SER M. Our Saviour compelled the Jews to ac

XI.

knowledge, and made them condemn themselves for it with their own mouths, in the Parable of the Houfholder, St Matt. xxi. 33. who having planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen, first sent his fervants to receive the fruits of it; and when the husbandmen had refifted and flain the fervants, he afterwards fent his own Son to them, faying, Surely they will reverence my Son; But him alfo they refifted and flew: Whereupon when our Saviour appealed to the Pharifees themselves, to judge what it was fit for the Lord of the vineyard to do unto thofe husbandmen; They immediately replied, He will miferably deStroy thofe wicked men, and let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which fhall render him the fruits in their feafons: Unwarily paffing a juft fentence against Themselves; that for rejecting the Gofpel preached by Christ himself, they deferved a feverer condemnation, than their Fathers who had before rejected the preaching and admonitions of the Prophets. The fame Argument is used by

the Apostle, in the words immediately SER M. preceeding the Text; If the word, faith XI. he, Spoken by Angels was ftedfaft, and every tranfgreffion and disobedience received a juft recompence of reward; how shall we efcape, if we neglect fo great falvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord? And ch. x. ver. 28. He that defpifed Mofes's law, died without Of how much forer punishment, fuppofe ye, fhall he be thought worthy, who hath troden under foot the Son of God? and ch. xii. 25. See that ye refufe not Him that Speaketh: For if They escaped not, who refufed him that Spake on Earth, much more shall not we efcape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven.

mercy:

4thly and Laftly, THE Strength and Clearness of the Evidence, and the Number and Greatness of the Proofs, made use of to affure us of the Truth and Certainty of the Gospel; is the highest Aggravation of the guilt of those, who neglect or disobey it; and that which of all other things renders them the most abfolutely inexcufable. The Gospel was VOL. V. S 2

at

SERM. at first begun to be Spoken by the Lord, XI. and was afterwards confirmed to us by them

that heard him; God alfo bearing them witness, both with figns and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghoft; whereof that which we This day commemorate, was both the Foundation of all the reft; and in itself also of the greatest Efficacy and of the largest Ex

tent.

.

THE ftronger the Evidence of any Truth be, the more inexcufable is the making oppofition to it. And the higheft Aggravation of this crime, is, to continue to oppose a Truth, after the best and greatest Evidence has been given of it, that the Nature of the Thing was capable of. Oppofition in this case, against the greatest Evidence that is reafonably to be expected, can proceed from nothing but either incurable Obftinacy and Perversenefs; or a Love of fome things, and a resolution not to part with them, the keeping of which is inconfiftent with the acknowledgment of the Truth. And this is plainly the Case of those

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XI.

those who reject the Gofpel, after the SER M. undeniable Evidences that have been given of the Truth of it by the Teftimony of the Spirit. Their rejecting it, cannot proceed from want of fufficient Conviction, but only from a love of Vice, and a refolution not to be reformed; which is a degree of incorrigiblenefs, in which there is no hope of excuse, and for which there remains no remedy; and which there is no hopes of amending. When clear Light is come into the World, and men still continue their works of Darkness; then it becomes evident that their wickedness proceeds not from Ignorance and want of Inftruction, but from Will and Choice; they love Darkness rather than Light, and stand in open defiance to God and his fupreme Authority. This is what our Saviour fays of the Jews, St Job. xv, 22. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had Sin; but now they have no cloak for their Sin: If I had not done, among them the works which no other man did, they had not had Sin; but now they have both feen and hated both me and my Father,

S 3

SER M. Father. This is the reafon of his deXI. claring to the cities of Judæa, that it Should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrba in the day of Judgment than for Them; because if the mighty works that were done in Them, had been done in Sodom, it would have repented in fackcloth and afbes. This is the reason of his declaring to those Pharifees, who blafphemed the Holy Spirit, that they hould never bave forgiveness neither in this World, nor in that which is to come; because they refifted the laft and greatest means, that God would ever make use of to bring them to repentance; and not refifted it only, but reviled it also: They faw with their own eyes the clearest and ftrongest proofs of the Truth of the Gofpel, that could poffibly be given; and yet they not only withstood the Evidence of those mighty works, but also blafphemed the Holy Spirit by which they were worked. Their Crime was fingular and unexampled; and their Condemnation, was likewife fingular. But all others alfo, who reject the Gospel,

are,