Twenty-Sixth Argument.

of their devilish passion, have murdered their enemy, and eaten up his liver and heart.

(2.) By the most diabolical superstitions: as the Israelites, who, when they had “learned the works of the heathens, sacrificed their sons and their daughters to devils; and, by the horrible practices of witchcraft, endeavoured to raise and deal with infernal spirits. And (3,) by the most preposterous gratifications of sense: witness the incestsf40 and rapes committed in this land; the infamous fires, which drew fire and brimstone down from heaven upon accursed cities; and the horrid lusts of the Canaanites, though, alas! not confined to Canaan, which gave birth to the laws recorded Leviticus 18:7, 23, and 20:16;f41 laws that are at once the disgrace of mankind, and the proof of my assertion.

X. What is most astonishing of all, by apostasy: as those who, having “begun in the Spirit,” and “tasted” the bitterness of repentance, “the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, make shipwreck of the faith, deny the Lord that bought them, account the blood of the covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing;” and so scandalously “end in the flesh,” that they are justly compared to “trees withered, plucked up by the roots, twice dead,” and to “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” Good God! what line can fathom an abyss of corruption, the overflowings of which are more or less attended with these multiplied and shocking aggravations?

TWENTY-SIXTH ARGUMENT.

If the force of a torrent may be known by the height and number of the banks which it overflows, the strength of this corruption will be rightly estimated from the high and numerous dikes raised to stem it, which nevertheless it continually breaks through.

Ignorance and debauchery, injustice and impiety, in all their shapes, still overspread the whole earth; notwithstanding innumerable means used, in all ages, to suppress and prevent them.

The almost total extirpation of mankind by the deluge, the fiery showers that consumed Sodom, the ten Egyptian plagues, the entire excision of whole nations who were once famous for their wickedness, the captivities of the Jews, the destruction of thousands of cities and kingdoms, and millions of more private judgments, never fully stopped immorality in any one country.

The striking miracles wrought by prophets, the alarming sermons preached by divines, the infinite number of good books published in almost all languages, and the founding of myriads of churches, religious houses, schools, colleges, and universities, have not yet caused impiety to hide its brazen face any where. The making of all sorts of excellent laws, the appointing of magistrates and judges to put them in force, the forming of associations for the reformation of manners, the filling of thousands of prisons, and erecting of millions of racks and gallows, have not yet suppressed one vice.

And what is most amazing of all, the life, miracles, sufferings, death, and heavenly doctrine of the Son of God; the labours, writings, and martyrdom of his disciples; the example and entreaties of millions that have lived and died in the faith; the inexpressible horrors and frightful warnings of thousands of wicked men, who have testified in their last moments that they had worked out their damnation, and were just going to their own place; the blood of myriads of martyrs, the strivings of the Holy Spirit, the dreadful curses of the law, and the glorious promises of the Gospel. All these means together have not extirpated immorality and profaneness out of one single town or village in all the world; no, nor out of one single family for any length of time. And this will probably continue to be the desperate case of mankind, till the Lord lays to his powerful hand; seconds these means by the continued strokes of the sword of his Spirit; “pleads by fire and sword with all flesh;” and, according to his promise, causes “righteousness to cover the earth as the water covers the sea.” Is not this a demonstration founded on matter of fact, that human corruption is not only deep as the ocean, but impetuous as an overflowing river, which breaks down all its banks, and leaves marks of devastation in every place? This will still appear in a clearer light, if we consider the strong opposition which our natural depravity makes to Divine grace in the unconverted.