God of all mercy is an idol, such a god as men set up in their own imaginations, but not the true God whom the Scriptures describe: to such persons the Scripture describes Him after another manner: (Nahum i. 2) "God is jealous; the Lord revengeth and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and reserveth wrath for His enemies." If any man abuse the mercy of God, to "the strengthening of himself in his own wickedness, and bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine. heart, and add drunkenness to thirst; the Lord will not spare Him, but the anger of the Lord and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven" (Dent. xxix. 19, 20).

Though it be the nature of God to be merciful, yet the exer cise of His mercy is regulated by His wisdom; He will not be merciful to those that despise His mercy, to those that abuse it, to those that are resolved to go on in their sins to tempt His mercy and make bold to say, "Let us sin that grace may abound." God designs His mercy for those that are prepared to receive it; (Isa. lv. 7) "Let the wicked forsake His ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and turn unto the Lord, and He will have mercy, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." The mercy of God is an enemy to sin, as well as His justice; and it is nowhere offered to countenance sin, but to convert the sinner; and is not intended to encourage our impenitency, but our repentance. God hath nowhere said that He will be merciful to those who, upon the score of His mercy, are bold with Him, and presume to offend Him; but "the mercy of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, and keep His covenant, and remember His commandments to do them." There is forgiveness with Him, "that He may be feared," but not that He may be despised and affronted. This is to contradict the very end of God's mercy, which is, to "lead us to repentance," to engage us to leave our sins, not to encourage us to continue in them.

Take heed, then, of abusing the mercy of God: we cannot

provoke the justice of God more, than by presuming upon His mercy. This is the time of God's mercy; use this opportunity: if thou neglectest it, a day of justice and vengeance is coming: (Rom. ii. 4, 5) “Despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance? and treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the rightcous judgment of God?" Now is the manifestation of God's mercy; but there is a time coming, when the righteous judg ment of God will be revealed against those who abuse His mercy, "not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance." To think that the goodness of God was intended for any other end than to take us off from sin, is a gross and affected ignorance that will ruin us; and they who draw any conclusion from the mercy of God, which may harden them in their sins, they are such as the prophet speaks of: (Isa. xxvii. 11) "A people of no understanding, therefore He that made them will not save them; and He that formed them will show them no favour." Mercy itself will rejoice in the ruin of those that abuse it, and it will aggravate their condemnation. There is no person towards whom God will be more severely just than towards such. The justice of God, exasperated and set on by His injured and abused mercy, like a razor set in oil, will have the keener edge, and be the sharper for its smoothness. Those that have made the mercy of God their enemy, must expect the worst His justice can do unto them.

J

THE DANGER OF IMPENITENCE WHERE

THE GOSPEL IS PREACHED.

Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.

MATT. xi. 21, 22.

AFTER Our blessed Saviour had instructed, and sent forth His disciples, He Himself went abroad to preach unto the cities of Israel; particularly He spent much time in the cities of Galilee, Chorazin, and Bethsaida, and Capernaum, preaching the Gospel to them, and working many and great miracles among them; but with little or no success: which was the cause of His denouncing this terrible woe against them: (ver. 20)" Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin!" etc.

In which words our Saviour declares the sad and miserable condition of those two cities, Chorazin and Bethsaida, which had neglected such an opportunity, and resisted and withstood such means of repentance, as would have effectually reclaimed the most wicked cities and people that can be instanced in any age, Tyre, and Sidon, and Sodom; and therefore He tells them that their condition was much worse, and that they should fall under a heavier sentence at the day of judgment, than the people of those cities whom they had always looked upon as the

greatest sinners that ever were in the world. This is the plain meaning of the words in general; but yet there are some difliculties in them, which I shall endeavour to clear, and then proceed to raise such observations from them as may be instruc tive and useful to us.

The difficulties are these:

(I.) What repentance is here spoken of; whether an external repentance, in show and appearance only, or an inward, and real, and sincere repentance.

(II.) In what sense it is said, that " Tyre and Sidon would have repented."

(III.) What is meant by their "would have repented long ago."

(IV.) How this assertion of our Saviour's, that miracles would have converted Tyre and Sidon, is reconcilable with that other saying of His (Luke xvi. 31), in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, that "those who believed not Moses and the prophets, neither would they be persuaded though one rose. from the dead."

(I.) What repentance is here spoken of; whether a mere external and hypocritical repentance in show and appearance only, or an inward, and real, and sincere repentance.

The reason of this doubt depends upon the different theories of divines, about the sufficiency of grace accompanying the outward means of repentance, and whether an irresistible degree of God's grace be necessary to repentance; for they who deny sufficient grace to accompany the outward means of repentance, and assert an irresistible degree of God's grace necessary to repentance, are forced to say that our Saviour here speaks of a mere external repentance; because if He spake of an inward and sincere repentance, then it must be granted, that sufficient inward grace did accompany the miracles that were wrought in Chorazin and Bethsaida, to bring men to repentance; because what was afforded to them, would have brought Tyre and Sidon to repentance. And that which would have effected a thing, cannot be denied to be sufficient: so that unless our

Saviour here speaks of a mere external repentance, either the outward means of repentance, as preaching and miracles, must be granted to be sufficient to bring men to repentance, without the inward operation of God's grace upon the minds of men; or else a sufficient degree of God's grace must be acknowledged to accompany the outward means of repentance. Again, if an irresistible degree of grace be necessary to true repentance, it is plain, Chorazin and Bethsaida had it not, because they did not repent; and yet, without this, Tyre and Sidon could not sincerely have repented therefore our Saviour here must speak of a mere external repentance. Thus some argue, as they do likewise concerning the repentance of Nineveh, making that also to be merely external, because they are loath to allow true repentance to heathens.

But it seems very plain, that our Saviour does speak of an inward, and true, and sincere repentance; and therefore, the doctrines that will not admit this, are not true. For our Saviour speaks of the same kind of repentance, that He upbraideth them with the want of, in the verse before the text. "Then began He to upraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not;" that is, because they were not brought to a sincere repentance, by His preaching, which was confirmed by such great miracles. It is true, indeed, He mentions the outward signs and expressions of repentance, when He says, "they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes ;" but not as excluding inward and real repentance, but supposing it, as is evident from what is said in the next verse, 66 It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, at the day of judgment, than for you:" for though an external and hypocritical repentance may prevail with God to put off temporal judgments, yet surely it will be but a very small, if any, mitigation of our condemnation at the day of judgment: so that the repentance here spoken of cannot, without great violence to the scope and design of our Saviour's argument; be understood only of an external show and appearance of repentance.

(II.) The next difficulty to be cleared is, in what sense it is