and do, in fact, withstand, their evil propensities; | mitted before you; and that you defile not yourselves the latter sink under them. I will not say that all are comprised under this description: for neither are all included in St. Paul's account of the matter, from which our discourse set out; but I think, that it represents the general condition of Christians as to their spiritual state, and that the greatest part of those who read this discourse, will find, that they belong to one side or other of the alternative here stated. SERMON XXIX. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CANAANITES. So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded.—Joshua x. 40. I HAVE known serious and well-disposed Christians much affected with the accounts which are delivered in the Old Testament, of the Jewish wars and dealings with the inhabitants of Canaan. From the Israelites' first setting foot in that country, to their complete establishment in it, which takes up the whole book of Joshua and part of the book of Judges, we read, it must be confessed, of massacres and desolations unlike what are practised now-a-days between nations at war, of cities and districts laid waste, of the inhabitants being totally destroyed, and this, as it is alleged in the history, by the authority and command of Almighty God. Some have been induced to think such accounts incredible, inasmuch as such conduct could never, they say, be authorised by the good and merciful Governor of the universe. I intend in the following discourse to consider this matter so far as to show that these transactions were calculated for a beneficial purpose, and for the general advantage of mankind, and being so calculated, were not inconsistent either with the justice of God, or with the usual proceedings of divine providence. Now the first and chief thing to be observed is, that the nations of Canaan were destroyed for their wickedness. In proof of this point, I produce the 18th chapter of Leviticus, the 24th and the following verses. Moses in this chapter, after laying down prohibitions against brutal and abominable vices, proceeds in the 24th verse thus: "Defile not yourselves in any of these things, for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you, and the land is defiled; therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: for all these abominations have the men of the land done which were before you, and the land is defiled; that the land vomit not you out also, when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from amongst their people. Therefore shall ye keep my ordinances that ye commit not any of these abominable customs which were com therein." Now the facts disclosed in this passage, are, for our present purpose, extremely material and extremely satisfactory. First, The passage testifies the principal point, namely, that the Canaanites were the wicked people we represent them to be; and that this point does not rest upon supposition, but upon proof: in particular, the following words contain an express assertion of the guilt of that people. "In all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you; for all these abominations have the men of the land done." Secondly, The form and turn of expression seems to show that these detestable practices were general among them, and habitual: they are said to be abominable customs which were com mitted. Now the word custom is not applicable to a few single, or extraordinary instances, but to usage and to national character; which argues, that not only the practice, but the sense and notion of morality was corrupted among them, or lost; and it is observable, that these practices, so far from being checked by their religion, formed a part of it. They are described not only under the name of abominations, but of abominations which they have done unto their gods. What a state of national morals must that have been! Thirdly, The passage before us positively and directly asserts, that it was for these sins that the nations of Canaan were destroyed. This, in my judgment, is the important part of the inquiry. And what do the words under consideration de clare? "In all these, namely, the odious and brutal vices which had been spoken of, the nations are defiled which I cast out before you; and the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it." This is the reason and cause of the calamities which I bring on it. The land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. The very land is sick of its inhabitants; of their odious and brutal practices; of their corruption and wickedness. This, and no other, was the reason for de stroying them: this, and no other, is the reason here alleged. It was not, as hath been imagined, to make way for the Israelites; nor was it simply for their idolatry. It appears to me extremely probable, that idolatry in those times led, in all countries, to the vices here described; and also that the detestation, threats, and severities, expressed against idolatry in the Old Testament, were not against idolatry simply, or considered as an erroneous religion, but against the abominable crimes which usually accompanied it. I think it quite certain that the case was so in the nations of Canaan. Fourthly, It appears from the passage before us, and what is surely of great consequence to the question, that God's abhorrence and God's treatment of these crimes were impartial, without distinction, and without respect of nations or persons. The words which point out the divine impartiality are those in which Moses warns the Israelites against falling into any of the like wicked courses; "that the land," says he, "cast not you out also, when you defile it, as it cast out the nations that were before you; for whoever shall commit any of these abo minations, even the souls that commit them, shall be cut off from among their people." The Jews are sometimes called the chosen and favoured peo ple of God; and, in a certain sense, and for some purposes they were so: yet is this very people, both in this place, and in other places, over and the burning of cities, the laying waste of countries, are things dreadful to reflect upon. Who doubts it? so are all the judgments of Almighty God. The effect, in whatever way it shows itself, must necessarily be tremendous, when the Lord, as the Psalmist expresses it, "moveth out of his place to punish the wicked." But it ought to satisfy us, at least this is the point upon which we ought to rest and fix our attention that it was for excessive, wilful, and forewarned wickedness, that all this befel them, and that it is expressly so declared in the history which recites it. over again reminded, that if they followed the same practices, they must expect the same fate; "Ye shall not walk in the way of the nations which I cast out before you; for they committed all those things, and therefore I abhorred them: as the nations which the Lord destroyed before your face, so shall ye perish: because ye were not obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God." What farther proves not only the justice but the clemency of God, his long-suffering, and that it was the incorrigible wickedness of those nations, which at last drew down upon them their destruction, is, that he suspended, as we may so say, the stroke, till their wickedness was come to such a pitch, that they were no longer to be endured. In the 15th chapter of Genesis, God tells Abraham, that his descendants of the fourth generation, should return into that country, and not before; "for the iniquity," saith he, "of the Amorites is not yet full." It should seem from hence, that so long as their crimes were confined within any bounds, they were permitted to remain in their country. We conclude, therefore, and we are well warranted in concluding, that the Canaanites were destroyed on account of their wickedness. And that wickedness was perhaps aggravated by their having had among them Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-examples of a purer religion and a better conduct; still more by the judgments of God so remarkably set before them in the history of Abraham's family; particularly by the destruc-monition this dreadful example was intended, how tion of Sodom and Gomorrah: At least these things prove that they were not without warning, and that God did not leave himself without witness among them. But further: If punishing them by the hands of the Israelites, rather than by a pestilence, an earthquake, a fire, or any such calamity, be still an objection, we may perceive, I think, some reasons for this method of punishment in preference to any other whatever; always, however, bearing in our mind, that the question is not concerning the justice of the punishment, but the mode of it. It is well known that the people of those ages were affected by no proof of the power of the gods which they worshipped so deeply, as by their giving them victory in war. It was by this species of evidence that the superiority of their own gods above the gods of the nations which they conquered was in their opinion evinced. This being the actual persuasion which then prevailed in the world, no matter whether well or ill founded, how were the neighbouring nations, for whose adwere they to be convinced of the supreme power of the God of Israel above the pretended gods of other nations, and of the righteous character of Jehovah, that is of his abhorrence of the vices which prevailed in the land of Canaan? how, 1 say, were they to be convinced so well, or at all indeed, as by enabling the Israelites, whose God he was known and acknowledged to be, to conquer under his banner, and drive out before them those who resisted the execution of that commission with which the Israelites declared themselves to be invested-the expulsion and extermination of the Canaanitish nations? This convinced surrounding countries, and all who were observers or spectators of what passed; first, That the God of Israel was a real God; secondly, That the gods which other nations worshipped were either no gods, or had no power against the God of Israel; and, thirdly, That it was he, and he alone, who possessed both the power and the will to punish, to destroy, and to exterminate from before his face, both nations and individuals who gave them Now, when God, for the wickedness of a people, sends an earthquake, or a fire, or a plague among them, there is no complaint of injustice, especially when the calamity is known, or expressly declared beforehand, to be inflicted for the wickedness of such people. It is rather regarded as an act of exemplary penal justice, and, as such, consistent with the character of the moral Governor of the universe. The objection, therefore, is not to the Canaanitish nations being destroyed; (for when their national wickedness is considered, and when that is expressly stated as the cause of their destruction, the dispensation, however severe, will not be questioned;) but the objection is solely to the manner of destroying them. I mean there is nothing but the manner left to be objected to: their wickedness accounts for the thing itself. To which objection it may be replied, that if the thing itself be just, the manner is of little signifi-selves up to the crimes and wickedness for which cation; of little signification even to the sufferers themselves: For where is the great difference, even to them, whether they were destroyed by an earthquake, a pestilence, a famine, or by the hands of an enemy? Where is the difference, even to our imperfect apprehensions of divine justice, provided it be, and is known to be, for their wicked- Another reason which made this destruction ness that they are destroyed? But this destruc- both more necessary and more general than it tion, you say, confounded the innocent with the would have otherwise been, was the consideration, guilty. The sword of Joshua and of the Jews spared that if any of the old inhabitants were left, they neither women nor children. Is it not the same would prove a snare to those who succeeded them with all other national visitations? Would not an in the country; would draw and seduce them by earthquake, or a fire, or a plague, or a famine degrees into the vices and corruptions which preamongst them have done the same? Even in an vailed amongst themselves. Vices of all kinds, but ordinary and natural death the same thing hap-vices most particularly of the licentious kind, are pens. God takes away the life he lends, without regard, that we can perceive, to age, or sex, or character. But, after all, promiscuous massacres, the Canaanites were notorious. Nothing of this sort would have appeared, or with the same evidence however, from an earthquake, or a plague, or any natural calamity. These might not have been attributed to divine agency at all, or not to the interposition of the God of Israel. astonishingly infectious. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. A small number of persons addicted to them, and allowed to practise them with impunity or encouragement, will spread them through the whole mass. This reason is formally and expressly assigned, not simply for the punishment, but for the extent to which it was carried, namely, extermination. "Thou shalt utterly destroy them, that they teach you not to do after all their abominations which they have done unto their gods." To conclude: In reading the Old Testament account of the Jewish wars and conquests in Canaan, and the terrible destruction brought upon the inhabitants thereof, we are constantly to bear in our minds, that we are reading the execution of a dreadful but just sentence pronounced by God against the intolerable and incorrigible crimes of these nations-that they were intended to be made an example to the whole world of God's avenging wrath against sins of this magnitude and this kind: sins which, if they had been suffered to continue, might have polluted the whole ancient world, and which could only be checked by the signal and public overthrow of nations notoriously addicted to them, and so addicted as to have incorporated them even into their religion and their public institutions-that the miseries inflicted upon the nations by the invasion of the Jews were expressly declared to be inflicted on account of their abominable sins-that God had borne with them long-that God did not proceed to execute his judgments till their wickedness was full-that the Israelites were mere instruments in the hands of a righteous Providence for the effectuating the extermination of a people of whom it was necessary to make a public example to the rest of mankind: that this extermination, which might have been accomplished by a pestilence, by fire, by earthquakes, was appointed to be done by the hands of the Israelites, as being the clearest and most intelligible method of displaying the power and righteousness of the God of Israel; his power over the pretended gods of other nations, and his righteous hatred of the crimes into which they were fallen. This is the true statement of the case. It is no forced or invented construction, but the idea of the transaction set forth in Scripture; and it is an idea which, if retained in our thoughts, may fairly, I think, reconcile us to every thing which we read in the Old Testament concerning it. SERMON XXX. NECLECT OF WARNINGS. Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! -Deut. xxxii. 29. THERE is one great sin, which nevertheless may not be amongst the number of those of which we are sensible, and of which our consciences accuse us; and that sin is the neglect of warnings. It is our duty to consider this life throughout as a probationary state, nor do we ever think truly, or act rightly, but so long as we have this consideration fully before our eyes. Now one character of a state, suited to qualify and prepare rational and improveable creatures for a better state, consists in the warnings which it is constantly giving them; and the providence of God, by placing us in such a state, becomes the author of these warn ings. It is his paternal care which admonishes us by and through the events of life and death that pass before us. Therefore it is a sin against Providence to neglect them. It is hardiness and determination in sin; or it is blindness, which in whole or in part is wilful; or it is giddiness, and levity, and contemptuousness in a subject which admits not of these dispositions towards it without great offence to God. A serious man hardly ever passes a day, never a week, without meeting with some warning to his conscience; without something to call to his mind his situation with respect to his future life. And these warnings, as perhaps was proper, come the thicker upon us the farther we advance in life. The dropping into the grave of our acquaintance, and friends, and relations; what can be better calculated, not to prove, (for we do not want the point to be proved,) but to possess our hearts with a complete sense and perception of the extreme peril and hourly precariousness of our condition viz. to teach this momentous lesson, that when we preach to you concerning heaven and hell, we are not preaching concerning things at a distance, things remote, things long before they come to pass; but concerning things near, soon to be decided, in a very short time to be fixed one way or other. This is a truth of which we are warned by the course of mortality; yet with this truth confessed, with these warnings before us, we venture upon sin. But it will be said, that the events which ought to warn us are out of our mind at the time. But this is not so. Were it that these things came to pass in the wide world only at large, it might be that we should seldom hear of them or soon forget them. But the events take place where we ourselves are; within our own doors; in our own families; amongst those with whom we have the most constant corres pondence, the closest intimacy, the strictest connexion. It is impossible to say that such events can be out of our mind; nor is it the fact. The fact is, that knowing them, we act in defiance of them which is neglecting warnings in the worst sense possible. It aggravates the daringness, it aggravates the desperateness of sin; but it is so nevertheless. Supposing these warnings to be sent by Providence, or that we believe, and have reason to believe, and ought to believe, that they are so sent, then the aggravation is very great. We have warnings of every kind. Even youth itself is continually warned that there is no reliance to be placed, either on strength, or constitution, or early age; that if they count upon life as a thing to be reckoned secure for a considerable number of years, they calculate most falsely; and if they act upon this calculation, by allowing themselves in the vices which are incidental to their years, under a notion that it will be long before they shall have to answer for them, and before that time come they shall have abundant season for repenting and amending; if they suffer such arguments to enter into their minds, and act upon them, then are they guilty of neglecting God in his warnings. They not only err in point of just reasoning, but they neglect the warnings which God has expressly set before them. Or if they take upon themselves to consider religion as a thing not made or calculated for them; as much too serious for their years; as made and intended for the old and the dying; at least as what is un necessary to be entered upon at present; as what | vested with sin. When it is come to this case, it may be postponed to a more suitable time of life: is difficult for any call to be heard, for any warnwhenever they think thus, they think very pre- ing to operate. It is difficult, but with God all sumptuously; they are justly chargeable with neg- things are possible. If there be the will and the lecting warnings. And what is the event? These sincere endeavour to reform, the grace of God can postponers never enter upon religion at all, in give the power. Although, therefore, they who earnest or effectually; that is the end and event wait for the advances of age, the perception of of the matter. To account for this, shall we say decay, the probable approach of death, before they that they have so offended God by neglecting his turn themselves seriously to religion, have waited warnings, as to have forfeited his grace? Certain- much too long, have neglected, and despised, and ly we may say, that this is not the method of ob- defied many solemn warnings in the course of taining his grace; and that his grace is necessary their lives; have waited indeed till it be next to to our conversion. Neglecting warnings is not impossible that they turn at all from their former the way to obtain God's grace; and God's grace ways: yet this is not a reason why they should is necessary to conversion. The young, I repeat continue in neglect of the warnings which now again, want not warnings. Is it new? is it un-press upon them, and which at length they begin heard of? is it not, on the contrary, the intelli- to perceive; but just the contrary. The effort is gence of every week, the experience of every greater, but the necessity is greater: It is their neighbourhood, that young men and young wo- last hope, and their last trial. I put the case of a men are cut off? Man is in every sense a flower man grown old in sin. If the warnings of old of the field. The flower is liable to be cut down age bring him round to religion, happy is that man in its bloom and perfection as well as in its wither-in his old age above any thing he was in any other ing and its decays. So is man: and one probable part of his life. But if these warnings do not afcause of this ordination of Providence is, that no fect him, there is nothing left in this world which one of any age may be so confident of life as to will. We are not to set limits to God's grace, allow himself to transgress God's laws; that all operating according to his good pleasure; but we of every age may live in constant awe of their say there is nothing in this world, there is nothing Maker. in the course of nature and the order of human affairs, which will affect him, if the feelings of age do not. I put the case of a man grown old in sin, and, though old, continuing the practice of sin: that, it is said, in the full latitude of the expression, describes a worse case than is commonly met with. Would to God the case was more rare than it is! But, allowing it to be unusual in the utmost extent of the terms, in a certain considerable degree the description applies to many old persons. Many feel in their hearts that the words grown old in sin," belong to them in some sense which is very formidable. They feel some dross and defilement to be yet purged away; some deep corruption to be yet eradicated; some virtue or other to be yet even learnt, yet acquired, or yet, however, to be brought nearer to what it ought to be than it has hitherto been brought. Now if the warnings of age taught us nothing else, they might teach us this: that if these things are to be done, they must be done soon; they must be set about forthwith, in good earnest, and with strong resolution. The work is most momentous; the time is short. The day is far spent: the evening is come on: the night is at hand. I do admit that warnings come the thicker upon us as we grow old. We have more admonitions, both in our remembrances and in our observations, and of more kinds. A man who has passed a long life, has to remember preservations from danger, which ought to inspire him both with thankful ness and caution. Yet I fear we are very deficient in both these qualities. We call our preservations escapes, not preservations; and so we feel no thankfulness for them; nor do we turn them into religious cautions. When God preserved us, he meant to warn us. When such instances, therefore, have no effect upon our minds, we are guilty before God of neglecting his warnings. Most especially if we have occasion to add to all other reasons for gratitude this momentous question, What would have become of us, what would have been our condition, if we had perished in the danger by which our lives were threatened? The parable of the fig-tree, (Luke xiii. ver. 6,) is a most apt Scripture for persons under the circumstances we have described. When the Lord had said, "cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" he was entreated to try it one year longer; and then if it proved not fruitful to cut it down. Christ himself there makes the application twice over, (verses 3d and 5th,) "except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." If the present, or if the then state of our conscience and of our souls call up this reflection, then are we very guilty indeed, if such preservations leave no religious impression upon us; or if we suffer the temporary impression to pass off without producing in us a change for the better. Infirmities, whether they be of health, or of age, decay, and weakness, are warnings. And it has been asked, with some degree of wonder, why they make so little impression as they do? One chief reason is this: they who have waited for warnings of this kind before they would be converted, have generally waited until they are become hardened in sin. Their habits are fixed. Their character has taken its shape and form. Their disposition is thoroughly infected and in4 F Lastly: I conceive that this discourse points out the true and only way of making old age comfortable; and that is, by making it the means of religious improvement. Let a man be beset by ever so many bodily complaints, bowed down by ever so many infirmities, if he find his soul grown and growing better, his seriousness increased, his obedience more regular and more exact, his inward principles and dispositions improved from what they were formerly, and continuing to improve; that man hath a fountain of comfort and consolation springing up within him. Infirmities, which have this effect, are infinitely better than strength and health themselves; though these, considered independently of their consequences, be justly esteemed the greatest of all blessings and of all gifts. The old age of a virtuous man admits of a different and of a most consoling description. It is this property of old age, namely, that its 50* proper and most rational comfort consists in the consciousness of spiritual amendment. A very pious writer gives the following representation of this stage of human life, when employed and occupied as it ought to be, and when life has been drawn to its close by a course of virtue and religion. "To the intelligent and virtuous," says our author, "old age presents a scene of tranquil enjoyment, of obedient appetites, of well regulated affections, of maturity in knowledge, and of calm preparation for immortality. In this serene and dignified state, placed, as it were, on the confines of two worlds, the mind of a good man reviews what is passed with the complacency of an approving conscience, and looks forward with humble confidence in the mercy of God, and with devout aspirations towards his eternal and ever increasing favour." present things of which we have no notion, by a comparison with things of which we have a notion. Therefore take notice what those figures and metaphors are. They are of the most dreadful kind which words can express: and be they understood how they may, ever so figuratively, it is plain that they convey, and were intended to convey, ideas of horrible torment. They are such as these: Being cast into hell, where the worm dieth not, and where the fire is not quenched." It is "burning the chaff with unquenchable fire." It is "going into fire everlasting, which is prepared for the devil and his angels." It is "being cast with all his members into hell, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." These are heartappalling expressions: and were undoubtedly intended by the person who used them, (who was no other than our Lord Jesus Christ himself,) to describe terrible endurings; positive, actual pains, of the most horrible kinds. I have said that the punishment of hell is thus represented to us in figurative speech. I now say, that from the nature of things it could hardly have been represented to us in any other. It is of the very nature of What is a man profited, if he shall gain the pain, that it cannot be known without being felt. It is impossible to give to any one an exact conwhole world, and lose his own soul? or what ception of it, without his actually tasting it. Exshall a man give in exchange for his soul?perience alone teaches its acuteness and intensity. SERMON XXXI. THE TERRORS OF THE LORD. Matt. xvi. 26. For which reason, when it was necessary that the How ter THESE words ask a question, the most home to every man's concern of any that can possibly enter into his thoughts. What our Saviour meant to assert, though proposed to his hearers in the form of a question (which indeed was only a stronger and more affecting way of asserting it,) is, that a man's soul, by which term is here meant his state after death, is so infinitely more important to him, so beyond and above any thing he can get, or any thing he can lose, any thing he can enjoy, or any thing he can suffer on this side the grave, that nothing which the world offers can make up for the loss of it, or be a compensation when that is at stake. You say that this is very evident: I reply, that evident as it is, it is not thought of, it is not considered, it is not believed. The subject, therefore, is very proper to be set forth in those strong and plain terms which such a subject requires, for the purpose of obtaining for it some de-rible a fate it must be to find ourselves at that day gree of that attention which each man's own deep the objects of God's wrath--the objects upon whom interest in the event demands of him to give it. his threats and judgments against sin are now to There are two momentous ideas, which are in- be executed, the revelation of his righteous judgcluded in the expression-the loss of a man's ment and of his unerring truth to be displayedsoul; and these are, the positive pain and suffer- may be conceived, in some sort, by considering ings which he will incur after his death, and the what stores of inexhaustible misery are always in happiness and reward which he will forfeit. Upon his power. With our present constitutions, if we both of these points we must go for information to do but touch the smallest part of our bodies, if a the Scriptures. No where else can we receive any. nerve in many places goes wrong, what torture Now as to the first point, which is, in other words, do we endure! Let any man who has felt, or the punishment of hell, I do admit that it is very rather, whilst he is feeling, the agony of some bodifficult to handle this dreadful subject properly; dily torment, only reflect what a condition that and one cause, amongst others, of the difficulty is, must be, which had to suffer this continually, that it is not for one poor sinner to denounce such which night and day was to undergo the same, appalling terrors, such tremendous consequences without prospect of cessation or relief, and thus against another. Damnation is a word, which lies to go on; and then ask, for what he would knownot in the mouth of man, who is a worm, towards ingly bring himself into this situation; what pleaany of his fellow creatures whatsoever; yet it is ab sure, what gain would be an inducement? Let solutely necessary that the threatenings of Al- him reflect also, how bitter, how grinding an agmighty God be known and published. Therefore gravation of his sufferings, as well as of his guilt, we begin by observing, that the accounts which the it must be, that he has wilfully, and forewarned, Scriptures contain of the punishment of hell, are brought all this upon himself.—May it not be nefor the most part delivered in figurative or meta- cessary that God should manifest his truth by exphorical terms; that is to say, in terms which re-ecuting his threats ?-may it not be necessary that |