them how to act towards any city which should not receive them : they should express towards its in- habitants the indignation of God, and should make known to them both their iniquity and their folly. In confirmation of what he instructed them to do, he himself denounced his judgments against the cities that had rejected him; and then proceeded to give a general admonition to all to whom his Gospel should come.
Were we addressing ministers, we should consider the subject more immediately in relation to them : but in an address intended only for private Christians, it will be more profitable to wave what relates to the conduct of the ministry, and to suggest rather such reflections as are applicable to mankind at large, especially that part of them which is disobedient to the Gospel of Christ.
I. How awful is their obduracy !
[Our Lord complained that the cities to which he had minis- tered had resisted such means as, if used for the awakening of the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, or even of Sodom and Gomorrha, would have been effectual to bring them to repent- ance : " they would have repented long ago, sitting in sack- cloth and ashes." Now, without stopping to inquire, why God withheld from Sodom the means of grace which would have been effectual, and vouchsafed them to Jewish cities, where he knew they would not be effectual, (a question which no human wisdom can solve,) we would call your attention to this fact as illustrated in the present day.
We acknowledge that the hearers of our Lord had many and great advantages which we have not: but on the other hand, we have great advantages which they had not. We admit, that they were instructed by One who " spake as never man spake ;" and that they saw the mighty works which he wrought in confirmation of his word : but on the other hand, the mean- ness of his appearance and of his followers was a stumbling- block, which it was exceeding difficult to get over, and which is entirely removed out of our way. Besides, they saw the plan of Christianity only in a very obscure and partial light ; whereas we see it in all its fulness and completion : and the evidence we have from that great miracle of all, his resurrec- tion from the dead, is stronger than all those which they beheld. We may, therefore, justly say that our advantages are greater than theirs : and yet multitudes hear the Gospel now, and are unmoved by it : some sneer at it as follv and enthusiasm ; and