وو

OBJECTION." But God can bring man to repentance if he will.” ANSWER. God hath a twofold power,-potestas absoluta, et ordinata; "a power that he exerts immediately, or in the use of means. God can by his absolute power preserve man's life without eating or drinking; but he maintains it ordinarily in the use of means, which man is obliged to use, and, if he reject them, will be guilty of his own death. God affords sinners means to bring them to repentance; and, if they reject them, God is not obliged to work by his immediate power. Hereupon God is said to be "willing that all" should be saved, and " come to repentance," (2 Peter iii. 9,) by his calling them, and affording means to repentance.

QUESTION. "But why doth God make these means effectual to some, not to others, by giving special grace?"

ANSWER. When he that makes this question can resolve me why Christ wrought his mighty works in Chorazin and Bethsaida, and not in Tyre and Sidon, when he foresaw that Tyre and Sidon would thereupon repent in dust and ashes, and Chorazin and Bethsaida would not repent; I shall then answer him in his inquiry. "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.' (Deut. xxix. 29.) Let sinners use the means, and wait there for God's special grace. And can Sodom justly complain that Christ came not to do his mighty works in it, and brought not the light of the gospel to it, when she offered such violence to the common dictates of the light and law of nature?

USE IV. See hence what little reason men have to boast of their knowledge or gospel privileges, when these may turn to their sorer condemnation." That servant which knoweth his Lord's will, and doeth not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes." (Luke xii. 47.)

And so Christ speaks to the Pharisees, who boasted themselves to be the pechachim, "the seeing men," whose eyes were opened: "But now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth." (John ix. 41.)

And thus the Jews boasted over the Gentiles, that they "knew God's will, were instructed out of the law, and were instructors of the foolish, and teachers of babes ; " (Rom. ii. 18-20 ;) and boasted themselves to be the circumcision: but yet, they not keeping the law, the uncircumcision should judge and condemn them. (Verse 27.) We have many among us who boast of a little knowledge [that] they have more than others, and have learned to talk and dispute of religion, and despise others as foolish, ignorant, blind, and babes; when all this may make their judgment the more intolerable. Some of the Jews have a tradition, that the holy fire of the altar was hid in a hole of a rock all the time of the captivity; and when at their return they looked for it, it was turned into a jelly; which they took and laid upon the altar, and [which] there was kindled into a fire again by the beams of the sun. When the light that is in the mind kindles a flame of love in the heart, and thence are presented holy sacrifices to

God; this is light sanctified, and sanctifying the soul: but when it rests in the mind, and is resisted in the heart and practice of men, it will, whether men will or no, shine into their consciences, first or last, to their greater terror and condemnation.

:

And therefore let men take heed of sin against light and knowledge; against the light of nature, the light of education, the light of good example; especially the light of the gospel for such sins make the greatest noise in the conscience, do most harden men's hearts, make men self-condemned, and will most expose men at the day of judgment.

USE V. And so I come to the next use; which is, to awaken us of this city and this nation, who have had gospel-favours and privileges above most people under heaven.-May we not say of London, as Christ of Capernaum ?-"O London, who hast been lift up to heaven!" And if any from hence shall perish, and be cast down to hell, how great will their fall be! It would be better perishing out of Tyre and Sidon, and Sodom, than out of London. Tolluntur in altum, ut casu graviore ruant ;* as the poet speaks of men that fall from high places. What, though God hath by a wonderful hand opened us a door of liberty? what, though we have such plenty of excellent preaching? and what, though we are such constant hearers of these lectures, morning by morning? yet if any of us still continue impenitent, it will but increase our doom at doomsday.

OBJECTION. "But we hope that that day will never come; and all this talk of it is but to fright people a little into good manners; a device of princes, to keep people under government; or of priests, to make markets of their consciences."

But can any

I think no man dare

ANSWER 1. It is true, few live as if they believed it. man say that he is sure it will never come? say that. Therefore it is our best wisdom to prepare for that day which may come, though we should not be sure it will come. A wise man will provide against an evil that may possibly come, though he is not sure it will come; especially considering the dreadful consequence of being surprised.

2. And it is true that this day is delayed; but it is because God waits for sinners' repentance, and would have men saved, and enter in before the door be shut. (2 Peter iii. 9.)

3. Do any of us not believe it, when the devils themselves believe and tremble? when they said to our Saviour, "Art thou come to torment us before the time?" (Matt. viii. 29;) it showed [that] they believed a day of judgment. But I spake of this before.

QUESTION. "But what will preserve us then from damnation, seeing such a judgment-day must certainly come?"

ANSWER. That which would have preserved Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, will preserve us; and that is true repentance; which you may know what it is by the description I have given before of its contrary, which is impenitency. Let us all in good earnest turn to God and repent. Let us repent of our pride and immodest

"They are raised up on high, that they may descend with a heavier fall."-EDIT.

dresses in apparel, and reform; let our women take down their hightowering dresses, and our men shorten their monstrous perukes. Let us repent of our strife and contention, and the persecutions that have been amongst us. Let us repent of the great neglect of familyduties, and our spending so much time at taverns and coffee-houses. Let others repent of their frauds in commerce and trading; and others, of their oaths and blasphemies; and others, of their extortion and oppression; others, of their base temporizing in religion. Let children repent of disobedience to parents; and parents, of their neglect of the instruction and education of their children: so masters and servants, of the neglect of the duties of their mutual relation. Let us repent of our careless hearing, and our unprofitable hearing ; of our loose observation of the sabbath, and unworthy receiving [of] the Lord's supper; and "bring forth fruits meet for repentance." (Matt. iii. 8.) Let London remember what befell Sodom for not repenting, and take heed of Sodom's sins; (2 Peter ii. 6 ;) which are said to be "pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness,' (Ezek. xvi. 49,) and "fornication, and going after strange flesh;" and now have "suffered the vengeance of eternal fire: " (Jude 7 :) that this city may not be called "Sodom's sister," as Jerusalem was, for being so like her in her sin; (Ezek. xvi. 48;) and her fruit not like the apples of Sodom, fair without, and within nothing but ashes.

But I have better hope concerning this city; and that, as God hath wonderfully saved it, so he will do still; and that its case is not as Sodom's, not to have in it ten righteous persons, when Abraham interceded for the sparing of it. And though this city was once laid in ashes, yet not as Sodom, which was never built again, and is now a bituminous lake, called Asphaltites; and the waters of it are deadly, and the fumes out of it mortal, and the ground and trees about it barren; which Pliny, Solinus, Diodorus Siculus, and other heathen writers, have taken notice of. But London stands up out of its ruins, to the terror of those that designed it to oblivion and perpetual desolation; and is more populous than ever: and the joyful sound of the gospel, and the voice of the turtle, are yet heard in her streets ; and not the voice of owls and satyrs, as is foretold of Babylon, (Isai. xiii. 21,) "which is spiritually called Sodom," (Rev. xi. 8,) and was typed by the city Jericho, which would expose the man to a fatal curse that should attempt to rebuild it. (Joshua vi. 26.)

USE VI. From all that hath been said, we may, lastly, conclude, that sinners that are impenitent have little reason to flatter themselves because of their present impunity.-Let them consider how it will fare with them in the day of judgment. Christ refers to that in the text; and those who have eyes to see afar off, will look so far as that day. So did Paul: "Wherefore we strive, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." (2 Cor. v. 9, 10.) And hereupon he counted it a small thing to be judged of men, or at "man's day," looking to the judgment to come, and that great day of the Lord.

(1 Cor. iv. 3—5.) The fallen angels are said to be bound in chains of darkness, "reserved unto the judgment of the great day;" (Jude 6;) and so are impenitent sinners reserved to that day; when, notwithstanding their present impunity, they shall then fall under judgment more intolerable than that of Sodom. As a malefactor, that is kept in the gaol under bolts and fetters till the assize, hath little reason to rejoice in his present freedom from the sentence of the judge: and this is the case of sinners: "Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." (Eccles. viii. 11.) And so I make the conclusion of this discourse with that which Solomon makes "the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." (Eccles. xii. 13, 14.)

SERMON III.

BY THE REV. RICHARD STEELE, A.M.

OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

HOW THE UNCHARITABLE AND DANGEROUS CONTENTIONS THAT ARE AMONG PROFESSORS OF THE TRUE RELIGION, MAY BE ALLAYED.

But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.-Galatians v. 15.

My business from this scripture is, to inquire into the cause, the danger, and the cure of uncharitable contentions in the church of God.

The holy apostle Paul having some few years before planted a church in Galatia, a region in the upper parts of the Lesser Asia, there soon crept-in a sort of false teachers; who contended, that the Mosaical ceremonies-in particular, that circumcision-was still to be observed, even by the believing Gentiles; and that the Christians were not justified before God by faith, but by the works of the law. Which two errors, when he had fully confuted in the former part of this epistle, he applies in this chapter and in the next: 1. By way of exhortation, to "stand fast in" this their Christian "liberty; (verse 1;) which he backs with divers arguments. 2. By way of direction, to use the same aright, "not for an occasion to the flesh," the works whereof he afterwards reckons up at large; (verses 19-22;) but rather, that they should "by love serve one another," (verse 13,) and abound in all holiness and goodness, which he enlargeth upon in the rest of this chapter and in the next.

This text in hand lies within the verge of this latter use: where the apostle using their own weapon, the law, whereof they cracked so much, against themselves,-he roundly tells them, that the whole law-to wit, the second table, which also hath an inviolable connexion with the first-is fulfilled in loving their neighbour as themselves; (verse 14;) and so, though they were free from the law of ceremonies, yet not from the law of love; and though the moral law had now no power to justify the sinner, nor to condemn the believer, yet still it hath the force of a rule, to guide them in that grand duty, as much as ever before.

These words, then, come-in as a motive, to press the Galatians to exercise that charity which he had affirmed before to be the sum and scope of the whole law; and it is drawn from the danger of the contrary temper. Plain commands of God should be sufficient to sway us to our duty; but generally we have need of the most powerful motives; especially when the violent streams of rage, lust, or revenge do oppose it; as in the case before us : 'But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another."

In which words you may see, 1. The sin specified, whereof they were supposed to be guilty: "But if ye bite," that is, reproach and defame one another; some violently maintaining these Jewish ceremonies, and others passionately opposing them: "and devour one another;" that is, tear and oppress each other, by all the mischievous hostilities ye can; for religious feuds are always sharpest. 2. Here is the danger forewarned, in case they proceeded therein: "Take heed that ye be not consumed one of another;" that is, "You will certainly destroy one another :" the division of the members must issue in the dissolution of the body. The decay of your love will weaken your faith: both parties will rue it; ye will be in danger of total ruin, body and soul, here and hereafter.

Now, if we consider these words only in hypothesi, or "in relation" to these persons in the text, they teach us, 1. That there were contentions in the church of Galatia. So that unity is no infallible mark of a true church: unity may be out of the church of Christ, and dissension may be within it.

2. That many people were violent in them. For the apostle would scarce have expressed himself in such terms of "biting and devouring," unless there had been some outrageous carriage among them toward one another.

3. That these contentions were very dangerous to them all. They threatened no less than the overthrow of both the contending parties, the consumption of them all.

But, considering the words of the text in thesi, or "absolutely," which we may safely do, seeing the same causes do still produce, or at least dispose unto, the same effects; we may collect this conclusion :—

DOCTRINE.

That uncharitable contentions do prepare for utter destruction.And here I shall,