repentance, who had wilfully defpifed, and obftinately rejected that which had a much greater confirmation than the difcourfe of a man rifen from the dead, and was appointed by God for the ordinary and ftanding means of bringing men to repentance. So that our Saviour might, with reafon enough, pronounce that Tyre and Sidon, who never had a standing revelation of God to bring them to repentance, nor had rejected it, would, upon miracles extraordinarily wrought among them, have repented, and yet deny it elfewhere to be likely, that they who rejected a ftanding revelation of God, confirmed by miracles, which called them to repentance, would probably be brought to repentance by a particular miracle, or that God fhould afford his grace to make it effectual for their repentance and falvation.

The words being thus cleared, I come now to raise fuch obfervations from them, as may be inftructive and ufeful to us.

I. I obferve, from this discourse of our Saviour, that miracles are of great force and efficacy to bring men to repentance.

This our Saviour's difcourfe here fuppofeth; otherwise their impenitence had not been fo criminal and inexcufable upon that account, that fuch mighty works had been done among them, as would probably have prevailed upon fome of the worst people that had been in the world: for fuch were the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, guilty of great covetoufnefs and fraud, pride and luxury, the ufual fins of places of great traffick and commerce: and fuch, to be fure, was Sodom; and yet, our Saviour tells us, that the miracles which he had wrought in the cities of Ifrael, would, in all probability, have bought thofe great finners to repentance, namely, by bringing them to faith, and convincing them of the truth and divinity of that doctrine which he preached unto them, and which contains fuch powerful arguments to repentance and amendment of life.

II. I obferve likewife from our Saviour's discourse, that God is not always obliged to work miracles for the converfion of finners. It is great goodness in him to afford fufficient means of repentance to men, as he did

to

to Tyre and Sidon, in calling them to repentance by his Prophet, though fuch miracles were not wrought among them, as God thought fit to accompany our Saviour's preaching withal.

This I observe, to prevent a kind of bold and faucy objection, which fome would perhaps be apt to make: If Tyre and Sidon would have repented, had fuch miracles been wrought among them, as our Saviour wrought in Chorazin and Bethfaida, why were they not wrought, that they might have repented? To which it is fufficient anfwer to fay, that God is not obliged to do all that is poffible to be done, to reclaim men from their fins; he is not obliged to overpower their wills, and to work irrefiftibly upon their minds, which he can easily do; he is not obliged to work miracles for every particular man's conviction; nor where he vouchfafeth to do this, is he obliged always to work the greateft and moft convincing miracles; his goodnefs will not fuffer him to omit what is neceffary and fufficient to bring men to repentance and happiness; nay, beyond this he many times does more; but it is fufficient to vindicate the juftice and goodness of God, that he is not wanting to us, in affording the means neceffary to reclaim us from our fins, and to bring us to goodness. That which is properly our part, is to make ufe of thofe means which God affords us to become better, and not to prescribe to him how much he fhould do for us; to be thankful that he hath done fo much, and not to find fault with him him for having done no more.

III. I obferve farther from our Saviour's difcourse, that the external means of repentance which God affords to men, do fuppofe an inward grace of God accompanying them, fufficiently enabling men to repent, if it be not their own fault; I fay, a fufficient grace of God accompanying the outward means of repentance, till, by our wilful and obftinate neglect and refiftance, and oppofition of this grace, we provoke God to withdraw it from the means, or elfe to withdraw both the grace, and the means from us; otherwife impenitence, after such external means afforded, would be no new and fpecial fault. For if the concurrence of God's grace, with the outward means, be neceffary to work repentance, then the impeni

tence

tence of those to whom this grace is not afforded, which yet is neceffary to repentance, is neither any new fin, nor any new aggravation of their former impenitence. For no man can imagine that the juft God will charge men with new guilt, and increase their condemnation, for remaining impenitent in fuch circumftances in which it is impoffible for them to repent.

IV. I obferve, from this difcourfe of our Saviour's, that an irrefiftible degree of grace is not neceffary to repentance, nor commonly afforded to those who do repent. God may, where he pleafeth, without injury to any man, overpower his will, and ftop him in his courfe, and hinder him from making himfelf miferable, and by an irrefiftible right convince him of his error and the evil of his ways, and bring him to a better mind: but this God feldom does; and when he does it, it is very probable it is not fo much for their own fakes, as to make them inftruments of good to others. Thus, by a fecret but overpowering influence, he over-ruled the difciples to follow our Saviour, and to leave their callings and relations, and all their temporal concernments to do it. But one of the moft remarkable examples of this extraordinary grace of God, is St Paul, who was violently stopped in his course. of perfecuting the Chriftians, and convinced of his fin, and brought over to Chriftianity, in a very extraordinary and forcible manner. And of this miraculous and extraordinary converfion, God himself gives this account, that he was a chofen vessel unto him, to bear his name before the Gentiles, and Kings, and the children of Ifrael, Acts ix. 15. and St Paul tells us, Gal. i. 15, 16, that, for this end, God had separated him from his mother's womb, and called him by his grace, and revealed his Son to him, in that extraordinary manner, that he might preach him among the Heathen.

But, generally, God does not bring men thus to repentance: Nor is it neceffary he fhould. For if an irrefiftible degree of grace were always neceffary to bring men to repentance, there could be no difference between the impenitence of Chorazin and Bethfaida, and of Tyre and Sidon. For, according to this doctrine of the neceffity of irrefiftible grace to the conversion of every man, it

is evident, that Tyre and Sidon neither could, nor would have repented, without an irrefiftible degree of God's grace, accompanying the outward means of repentance which he afforded to them; becaufe fuch a degree of grace is neceffary to repentance, and, without it, it is impoffible for any man to repent. But then it is as plain, on the contrary, that if Chorazin and Bethfaida had had the fame irresistible degree of God's grace, together with the outward means of repentance, afforded to them, that they would have repented as certainly as Tyre and Sidon. Where then is the reafon of upbraiding the impenitence of the one, more than of the other? where the aggravation of the one's guilt above the other? where the juftice of punishing the impenitence of Chorazin and Bethfaida, more than theirs of Tyre and Sidon? For, upon this fuppofition, they must either have repented both alike, or have been both equally impenitent. The fum of what I have faid, is this, that if no man does, nor can repent, without fuch a degree of God's grace as cannot be resisted, no man's repentance is commendable, nor is one man's impenitence more blameable than another's; Chorazin and Bethfaida can be in no more fault for continuing impenitent, than. Tyre and Sidon were. For either this ir refiftible grace is afforded to men or not: if it be, their repentance is neceffary, and they cannot help it; if it be not, their repentance is impoffible, and, confequently, their impenitence is neceffary, and they cannot help it neither.

V. I obferve, from the main scope of our Saviour's discourse, that the fins and impenitence of men receive their aggravation, and, confequently, fhall have their punishment, proportionable to the opportunities and means of repentance which those persons have enjoyed and neglected.

For what is here faid of miracles, is, by equality of reafon, likewife true of all other advantages and means of repentance and falvation. The reason why miracles will be fuch an aggravation of the condemnation of men is, because they are fo proper and powerful a means to convince them of the truth and divinity of that doctrine which calls them to repentance. So that all those means

which God affords to us of the knowledge of our duty, of conviction of the evil and danger of a finful courfe, are fo many helps and motives to repentance, and, confequently, will prove fo many aggravations of our fin and punishment, if we continue impenitent. The

VI. And laft obfervation, and which naturally follows, from the former, is this, that the cafe of those who are impenitent under the gofpel. is, of all others, the moft dangerous, and their damnation fhall be heaviest and most fevere.

And this brings the cafe of these cities here in the text home to ourselves. For, in truth, there is no material difference between the cafe of Chorazin and Bethfaida and Capernaum, and of ourselves in this city and nation, who enjoy the clear light of the gofpel, with all the freedom, and all the advantages that any people ever did. The mercies of God to this nation have been very great, efpecially in bringing us ou of that darkness and fuperftition which covered this weftern part of the world; in refcuing us from that great corruption and degeneracy of the Chriftian religion which prevailed among us, by fo early and fo regular a reformation; and in continuing fo long this great bleffing to us. The judgments of God have been likewife very great upon us for our fins, God hath manifefted himself by terrible things in righteouf nefs; our eyes have feen many and difmal calamities in the fpace of a few years, which call loudly upon us to repent and turn to God. God hath afforded us the moft effectual means of repentance, and hath taken the moft effectual courfe of bringing us to it. And though our bleffed Saviour does not fpeak to us in perfon, nor do we, at this day, fee miracles wrought among us, as the Jews did; yet we have the doctrine which our bleffed Saviour preached, faithfully tranfmitted to us, and a credible relation of the miracles wrought for the confirmation of that doctrine, and many other arguments to perfuade us of the truth of it, which thofe to whom our Saviour fpake, had not, nor could not then have, taken from the accomplishing of our Saviour's predictions after his death; the speedy propagation and wonderful fuccefs of

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