VI.

SER M. Heaven?) Further, ver. 32. of the fame Pfalm, For all this they have finned yet more, and believed not his wondrous works: ver. 11. They kept not the Covenant of God, and would not walk in his law; But forgat what he had done, and the wonderful Works that he had showed for them. ver. 42, They turned back and tempted God, and moved the Holy One in Ifrael: They thought not of his hand, and of the day when he delivered them from the hand of the Enemy; How he had wrought his Miracles in Egypt, and his Wonders in the field of Zoan. And again, ver. 57, They tempted and difpleafed the most High God, and kept not his Teftimonies; But turned their backs, and fell away like their forefathers, starting afide like a broken Bow. For they grieved him with their bill-altars, and provoked him to difpleasure with their Images. A more lively and affectionate defcription of the perverseness of incorrigible Sinners, cannot posfibly be given. Other Accounts of the same nature, we find in the history which the Old Teftament gives us of the behaviour

VI.

viour of That people. When the Egyp- S ER M. tians purfued after them into the Wilderness; then, as if he who had brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand was not able to protect them in their journey; they said, Wherefore haft thou thus dealt with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt: Exod. xiv. 11. When the Egyptians were all destroyed, and they had nothing to oppose their progress but the solitary Wilderness; then, as if he who had delivered them from the Hoft of Pharaoh, was not able to feed them in the defert, they faid, Ye have brought us forth into this Wilderness to kill this whole Affembly with hunger, Exod. xvi. 3. When God miraculously supplied them with Bread from Heaven; then, there was nothing at all befides this manna, Num. xi. 6: And when, by another miracle, he had quenched their Thirft; then, he fmote the ftony rock indeed, that the waters gub ed out; but can be provide Flesh also for his people? Pf. lxxviii. 21. And when, by a third miracle, he fed them to the full with quails; for all This, they finned yet

more,

SER M. more, and believed not his wondrous works, VI. ver. 32. When Mofes tarried longer in the

Mount than They expected; then, they could not live without their Leader, but must make Gods to go before them; ` for, as for This Mofes, they knew not what was become of him, Exod. xxxii. 1: When he continued with them, and put himself conftantly at the Head of them; then, ye take too much upon you; wherefore lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? Numb. xvi. 3. When God commanded them to go up, and take poffeffion of the good Land which he had provided for them; then, the people of the land were ftrong, and the Cities walled, and the children of Anak there, and we be not able to go up against the people, and the land is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and we saw Giants there, and would God we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we had died in this Wilderness; and wherefore has the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the fword? Num. xiii, 28, &c. But when the Lord hereupon commanded

commanded them not to go up; then, Lo SER M. we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord has promifed; ch. xiv. 40.

I SHOULD proceed to Other Inftances of the unreafönable behaviour of finful men in this respect: But the time not permitting me to finish this Subject Now, I shall at present add only a word of application, and fo conclude.

I BELIEVE there are very few perfons, who read these portions of Scripture, without censuring in their own minds the behaviour of the Jews, and saying within themselves, as did those whom our Saviour describes; Matt. xxiii. 30; If We had been in the days of our Fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in These things. But to every impenitent Sinner, in the prefent as well as in former times, the experience of the World, and the reafon of things, and the judgment of confcience, and the Scripture of Truth fays, Thou art the man. For all these things are examples unto Us, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the World are come. VOL. V. God

K

VI.

VI.

SER M. God calls Us to Repentance, by the continual Witness which he gives to himself in the Works of Creation, in the Reason and Nature of Things, in the effential Differences of Good and Evil, in the voice of Conscience, in the difpenfations of Providence, in his Mercies and Judgements, in the completion of Prophecies, in the Works and Preaching of Chrift and his Apostles, in the Promifes and Threatnings of the Gospel. And if all Thefe things move men not, the Scripture declares there fhall no Sign be given to us, but the Sign of the Nations who were destroyed by the Flood, and the Cities who perished in the Overthrow of Sodom. For as in the days before the Flood, and before the deftruction of Sodom, men were eating and drinking, and knew not until the Waters came and took away the one, and the Fire the other; fo also, says our Lord, fhall the Coming of the Son of

Man be.

SERMON