich oppressing the poor, and the poor envying the rich, as if the rich were not accountable to God, nor the poor expected any amends in the next world for what they want in this; to see parents educating their children after such a manner as if they intended their eternal ruin; teaching them to love the world, instead of renouncing it; gratifying them in every thing that is vain and sinful, and suffering them to content themselves with a bare outward form of religion, without knowing any thing of its power, or of that "holiness without which no man must see the Lord;" to see pastors as little concerned for the flocks committed to their charge, as if, in truth, they were so many

beasts whose souls would die with their bodies, and for which they were never to give an account; in one word, to see the greatest part of christians live without faith, without hope, without charity, without fear; that is, without any true religion; to see them living at this rate, without apprehending any manner of danger, neglecting the day of grace which God has afforded them for their salvation, and never considering, that the night cometh when no man can work can any chris- [John 9. 4.] tian see and consider all this, and where it must end, and not be moved with sorrow and compassion, as our Lord was, for the eternal miseries which unthoughtful christians are bringing upon themselves? Can they forbear to mourn in secret, and beg of God to pity and cure these disorders, and the blindness of sinners, who do not see the danger of neglecting the time of visitation, and the day of grace?

It was this that moved our Lord's compassion for Jerusalem, because she knew not the time of her visitation, and because that was the occasion of her ruin. She knew not; that is, she would not know it. She would not see the sin that occasioned it; she would not believe the Prophets that foretold it; she would not receive the Son of God, who came to warn her of her approaching ruin, and who would, no doubt of it, have delivered her from it, would she have improved the means of salvation so mercifully afforded her for it was as easy for God to have saved that whole nation from destruction, as He did those few that believed, whom He delivered as by a miracle from that desolation which soon after followed.

Now, these things, good christians, were written for our example, that we may see the danger of not knowing the day of visitation.

For that there is an appointed time, in which God offers grace to sinners, and an opportunity of working out their salvation; and that when this is neglected and past, sinners have nothing to expect but judgment without mercy; that this is so, is plain from this, and from many other instances, and parts of holy Scripture:

"To-day, (saith the Psalmist,) to-day, if ye will hear His Ps. 95. 7, 8. voice, harden not your hearts:"

"Behold now (saith the Apostle) is the accepted time, now 2 Cor. 6. 2.

SERM. is the day of salvation." And, "Exhort one another daily XLIII. while it is called to-day;" that is, while the time of trial

Heb. 3. 13.

lasteth.

"Ah," saith our Lord; that is, happy had it been for thee, "if thou hadst known, even thou, in this day" (of visitation), "the things that belong to thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes;" that is, through thine own infidelity, thou hast provoked God to leave thee to thine own blindness, so that thou canst not see the day of thy visitation.

We are

You see, brethren, how matters stand with us. all gone astray from God; He has appointed us a time in which to return to Him; if we lose this time, we are most certainly undone. This is not what God desires, for He is not willing that any should perish; He therefore calls upon Job 33. 14. us to return to our duty, He speaks to us once, yea twice, though we perceive it not. He speaks to us by His Word and by His ministers; He speaks to us by His mercies, and by His judgments; He lays us upon the bed of sickness; He brings troubles upon us; He takes from us our children, and our goods; He suffers us to be wronged, and persecuted, and the like; not that He takes any pleasure in the miseries of His Job 33. 29, creatures, but as Elihu, in the book of Job, observes, "All 30.] these things worketh God oftentimes with man," for this end, "to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of the living;" that is, to open his eyes that he may see the time of his visitation; and that he may lay hold of it, and prevent the miseries of the next world, to which these are not to be compared.

Wisd. 12. 8,

&c.

Thus the author of the book of Wisdom, speaking of the Canaanites, tells us how God spared them as men capable of knowing His meaning; not that He was unable to have destroyed them at once with cruel beasts, or even with the rough sword, but that executing His judgments by little and little, He gave them place for repentance.

And thus He deals with all mankind; and all that perish, perish through their own fault and wilful blindness; they will not see the opportunities which God affords them of working out their salvation, till very often it is too late to make use of them.

But then, this is purely our own fault. God forbid that

we should imagine that He speaks so as not to be understood by all that are disposed to hear Him. I will endeavour, therefore, to make you sensible how we come to be so blind as not to see the seasons in which God visits us.

And first; we are apt to call every thing that befals us mere chance; whereas nothing happens to men, but by the order or permission of God; and every thing (if we could be persuaded to consider and see it) is designed for our good; either to awaken us when we grow careless, or to instruct us when we know not our duty, or to punish us in this life, that we may not be punished in the next. We should be blinder than the very Jews and Heathens, if we should not see and confess this.

Gen. 42.

"As I have done, so God has requited me," saith a prince, [Judg. 1, 7 ; when the conqueror cut off his thumbs and great toes. "We 21.] are verily guilty concerning our brother," said the sons of Jacob, when God brought them into distress, "in that we saw the anguish of his soul, and we would not hear him." They did not say, this trouble which we are all fallen into came by chance; nor did they say it was their lot, and their destiny, and not to be avoided; but they owned the hand of God in it, His justice, and His mercy, in punishing them here, rather than hereafter, and in opening their eyes, though it were by sharp medicines.

2.

So just is that observation of the Wise Man, "Thou Wisd. 12. chastenest them by little and little that offend, and warnest them by putting them in remembrance wherein they have offended, that leaving their wickedness they may believe in Thee, O Lord."

But there is another cause of men's blindness, and which makes them forget their errand in this world, and the day of grace and this is, a constant hurry of business, and success in it.

It is utterly impossible to love God, or to desire to enjoy Him, while we love the world with all our hearts. This is the true reason why so many neglect eternity, and never think of providing for it, till just as they are leaving the world. They are too much distracted to hear their compassionate Saviour asking them this question, "What will it profit a man if he [Mark 8. should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"

36.]