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SERMON 81.

THE GUILT AND DOOM OF IMPENITENT HEARERS.*

MATTHEW XIII. 14. By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive.

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THIS is a tremendous threatening of long standing, first denounced by Jehovah himself in the days of Isaiah, and frequently cited by Christ and his apostles in the New Testament, as being still in force, and capable of application to various periods of the world. It is a threatening from God, not that he would recall the commission of his ministers, or remove them, but that he would give them a commission in wrath, and continue their ministry, as a judgment upon their hearers. It is a threatening not of the loss of the means of salvation, but of their being continued as the occasions of more aggravated guilt and punishment: a threatening to those that have abused the means of grace; not that they shall attend upon them no more, but that they shall' attend upon them, but receive no advantage from them a threatening that they shall hear, that is, that their life and rational powers, the ministry of the word of God, and all things necessary for hearing, shall be continued to them; but by all their hearing they shall not understand; they shall not receive instructions that will be of any real service to them : they shall not understand any thing to a saving purpose. Their knowledge may be increased, and their heads filled with bright notions and speculations: but all their improvements will be of no solid or lasting advantage to them; so that their hearing is equivalent to not hearing, and their understanding to entire ignorance." Seeing ye shall see, and not perceive ;" you shall have your eyes open, or the usual exercise of your rational powers; and the sacred light of instruction shall shine around you; but even in the midst of light, and with your eyes open, you shall perceive nothing to purpose: the good you see, you will not choose and the evil and danger you see, you will not shun, but run into it, willingly and obstinately. And certainly such seeing as this does not deserve the name.

* Hanover, Nov. 12, 1758..

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The connection in which Christ introduces these words, is this: As he had clothed his discourse in the eastern dress of parables or allegories, his disciples, apprehending that this was not the plainest method of instruction, and that the multitude did not understand him, put this question to him, “ Why speakest thou to them in parables?" "He answered and said unto them, because unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but unto them it is not given." This informs us, there is a dreadful distinction made, even in this world, between the hearers of the gospel, though they mingle in the same assembly, hear the same preacher, and seem to stand upon the same footing. Thus the disciples of Christ and the unbelieving crowd were upon a par; but, says Christ, to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, or the glorious doctrines of the gospel; and therefore you will easily perceive them through the veil of parables, which will be an agreeable medium of instruction to you. But to the unbelieving crowd, it is not given to know these mysteries; though they attend upon my ministry, it is not intended that they should be made wiser or better by it: and therefore, I involve my instructions in the obscurity of parables, on purpose that they may not understand them-Alas! my dear brethren, what if such a distinction should be made between us, who meet together for the worship of God from week to week in this place!

The reason of this distinction will shew the justice of it; and that is assigned in the next verse: "For whosoever bath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that he hath" the meaning is, whosoever improves the privileges he hath, shall have those privileges continued to him with a blessed addition-whosoever makes a good use of the means of grace, he shall have grace given him to make a still better use of them. Whosoever has opened his mind to receive the light from past instructions, shall have farther light and farther instructions : to him it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; and they shall be conveyed to him in such forms of instruction as he will be able to understand. "But whosoever

hath not," whosoever makes no more improvement of his privileges, than if he had none given him to improve, from him shall be taken away those neglected privileges. He that has obstinately shut his eyes against the light of instruction in times

past, shall be punished with the loss of that light for the futurethough the light still continue to shine round him, yet he shall be left in his own chosen darkness, and divine grace will never more open his mind. He is given up as unteachable, though he may still sit in Christ's school. It is no longer the design of the gospel to shew him the way to eternal life, though he may still enjoy the ministry of it and God in his providence may order things so, as to occasion, though not properly to cause, his continuance in ignorance and infidelity.

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Here, by the bye, I would make a remark to vindicate this dreadful instance of the execution of divine justice, which is more liable to the cavils of human pride and ignorance than perhaps any other. The remark is, that God may justly inflict privative as well as positive punishment upon obstinate sinners; or, in plainer terms, he may with undoubted justice punish them by taking away the blessings they have abused, or rendering those blessings useless to them, as well as by inflicting positive misery upon them. This is a confessed rule of justice; and it holds good as to spirituals as well as temporals. May not God as justly take away his common grace, and deny future assistance, to an obstinate sinner, who has abused it, as deprive him of health or life? Why may he not as justly leave him destitute of the sanctified use of the means of grace he has neglected and unimproved, in this world, as of the happiness of heaven, in the world to come? This is certainly a righteous punishment: and there is also a propriety and congruity in it: it is proper and congruous that the lovers of darkness should not have the light obtruded upon them; that the despisers of instruction, should receive no benefit from it; that those who improve not what they have, should have no more, but should lose even what they have. Thus their own choice is made their curse, and their sin their punishment. But to return.

"Therefore," says Jesus, "I speak to them in parables ;" therefore, that is, acting upon the maxim I have just laid down, that those who abuse the light they have, shall have no more, I speak to them on purpose in this mystical form, that they may still remain in darkness, while I am communicating instruction to my teachable disciples: "because they seeing, see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand;" because, though they have the exercise of their senses and intellectual powers, and have enjoyed my instructions so frequently, they still

obstinately persist in ignorance and infidelity; and in that, let them continue: it is no longer the design of my ministry to teach or convert them.

"And in them, says he, is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, by hearing, ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing, ye shall see, and shall not perceive." And then follow the reasons of this tremendous judgment: “For this people's heart is waxed gross and insensible, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them :" they seem afraid of their own conversion, and therefore do all they can to prevent the efficacy of the means of grace upon them. Such must be given up as desperate; and though they may still live among the means of grace, it is no longer the design of them to be of any service to them.

You see, as I observed at first, this is a denunciation of long standing-about two thousand five hundred years old. It was accomplished in Isaiah's time, when God looked out for a messenger to send to the Jews, not to convert them, but to leave them inexcusable in their impenitence, and so aggravate their guilt and punishment. "Whom shall I send?" says Jehovah ; " and who shall go for us?"* As if he had said, I do not intend to deprive this obstinate people of the ministry of my servants, but am about to send them another: and where shall I find one that will accept so thankless and fruitless an office? Isaiah offers his service as a volunteer : "Here am I, says he, send me." And then his commission is made out in these terrible terms, expressive rather of the office of an executioner, than of a messenger of peace : "Go, and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not: and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." About seven hundred years after, we find this denunciation applied to the Jews by Christ himself in my text. It was applied to the same people some time after by the evangelist John.† "Therefore they could not believe," says he, "because that Esaias said again, he hath blinded their Chap. xii. 39, 40:

Isaiah vi. 8.

eyes and hardened their hearts; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I should heal them." Some years after, it was applied by St. Paul to the unbelieving Jews in Rome; upon his preaching the gospel to them, "some believed the things that were spoken, and some believed not:" and with respect to the latter, he says, "Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers, saying, go unto this people, and say, hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive.

Thus we can trace the accomplishment of this old denunciation in various periods. And is it antiquated and without force in our age? May it not reach to Virginia and Hanover, as well as to Judea and Jerusalem? Yes, my brethren, if the sin of the Jews be found among us, that is, the abuse of the means of instruction, then the curse of the Jews lies in full force against us. The ministry of the word may be continued among us, but many that attend upon it, may not receive any advantage from it: nay, their advantage may not be so much as intended by its continuance among them, but rather the aggravation of their sin and ruin. A dreadful thought! which I would willingly avoid, but some late occurrences have forced it upon my mind and since I cannot exclude it, I will endeavour to make the best use of it for your warning.

After some weeks of anxious perplexity, unknown before; and after using all the means in my power to discover my duty with all the impartiality I was capable of, I came at length to a determination to send a final absolute refusal to the repeated application of the trustees of the college of New-Jersey. Had interest been my motive, I should undoubtedly have preferred two hundred a year, before a scanty hundred. Had honour been my motive, I should have chose to have sat in the president's chair in Nassau-hall, rather than continued a despised and calumniated new-light parson in Virginia. Or had ease been my motive, I should have preferred a college life, before that of a hurried, fatigued itinerant. But you that have known me for so many

*Acts xxviii. 24-27.

† Mr. Davies, it appears, had received an invitation to the college at Princeton, in New-Jersey; but at that time refused accepting it. Vide the following sermon.

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