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.

Sa 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.

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 committed before you; and that you defile not yourselves 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

have the men of the land done." Secondly, The form and turn of expression seems to shew that these detestable practices were general among them, and habitual: they are said to be abominable customs which were committed. Now the word custom is not applicable to a few single, or extraordinary instances, but to usage and to national character; which ar

I have known serious and well-disposed Chris-cast out before you; for all these abominations tians 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-gues, that not only the practice, but the sense 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 authorized by the good and merciful Governor of the universe.

I intend in the following discourse to consider this matter so far as to shew 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,

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 declare?" 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 prac tices; of their corruption and wickedness. This, and no other, was the reason for destroying 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

I

against idolatry in the Old Testament, were plague among them, there is no complaint of not against idolatry simply, or considered as an injustice, especially when the calamity is known, erroneous religion, but against the abominable or expressly declared beforehand, to be inflicted crimes which usually accompanied it. I think for the wickedness of such people. It is rather it quite certain that the case was so in the na- regarded as an act of exemplary penal justice, tions of Canaan. Fourthly, It appears from and, as such, consistent with the character of the passrge before us, and what is surely of the moral Governor of the universe. The great consequence to the question, that God's objection, therefore, is not to the Canaanitish abhorrence and God's treatment of these crimes nations being destroyed; (for when their nawere impartial, without distinction, and with- tional wickedness is considered, and when that out respect of nations or persons. The words is expressly stated as the cause of their dewhich point out the divine impartiality are struction, the dispensation, however severe, those in which Moses warns the Israelites will not be questioned ;) but the objection is against falling into any of the like wicked solely to the manner of destroying them. courses; "that the land," says he, "cast not mean there is nothing but the manner left to you out also, when you defile it, as it cast out be objected to: their wickedness accounts for the nations that were before you; for whoever the thing itself. To which objection it may shall commit any of these abominations, even be replied, that if the thing itself be just, the the souls that commit them, shall be cut off manner is of little signification; of little sigfrom among their people." The Jews are nification even to the sufferers themselves sometimes called the chosen and favoured peo-For where is the great difference, even to them, 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 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 Derish; because we were not obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God."

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 wickedness that they are destroyed? But this destruction, you say, confounded the innocent with the guilty. The sword of Joshua and of the Jews spared neither women nor children. Is it not the same with all other national visitations? Would not an earthquake, or a fire, or a plague, or a famine aWhat farther proves not only the justice mongst them have done the same? Even in but the clemency of God, his long-suffering, an ordinary and natural death the same thing and that it was the incorrigible wickedness of happens. God takes away the life he lends, those nations, which at last drew down upon without regard, that we can perceive, to age, them their destruction, is, that he suspended, or sex, or character. But, after all, promisas we may so say, the stroke, till their wick-cuous massacres, the burning of cities, the edness was come to such a pitch, that they laying waste of countries, are things dreadful were no longer to be endured. In the 15th to reflect upon. Who doubts it? so are all 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 destruction 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.

Now, when God, for the wickedness of a people, sends an earthquake, or a fire, or a

the judgments of Almighty God. The effect, in whatever way it shews 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 attentionthat 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.

But further: If punishing them by the hands of the Israelites, rather than by a pestilence, an earthquake, a fire, or any such ca. lamity, 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

nounced 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 sig nal and public overthrow of nations notorious

species of evidence that the superiority of upon the inhabitants thereof, we are constantly their own gods above the gods of the nations to bear in our minds, that we are reading the which they conquered was in their opinion execution of a dreadful but just sentence proevinced. 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 admonition this dreadful example was intended, how were 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 ?ly addicted to them, and so addicted as to how, I say, were they to be convinced so well, have incorporated them even into their reor at all indeed, as by enabling the Israelites, ligion and their public institutions that the whose God he was known and acknowledged miseries inflicted upon the nations by the into be, to conquer under his banner, and drive vasion of the Jews were expressly declared to out before them those who resisted the exe- be inflicted on account of their abominable cution of that commission with which the Is-sins-that God had borne with them long-that raelites declared themselves to be invested God did not proceed to execute his judgments -the expulsion and extermination of the till their wickedness was full-that the IsraelCanaanitish nations? This convinced sur-ites were mere instruments in the hands of a rounding 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 themselves up to the crimes and wickedness for which 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.

Another reason which made this destruction both more necessary and more general than it would have otherwise been, was the consideration, that if any of the old inhabitants were left, they would prove a snare to those who succeeded them in the country; would draw and seduce them by degrees into the vices and corruptions which prevailed amongst themselves. Vices of all kinds, but vices most particularly of the licentious kind, are astonishingly infectious. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. A small number of persons

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.

It

This is the true statement of the case. 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.

NEGLECT OF WARNINGS.

addicted to them, and allowed to practice them Oh that they were wise, that they understood

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

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 warnings. 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.

count upon life as a thing to be reckoned se. cure for a considerable number of years, they calcu' ce 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 calA serious man hardly ever passes a day, culated for them; as much too serious for never a week, without meeting with some their years; as made and intended for the old warning to his conscience; without something and the dying; at least as what is unnecessary to call to his mind his situation with respect to to be entered upon at present; as what may be his future life. And these warnings, as per- postponed to a more suitable time of life: haps was proper, come the thicker upon us whenever they think thus, they think very the farther we advance in life. The dropping presumptuously; they are justly chargeable into the grave of our acquaintance, and friends, with neglecting warnings. And what is the and relations; what can be better calculated, event? These postponers never enter upon renot to prove (for we do not want the point to ligion at all, in earnest or effectually; that be proved,) but to possess our hearts with a is the end and event of the matter. To ac complete sense and perception of the extreme count for this, shall we say that they have so peril and hourly precariousness of our condi- offended God by neglecting his warnings, as tion? viz. to teach this momentous lesson, to have forfeited his grace? Certainly we may that when we preach to you concerning hea- say, that this is not the method of obtaining ven and hell, we are not preaching concerning his grace; and that his grace is necessary to things at a distance, things remote, things our conversion. Neglecting warnings is not long before they come to pass; but concern- the way to obtain God's grace; and God's ing things near, soon to be decided, in a very grace is necessary to conversion. The young, short time to be fixed one way or other. This I repeat again, want not warnings. Is it new? is a truth of which we are warned by the course is it unheard-of? is it not, on the contrary, of mortality; yet with this truth confessed, the intelligence of every week, the experience with these warnings before us, we venture of every neighbourhood, that young men and 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 correspondence, the closest intimacy, the strictest connexion. It is impossible to I do admit that warnings come the thicker say that such events can be out of our mind; upon us as we grow old. We have more adnor is it the fact. The fact is, that knowing monitions, both in our remembrances and in them, we act in defiance of them: which is our observations, and of more kinds. A man neglecting warnings in the worst sense possi- who has passed a long life, has to remember ble. It aggravates the daringness, it aggra- preservations from danger, which ought to invates the desperateness of sin; but it is so ne-spire him both with thankfulness and cauvertheless. 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 grea..

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

young women are cut off? Man is in every sense a flower of the field. The flower is lia ble to be cut down in its bloom and perfection as well as in its withering and its decays. So is man: and one probable cause of this or dination of Providence is, that no one of any age may be so confident of life as to allow himself to transgress God's laws; that all of every age may live in constant awe of their Maker.

tion. 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 war. nit.gs. Most especially if we have occasion to

add to all other reasons for gratitude this mo- | tinuing the practice of sin : that, it is said, in mentous question, What would have become the full latitude of the expression, describes a

of us, what would have been our condition, if worse case than is commonly met with. Would we had perished in the danger by which our to God the case was more rare than it is! lives were threatened? The parable of the But, allowing it to be unusual in the utmost fig-tree (Luke xiii. ver. 6.) is a most apt extent of the terms, in a certain considerable Scripture for persons under the circumstances degree the description applies to many old perwe have described. When the Lord had said, sons. Many feel in their hearts that the "cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" words "grown old in sin," belong to them ir he was entreated to try it one year longer; some sense which is very formidable. They and then if it proved not fruitful to cut it feel some dross and defilement to be yet purgdown. Christ himself there makes the appli-ed away; some deep corruption to be yet eracation twice over, (verses 3d and 5th,) "ex-dicated; some virtue or other to be yet even cept ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." learnt, yet acquired, or yet, however, to be If the present, or if the then state of our con- brought nearer to what it ought to be than it science and of our souls call up this reflection, has hitherto been brought. Now if the warnthen are we very guilty indeed, if such pre-ings of age taught us nothing else, they might servations leave no religious impression upon teach us this: that if these things are to be us; or if we suffer the temporary impression done, they must be done soon; they must be to pass off without producing in us a change set about forthwith, in good earnest, and with for the better. strong resolution. The work is most momentous; the time is short. The day is fat spent: the evening is come on: the night is at hand.

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 invested with sin. When it is come to this case, it is difficult for any call to be heard, for any warning to operate. It is difficult, but with God all things are possible." If there be the will and the sincere endeavour to reform, the grace of God can give the power. Although, therefore, they who wait for the advances of age, the perception of decay, the probable approach of death, before they turn themselves seriously to religion, have waited much too long, have neglected, and despised, and defied many solemn warnings in the course of their lives; have waited indeed till it be next to impossible that they turn at all from their former ways: yet this is not a reason why they should continue in neglect of the warnings which now press upon them, and which at length they begin to perceive; but just the contrary. The effort is greater, but the necessity is greater: It is their last hope, and their last trial. I put the case of a man grown old in sin. If the warnings of old age bring him round to religion, happy is that man in his old age above any thing he was in any other part of nis life. But if these warnings do not affect him, there is nothing left in this world which will. We are not to set limits to God's grace, operating according to his good pleasure; but we say there is nothing in this world, there is nothing 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, con

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 con solation 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, tha its 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 affec tions, 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,"