once to appear, in so mean and self-abasing a form, and offered himself to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And whereas he hath himself founded a dominion over us in his own blood, did die, and revive, and rise again, that he might be Lord of the living and of the dead; and the eternal Father hath hereupon highly exalted him, given him a name above every name, that at his name every knee should bow, and that all should confess that he is Lord, to the praise and glory of God; and hath required that all should honour the Son as himself is to be honoured; hath given him power over all flesh, and made him head of all things to the church: was it ever intended men should, generally, remain exempt from obligation to observe, believe, and obey him? was it his own intention to waive, or not insist upon, his own most sacred, and so dearly acquired rights? to quit his claim to the greatest part of mankind? Why did he then issue out his commission as soon as he was risen from the dead, to teach all nations, to proselyte the world to himself, to baptize them into his name, (with that of the Father and the Holy Ghost? O the great and venerable names that are named upon professing Christians!) Could it be his intention, to leave it lawful to men to choose this, or any, or no religion, as their humours, or fancies, or lusts should prompt them; to disregard and deride his holy doctrines, violate and trample upon his just and equal laws, reject and contemn his offered favours and mercy, despise and profane his sacred institutions! When he actually makes his demand, and lays his claim, what amazing guilt, how swift destruction, must they incur, that dare adventure to deny the Lord that bought them! And they that shall do it, among a Christianized people, upon the pretended insufficiency of the revelation they have of him, do but heighten the affront and increase the provocation. 'Tis to charge the whole Christian institution with foolery, as pretending to oblige men, when they cannot know to what, how, or upon what ground they should be obliged; to pronounce the means and methods inept, and vain, which he hath thought sufficient (and only fit) for the propagating and continuing Christianity in the world; to render the rational reception of it from age to age impossible, in his appointed way; or unless men should be taught by angels, or voices from heaven, or that miracles should be so very frequent and common, as thereby also to become useless to their end; and so would be to make the whole frame of Christian religion an idle impertinency; and, in reference to its avowed design, a self-repugnant thing; and consequently were to impute folly to him who is the Wisdom of God.

And how are other things known, of common concernment, and whereof an immediate knowledge is as little possible? Can a man satisfy himself that he hath a title to an estate, conveyed down to him by very ancient writings, the witnesses whereof are long since dead and gone? or that he is obliged by laws made many an age ago? Or could any records be preserved with more care and concern, than those wherein our religion lies? or be more secure from designed or material depravation? But this is no place to reason these things. Enough is said by otners, referred to before. I only further say, if any that have the use of their understandings, living in a Christian nation, think to justify their infidelity and disobedience to the Son of God, by pretending they had no sufficient means to know him to be so, the excuse will avail them alike, as that did him, who insolently said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice? I know not the Lord, neither will I, &c. For have not we as good means to know who Christ is, as the Egyptians at that time had, to know who was the God of Israel, though afterwards he was more known by the judg ments which he executed? Although the knowledge of the only true God be natural, and the obligation thereto common to them; yet the indisposition to use their understanding this way, is so great and general, and the express revelation that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, requires so much less labour to understand it, than there is in arguing out the existence and attributes of God, by an inhabile, sluggish mind, that the difference cannot be great, if any, on that side. This latter only needs the inquiry, whence the revelation comes; which as it is not difficult in itself, so this occasion, viz. of its being proposed, doth invite and urge to it; whereas the generality of the pagan world have little of external inducement, leading them into inquiries concerning the true God. Therefore, all circumstances considered, I see not how they that live under the Gospel can be thought to have less advantage and obligation to own Jesus of Nazareth to be the Son of God, than the rest of the world, to own the only living and true God; or that the former should be less liable to the revelation of the wrath of God from heaven for holding supernatural truth in unrighteousness, than the other, for doing so injurious violence to that which is merely natural. Unto what severities, then, of the Divine wrath and justice, even of the highest kind, do multitudes lie open in our days.

For besides those (much fewer) mental, or notional, infidels, that believe not the principles of the Christian religion, against the clearest evidence, how vastly greater is the number of them that are so in heart and practice, against their professed belief! that live in utter estrangement from God, as without him in the world, or in open enmity against him, and contrariety to the known rules of the religion they profess! How many that understand nothing of its principal and plainest doctrines! as if nothing were requisite to distinguish the Christian from the pagan world, more than an empty name; or as if the Redeemer of sinners had died upon the cross, that men might more securely remain alienated from the life of God, not to reconcile and reduce them to him! or that they might with safety indulge appetite, mind earthly things, make the world their god, gratify the flesh, and make provision to fulfil the lusts of it, defy heaven, affront their Maker, live in malice, envy, hatred to one another! not to bless them, by turning them from these impieties and iniquities! As if it were so obscurely hinted, as that it could not be taken notice of, that the grace of God, which bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared, teaching them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, so looking for the blessed hope. And that Christ gave himself for us, to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify us to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works! How many, again, are Christians, they know not why! upon the same terms that others are Mahometans, because it is the religion of their country, by fate or by accident, not by their own choice and judgment! The same inconsideration makes them be Christians, that makes others be none.

And now, shall our Redeemer be left to weep alone over these perishing souls? have we no tears to spend upon this doleful subject? Oh that our heads were waters, and our eyes fountains! Is it nothing to us, that multitudes are sinking, going down into perdition, under the name of Christian, under the seal of baptism, from under the means of life and salvation! perishing! and can we do nothing to prevent it? We know they must perish that do not repent and turn to God, and love him above all, even with all their hearts and souls, and mind and might; that do not believe in his Son and pay him homage, as their rightful Lord, sincerely subjecting themselves to his laws and government. But this they will not understand, or not consider. Our endeavours to bring them to it, are ineffectual, 'tis but faint breath we utter. Our words drop and die between us and them! We speak to them in the name of the eternal God that made them, of the great Jesus who bought them with his blood, and they regard it not. The Spirit of the Lord is in a great degree departed from among us, and we take it not to heart! We are sensible of lesser grievances, are grieved that men will not be more entirely proselyted to our several parties and persuasions, rather than that they are so disinclined to become proselytes to real Christianity; and seem more deeply concerned to have Christian religion so or so modified, than whether there shall be any such thing! or whether men be saved by it or lost!

This sad case, that so many were likely to be lost under the first sound of the Gospel; and the most exemplary temper of our blessed Lord in reference to it, are represented in the following treatise; with design to excite their care for their own souls, who need to be warned, and the compassions of others for them who are so little apt to take warning. The good Lord grant that it may be, some way or other, useful for good!

JOHN HOWE.

THE

REDEEMER'S TEARS

WEPT OVER LOST SOULS.

LUKE XIX. 41, 42.

AND WHEN HE WAS COME NEAR, HE BEHELD THE CITY, AND WEPT OVER IT, SAYING, IF THOU HADST KNOWN, EVEN THOU, AT LEAST IN THIS THY DAY, THE THINGS WHICH BELONG UNTO THY PEACE! BUT NOW THEY ARE HID FROM THINE EYES.

We have here a compassionate lamentation in the midst of a solemn triumph. Our Lord's approach unto Jerusalem at this time, and his entrance into it, (as the foregoing history shows,) carried with them some face of regal and triumphal pomp, but with such allays, as discovered a mind most remote from ostentation; and led by judgment, (not vain-glory,) to transmit through a dark umbrage some glimmerings only of that excellent majesty which both his sonship and his mediatorship entitled him unto; a very modest and mean specimen of his true indubious royalty and kingly state; such as might rather intimate than plainly declare it, and rather afford an after-instruction to teachable minds, than beget a present conviction and dread in the stupidly obstinate and unteachable. And this effect we find it had, as is observed by another evangelical historian; who relating the same matter, how in his passage to Jerusalem the people met him with branches of palmtrees and joyful hosannas, he riding upon an ass's colt, (as princes or judges, to signify meekness as much as state, were wont to do, Judges v. 10.) tells us, these things his disciples understood not at the first, but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him, John xii. 16. For great regard was had in this, as in all the acts of his life and ministry, to that last and conclusive part, his dying a sacrifice upon the cross for the sins of men; to observe all along that mediocrity, and steer that middle course between obscurity and a terrifying, overpowering glory, that this solemn oblation of himself might neither be prevented, nor be disregarded. Agreeably to this design, and the rest of his course, he doth, in this solemnity, rather discover his royal state and dignity by a dark emblem, than by an express representation; and shows in it more of meekness and humility, than of awful majesty and magnificence, as was formerly predicted, Zech. ix. 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes," ver. 42. And again, "Thou knewest not the time of thy visitation."

First, The calamity was greater in his eyes, than it can be in ours. His large and comprehensive mind could take the compass of this sad case. Our thoughts cannot reach far, yet we can apprehend what may make this case very deplorable; we can consider Jerusalem as the city of the great King, where was the palace and throne of the Majesty of heaven, vouchsafing to "dwell with men on earth' Here the Divine light and glory had long shone; here was the sacred Shechinah, the dwelling place of the Most High, the symbols of his presence, the seat of worship, the mercy-seat, the place of receiving addresses, and of dispensing favours; "The house of prayer for all nations." To his own people this was the city of their solemnities, whither the tribes were wont to go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord for there were set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David, Psal. cxxii. 4, 5. He that was so great a lover of the souls of men, how grateful and dear to his heart had the place been where through the succession of many by-past ages the great God did use (though more obscurely) to unfold his kind propensions towards sinners, to hold solemn treaties with them, to make himself known, to draw and allure souls into his own holy worship and acquaintance! And that now the dismal prospect presents itself of desolation and ruin, ready to overwhelm all this glory! and lay waste the dwellings of Divine love! his sorrow must be conceived proportionable to the greatness of this desolating change.

Secondly, And the opportunity of prevention was quite lost! There was an opportunity: "He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel: he came to them as his own." Had they received him, O how joyful a place had Jerusalem been! How glorious had the triumphs of God been there, had they repented, believed, obeyed! These were the "things that belonged to their peace;" this was And how little he was taken in this piece of state, is their opportunity, their "day of visitation;" these were the sufficiently to be seen in this paragraph of the chapter. things that might have been done within that day but it His mind is much more taken up in the foresight of Jeru- was now too late, their day was over, and the things of salem's sad case; and therefore being come within view their peace hid from their eyes; and how fervent were his of it, (which he might very commodiously have in the de- desires, they had done otherwise! taken the wise and safe scent of the higher opposite hill, mount Olivet,) he beheld course. If thou hadst known! the words admit the opthe city, 'tis said, and wept over it. Two things concur to tative form, ɛi being put, as 'tis observed to be sometimes make up the cause of this sorrow:-1. The greatness of with other authors, for tie, utinam; O that thou hadst the calamity; Jerusalem, once so dear to God, was to suf- known, I wish thou hadst; his sorrow must be proportion-> fer, not a scar, but a ruin;-"The days shall come upon able to his love. Or otherwise we may conceive the senthee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and tence incomplete, part cut off by a more emphatical apo- * compass thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even siopesis, tears interrupting speech, and imposing a more with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they speaking silence, which imports an affection beyond all shall not leave in thee one stone upon another :" and-2. words. They that were anciently so over-officious as to The lost opportunity of preventing it;—“If thou hadst | rase those words "and wept over it" out of the canon, as

thinking it unworthy so divine a person to shed tears, did | greatly err, not knowing the Scriptures, (which elsewhere speak of our Lord's weep ng,) nor the power of Divine love, (now become incarnate,) nor indeed the true perfections and properties of human nature: otherwise they had never taken upon them to reform the Gospel, and reduce not only Christianity, but Christ himself, to the measures and square of their stoical philosophy: but these have also met with a like ancient confutation.

One thing (before we proceed) needs some disquisition, viz.-Whether this lamentation of our blessed Lord do refer only or ultimately to the temporal calamity he foresaw coming upon Jerusalem :-or whether it had not a further and more principal reference to their spiritual and eternal miseries that were certain to be concomitant, and consequent thereunto? Where let it be considered,

1. That very dreadful spiritual plagues and judgments did accompany their destruction very generally; which every one knows who is acquainted with their after-story, i. e. that takes notice what spirit reigned among them, and what their behaviour was towards our Lord himself, and afterwards towards his apostles and disciples all along to their fearful catastrophe; (as it may be collected from the sacred records, and other history;) what blindness of mind, what hardness of heart, what mighty prejudice, what inflexible obstinacy, against the clearest light, the largest mercy, the most perspicuous and most gracious doctrine, and the most glorious works, wrought to confirm it, against the brightest beams and evidences of the Divine truth, love, and power! what persevering impenitency and infidelity against God and Christ, proceeding from the bitterest enmity! (Ye have both seen and hated me and my Father, John xv. 24.) what mad rage and fury against one another, even when death and destruction were at the very door! Here were all the tokens imaginable of the most tremendous infatuation, and of their being forsaken of God. Here was a concurrence of all kinds of spiritual judgments in the highest degree.

sion, and might most deeply affect ordinary, and not yet enough prepared, hearers.

And he spake what he had, no doubt, a deep sense of himself. Whatever of tender compassions might be expected from the most perfect humanity and benignity, could not be wanting in him, upon the foresight of such a calamity as was coming upon that place and people. But yet, what was the sacking of a city, the destroying of pompous buildings that were all of a perishable material, the mangling of human flesh, over which the worm was otherwise shortly to have had dominion; to the alienation of men's minds from God, their disaffection to the only means of their recovery, and reconciliation to him, and their subjection to his wrath and curse for ever! When also it is plain he considered that perverse temper of mind and spirit in them, as the cause of their ruin! which his own words imply; that "the things which belonged to their peace were hid from their eyes;" and that the things he foretold, should befall them, because "they knew not the time of their visitation." For what could the things be that belonged to their peace, but turning to God, believing in himself, as the Messiah, bringing forth of fruits meet for repentance? Whence also there must be another latent and concealed meaning of their peace itself, than only their continued amity with the Roman state; their peace with Heaven; their being set right, and standing in favour and acceptance, with God. For was it ever the first intention of the things enjoined in Gospel, but to entitle men to earthly secular benefits?

Nor can we doubt but the same things lay deep in the mind of our blessed Lord, when he uttered these words, as when he spake those so very like them, Matt. xxiii. 37, 38. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. These other were not spoken indeed at the same time, but very soon 2. That the concomitancy of such spiritual evils with after: those we are considering, in his way to the city, their temporal destruction, our Lord foreknew as well as these when he was come into it; most probably, by the their temporal destruction itself. It lay equally in view series of the evangelical history, the second day, after his before him; and was as much under his eye. He that having lodged the first night at Bethany. But it is plain they knew what was in man, could as well tell what would be have the same sense, and that the same things lay with great in him. And by the same light by which he could imme- weight upon his spirit; so that the one passage may contridiately look into hearts, he could as well see into futuri- bute much to the enlightening and expounding of the other. ties, and as well the one futurity as the other. The know- Now what can be meant by that, "I would have gatherledge of the one he did not owe to his human understand-ed you as the hen her chickens under her wings?" Could ing to his divine understanding, whereby he knew all things, the other could not be hid.

3. The connexion between the impenitency and infidelity that prove to be final, and eternal misery, is known to us all. Of his knowledge of it therefore (whose law hath | made the connexion, besides what there is in the nature of the things themselves) there can be no doubt.

4. That the miseries of the soul, especially such as prove incurable and eternal, are in themselves far the greatest, we all acknowledge: nor can we make a difficulty to believe, that our Lord apprehended and considered things according as they were in themselves, so as to allow every thing its own proper weight and import in his estimating of them. These things seem all very evident to any eye. Now though it be confessed not impossible, that of things so distinct from one another as outward and temporal evils, and those that are spiritual and eternal, even befalling the same persons, one may for the present consider the one without attending to the other, or making distinct reflection thereon at the same time; yet how unlikely is it, these things bordering so closely upon one another as they did in the present case, that so comprehensive a mind as our Saviour's was, sufficiently able to enclose them both, and so spiritual a mind, apt no doubt to consider most what was in itself most considerable, should in a solemn lamentation of so sad a case, wholly overlook the saddest part, and stay his thoughts only upon the surface and outside of it! That he mentions only the approaching outward calamity, (ver. 43, 44.) was that he spake in the hearing of the multitude, and upon the way, out in passing, when there was not opportunity for large discourse; and therefore he spake what might soonest strike their minds, was most liable to common apprehen- |

it

intend a political meaning; that he would have been a temporal prince and saviour to them? which he so earnestly declined and disclaimed; professing to the last, his kingdom was not of this world. It could mean no other thing, but that he would have reduced them back to God, have gathered and united them under his own gracious and safe conduct in order thereto, have secured them from the Divine wrath and justice, and have conferred on them spiritual and eternal blessings. In a like sense their peace here was no doubt more principally to be understood; and their loss and forfeiture of it, by their not understanding the things belonging thereto, considered and lamented.

Therefore the principal intendment of this lamentation, though directly applied to a community, and the formed body of a people, is equally applicable unto particular persons living under the Gospel, or to whom the ordinary means of conversion and salvation are vouchsafed, but are neglected by them and forfeited. We may therefore thus sum up the meaning and sense of these words:-That it is a thing in itself very lamentable, and much lamented by our Lord Jesus, when such as living under the Gospel, have had a day of grace, and an opportunity of knowing the things belonging to their peace, have so outworn that day, and lost their opportunity, that the things of their peace are quite hid from their eyes-where we have these distinct heads of discourse to be severally considered and insisted on.

I. What are the things necessary to be known by such as live under the Gospel, as immediately belonging to their peace.

II. That they have a day or season wherein to know not these things only, but the whole compass of their case, and what the knowledge of those things more immediately belonging to their peace supposes, and depends upon.

necessary.

The

III. That this day hath its bounds and limits, so that | rebellion against his government, and our contempt of his when it is over and lost; those things are forever hid from goodness. Our repentance is no expiation. Nor have we their eyes. of our own, or were capable of obliging him to give us, IV. That this is a case to be considered with deep re- the power and grace to repent. Our high violation of the sentment and lamentation, and was so by our Lord Jesus. sacred rights and honour of the Godhead, made it necesI. What are the things necessary to be known by such sary, in order to our peace and reconciliation, there should as live under the Gospel, as immediately belonging to be a sacrifice, and a mediator between him and us. He their peace? Where we are more particularly to inquire, hath judged it not honourable to him, not becoming him to -1. What those things themselves are-2. What sort of treat with us, or vouchsafe us favours upon other terms. knowledge of them it is that here is meant, and made And since he thought it necessary to insist upon having a sacrifice, he judged it necessary too, to have one proportionable to the wrong done; lest he should make the Majesty of heaven cheap, or occasion men to think it a light matter to have fundamentally overturned the common Porder which was settled between himself and men. whole earth could not have afforded such a sacrifice, it must be supplied from heaven. His co-eternal Son made man, and so uniting heaven and earth in his own person, undertakes to be that sacrifice, and, in the virtue of it, to be a standing continual Mediator between God and us; through him, and for his sake, all acts and influences of grace are to proceed towards us. No sin is to be forgiven, no grace to he conferred, but upon his account. 'Tis reckoned most God-like, most suitable to the Divine greatness, once offended, to do nothing that shall import favour towards sinners, but upon his constant interposition. Him hath he set over us, and directed that all our applications to himself, and all our expectations from him, should be through him. Him hath he exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give us repentance and remission of sins. Now to one so high in power over us, he expects we should pay a suitable homage. That homage the Holy Scripture calls by the name of faith, believing on him. God hath set him forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus, Rom. iii. 25, 26. So that) when by repentance we turn to God, as our end, we must also apply ourselves by faith, to our Lord Jesus Christ, as our way to that end. Which, till we do, we are in rebellion still, and know not what belongs to our peace. He insists that his Son, into whose hands he hath committed our affairs, should be honoured by us, as he himself requires to be, John v. 23.

1. What the things are which belong to the peace of a people living under the Gospel. The things belonging to a people's peace, are not throughout the same with all. Living, or not living, under the Gospel, makes a considerable difference in the matter. Before the incarnation and public appearance of our Lord, something was not necessary among the Jews, that afterwards became necessary. It was sufficient to them before, to believe in a Messiah to come, more indefinitely. Afterwards he plainly tells them, If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins, John viii. 24. Believing in Christ cannot be necessary to Pagans that never heard of him, as a duty, howsoever necessary it may be as a means. Their not believing in him cannot be itself a sin, though by it they should want remedy for their other sins. But it more concerns us who do live under the Gospel, to apprehend aright what is necessary for ourselves. That is a short and full summary which the apostle gives, Acts xx. 21. Repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel finds us in a state of apostacy from God, both as our sovereign Ruler, and sovereign Good, not apt to obey and glorify him, as the former, nor enjoy him, nor be satisfied in him, as the latter. Repentance towards God, cures and removes this disaffection of our minds and hearts towards him, under both these notions. By it the whole soul turns to him, with this sense and resolution: "I have been a rebellious, disloyal wretch, against the high authority and most rightful government of him who gave me breath, and whose creature I am. I will live no longer thus. Lo now I come back unto thee, O Lord, thou art my Lord and God. Thee I now design to serve and obey, as the Lord of my life; thee I will fear, unto thee I subject myself, to live no longer after my own will, but thine. I have been hitherto a miserable, forlorn, distressed creature, destitute of any thing that could satisfy me, or make me happy; have set my heart upon a vain and thorny world, that had nothing in it answerable to my real necessities, that hath flattered and mocked me often, never satisfied me, and been wont to requite my pursuits of satisfaction from it with vexation and trouble, and 'pierce me through with many sorrows.' I have borne in the mean time a disaffected heart towards thee, have therefore cast thee out of my thoughts, so that amidst all my disappointments and sorrows, it never came into my mind to say, 'Where is God my maker?' I could never savour any thing spiritual or divine, and was ever more ready, in distress, to turn myself any way than (that which I ought) towards thee. I now see and bemoan my folly, and with a convinced, self-judging heart, betake myself to thee; the desires of my soul are now unto thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. Whom have I in heaven but thee, or on earth that I can desire besides thee ?"

This is "repentance towards God," and is one thing belonging, and most simply necessary, to our peace. But though it be most necessary, it is not enough. It answers to something of our wretched case, but not to every thing. We were in our state of apostacy averse and disaffected to God. To this evil, repentance towards him is the opposite and only proper remedy. But besides our being without inclination towards him, we are also without interest in him. We not only had unjustly cast off him, but were also most justly cast off by him. Our injustice had set us against him, and his justice had set him against us; we need, in order to our peace with him, to be relieved as well against his justice, as our own injustice. What if now we would return to him, he will not receive us? And he will not receive us for our own sakes. He must have a recompense for the wrong we had done him, by our

a Acts v. 31.

Now these two things sum up our part of the covenant between God and us. By repentance we again take God for our God. Repenting we return to him as our God. By faith we take his son for our Prince and Saviour. These things, by the tenor of the evangelical covenant, are required of us. Peace is settled between God and us, (as it is usually with men towards one another after mutual hostilities) by striking a covenant. And in our case, it is a covenant by sacrifice, as you have seen. Nor are harder terms than these imposed upon us. Dost thou now, sinner, apprehend thyself gone off from God? and find a war is commenced and on foot, between God and thee? He can easily conquer and crush thee to nothing, but he offers thee terms of peace, upon which he is willing to enter into covenant with thee. Dost thou like his terms? Art thou willing to return to him, and take him again for thy God? To resign and commit thyself with unfeigned trust and subjection into the hands of his Son thy Redeemer ? "These are the things which belong to thy peace." See that thou now know them.

2. But what knowledge of them is it that is here meant ? The thing speaks itself. It is not a mere contemplative knowledge. We must so know them as to do them; otherwise the increase of knowledge is the increase of sorrow. Thy guilt and misery will be the greater. To know any thing that concerns our practice, is to no purpose if we do not practice it. It was a Hebrew form of speech, and is a common form, by words of knowledge to imply practice. It being taken for granted that in matters so very reasonable and important, if what we are to do once be rightly Thus elsewhere the same known, it will be done. great requisites to eternal life and blessedness are expressed by our Lord. This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent:

it being supposed and taken for granted that a true, vivid | degenerate nature even of all men, and of every faculty knowledge of God and Christ will immediately form the in man. That there is none that doth good; no not one; soul to all suitable dispositions and deportments towards and that every one is altogether become filthy and impure, the one and the other; and consequently to all men also, that there is an entire old man to be put off, wholly coras Christian precepts do direct to all the acts of sobriety, rupt by deceivable lusts; that the axpónoλis, the noblest powjustice, and charity, unto which the law of Christ obliges. ers, are vitiated, the mind and conscience defiled; that the An habitual course of sin in any kind, is inconsistent spirit of the mind needs renewing, is sunk into carnality; with this knowledge of the things of our peace, and there- and that the carnal 'mind is enmity against God, and is fore with our peace itself. All sin is in a true sense re- not subject to his law, nor can be, nor capable of savourducible to ignorance; and customary sinning into total ing the things of God; that the sinner is in the flesh, under destitution of Divine knowledge. According to the usual the dominion of power, and in the possession of the fleshly, style of the sacred writings, 1 Cor. xv. 34. Awake to sensual nature, and can therefore neither obey God, nor righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the know- enjoy him; that it is become impossible to him either to ledge of God. 3 John ii. He that sinneth, i. e. that is a please God, or be pleased with him. That the sinner's doer of sin, kakoжоtāv, a worker of iniquity, hath not seen quarrel therefore with God is about the most appropriate God. rights of the Godhead; the controversy is who shall be II. Such as live under the Gospel have a day, or a God, which is the supreme authority, and which is the supresent opportunity, for the obtaining the knowledge of preme good. The former peculiarity of the Godhead, the these things immediately belonging to their peace, and of lapsed creature is become so insolent, as to usurp and arwhatsoever is besides necessary thereunto. I say nothing rogate to himself. When he is become so much less than what opportunities they have who never lived under the a man (a very beast) he will be a god. His sensual will Gospel, who yet no doubt might generally know more shall be his only law. He lives and walks after the flesh, than they do; and know better what they do know. It serves divers lusts and pleasures, and says, "Who is the suffices us who enjoy the Gospel, to understand our own ad- Lord over me?" But being conscious that he is not selfvantages thereby. Nor, as to those who do enjoy it, is sufficient, that he must be beholden to somewhat foreign to every one's day of equal clearness. How few in compa- himself for his satisfaction, and finding nothing else suitrison, have ever seen such a day as Jerusalem at this time able to his sensual inclination; that other divine pecudid! made by the immediate beams of the Sun of righte- liarity, to be the supreme good, he places upon the sensi ousness! our Lord himself vouchsafing to be their In-ble world; and for this purpose that shall be his god; so structor, so speaking as never man did; and with such that between himself and the world he attempts to share authority as far outdid their other teachers, and astonished the undivided Godhead. This is a controversy of a high the hearers. In what transports did he use to leave those that nature, and about other matters than even the Jewish heard him, wheresoever he came, wondering at the gra- Rabbins thought of, who, when Jerusalem was destroyed, cious words that came out of his mouth! And with what supposed God was angry with them for their neglect of the mighty and beneficial works was he wont to recommend recitation of their phylacteries morning and evening; or his doctrine, shining in the glorious power, and savouring that they were not respectful enough of one another; or of the abundant mercy of heaven, so as every apprehen- that distance enough was not observed between superiors sive mind might see the Deity was incarnate, God was and inferiors, &c. The gospel impleads men as rebels come down to treat with men, and allure them into the against their rightful Lord; but of this treason against knowledge and love of himself. The word was made the Majesty of heaven men little suspect themselves till flesh. What unprejudiced mind might not perceive it to they are told. The Gospel tells them so plainly, represents be so? He was there manifested and veiled at once; both the matter in so clear light, that they need only to contemexpressions are used concerning the same matter. The plate themselves in that light, and they may see that so it Divine beams were somewhat obscured, but did yet ray is. Men may indeed, by resolved, stiff winking, create to through that vail: so that his glory was beheld as the themselves a darkness amidst the clearest light. But open glory of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace thine eyes man, thou that livest under the gospel, set thyand truth. This Sun shone with a mild and benign, but self to view thine own soul, thou wilt find it is day with with a powerful, vivifying light. In him was life, and thee; thou hast a day, by being under the Gospel, and light that life was the light of men. Such a light created enough to see that this is the posture of thy soul, and the unto the Jews this their day. Happy Jews, if they state of thy case God-ward. And it is a great matter tohad understood their own happiness! And the days that wards the understanding the things of thy peace, to know followed, to them (for a while) and the gentile world were aright what is the true state of the quarrel between God not inferior, in some respects brighter and more glorious, and thee. (the more copious gift of the Holy Ghost being reserved unto the crowning and enthroning of the victorious Redeemer,) when the everlasting Gospel flew like lightning to the uttermost ends of the earth; and the word which began to be spoken by the Lord himself, was confirmed by them that heard him, God also himself bearing them witness, with signs, and wonders, and gifts of the Holy Ghost. No such day hath been seen this many an age. Yet whithersoever this same Gospel, for substance, comes, it also makes a day of the same kind, and affords always true, though diminished light; whereby, however, the things of our peace might be understood and known. The written Gospel varies not; and if it be but simply and plainly proposed, (though to some it be proposed with more advantage, to some with less, yet,) still we have the same things immediately relating to our peace extant before our eyes; and divers things besides, which it concerns us to be acquainted with, that we may the more distinctly and to better purpose understand these things. For instance, 1. We have the true and distinct state of the quarrel between God and us. Pagans have understood somewhat of the apostacy of man from God; that he is not in the same state wherein he was at first. But while they have understood that something was amiss, they could scarce tell what. The Gospel reveals the universal pravity of the

2. The Gospel affords light to know what the issue of this quarrel is sure to be, if it go on, and there be no reconciliation. It gives us other and plainer accounts of the punishment of the other world, more fully represents the extremity and perpetuity of the future miseries, and state of perdition appointed for the ungodly world; speaks out concerning the "Tophet prepared of old, the à lake of fire and brimstone;" shows the miseries of that state to be the immediate effects of Divine displeasure; that "the breath of the Almighty as a river of brimstone" always foments those flames; that "indignation and wrath cause i the tribulation and anguish" which must be the portion of evil doers; and how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God!" Gives us to understand what accession men's own unaltered vicious habits will have to their miseries; their own outrageous lusts and passions, which here they made it their business to satisfy, becoming their insatiable tormentors; that they are to receive "the things done in the body, according to what they have done; and that m" what they have sowed, the same also they are to reap ;" and what their own guilty reflections will contribute, the bitings and gnawings of the worm that dies not, the venomous corrosions of the viper bred in their own bosoms, and now become a full-grown serpent; what the society and insultation of devils, with whom they are