fufficient grace. This is the victory which overcometh the world, even your faith (g).

If there are thofe among you, who practically believe not; let them mark the full enormity of their guilt. Wo unto thee, Charazin, faid our Lord; Wo unto thee Bethfaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre, and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in fackcloth and afbes. I fay unto you it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of Judgement than for you (b). In this denunciation of our bleffed Saviour, read his warning to yourselves. To you the things of eternal life, though you believe them not, have been fpoken. To you, though you reject them, they have been unremittingly declared. To you, though you have closed your eyes, they have been difplayed in the fcriptures. To you, though you have shut your ears, they have been unremittingly proclaimed by the minifters of the Gospel. To you God has offered the mercy, though you have thruft it away, of being converted and healed. How many uninftructed Heathens, lying like Tyre and Sidon of old, in darkness and the fhadow of death, would long ago have glorified God (b) Math. xi. 21, 22

(g) 1 John, v. 4.

by repentance in fackcloth and ashes, if the

light of divine truth, which has been poured upon you in vain, had been vouchfafed unto them! How many idolaters would: have broken and burned their images;: while you have cherished the idols of your. heart! How many faváges would have re-: linquished their cruel and abominable prac tices; while you have ftrengthened yourfelf in your wickednefs! How many would have turned unto God, while you have denied him! How many would have laid down their lives for the faith of Chrift; while you have crucified the Son of God afresh, and trodden under foot, as an unholy thing, the blood of the covenant wherewith you were fanctified! How many would have welcomed the regenerating influence of the Holy Ghoft; while you have hardened your hearts, and done defpite unto the Spirit of grace! They who have finned without the Gospel fhall be judged without the Gospel; they fhall be judged according to the difpenfation under which they were placed. But if we fin wilfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth; if with the unclouded blaze of evangelical light before us we perfift in the paths of dark

nefs;

nefs; there remaineth no more facrifice for fin; but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation. Therefore fhall it be more tolerable, if you perfift in refusing to believe and obey the things which have been spoken; therefore shall it be more tolerable at the day of judgement for the idolatrous Heathen than for

you,

1007

SERMON III.

On Proneness to difparage Religious
Characters.

LUKE, vi. 31.

And the Lord faid; Whereunto then shall I liken the Men of this Generation?

INthe education of youth, parental wisdom and kindness display themselves, not only by the aptnefs, but by the diverfity of the means felected for the accomplishment of the purpose in view. It is not merely that the father places at distinct periods before his child opportunities and subjects of inftruction severally fitted to the progreffive growth and expanfion of the mind. He ftudies the character of his offspring, and labours to provide inftructors specially fitted for the correction of its defects. If the appointed preceptors have expended, and expended without adequate fruit, the exertion from which, in confequence of their talents and demeanour, a fuccessful result

might reasonably have been anticipated; the father looks around for others, if not more able than the former, yet fo far differing from them in peculiarity of difpofition and deportment as to be adapted to make, under exifting circumftances, an impreffion on the understanding and the heart. If the floth and perverfeness of the pupil obftinately resist, neither fubdued by principle, nor fhaken by argument, nor awed by strictness, nor won by conciliation; the ends of his education are defeated: but let him 'not charge his ruin on his parent.

The Lord of earth and heaven permits men to call Him Father. He deals with them as his children. In the fucceffive dispensations by which he revealed himself to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to the people of Ifrael, he adapted his communications to the actual state of the human race. In his fuperintending intercourse with the twelve rebellious tribes, we behold him fending forth meffengers diftinguished from each other, and recommended to the people, by every leading variety of qualification fuited to command or to allure attention. The fublimity of Ifaiah, the fimplicity of Haggai, the vehemence of Ezekiel, the pathos of Jeremiah, the fententious abrupt

nefs