And is not this the cafe of the prefent generation? We have long enjoyed the gospel, and we are as thofe who are rendered deaf by the continual founding of many waters. To whom fhall we now speak? who now believes the report of the gofpel? They have fometimes trembled at the word, who now fit like brazen walls against it. Their confciences have been fometimes easily touched, which are now as feared with a hot iron. What can be expected, but that God will change his meffengers, and try fharp rods after a flighted word?

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2. A generation wherein corruption of life and manners is become univerfal, having overspread all ranks of perfons. Thus was it with this generation in the text, wherein priefts and people were all gone wrong. This was the character of the generation fwept away with the flood, Gen. vi. 12. God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt: for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. When David confidered his generation as fuch, how was his heart moved? Pfal. xii. 1. 2. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceafeth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour with flattering lips, and with a dou ble heart do they speak. And behold his only comfort, ver. 7. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou fbalt preferve them from this generation for ever.. When Micah faw his generation fuch, how does he lament the cafe! chap. vii. 1. 2. Wo is me, for I am as when they have gathered the fummer-fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat my foul defired the first ripe fruit. The good man is perifhed out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood: they bunt every man his brother with a net, &c. And fee the course he refolves on ver. 7. Therefore I will look unto the Lord: I will wait for the Gad of my fabvation my God will hear me.

And alas is not this our very cafe? Is not pro fanenefe

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fanenefs and wickedness like a flood gone over all its banks? If we look into the congregation, what profane fwearing, drunkenness, biting and devouring one another, and uncleannefs abound among us, in the midft of gospel-light! Is this the fruit of plenty, fulness, and thriving in the world? Take heed the day come not wherein the bodies thus abufed to the difhonour of God, fhall lie upon the face of the ground as dung, and there be none to bury them, whereof the plague has given the French nation a fad experience. If we look abroad through the nations, religion is truly fallen under contempt. Loofenefs and licentioufnefs is become fashionable, the flood-gates of debauchery are fet open, and there is no ftemming of the tide. And the generation has not stopt at ordinary crimes, ordinarily found among a corrupt people: but they have proceeded to an open defiance of Heaven, by Atheism and blafphemy. What prodigious blafphemies have been heard of, of late? The foundations of Chriftianity are fapt by damnable herefies. The power of religion has of a long time been very fmall; and now the principles of true religion are in hazard of being loft, not only among people, but paftors. What a dreadful conjuncture is this, wherein Arianifm, the denying of the fupreme Godhead of Chrift, and his equality with the Father, is arisen amongst Diffenters in England and Ireland, and legalifm, by which the purity of gofpel-doctrine is corrupted, prevails, and is countenanced fo much in Scotland at the fame time? This univerfal corrup tion fpeaks us to be a generation of wrath.

3. A generation incorrigible, and deaf to all calls of providence, whom mercies draw not, and leffer ftrokes cannot drive to repentance. Hence the apostle addreffes the Romans, chap. ii. 4. 5. Or defpifeft thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longfuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent

penitent heart, treasureft up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgement of God. And thus Jeremiah ad

dreffes the Jews, chap. v. 3. 9. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou haft fricken them, but they have not grieved; thou haft confumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return. Shall I not vifit for thefe things? faith the Lord: and shall not my foul be avenged on fuch a nation as this? This generation in the text had met with several leffer fcourges before the fatal stroke came on them; they had the greatest of mercies conferred on them by the preaching of Chrift and his apostles; and they got near to forty years space for repentance after they had crucified the Lord of glory: but they waxed worse and worse, instead of being bettered; and fo wrath came on them to the uttermoft.

And is it not fo with us at this day? What a variety of providences has this generation been tryfted with How often fince the revolution has all been in hazard, and yet our ruin has been mercifully prevented, God faying in effect as Hof. xi. 8. How fball I give thee up, Ephraim? how fball I deliver thee, Ifrael? bow fball I make thee as Admah? how fball I fet thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. How were the nations saved from imminent ruin as to all their facred and civil interefts, by King George's happy acceffion to the throne, when ready to be fwallowed up by a Popish pretender! The nation was gently scourged by the rebellion, which God în his mercy put a stop to, that the whole land was not filled with blood, as that rebellion threatened. Thefe lands have been much impoverished, by ununhallowed projects fet up to enrich them. We have been long threatened with the peftilence, raging in a neighbouring nation; yet God has hitherto avert

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ed it. And what is the fruit of all these mercies, ftrokes, deliverances, and long-suffering? Are we bettered thereby? So far from it, that we are vifibly growing worfe and worse. One ill step is taken upon the back of another; fo that causes of wrath are ftill multiplying, and the cup now fills fo faft, that the meafure of our fathers feems to be near the brim.

4. A generation impatient of cheek, control, or reproof, in their finful courfes, but bent to carry all before them. Such a one was that in the text. The followers of Chrift witnessed against them; but what was the effect of it? They were cut to the heart thereby, instead of being pricked at the heart. They were enraged at them, inftead of being reformed by them. And fo they perfecuted them, to fill up the measure of their cup. So the apostle speaks of the Jews at that time, 1 Theff. ii. 15. 16. Who both killed the Lord Jefus, and their own prophets, and have perfecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be faved, to fill up their fins ab way. There is hope of a perfon, or fociety, what ever their faults be, as long as they can bear to have their faults told them, and are willing to amend: but when once it comes to that, that they hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abbor him that Speaketh uprightly, Amos v. 10. it is a fad fign of approaching ruin.

How evident is this in our cafe? Men cannot en dure reproof. Well may we apply that to the hopelefs cafe of this generation, Hof. iv. 4. 5. Let no man ftrive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that frive with the priest. Therefore fhalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will deftroy thy mother. Church-difcipline is contemned, private reproofs are apt to incenfe the reproved against the reprover, pecple generally being fuch men of Belial, that one needs

fcarcely

fcarcely speak to them of what is amifs in their way. And as to public minifterial reproofs in the preaching of the word, men are not able to bear them, if they touch them clofely. Credit falfely fo called, prevails in that cafe among all ranks more than conscience. What then can be expected, but that God will reach the generation fuch a reproof as they fhall not get shifted?

II. I proceed to fhew what course one must take, that would fave himself from fuch an untoward generation.

More generally, he must open his eyes, and look. And,

1. He must look about him, and behold the face of the generation, and confider ferioufly the way they are going, and the untowardnefs therein appearing; otherwise he will never beftir himself to fave himself from it. This has been the practice of the godly in all ages of declining from the good ways of the Lord. So did Noah, Heb. xi. 7. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not feen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the faving of his house; by the which he condemned the world. And fo did David, Pfal. xii. 1. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceafeth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. And the neglect of this has been that which has led fo many of the godly in all ages, into feveral steps of the way of the untoward generation. I never liked a public religion, that was all abroad, and nothing at home, taken up in cenfuring the faults of others, and putting the worst face on them, and in the mean time not humbling themfelves and walking foftly under their own. But certainly those whose lot it is to live in an untoward generation, had need to have their eyes in their head, and difcern what corrupt courfes tend to, that they may beware of them.

2. He must look above him unto God, and take notice, how the course of the untoward generation is displeasing