membered the fame poor man. 4. The reafon of this forgetfulness.

1. We are first to view the nature of this oblivion. For understanding thereof you would know, that forgetfulness of Chrift is either total or partial. A total forgetfulness takes place in the wicked, of whom it is faid, God is not in all their thoughts. A partial forgetfulness is coincident to believers themselves, who may, in a great measure, forget what God hath done to their fouls. Actual forgetfulness is what the godly may be guilty of, as David after his grofs fin of adultery, when he was con triving the murder of Uriah. But there is an habitual forgetfulness peculiar to the wicked, who defire not the knowledge of God; and never remember God, till they be driven to it with a vengeance, as it is faid of these, "When he flew them, then they fought him; they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer," They never remember till God bring a mortal ftroke.-But now, this forgetfulnefs imports the want of a fpiritual view and difcovery of God; and the want of that lively impreffion of him which, the right view of him doth require. We cannot rightly remember God, if we fee not his perfections fhining in his work, as David did, when he says of God's works, "In wifdom haft thou made them all." When we fee the wifdom and power, and other attributes of God, fhining in his works, parti. cularly in his delivering the little city, the church, then and not till then, do we rightly remember them; and when we fee his great end in all is the glory of these perfections, and entertain due impreffions hereof fo as to remember not only in a speculative, but in a practical and appropriating manner; and when we remember his delivering us, in particular from the power and policy of the great things that were against us, and render to him the praife due to his name.

2. The object of this forgetfulness: No man remembered the fame POOR WISE MAN. We are apt, and natu rally prone to forget our Creator, to forget our Redeemer, and Saviour, and Protector, and Benefactor, our best Friend. We forget the Deliverer himself, the poor wife man found in the city. We forget his humanity,

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that he is a man; his divinity, that he is the wisdom of God; his humiliation and poverty, that for our fakes he became poor; and his deftination to this redemption-work; all is forgotten. We forget all the deliverances he hath wrought, the redemption he hath accomplished.--We forget his works of creation, though yet the heavens declare his glory. We forget his works of providence, both profperous and adverse; both ordinary and extraordinary, as Ifrael did, of whom it is faid, "Jefhurun waxed fat and kicked he forgot God that made him, and lightly efteemed the Rock of his falvation." They forget the plagues of Egypt; the drowning of the Egyptians; the folemn appearance of God on Sinai, when the hill trembled under the weight of God; and the flames afcended to the middle heaven.-We forget his work of redemp tion. He redeems from the fury of juftice, the curfe of the law, the bondage of fin, the flavery of Satan, the fting of death; from the wrath of God; that terrible wrath, that intolerable wrath, that interminable wrath, that powerful and eternal wrath, that ever-coming wrath; he delivers from the wrath to come: and yet we are apt to forget the Deliverer, and the deliverance: We forget this redemption, and the neceflity of it; the fufficiency of it; the excellency of it; the efficacy of it; the fulness of it; the acceptablenefs of it; all is forgotten. -We forget alfo his work of regeneration, the work of conviction, and humiliation; the work of converfion, and fanctification. Though this work of grace effectuates a real change, a fenfible change, an univerfal change; yet all may be forgotten, in fo much, that we may pofe the believer himself, have you a regeneration-frame, the fame temper of fpirit you had in the day of believing? "Where is the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine. efpoufals?"-Yea, communications and manifeftations, and communion-experiences may all be fearfully forgotten..

3. The univerfality of this oblivion; NO MAN remembered the fame poor man. That this unbelieving forgetfulness of Chrift, the Redeemer, is univerfal, appears evident from two arguments.

(1.) From the inftances of all ages of the world.-VOL. V.

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SER. LXXXIII. The first man that ever was, began his apoftacy from God by his fin; he forgot the favour of God in giving him fuch an excellent being, and fuch excellent benefits; forgot the covenant that God entered into with him, forbidding him to eat of the tree, that was in the midft" of the garden upon peril of eternal ruin to himfelf and his pofterity; yet the hiffing of the ferpent drove all out of his mind.-How quickly did Noah forget the great deliverance from the deluge, when all the reft of the world was overwhelmed in the midst of the waters; he was no fooner faved from water, than he was drowned in wine.-How quickly did Lot forget the deliverance from the flames of Sodom, and fell into the fire of luft.-Solomon forgot the God that appeared to him thrice, and turned to idolatry.-David quickly forgot the Lord's, delivering him from Saul, and fell into the fin of adultery and murder. Ifrael forgot God and all his works of wonder. The ten lepers, all but one, forgot to return and give praise to God that healed them.-The difciples of Chrift, quickly forgot the miracles of the loaves; they got fweet communion with Chrift, yet Judas and his party foon drove all out of their minds. No man remembered the poor wife man.

(2.) It appears from the many remembrancers and memorials that the Lord Jefus has fet up of himself, and his works, as prefervatives against this forgetting him. God's works of creation are his remembrancers, witte the hea vens declare his glory.-God's works of providence are his remembrancers. "He hath not left himfelf without a witnefs," even among the heathen, giving them rain and fruitful feafons: every drop of rain is a memorial of God. God's ordinances are his remembrancers; why has he given us Sabbaths and facraments, but to be.memorials of the works of Chrift, and the death of Chrift? Do this in remembrance of me. In a word, the Holy Ghost is given to be a remembrancer, John xiv. 26. "I will give the Comforter, and he shall bring all things to your remembrance." I have been long preaching among you, might Chrift fay, and given you many a fermon; but all is gone, you forgot all; therefore, I will fend the -Holy Ghoft to be your remembrancer. Thefe things

evidence the universality of this fin: No man remembered the poor wife man. Now confider here,

4. The reafon of this forgetfulness. And there is thefe four following reasons we shall affign for it.

(r.) It flows from the univerfal depravation of our nature: the memory, with all the rest of the faculties of the foul, got a dafh by the fall of Adam; our heads were dashed to pieces, when we fell from fuch a height of happiness to such a depth of misery.

(2.) It flows from the little esteem and value that people have for the poor wife man, and his great works of redeeming and delivering us. It is strange to think, how much the works of men will be admired, and the works of God flighted. If a phyfician fhall perform a cure upon a man that is defperately diseased, and dangeroufly ill, the man will be more taken up with the phyfician's work than with God's work; he will pay his physician, but never thank his God. Many will read the works of men with admiration, and read hiftory with rapture; but they will read the hiftory of the life and death of Chrift without ever being moved.

(3.) It flows from this that the memory is ftuffed with other things, even with the trash of hell; there is no room for Chrift and his works of wonder: it was a bafe treatment of. Chrift when he was fent out to the ftable, laid in a manger, no room for him in the inn. But it is a thousand times worfe, when your heart is fo full of the world, lufts, and idols, that there is no room for Chrift.

(4.) It flows from the little impreffion that Chrift and his redeeming work takes upon us. Naturalifts give this as a reafon of remembrance, when a thing makes a mighty impreffion on the brain. But, alas! the works of God flee over our heads, like a fhadow, and fo are forgotten. The best thing for the memory is the Spirit of God coming with life and power to the foul: “ I will never forget thy words, fays David; why? for by them thou haft quickened me." It left an impreffion, and therefore abode. When the word of God, the works of God, have no impreffion, no wonder they are foon forgotten: there is a fowl of the air, the prince of the power of the

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air, the devil, he picks away every thing you hear, if your hearts be not clofets for Chrift. If he were your treafure, your hearts would be the cabinets;" Where the treasure is, there the heart is also."

V. The fifth and laft thing propofed, was, The application of the fubject. And this we fhall eflay in an use of information, lamentation, trial and exhortation.

We are, First, to deduce fome inferences for informa tion. Is it fo, as has been faid, hence fee,

1. The defpicable cafe of the church of God in this world; it is but like a little city, and a few men in it. It is a despised city. The world calls it an outcast, saying, "This is Zion whom no man feeks after," Jer. xxx. 17. As Chrift was defpifed and rejected of men; fo are his friends and followers: they are a little flock, and a defpifed flock. Whatever be the ftate of the church vifible; fometimes when it appears fair as the moon, clear as the fun, and terrible as an army with banners; and when her visible glory, the doctrine, worship, difcipline, and government is not defaced; yet the church invisible, in this world, is for ordinary, a poor, fmall, despised company; of whom it is faid, Zeph. iii. 12. "I will leave in the midft of thee, an afflicted and poor people, and they fhall truft in the name of the Lord."

2. Hence fee the dangerous circumftance of the church. of God in this world. It is a city befieged by a great king, building great bulwarks against it. The church is like a bush burning in the midft of the flames: it is in a dangerous militant ftate. The church of God is the manchild, which the red dragon stands ready to devour, as foon as it is born, Rev. xii. 4. What a helpless cafe is the church of God into, in outward appearance! A great city cannot ftand out well against a great king, and great bulwarks; far lefs a little city, and few men within it.

3. Hence fee the marvellous grace of God in finding out a Saviour, and a great one, to fave the little city; and, behold, "The grace of the Lord Jefus Chrift, that tho' he was great and rich, yet for our fakes he became poor;" and in the capacity of a poor man, tho' yet infinitely wife, being God as well as man, he delivered the