Ser. 37. and destruction upon them: Left my foul depart from thee; left I make thee defolate, a land not inhabited. How loth is he that things fhould come to this extremity? He is not without great difficulty, and fome kind of violence, as it were, offered to himfelf, brought to this fevere refolution; his foul is, as it were, rent and disjointed from them.

2. You fee here what is the only proper and effectual means to prevent the mifery and ruin of a finful people. If they will be inftructed, and take warning by the threatenings of God, and will become wifer and better, then his foul will not depart from them, he will not bring upon them the defolation which he hath threatened.

3. You have here intimated the miferable cafe and condition of a people, when God takes off his affection from them, and gives over all further care and concernment for them. Wo unto them when his foul departs from them. For when God once leaves them, then all forts of evils and calamities will break in upon them.

I fhall fpeak as briefly as I can to these three obfervations from the text.

I. I obferve the infinite patience and goodness of God towards a finful people, and his great unwillingness to bring ruin and deftruction upon them: Left my foul depart from thee; left I make thee defolate, a land not inhabited. How loth is God that things fhould come to this? He is very patient to particular perfons, notwithftanding their great and innumerable provocations. God is strong and patient, though men provoke him every day. And much greater is his patience to whole nations and great communities of men..

How great was it to the old world, when the longfuffering of God waited in the days of Noah for the space of an hundred and twenty years; and did not expire till he faw that the wickedness of man was grown great upon the earth, and that all flesh had corrupted its way; not till it was neceffary to drown the world, to cleanse it ; and to destroy mankind, to reform it, by beginning a new world upon the only righteous family that was left of all the laft generation of the old? For fo God teftifies concerning Noah, when he commanded him to enter into the ark, faying, Gen. vii. 1. Come thou, and all thy boufe

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houfe into the ark: for thee (that is, thee only) have I feen righteous before me in this generation.

The patience of God was great likewife to Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them. For when the cry of their fins had reached heaven, and called loud for vengeance to be poured down upon them; to exprefs the wonderful patience of God toward fuch grievous finners, though nothing is hid from his fight and knowledge, yet he is reprefented as coming down from heaven to earth, on purpose to inquire into the truth of things, and whether they were altogether according to the cry that was come up to him and when he found things as bad as was poffible, yet then was he willing to have come almoft to the lowest terms imaginable, that if there had been but ten righteous perfons in those wicked cities, he would not have deftroyed them for the tens fake.

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Nay, he feems to come to lower terms yet with the city of Jerufalem, Jer. v. 1. Run ye to and fro through the streets of Ferufalem, and fee now and know, and feek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, and feeketh the truth, and I will pardon it.

What can be imagined more flow, and mild, and merciful, than the proceedings of the divine juftice against a finful people? God is reprefented in fcripture as taking a long time to make ready his bow, and to whet his glittering fword, before his hand takes hold of vengeance; as if the inftruments of his wrath lay by him blunt and rufty, and unready for ufe. Many a time he threatens, and many a time lifts up his hand, before he gives the fatal blow. And how glad is he when any good man will step in, and interpofe to ftay his hand?" as we read, Pfal. cvi. 23. Therefore he faid, (fpeaking of the people of Ifrael), that he would deftroy them, had not Mofes his fervant ftool in the breach, to turn away his wrath, left be Jhould destroy them. And how kindly doth God take it of Phinehas, as a moft acceptable piece of fervice done to him, and which he hardly knew how fufficiently to reward, that he was a means of putting a ftop to his anger against the people of Ifrael? infomuch, that the Pfalmift tells us, that it was accounted to him for righteousness to all generations for eDd 3

vermore.

vermore. I will recite the whole paffage at large, because it is remarkable. When the people of Ifrael were feduced into idolatry and whoredom by the daughters of Moab, Phinehas in great zeal stood up and executed judgment upon Zimri and Cofbi in the very act; by which means the plague which was broken out upon the congregation of Ifrael, was presently ftaid. Hear what God fays to Mofes concerning this act of Phinchas. The Lord Spake unto Mofes, faying, Phinehas the fon of Eleazar, the fan of Aaron the priest, bath turned away my wrath from the children of Ifrael, (whilft he was zealous for my fake), that I confumed them not. Wherefore fay, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: and he shall have it, and his feed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Ifrael. That which God takes fo kindly at his hands, next to his zeal for him, is, that he pacified God's wrath towards the children of Ifrael.

And thus did God from time to time deal with the people of Ifrael. that great example of the Old Teftament of the merciful methods of the divine providence towards a finful nation; and an example, as St. Paul tells us, 1 Cor. x. II. purpofely recorded for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Let us therefore confider a little the astonishing patience of God towards that perverse people. After all the figns and wonders which he had wrought in their deliverance out of Egypt, and for their fupport in the wilderness, and notwithstanding their grofs and ftupid infidelity, and horrible ingratitude to God their Saviour, and all their rebellious murmurings and difcontents; yet he fuffered their manners for the fpace of forty years.

And when they were at last peaceably fettled in the promifed land, notwithstanding their frequent relapfes into idolatry, with what patience did God expect their repentance, and the refult of all the merciful meffages and warnings given them from time to time by his Prophets, as one that earneftly defired it, and even longed for it? Jer. iv. 14. O Jerufalem, wash thine heart from wicke nefs, that thou mayeft be faved: how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee? that is, how long wilt

thou

thou delude thyfelf with vain hopes of escaping the judgments of God by any other way than by repentance? And again, Jer. xiii. 27. O Jerufalem, wilt thou not be made clean? when fhall it once be? and, chap. viii. 6. fays God there, I hearkenet and heard, but they pake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, faying, What have I done? where God is reprefented, after the manner of men, waiting with great patience, as one that would have been glad to have heard any penitent word drop from them, to have feen any fign of their repentance, and return to a better mind.

And when they made fome fhews of repentance, and had fome fits of good refolution that did prefently. vanish and come to nothing, how paffionately does God complain of their ficklenefs and inconftancy? O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall · "I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning-cloud; and as the early dew it goeth away.

And at last, when nothing would do, with what difficulty and reluctance does God deliver them up into the hands of their enemies? Hof. xi. 8. 9. How fhall I give thee up, Ephraim ? how shall I deliver thee, Judah? how fhall I make thee as Admah? how shall I fet thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, and my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not deftroy Ephraim. What a conflict is here ? what tendernefs and yearning of his bowels towards them? He cannot find in his heart to give them up, till he is forced to it by the last neceffity.

And when the nation of the Jews, after their return from the captivity of Babylon, had in the course of feveral ages greatly corrupted themselves, and filled up the measure of their fins by crucifying the Lord of life and glory; yet how flow was the patience of God in bringing that fatal and final destruction upon them? Not till after the most merciful warnings given to them by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour; not till after the most obftinate impenitency of forty years, under the most powerful means of repentance that any people in the world ever enjoyed. I proceed to the

II. Second obfervation from the text, namely, What is the only proper and effectual means to prevent the

ruin of a finful people? And that is, if they will be inftructed and take warning by the threatenings of God to become wifer and better, then his foul will not depart from them, and he will not bring upon them the defolation threatened: Be thou inftructed, O Jerufalem, left my foul depart from thee, and I make thee defolate, a land not inhabited; intimating, or rather plainly declaring to us, that if we will receive instruction and take warning, the evil threatened fhall not come: for what other reason can there be, why God fhould threaten fo long before he ftrikes, and fo earnestly prefs men to repentance, but that he might have the opportunity to fpare them, and to fhew mercy to them?

And indeed, as 1 obferved before, all the denunciations and threatenings of God to a finful nation do carry this tacit condition in them, that if that nation turn from their evil ways, God will repent of the evil which he thought to do unto them. For God never paffeth fo irrevoca ble a sentence upon a nation, as to exclude the case of repentance: nay, on the contrary, he gives all imaginable encouragement to it, and is always ready to meet it with a pardon in his hand: How often would I have gathered thee (fays our merciful Lord when he wept over Jerufalem) as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not; therefore your house is left unto you defolate.

God is very merciful to particular perfons upon their repentance. When the prodigal fon in the parable, after all his riot and lewdnefs, came to himself, and refolved to return home, his father feeing him yet afar off coming towards him, came out to meet him, and had compaffion on him, and kissed him. And can any of us be fo obftinate and hard-hearted, as not presently to refolve to repent and return, and to meet the compaffions of such a father; who, after we have offended him to the uttermoft, is, upon the firft discovery of our repentance, ready to be as kind to us, as he could poffibly have been if we had never offended him?

And much more is God ready to receive a nation upon their fincere repentance, when his judgments muft needs make great havock, and fo many are like to fuffer under them. This confideration God urgeth and

pleads