To apply this hint.
Use 1, Take notice of the rich mercy and patience of God, and aggravate it by his great hatred of sin. Though God hates sin exceed- ingly, yet how long doth he bear with sinners? how long doth he protract his wrath ? and how many courses doth he take to reclaim you from the evil of your ways ? You may sooner reconcile fire and water than God and sin : Ps. 1. 21, ' These things hast thou done, and I kept silence ; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself : but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.' He is no favourer of your sins, but only gracious. Under the law, the mercy-seat was the cover of the ark ; and there was the book of the law, where all God's curses were kept, that was put into the ark : Exod. XXV. 21, 'And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I sball give thee,' —to show that mercy hath the moderation of all threatenings ; and therefore is it that we are not consumed. Mercy susi)ends the execu- tion of his just revenge: we wrest destruction out of God's hands, judgment is called his strange work.
Use 2. Again, whenever you are warned of the evil of your ways, lay it to heart. We cannot determine the actual events ; God hath put times and seasons in his own hands. We may show jow the merits (<f the fact, a storm in the black cloud, and then you should tremble ; and therefore do not think slightly of reproof and threatening. When Lot told them of the wrath of God against Sodom, ' He seemed to his sons-in-law as one that mocked,' Gen. xix. 14 ; so men think we work ourselves into a passion and i-age. But when warning is neglected, wrath is exasperated. This will be your great torment in hell, to think you were warned of the evil of your courses, and you would not regard it. Look, as Reuben said to his brethren. Gen. xlii. 22, ' Did not I warn you to do nothing against the child ? ' So will tlie Lord say
VeK. 7.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 179
when you are under torment, Did not I warn you ? Your own heart will return upon you, as the heart of him that dreamt he was hoilino- in a kettle of scalding lead, and his heart cried to him, It is I that have been the cause of all this ; so your hearts, when in torment, will upbraid you with the frequent warnings you have had.
Secondly, I observe again, that this warning was immediately made to Noah, who was a prophet and a righteous man, and by him it was delivered to the world at second-hand. God usually revealed himself to holy and righteous persons ; they are his familiars, and you know it is a part of friendship to communicate secrets ; and therefore the Lord will communicate his secret to them that fear him : Ps. xxv. 14, ' The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant ; ' Gen. xviii. 17, ' Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do ? ' God looks upon it as a violation of friendship to Abraham to conceal this matter from him ; and so to his prophets, as it is expressly said : Amos iii. 7, ' Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret to his servants the prophets,' God's messengers are as his heralds, to ofier terms of peace, and to proclaim war to the world ; and he gives them commission to go of his errand. It is true there is no necessity laid upon God that he should do it always ; but this is the course which he usually takes, and this was the way he often used in the old testament, oftener than in the new. What should be the reason of this ? not because his grace is straitened : it is more enlarged in the gospel, for the defect of prophecy is recompensed by the clear- ness of saving truths. God opened his mind to them about particular events and successes, because evangelical truths were not so open and clear as they now are, and the eternal recompenses were more darkly delivered to the patriarchs. But now, God having opened his good treasure to us, we have higher arguments of piety, a larger measure of gifts, clearer discerning and understanding of the truths of the word, therefore prophecy ceaseth. Yet now, in the times of the gospel, he doth not altogether fail his people ; for though they can have no certain knowledge of future contingencies, yet he begets some strong instinct in the mind of his children, puts it into their hearts to avoid this and avoid that : we have no infallibility of the event, yet we may discern much of the providence of God.
To apply this hint.
Use 1. When the generality of holy men are apprehensive of judg- ments, it is a sad omen ; when they have ill thoughts of the times, it is a sad presage. When the prophet was making up his stuff, it was a prognostic of ruin to Jerusalem, Ezek. sii. 3-7. When you see them ready to depart, it is a sad thing, for God is wont to com- municate his secret to them that fear him. Then again —