SERMON XLIII.

THE GREAT DANGER OF NOT KNOWING THE

DAY OF VISITATION.

LUKE xix. 41, 42, 43, 446

AND WHEN HE WAS COME NEAR, HE BEHELD THE CITY, AND WEPT OVER IT, SAYING, IF THOU HADST KNOWN, EVEN THOU, AT LEAST IN THIS THY DAY, THE THINGS WHICH BELONG UNTO THY PEACE! BUT NOW THEY ARE HID FROM THINE EYES. FOR THE DAYS SHALL COME UPON THEE, THAT THINE ENEMIES SHALL CAST A TRENCH ABOUT THEE, AND COMPASS. THEE ROUND, AND KEEP THEE ÎN ON EVERY SIDE; AND SHALL LAY THEE EVEN WITH THE GROUND, AND THY CHILDREN WITHIN THEE: AND THEY SHALL NOT LEAVE IN THEE ONE STONE UPON ANOTHER; BECAUSE THOU KNEWEST NOT THE TIME OF THY VISITATION.a

I

Must tell you, in the firft place, that all these things came to pafs exactly as our Lord foretold, within lefs than forty years after his death.

The Romans befieged the city of Jerufalem so close that not a man could escape; and after the most dreadful fiege that ever was heard of, they took it, deftroying all before them, and not leaving one ftone upon another of one of the finest cities and temples in the world.

■ See Job xxxiii. 14. Pfalm xxxix. 4. xc. 12. 33. Luke xxi. 3. 1 Peter ii. 12. 2 Cor. vi. 2.

xcv. 8. Mark xiii. Heb. iii. 3.

Our

Our bleffed Lord could not forbear weep ing, because he forefaw that this would certainly come to pass, and because he saw that that people would not be perfuaded, by any thing that he could fay or do, to prevent it by a timely repentance. He knew this was their day of grace, and he faw they defpised it, and that it would end in their destruction. And this made our compaffionate Saviour bewail, with tears, the miferies they were bringing upon themselves, and upon their pofterity.

And this fhould teach all Chriftians how to behave themselves on fuch occafions; namely, not to be pleased with and laugh at the fins of others, as people are but too apt to do, but rather to pity and bewail the blindness of finners, who do not know the judgments they are preparing for themselves and to beg of God to open their eyes, that they may fee their error, and fad condition, before the day of grace is at an end.

And, God knows, we have great reason thus to mourn, whether we confider the general state of Christianity, or the wicked lives of particular Chriftians. For not to mention the herefies, the divifions, the idolatry, that is to be met with in many Chriftian churches; not to mention the fins of whoredom, adultery, injustice, drunkennefs and fuch like, which every body knows will fhut men out of heaven; we need only confider the lives of very many Christians, who fear no danger, and yet

live like heathens; we need only confider this, in order to excite our grief, and fetch tears from our eyes.

To fee people, for instance, who profess to have here no abiding-place, yet fetting up their rest on earth, as if they were fure, as if they defired never to leave it;

To see Christians, who are bound by their profeffion to love one another, rejoicing and taking pleasure in the mifery and ruin of each other;

To hear people beg of God to forgive them their trefpaffes, as they are ready to forgive others, and at the fame time refolving not to forgive the leaft offence against themselves without full fatisfaction;

To fee the rich oppreffing the poor, and the poor envying the rich, as if the rich were not accountable to God, nor the poor expected any amends in the next world for what they want in this;

To fee parents educating their children after fuch a manner as if they intended their eternal ruin; teaching them to love the world, instead of renouncing it; gratifying them in every thing that is vain and finful, and fuffering them to content themselves with a bare out ward form of religion, without knowing any thing of its power, or of that holiness without which no man must fee the Lord;

To fee paftors as little concerned for the flocks committed to their charge, as if, in

truth,

truth, they were fo many beasts whose fouls would die with their bodies, and for which they were never to give an account;

In one word, to fee the greatest part of Chriftians live without faith, without hope, without charity, without fear; that is, without any true religion; to fee them living at this rate, without apprehending any manner of danger, neglecting the day of grace which God has afforded them for their falvation, and never confidering, that the night cometh when no man can work.

Can any Christian see and confider all this, and where it muft end, and not be moved with forrow and compaffion, as our Lord was, for the eternal miferies which unthoughtful Christians are bringing upon themselves? Can they forbear to mourn in fecret, and beg of God to pity and cure thefe diforders, and the blindness of finners, who do not fee the danger of neglecting the time of vifitation, and the day of grace?

It was this that moved our Lord's compaffion for Jerufalem, because she knew not the time of her vifitation, and because that was the occafion of her ruin. She knew not; that is, fhe would not know it; fhe would not fee the fin that occafioned it; fhe would not believe the prophets that foretold it; fhe would not receive the Son of God, who came to warn her of her approaching ruin, and who would, no doubt of it, have delivered her from it, would

fhe