SERMON XLV. The Ingratitude of Ifrael. 2 KINGS XVII. 7: For fo it was,-that the children of Ifrael had finned against the Lord their GOD, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt. T HE words of the text account for the caufe of a fad calamity, which is related, in the foregoing verfes, to have befallen a great number of Ifraelites, who were furprised, in the capital city of Samaria, by Hofea king of Affyria, and cruelly carried away by him out of their own country, and placed on the defolate frontiers of Halah, and in Haber, by the river Gozan, and in the city of the Medes, and there confined to end their days in forrow and captivity. -Upon which the facred hiftorian, inftead of accounting for fo fad an event merely from political fprings and causes; fuch, for inftance, as the fuperior strength and policy of the enemy, or an unfeafonable provocation given,—or that proper measures of defence were neglected; -he traces it up, in one word, to its true caufe:-For fo it was, fays he, that the children of Ifrael had finned against the Lord their GOD, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt. It was furely a fufficient foundation to dread fome evil,-that they had finned against that Being who had an unqueftionable right to their obedience.But what an aggravation was it-that they had not only finned fimply against the truth, but against the God of mercies, who had brought them forth out of the land of Egypt;-who not only created, upheld, and favoured them with fo many advantages in common with the reft of their fellow-creatures, but who had been particularly kind to them in their misfortunes ;-who, when they were in the houfe of bondage, in the moft hopeless condition, without a pro - fpect of any natural means of redrefs, had compaffionately heard their cry, and took pity upon the afflictions of a dif treffed people,-and, by a chain of miracles, delivered them from fervitude and oppreffion-miracles of fo ftupendous a nature, that I take delight to of fer them, as often as I have an opportu nity, to your devouteft comtemplations. -This, you would think as high and as complicated an aggravation of their fins as could be urged.-This was not all; -for befides GOD's goodness in first favouring their miraculous escape, a series of fucceffes, not to be accounted for from fecond caufes, and the natural courfe of events, had crowned their heads in fo remarkable a manner, as to afford an evident proof, not only of his general concern for their welfare, but of his particular providence and attachment to them above all people upon earth. In the wilderness he led them like sheep, and kept them as the apple of his eye-he fuffered no man to do them wrong, but reproved even kings for their fake.When they entered into the promised land,-no force was able to ftand before them ;-when in poffeffion of it,-no army was able to drive them out ;-and, in a word, nature, for a time, was driven backwards to ferve them; and even the Sun itself had ftood ftill in the midft of heaven to fecure their victories. A people with fo many teftimonies of GOD's favour, who had not profited thereby, fo as to become a virtuous people, muft have been utterly corrupt; -and fo they were. And it is likely, from the many specimens they had given, in Mofes's time, of a difpofition to forget God's benefits, and upon every trial to rebel against him,-he forefaw they would certainly prove a thankless and unthinking people, extremely inclined to go aftray and do evil;-and therefore, if any thing was likely to bring them back to themfelves, and to confider the evils of their mifdoings, -it must be the dread of fome temporal calamity, which, he prophetically |