of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of God arose against his people, till there was no remedy: Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, and gave them all into his hand....II. Chron. xxxvi. 15, 16, 17.

However, God was tenderly touched at the public reproach. and dishonor to which his great name was exposed, in the eyes. of insulting nations all around, who clapped their hands, and stamped with their feet, and rejoiced with all their heart, for what was done to the people called by his name-glorying that their GOD was no better than the dumb idols which they served. Wherefore God raised up the prophet Ezekiel, who clears up God's conduct towards his people, in chapters 16th and 18th, and on-and dooms the neighboring nations in the name of God, declaring what judgment should come upon them from the hand of God for their insults, whereby they should be made to know that he was the LORD....as in the 25th to chapter 31. And now, also, Daniel and his companions were by God raised up, that by them his name might become great in the eyes of all nations: And for them he works such deliver ances as to constrain the haughty monarchs of the earth to issue out their decrees through all the world, that none should speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, upon pain of being cut in pieces,and their houses made a dung-hill—and that, in all their dominions, men should fear and tremble before the God of Daniel, (Dan. iii. 29, and vi. 26.) Surely the infinite wisdom of God appears most wonderfully, in all the astonishing methods which he has taken to make himself known, and to keep up the honor of his great name among such a wicked, God-hating race of beings!

And now, all this while, there was nothing but the infinite goodness, and free and sovereign grace of God, together with his covenant faithfulness, to move him not to cast off and ut terly reject his people, and let them be scattered among the heathen, and their name perish from off the earth. It was fort his great name's sake that he wrought salvation for them from

time to time.... Ezek. xx. When there was no motive in them, but every thing to the contrary-then, for his own sake, he undertook to write his law in their hearts, and put it in their inward parts....to be their God, and make them his people, and to remember their iniquities no more against them, and to bring them back to their own land, and plant them, and build them up....Ezek.

xxxvi. 16-34.

And however, by the Babylonish captivity, the Jewish people were pretty thoroughly cured of their idolatrous disposition, yet, after their return, and after the godly men of that generation were dead, they soon began to show that they were as averse to God, and the life of religion, as ever: And yet, all these things notwithstanding, God is determined to make one trial more. He had sent one servant after another, and they had been beaten, and stoned, and put to shame, and sent away empty : Now, therefore, he sends his only Son, to see if they will hear him': and behold they say, Come, let us kill him....Mat. xxi. 33—39. Wherefore, at last, God determines to cast off that nation, (ver. 41,) and to go and try the heathen, whom, for a long time, he had suffered to take their own ways.

And now, to his apostles Christ gives commission, to go into all the earth, and preach the gospel to every creature; and he that believeth, says he, shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned: And they run, and preach, and cry, Repent, and turn from your dumb idols, to serve the living God. And had not they been stopped, they would soon have carried the news all round the world: But Jews and Gentiles combine together, and earth and hell are in arms to defeat the design; nevertheless, as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed : And God carried on his work through a sea of blood, and in about three hundred years conquered the Roman empire.

No sooner is this done, but the mystery of iniquity begins to work, and the man of sin to be revealed. The devil and his servants turn their coat, and, under the cloak of religion and good order, establish the kingdom of satan in a new form: for it is the nature of mankind to hate true religion. And now Anti

christ reigns, and scatters the holy people, and wears out the saints of the most high, for a time, and times, and half a time. In the mean while, the woman flies into the wilderness, the witnesses prophecy in sackcloth, until, at last, the witnesses themselves are slain: And now religion is driven even just out of the world, and there had been no hope, but that God awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. And behold the spirit of life from God enters into the two witnesses, that is, Luther and Calvin, and others their contemporaries; and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them which saw them: And God put them out of their enemies reach: And there was a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city fell...Rev. ix: And a glorious day began to dawn.

But now, it is not long before many turn heretics and enthusiasts, and the world rises in arms, and, by fire and sword, endeavors to demolish the redeemer's kingdom. However, God wrought for his great name's sake, and has ever since been working, and will go on conquering and to conquer, until all the nations of the earth are brought into subjection to his

son.

Thus we have taken a brief view of the methods which God has taken to recover a sinful, guilty world, to himself: The external means we have chiefly dwelt upon;-upon the internal, something farther shall be added presently: but let us first make a few remarks.

REM. 1. Had not mankind been wholly to blame, they might all of them, from the beginning, have enjoyed the benefit of divine revelation-Nothing secluded them therefrom, but their own bad temper and bad conduct: And had not mankind been wholly to blame, they might all of them have enjoyed the gospel, and had it preached all over the world to this day -Nothing has hindered it but their own perverse obstinacy... their hating the light, and hating the truth. Strange it is, therefore, that some men of learning should be so full of char

rity for the heathen, who thus hate God, despise Christ, and reject the gospel.*

REM. 2. Mankind have manifested the highest degree of aversion to God and true religion from the beginning of the world, and that almost in all possible ways. Hundreds, and thousands, and millions, have they in their rage put to death, and that in the most cruel and barbarous manner-Strange it is, therefore, that so many matters of fact have not, to this day, convinced mankind that they are truly enemies to GodStrange that they can have the face to make the old pretence, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.... Mat. xxiii. 30-when all the time, from age to age, they have been acting over the old scene.

REM. 3. It has been owing wholly and entirely to the free grace and almighty power of God, that the church has been preserved, and true religion not driven quite out of the world: It is one of the greatest miracles that ever was wrought.

REM. 4. God has always acted sovereignly in choosing what family, nation, or nations, he would preserve true religion among; all being by nature equally averse to God, and equally unworthy and has always acted justly in giving over other families and nations for their sin and apostacy.

REM. 5. The whole scheme of the divine conduct has been most excellently calculated to display all the divine perfections to the best advantage; and it does exhibit to us the very image of his heart in strong and lively colors. But to proceed,

But perhaps some will be ready to say, that there may be many bonest persons among the heathen, who never heard of the gospel, and never rejected it, who may stand fair for heaven.

ANS. There is a number of such honest sort of persons among Christians, but their natural enmity to God and Christ and gospel-grace is found to be as great as others; and sometimes publicans and harlots enter into heaven before them-Surely none of them more honest than the young man in the gospel, nor ever arrived to greater attainments; and therefore all of them might do as he did, if under the same circumstances. natural kind of honesty, many times, is an occasion of men's being hardened against Christianity; for they are very ready to say, God, I thank thee, I am not as other men...like him in Luke xviii. Doubtless these korest heathen would do as their fathers did, had they the opportunity: So the bonest Jews did....See Mat. xxiii. 28-33.

That

Although the external means of grace, and remarkable dispensations of Providence, perhaps may,"in a measure, sometimes restrain mankind, and bring them to a feigned submission to God and his laws; yet, such is their rooted enmity and entire aversion to God and true religion, that not one will hereby be brought to repent and sincerely turn to God....Psal. Ixxviii. 34-37. and lxxxi. 8-12....Isai. v. 1-7. Nothing short of those inward influences of the spirit, which are almighty and all-conquering, will effectually attain the end.... Mat. xi. 20-27....Eph. i. 19: And therefore, besides the external means of grace, God has, as it were, taken a world of pains with one and another of mankind by the inward influ ences of his SPIRIT. The external means, indeed, which have been used, are more open to observation; and so also is that external opposition which mankind have made: but the same ends which God has been pursuing by the external means, viz. to convince mankind of their sinful, guilty, ruined state, and bring them to return to God through a mediator-the same has he been pursuing, by the inward influences of his spirit ;—and the same opposition which has openly appeared against the means of grace, has also secretly wrought mightily in the hearts of men against the inward influences of the spirit. Mankind are as much inclined to resist the spirit, as they are the word of God, and that for the same reason and from the same temper; because both aim at the same thing-a thing most contrary to their corruptions.

Perhaps there are some whom God never vouchsafes at all to strive with by his spirit; and these are ready to think there is no such thing. Others are a little awakened, and, from selflove, the fears of hell, and the hopes of heaven, they reform their lives a little, and set about some external duties, and so think to make amends for their past sins, and recommend themselves to the divine favor; but are as great enemies as ever to the power of religion: and here God leaves them to perish. Others are carried farther, and become more strict and painful, but still from the same principles: and there they are left to