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Amorites is not yet full." It should seem from hence that so long as their crimes were confined within any bounds, they were permitted to remain in their country. We conclude therefore, and we are well warranted in concluding, that the Canaanites were destroyed on account of their wickedness. And that wickedness was perhaps aggravated by their having had amongst them Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; examples of a purer religion and a better conduct; still more by the judgments of God so remarkably set before them in the history of Abraham's family; particularly by the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; at least these things prove that they were not without warning, and that God did not leave himself without witness among them.

Now when God, for the wickedness of a people, sends an earthquake, or a fire, or a plague, amongst them, there is no complaint of injustice, especially when the calamity is known, or expressly declared beforehand, to be inflicted for the wickedness of such people. It is rather regarded as an act of exemplary penal justice, and, as such, consistent with the character of the moral Governor of the universe. The objection, therefore, is not to the Canaanitish nations being destroyed: (for when their national wickedness is considered, and when that is expressly stated, as the cause of their destruction, the dispensation, however severe, will not be questioned); but the objection is solely to the manner of destroying them. —I mean there is nothing but the manner left to be objected to: their wickedness accounts for the thing itself. To which objection it may be replied, that if the thing itself be just, the manner is of little signification: of little signification even to the sufferers themselves. For where is the great difference, even to them, whether they were destroyed by an earthquake, a pestilence, a famine, or by the hands of an enemy? Where is the difference, even to our imperfect apprehensions of divine justice, provided it be, and is known to be, for their wickedness that they are destroyed?-But this destruction, you say, confounded the innocent with the guilty. The sword of Joshua, and of the Jews, spared neither women nor children. Is it not the same with all other national visitations? Would not an earthquake, or a fire, or a plague, or a famine, amongst them have done the same ? Even in an ordinary and natural death, the same thing happens. God takes away the life he lends, without regard, that we can perceive, to age, or sex, or character. But, after all, promiscuous massacres, the burning of cities, the laying waste of countries, are things dreadful to reflect upon. Who doubts it? so are all the judgments of Almighty God. The effect, in whatever way it shows itself, must necessarily be tremendous, when the Lord, as the Psalmist expresses it, "moveth out of his place to punish the wicked." But it ought to satisfy us at least this is the point upon which we ought to rest and fix our attention; that it was for excessive, wilful, and forewarned wickedness, that all this befell them, and that it is expressly so declared in the history which recites it.

But farther, if punishing them by the hands of the Israelites rather than by a pestilence, an earthquake, a fire, or any such calamity, be still an objection, we may perceive, I think, some reasons for this method of punishment in preference to any other whatever: always, however, bearing in our mind, that the question is not concerning the justice of the punishment, but the mode of it. It is well known, that the people of those ages were affected by no proof of the power of the gods, which they worshipped, so deeply, as by their giving them victory in war. It was by this species of evidence, that the superiority of their own god above the gods of the nations which they conquered, was in their opinion evinced. This being the actual persuasion which then prevailed in the world, no matter whether well or ill founded, how were the neighbouring nations for whose admonition this dreadful example was intended, how were they to be convinced of the supreme power of the God of Israel above the pretended gods of other nations, and of the righteous character of Jehovah, that is, of his abhorrence of the vices which prevailed in the land of Canaan: how, I say, were they to be convinced so well, or at all indeed, as by enabling the Israelites, whose God he was known and acknowledged to be, to conquer under his banner, and drive before them those who resisted the execution of that commission, with which the Israelites declared themselves to be invested, the expulsion and extermination of the Canaanitish nations? This convinced surrounding countries, and all who were observers, or spectators of what passed, first, that the God of Israel was a real God: secondly, that the gods which other nations

worshipped, were either no gods, or had no power against the God of Israel; and thirdly, that it was he, and he alone, who possessed both the power and the will, to punish, to destroy, and to exterminate from before his face, both nations and individuals, who gave themselves up to the crimes and wickedness for which the Canaanites were notorious. Nothing of this sort would have appeared, or with the same evidence however, from an earthquake, or a plague, or any natural calamity. These might not have been attributed to divine agency at all, or not to the interposition of the God of Israel.

Another reason, which made this destruction both more necessary, and more general than it would have otherwise been, was the consideration, that if any of the old inhabitants were left, they would prove a snare to those who succeeded them in the country: would draw and seduce them by degrees into the vices and corruptions which prevailed amongst themselves. Vice of all kind, but vice most particularly of the licentious kind, is astonishingly infectious. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. A small number of persons, addicted to them, and allowed to practise them with impunity or encouragement, will spread them through the whole mass. This reason is formally and expressly assigned, not simply for the punishment, but the extent to which it was carried; namely extermination. “Thou shalt utterly destroy them, that they teach you not to do after all their abominations which they have done unto their gods."

To conclude; In reading the Old Testament account of the Jewish wars and conquests in Canaan, and the terrible destruction brought upon the inhabitants thereof, we are constantly to bear in our minds, that we are reading the execution of a dreadful, but just, sentence, pronounced by God against the intolerable and incorrigible crimes of these nations -that they were intended to be made an example to the whole world of God's avenging wrath against sins, sins of this magnitude and this kind: sins, which, if they had been suffered to continue, might have polluted the whole ancient world, and which could only be checked by the signal and public overthrow of nations notoriously addicted to them, and so addicted, as to have incorporated them even into their religion and their public institutions; that the miseries inflicted upon the nations by the invasion of the Jews, were expressly declared to be inflicted on account of their abominable sins-that God had borne with them long: that God did not proceed to execute his judgments, till their wickedness was full: that the Israelites were mere instruments in the hands of a righteous Providence for the effectuating the extermination of a people, whom it was necessary to make a public example to the rest of mankind that this extermination, which might have been accomplished by a pestilence, by fire, by earthquakes, was appointed to be done by the hands of the Israelites, as being the clearest and most intelligible method of displaying the power and righteousness of the God of Israel; his power over the pretended gods of other nations, and his righteous hatred of the crimes into which they were fallen.

This is the true statement of the case. It is no forced or invented construction, but the idea of the transaction set forth in Scripture; and it is an idea, which if retained in our thoughts, may fairly, I think, reconcile us to everything which we read in the Old Testament concerning it.

SERMON XXX.

NEGLECT OF WARNINGS.

Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end.— DEUT. XXXII. 29.

THERE is one great sin, which, nevertheless, may not be amongst the number of those of which we are sensible, and of which our consciences accuse us; and that sin is the neglect of warnings.

It is our duty to consider this life throughout as a probationary state: nor do we ever

think truly, or act rightly, but so long as we have this consideration fully before our eyes. Now one character of a state, suited to qualify and prepare rational and improvable creatures for a better state, consists in the warnings which it is constantly giving them; and the providence of God, by placing us in such a state, becomes the author of these warnings. It is his paternal care which admonishes us by and through the events of life and death that pass before us. Therefore it is a sin against providence to neglect them. It is hardiness and determination in sin; or it is blindness, which in whole or in part is wilful or it is giddiness, and levity, and contemptuousness, in a subject, which admits not of these dispositions towards it, without great offence to God.

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A serious man hardly ever passes a day, never a week, without meeting with some warning to his conscience; without something to call to his mind his situation with respect to his future life. And these warnings, as perhaps was proper, come the thicker upon us, the farther we advance in life. The dropping into the grave of our acquaintance, and friends, and relations; what can be better calculated, not to prove (for we do not want the point to be proved), but to possess our hearts with a complete sense and perception of the extreme peril and hourly precariousness of our condition: viz. to teach this momentous lesson, that when we preach to you concerning heaven and hell, we are not preaching concerning things at a distance, things remote, things long before they come to pass: but concerning things near, soon to be decided, in a very short time to be fixed one way or the other? This is a truth of which we are warned by the course of mortality; yet, with this truth confessed, with these warnings before us, we venture upon sin. But it will be said, that the events which ought to warn us, are out of our mind at the time. But this is not So. Were it that these things came to pass in the wide world only at large, it might be that we should seldom hear of them, or soon forget them. But the events take place, when we ourselves are within our own doors; in our own families; amongst those with whom we have the most constant correspondence, the closest intimacy, the strictest connexion. It is impossible to say that such events can be out of our mind; nor is it the fact. The fact is, that knowing them, we act in defiance of them: which is neglecting warnings, in the worst sense possible. It aggravates the daringness; it aggravates the desperateness of sin: but it is so nevertheless. Supposing these warnings to be sent by Providence, or that we believe, and have reason to believe, and ought to believe, that they are so sent, then the aggravation is very great.

We have warnings of every kind. Even youth itself is continually warned, that there is no reliance to be placed, either on strength, or constitution, or early age: that, if they count upon life as a thing to be reckoned secure for a considerable number of years, they calculate most falsely; and if they act upon this calculation, by allowing themselves in the vices which are incidental to their years, under a notion, that it will be long before they shall have to answer for them, and before that time come they shall have abundant season for repenting and amending; if they suffer such arguments to enter into their minds, and act upon them, then are they guilty of neglecting God in his warnings.-They not only err in point of just reasoning, but they neglect the warnings which God has expressly set before them, Or, if they take upon themselves to consider religion as a thing not made or calculated for them; as much too serious for their years; as made and intended for the old and the dying; at least as what is unnecessary to be entered upon at present, as what may be postponed to a more suitable time of life: whenever they think thus, they think very presumptuously. They are just chargeable with neglecting warnings. And what is the event? These postponers never enter upon religion at all, in earnest or effectually. That is the end and event of the matter. To account for this, shall we say, that they have so offended God by neglecting his warnings, as to have forfeited his grace? Certainly we may say, that this is not the method of obtaining his grace; and that his grace is necessary to our conversion. Neglecting warnings is not the way to obtain God's grace; and God's grace is necessary to conversion. The young, I repeat again, want not warnings. Is it new? is it unheard of? is it not, on the contrary, the intelligence of every week, the experience of every neighbourhood, that young men and young women are cut off? Man is, in every sense, a flower of the field. The flower is liable to be cut down in its bloom and perfection,

as well as in its withering and its decays. So is man: and one probable cause of this ordination of Providence is, that no one of any age may be so confident of life, as to allow himself to transgress God's laws: that all of every age may live in constant awe of their Maker.

I do admit, that warnings come the thicker upon us, as we grow old. We have more admonitions both in our remembrances, and in our observations, and of more kinds. A man who has passed a long life, has to remember preservations from danger, which ought to inspire him, both with thankfulness and caution. Yet, I fear, we are very deficient in both these qualities. We call our preservations escapes, not preservations, and so we feel no thankfulness for them: nor do we turn them into religious cautions. When God preserved us, he meant to warn us.-When such instances, therefore, have no effect upon our minds, we are guilty before God of neglecting his warnings. Most especially if we have occasion to add to all other reasons for gratitude this momentous question, What would have become of us, what would have been our condition, if we had perished in the danger by which our lives were threatened? The parable of the fig-tree (Luke, xiii. ver. 6.) is a most apt scripture for persons under the circumstances we have described. When the Lord had said, "Cut it down: why cumbereth it the ground?" he was entreated to try it one year longer: and then, if it proved not fruitful, to cut it down. Christ himself there makes the application twice over (verses third and fifth), "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." If the present, or if the then, state of our conscience and of our souls call up this reflection, then are we very guilty indeed, if such preservations leave no religious impression upon us or if we suffer the temporary impression to pass off without producing in us a change for the better.

Infirmities, whether they be of health, or of age, decay, and weakness, are warnings. And it has been asked with some degree of wonder, why they make so little impression as they do? One chief reason is this. They who have waited for warnings of this kind, before they would be converted, have generally waited until they are become hardened in sin. Their habits are fixed. Their character has taken its shape and form. Their disposition is thoroughly infected and invested with sin. When it is come to this case, it is difficult for any call to be heard; for any warning to operate. It is difficult; but "with God all things are possible." If there be the will and the sincere endeavour to reform, the grace of God can give the power. Although, therefore, they who wait for the advances of age, the perception of decay, the probable approach of death, before they turn themselves seriously to religion, have waited much too long, have neglected and despised, and defied, many solemn warnings in the course of their lives: have waited indeed till it be next to impossible that they turn at all from their former ways: yet this is not a reason why they should continue in neglect of the warnings which now press upon them; and which at length they begin to perceive: but just the contrary. The effort is greater; but the necessity is greater. It is their last hope, and their last trial. I put the case of a man grown old in sin. If the warnings of old age bring him round to religion, happy is that man in his old age, above anything he was in any other part of his life. But if these warnings do not affect him, there is nothing left in this world which will. We are not to set limits to God's grace, operating according to his good pleasure; but we say, there is nothing in this world; there is nothing in the course of nature and the order of human affairs, which will affect him, if the feelings of age do not. I put the case of a man grown old in sin, and though old, continuing the practice of sin: that it is said, in the full latitude of the expression, describes a worse case than is commonly met with. Would to God the case was more rare than it is! But allowing it to be unusual in the utmost extent of the terms, in a certain considerable degree the description applies to many old persons. Many feel in their hearts, that the words grown old in sin," belong to them in some sense which is very formidable. They feel some dross and defilement to be yet purged away; some deep corruption to be yet eradicated; some virtue or other to be yet even learnt: yet acquired: or yet however to be brought nearer to what it ought to be, than it has hitherto been brought. Now if the warnings of age taught us nothing else, they might teach us this: that if these things are to be done, they must be done soon they must be set about forthwith in good earnest, and with strong resolution.

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The work is most momentous; the time is short. The day is far spent: the evening is come on the night is at hand.

Lastly, I conceive that this discourse points out the true and only way of making old age comfortable; and that is, by making it the means of religious improvement. Let a man be beset by ever so many bodily complaints, bowed down by ever so many infirmities: if he find his soul grown and growing better, his seriousness increased, his obedience more regular and more exact, his inward principles and dispositions improved from what they were formerly, and continuing to improve; that man hath a fountain of comfort and consolation springing up within him. Infirmities which have this effect, are infinitely better than strength and health themselves; though these, considered independently of their consequences, be justly esteemed the greatest of all blessings, and of all gifts. The old age of a virtuous man admits of a different and of a most consoling description.

It is this property of old age, namely, that its proper and most rational comfort consists in the consciousness of spiritual amendment. A very pious writer gives the following representation of this stage of human life, when employed and occupied as it ought to be, and when life has been drawn to its close by a course of virtue and religion. To the intelligent and virtuous, says our author, old age presents a scene of tranquil enjoyment, of obedient appetites, of well-regulated affections, of maturity in knowledge, and of calm preparation for immortality. In this serene and dignified state, placed as it were on the confines of two worlds, the mind of a good man reviews what is past with the complacency of an approving conscience, and looks forward with humble confidence in the mercy of God, and with devout aspirations towards his eternal and ever-increasing favour.

SERMON XXXI.

THE TERRORS OF THE LORD.

What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?-MATT. xvi. 26.

THESE words ask a question, the most home to every man's concern of any that can possibly enter into his thoughts. What our Saviour meant to assert, though proposed to his hearers in the form of a question (which indeed was only a stronger and more affecting way of asserting it), is, that a man's soul, by which term is here meant his state after death, is so infinitely more important to him, so beyond and above anything he can get, or anything he can lose, anything he can enjoy, or any thing he can suffer, on this side the grave, that nothing, which the world offers, can make up for the loss of it, or be a compensation when that is at stake. You say that this is very evident; I reply, that evident as it is, it is not thought of, it is not considered, it is not believed. The subject therefore is very proper to be set forth in those strong and plain terms which such a subject requires, for the purpose of obtaining for it some degree of that attention, which each man's own deep interest in the event demands of him to give it.

There are two momentous ideas which are included in the expression,-the loss of a man's soul; and these are the positive pain and sufferings which he will incur after his death; and the happiness and reward which he will forfeit. Upon both of these points we must go for information to the Scriptures. No where else can we receive any. Now, as to the first point, which is, in other words, the punishment of hell, I do admit, that it is very difficult to handle this dreadful subject properly; and one cause, amongst others, of the difficulty is, that it is not for one poor sinner to denounce such appalling terrors, such tremendous consequences, against another. Damnation is a word which lies not in the mouth of man, who is a worm, towards any of his fellow-creatures whatsoever: yet it is absolutely necessary that the

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