35. And men are often crying peace, peace, when sudden destruction cometh upon them, 1 Thes. v, 3. When Babylon shall say, "I sit as a queen, and am no widow," (her sons being again restored to her) "and shall see no sorrow; then shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burnt with fire," Rev. xviii, 7, 8. Hence is Christ so often said to "come as a thief;" to manifest how men will be surprised by him in their sins and impenitency. This day is also,

2. Irrecoverable. When the provocations of unbelief come to their height, there is no room left for repentance either on the part of God or the sinner. Not for the sinner; since men, for the most part after this, have no thought of repenting. Either they see themselves irrecoverable, and so grow desperate; or become stupidly senseless and lie down in security. So those false worshippers in the Revelation; after time was granted them no longer, but the plagues of God began to come upon them, it is said, "they repented not, but gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven." Instead of repenting for their sins, they rage against their punishment. Repentance also in this matter is hid from the eyes of God; when Saul had finished his provocation, Samuel, denouncing the judgment of God against him, adds, "and also the strength of Israel will not lie, nor repent," 1 Sam. xv, 29. God confirms his sentence, and makes it irrecov erable, by the engagement of his own immutability. There is no alteration, no reprieve, no place for mercy when this day is come and gone, Ezek. xxi, 25.

§35. Let persons, let churches, let nations take heed lest they fall unawares into this evil day. I say unawares; because they know not when they may be overtaken by it. It is true, all the danger of it ariseth

from their own negligence, security, and stubbornness. If they will give ear to previous warnings, this day will never come upon them. It may not, therefore, be unworthy our inquiry, to search what prognostics men may have of the approach of such a day. And,

1. When persons, churches, or nations, have already contracted the guilt of various provocations, they may justly fear that their next shall be their last. You have, saith God to the Israelites, "provoked me these ten times;" that is, frequently, and now your day is come. You might have considered before, that I would not always thus bear with you. Hath God then borne with you in one and another provocation, temptation, backsliding; take heed lest the great sin lies at the door, and be ready to enter upon the next occasionTake heed, "Gray hairs are sprinkled upon you, though you perceive it not." Death is at the door. Beware, lest your next provocation be your last. When your transgressions came to three and four,the punishment of your iniquities will not be turned away. When that is come, (and O that it may never come upon you, reader!) God will have no more to do with you, but in judgment, whether temporal or eternal.

2. When repentance, upon convictions of provocations, lessens or decays, it is a sad symptom of an approaching day, when iniquity will be completed. When the fixed bounds of this repentance are arrived at, all springs of it are dried up. When, therefore, persons fall into the guilt of many provocations, and God gives a manifest conviction of them by his word or providence, and they are humbled for them according to their light and principles; but if they find their humiliations, upon their renewed convictions, grow weak, and lessen in their effects, and they do not so reflect upon themselves with self-displacency as formerly,

nor so stir up themselves to amendment, as they have done upon former warnings or convictions, nor have in such cases their accustomed sense of the displeasure and terror of the Lord; let them beware, evil is before them, and the fatal season is at hand.

3. When various dispensations of God towards men have been fruitless; when mercies, judgments, dangers, deliverances, signally stamped with respect to their sins, but especially the warnings of the word, have been multiplied towards any persons, churches, or nations, and have passed over them without reformation or recovery, no doubt judgment is ready to enter, yea, into the house of God itself.. Is it thus with any? Is this their case and condition? Let them please themselves while they list, they are like Jonah asleep in the ship, whilst it is ready to sink on their account. Sleepy professors, awake, and tremble! You know not how soon a great, vigorous, prevalent temptation may hurry you into your last provocation and ruin.

$36. Obs. 18. To distrust God, to disbelieve his promises, whilst a way of duty lies before us, after we have had experience of his goodness, power, and wisdom in his dealing with us, is a tempting of God, and a greatly provoking sin. And a truth this is that hath "meat in its mouth," or instruction ready for us, that we may know how to charge this aggravation of our unbelief upon our souls and consciences. Distrust of God is a sin that we are apt upon sundry perverse reasonings to indulge ourselves in, and yet is there nothing with which God is more provoked. Now it appears in the proposition, that sundry things are required to render a person, a church, or a people formally guilty of this sin. As,

(1.) That they be called to, or engaged in, some special way of God. And this is no extraordinary

thing; all believers who attend to their duty, will find it to be their state and condition. It is in his ways that we have his promises; and therefore it is in them, and with reference to them that we are bound to believe and trust in him; and, on the same account, in them alone can we tempt God by our unbelief. It is also required,

(2.) That, in this way, they meet with oppositions, difficulties, and hardships, which, whilst Satan and the world continue in power, they shall be sure to do. Yea God himself is pleased ofttimes to exercise them with sundry things of that nature. Thus it befell the people in the wilderness. Sometimes they had no bread, and sometimes they had no water; sometimes enemies assaulted them, and sometimes serpents bit them.

(3.) That they have received former experiences of the goodness, power, and wisdom of God in his dealings with them. That any one hath no experience of the special goodness and power of God towards him, hath been through his own negligence and want of observation, and not from any defect in God's dispensations. But as the most in the world take no notice of the effects of his care and goodness towards them; so many believers are negligent in treasuring up experiences of his special care and love towards them. When he hath revealed his ways to us, and made known to us our duty; when he hath given us pledges of his presence, and of his owning us, so as to seal and ascertain his promises to us; then, upon the opposition of creatures, or difficulties about outward, temporary, perishing things, for us to disbelieve and distrust him, must needs be an high provocation of the eyes of his glory. But alas! how frequently do we contract the guilt of this sin, both in our persons, families, and more public concerns? A due consideration of this lays be

fore us, without doubt, matter of the deepest humiliation.

§37. Obs. 19. No place, no retiredness, no solitary wilderness will secure men from sin or suffering, provocation or punishment. These persons were in a wilderness, where they had many motives and encouragements to obedience, and no means of seduction and temptations from others, yet there they sinned, and there they suffered. They "sinned in the wilderness,” and "their carcases fell in the wilderness." They filled that desert with sins and graves. Men have the principle of their sins in themselves, in their own hearts, which they cannot leave behind them, or get rid of by changing their stations. And the justice of God, which is the principal cause of punishment, is no less in the wilderness than in the most populous cities. The wilderness is no wilderness to him; he can find its paths in all its intricacies. In this very wilderness, on the top of Sinai, there is at this day a monastry of persons professing themselves to be religious, who live there for cultivating superior piety. I once, for some days, conversed with their chief; they call him Archimandrite, here in England. For ought I could perceive, he might have learned as much elsewhere. I remember old Jerome somewhere complains, that when he was in his horrid cave at Bethlehem, his mind was frequently amongst the delecies of Rome. And this will teach us,

(1.) In every outward condition to look principally to our own hearts. We may expect great advantages from various conditions, but shall indeed meet with none of them, unless we fix and water the root of them in ourselves. One thinks he could serve God better in prosperity, if freed from the perplexities of poverty, sickness, and persecution. Others that they should serve him better if called to afflictions and tri