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nefs; there remaineth no more facrifice for fin; but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation. Therefore fhall it be more tolerable, if you perfift in refusing to believe and obey the things which have been spoken; therefore shall it be more tolerable at the day of judgement for the idolatrous Heathen than for you.

SERMON III.

On Proneness to difparage Religious
Characters.

LUKE, vii. 31.

And the Lord faid; Whereunto then shall I liken the Men of this Generation? INthe education of youth, parental wisdom and kindness difplay themselves, not only by the aptness, but by the diverfity of the means felected for the accomplishment of the purpose in view. It is not merely that the father places at distinct periods before his child opportunities and fubjects of inftruction severally fitted to the progres five growth and expansion of the mind. He ftudies the character of his offspring, and labours to provide inftructors specially fitted for the correction of its defects. If the appointed preceptors have expended, and expended without adequate fruit, the exertion from which, in confequence of their talents and demeanour, a fuccessful refult

might reasonably have been anticipated; the father looks around for others, if not more able than the former, yet fo far differing from them in peculiarity of difpofition and deportment as to be adapted to make, under exifting circumftances, an impresfion on the understanding and the heart. If the floth and perverfenefs of the pupil obftinately refift, neither fubdued by principle, nor fhaken by argument, nor awed by ftrictness, nor won by conciliation; the ends of his education are defeated: but let him not charge his ruin on his parent.

The Lord of earth and heaven permits men to call Him Father. He deals with them as his children. In the fucceffive dispensations by which he revealed himself to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to the people of Ifrael, he adapted his communications to the actual state of the human race. In his fuperintending intercourse with the twelve rebellious tribes, we behold him fending forth meffengers diftinguished from each other, and recommended to the people, by every leading variety of qualification fuited to command or to allure attention. The fublimity of Ifaiah, the fimplicity of Haggai, the vehemence of Ezekiel, the pathos of Jeremiah, the fententious abrupt

nefs

nefs of Hofea, the allegorical imagery of Joel, are equally employed to convey the voice of the Moft High, to awaken the confcience of regardless and apoftate man. Hear, O Heavens! Give ear, O Earth! What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?

In an earlier part of the chapter to which the text has guided our thoughts, our Saviour had enlarged in the highest terms of commendation concerning the character of John the Baptift: and at the same time had reminded the Jews, that the most signal of the marks of honour by which John had been distinguished from above was his commiffion to prepare the way of the Meffiah. His difcourfe he concluded with the following expoftulation.

have

Whereunto then fhall I liken the men of this generation? And to what are they like? They are like unto children fitting in the market-place, and calling one to another, and faying, We have piped unto you, and ye not danced: we have mourned unto you and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine and ye fay, "He hath a Devil." The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye fay," Behold a gluttonous man and a "winebibber,

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"winebibber, a friend of publicans and "finners." But wisdom is juftified of all her children.

I design, in the first place, to explain this paffage, and afterwards to apply it to our own improvement.

I. Whereunto fhall I liken the men of this generation? And to what are they like? It was the cuftom of our Lord to exemplify his meaning, and to render his inftructions impreffive, by pertinent' and familiar comparisons. He now reprefented himself as in pursuit of a fimilitude proper to illuftrate the conduct of the Jews. Immediately he produces an exact resemblance. The men of this generation are like unto chitdren fitting in the market-place, and calling one to the other, and faying; We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced: we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. As though he had faid: "Have you never ob"ferved in the ftreets diffatisfied and obfti

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nate children setting themselves against "the idea of being pleafed by their playmates, and turning their backs on every sport proposed to them? When "their companions offered fome mirthful "amusement; have you not feen the

"others

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