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shall chiefly mention such circumstances relative each, as were most visible and apparent to their respective hearers.

Jonah was sent to a people brought up in heathenism, who had scarcely heard of the true God. Jesus was sent to the Jews, who considered themselves as God's peculiar people; and had, indeed, been long treated by him with peculiar distinction.

Jonah went to a people, who had had no preparatory instruction in true religion. Jesus came to a people, who by various extraordinary means, had been prepared for his coming.

Jonah's ministry and message were very short.

ministry of Jesus was much more full and continued.

The

Jonah was a stranger and a foreigner to the Ninevites. Jesus was acknowledged by the Jews to be their own countryman, and even of the race of their kings.

Jonah's message was all alarming. He only denounced approaching destruction. The message of Jesus was very alluring. He came to proclaim glad tidings of salvation. Jonah gave his hearers no encouragement, except by a very obscure implication, which he himself was unwilling to admit. The ministry of Jesus was attended with kind invitations and express promises to all returning penitents. Jonah wrought no miracles to confirm his message to the men of Nineveh. The ministry of Jesus was accompanied with many miracles; and almost all were miracles of mercy.

Jonah was very deficient in disinterested benevolence, and had little tenderness for the Ninevites. Jesus discovered

much compassion for the Jews: (Luke xiii. 34. xix. 41, 42.) and for sinners in general.

The Ninevites repented at some of them savingly. dered Jesus; and afterwards

Jonah's preaching, we hope The Jews rejected and murpersecuted his disciples, till

wrath came upon them to the uttermost.

SECONDLY: Inquire which case is most similar to our

own, and how we should improve the subject?

Jesus Christ, has not, indeed, preached to you in person; but he has sent his servants among you, in his name. These servants of Christ have been commissioned, not like Jonah, merely to denounce destruction, but to proclaim salvation. It is not merely within these forty days, that you have been

favored with the means of grace; but many of you have enjoyed from your childhood, the opportunity of hearing the word, reading it, and having it enforced at home. Have you not heard the terrors of the Lord? No time, indeed, has been set for the period of his patience. But you have had a further discovery of the awful consequences of sin, than the men of Nineveh. It may be, wrath will come within forty days; and it is more than temporal destruction which awaits the Christless sinner. You have had more particular representation of the evil of sin, as the cause of God's displeasure. By the law is the knowledge of sin. That law has been explained; and shown to be holy, just, and good. And you have had particular sins pointed out. You have had a variety of means employed with you. Every spring of action has been addressed in turn; your conscience, your reason, and your passions. Especially, you have had many gracious invitations and precious promises, to encourage your return to God. All the invitations in the Bible are for your encouragement; and if you embrace Christ, all the promises will be your portion. Christ has sent unto you a number of faithful ministers, who are affectionately desirous of your salvation. It would not be a disappointment to them to have your destruction prevented, as it seemed to be to Jonah as to Nineveh but your rejection of Christ would be their grief; and your acceptance of him would fill their hearts with joy. There are, also, many Christians around you, who would rejoice in your salvation, perhaps your relations: if not, others would rejoice, even those whom you have sometimes reviled and persecuted and Christ assures us, that the angels in heaven would rejoice. True, you have not seen any miracles, as Christ's hearers did; but you have a full account of many which he wrought, and an account of his death and resurrection. You have fewer stumbling-blocks in your way, than they had who lived in the days of his flesh. Some

evidences of Christ have greater force now than then: the argument from prophecy, and from the success of the gospel. Many miracles of grace may be seen in this day to confirm the doctrine of God our Saviour. "The blind see, the deaf hear, lepers are cleansed, the poor receive the gospel."

From all this, it follows, that if you embrace not the gospel, the men of Nineveh will assurely condemn you, as they did those who heard our Lord himself.

But you profess that you do believe it. Yes! but with what kind of faith? Is it genuine and cordial? Have you received the truth in the love of it? What effect has it had on your hearts and lives? No faith is genuine that is not attended with repentance. You cannot rely on Christ, without you see your need of him; you cannot see your need of him, unless you see sin to be sinful. He surely had no need to die for you, if you never deserved to die yourself. And certainly you cannot see the great evil of sin, and the indispensable need of Christ's atonement, and yet love sin. You cannot hate sin, and yet commit it greedily, or not desire its utter destruction. You cannot sincerely love Christ, unless you unite cordially with him in all the ends of his mediation. Examine how this is. Confess how averse you once were to Give God the praise, if you have

the design of the gospel. repented and believed.

LVI.

JESUS AND SOLOMON COMPARED.

MATT. xii. 42.

Behold a greater than Solomon is here.

THE blessed Jesus is proposed by the Apostle Paul, in the second chapter of his Epistle to the Phillipians, as the greatest pattern of humility that could be named. But surely they who deny his proper deity, and infinite original dignity, take off all the force of this example, and leave little room to admire his condescension. According to them, the most that can be said of his modesty is this, that being merely a man he did not think of the robbery of being equal

with God! But surely, if he were of no superior nature to the rest of mankind, he must have bordered on that robbery in several instances. Matt. ix. 2. xi. 27. xii. 6. 8. Yea, had he been but a mere man, our text itself would seem Other servants of God are taught to

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sufficiently arrogant. esteem others better than themselves. But Jesus often speaks of himself as superior to all who either preceded or should succeed him. "Before Abraham was I am." "Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them." "Moses spake of me." "Ye call me Lord and Master, and so I am." John viii. 58. 56. Luke x. 24. Matt. xiii. 17. John v. 46. xiii. 13. In the context, he asserts that he was greater than Jonah, who had most success in reforming the Gentiles. And in the text, that he was greater than Solomon, the greatest of all the princes of the house of David, the greatest king of the Jews, and in some respects the first monarch in the world. Our principal business will be,

FIRST, To evince the superiority of Christ to Solomon. He did not appear so at first sight, to all beholders; yet he really possessed the excellencies for which Solomon was most celebrated, and that in a superior degree; and other excellencies of which Solomon was wholly destitute.

He

He was greater than Solomon in essential dignity. was, according to the flesh, descended from the same stock : he was of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, of the family of David; and David, as well as his ancestors, was more honored by this remote descendant than by his immediate son and successor. God raised that family to the throne, that he might make the line more conspicuous from which the Messiah should spring; and that this line of kings who reigned over his chosen people, might typify the royalty of his Son, who being the Son of God, and so God himself, was David's Lord.

He was greater than Solomon in personal qualities. Infinitely more excellent and amiable in moral character. He

was absolutely perfect, which Solomon was far from being. He was "the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely."

He was possessed of greater wisdom than Solomon, though all his wisdom was unostentatious and useful. Much of Solomon's wisdom was merely political, or at least temporal only. But Christ's wisdom was spiritual and heavenly. Solomon's wisdom was mixed with folly. Not so Christ's. He has all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col. ii. 3. Solomon could not certainly communicate his wisdom, no, not even to his own son Rehoboam. But Christ makes all his people wise unto salvation.

Solomon was renowned for his peaceful reign, but he was never great in war. The latter circumstance indeed is no degradation of him. But it is an exaltation of Christ, that in righteousness doth he judge and make war, and his victories are great and glorious.

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And yet he is a greater friend to peace than Solomon. He is the Prince of peace. He made peace by the blood of his cross; reconciles sinners unto God; and gives peace of conscience; such peace as the world cannot give or take

away.

Solomon was immensely rich. 1 Kings x. 21. Christ appeared in our world as extremely poor. When he that made the world dwelt in it for a little season, the character in which he chose to appear was that of a poor, godly man. Yet his riches exceed those of Solomon, and are far more valuable and durable. In his kingdom temporal riches aré of little account. Those riches only that cannot be destroyed by the last conflagration, are worthy to be valued by his subjects.

Solomon's empire was widely extended. But Christ is a much greater monarch than Solomon. His dominions are infinitely more extensive. But the great excellence of Christ's kingdom consists in its being internal and spiritual. Its seat is in the heart. Also his administration is more perfectly righteous. His laws are more wise and equitable than even Solomon's. His subjects are more prosperous and happy. He has done much greater things for his people

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