and defcending from his throne, he puts on the mor tifying dress himself, and lies in the duft. That the humiliation might be the more moving and affecting, he orders, according to the cuftom of the time upon fuch folemn occafions, that even the beafts, the flocks and herds, fhould be reftrained from food, and compelled to join, as it were, with more guilty men, in the general humiliation, and in deprecating that vengeance which was about to fall upon man and beaft.

We have now a very moving fight before us; a gay, magnificent city in mourning; thoufands mourning in every street: king and fubjects, high and low; old and young, all covered in fackcloth, and rolling in afhes. And their repentance does not wholly confift in these ceremonies: the royal proclamation further requires them to cry mightily unto God; and turn every one from his evil way. They are fenfible of the propriety and neceffity of prayer, earneft prayer to God, and a reformation of life, as well as of afflicting themselves with fafting. The light of nature directed them to this as the only method of deliverance, if deliverance was poffible. The cafe of fuch a people looks hopeful :-That fo many thousands fhould be brought to repentance by one warning, the first and only warning they had ever received from a prophet of the true God; a prophet that was a contemptible ftranger from the defpifed nation of the Jews; this certainly appears promifing.

Alas! brethren, our countrymen are not so easily brought to repentance: No, this is not an eafy thing among us. Ten thousand warnings, not only from confcience, from divine providence, from this very Jonah, and the other prophets of the Old Teftament, but alfo from the gofpel, that clear and perfect revelation; I fay, ten thousand warnings, thus peculiarly enforced, have not fo much effect upon our country, this Christian, this Proteftant country, as one fhort warning from the mouth of Jonah had upon a city of heathens and idolaters. All along as I have been confidering

confidering this cafe, I could not caft out of my mind that dreadful declaration of Chrift, The men of Nineveh fhall rife up in judgment with this generation, and fall condemn it; because they repented at the preaching of Fonas; and behold, a greater than Jonas is here. Matt. xii. 41. Nineveh never had fuch loud calls to repentance, and fuch a rich plenty of all the means of grace, as Virginia. The meaneft in the kingdom of heaven, i. e. the meaneft Christian under the full revelation of the gospel, is greater in spiritual knowledge, not only than Jonah, but than John the Baptist, the greateft prophet that was ever born of a woman. And therefore, I may accommodate these words to us, Behold, a greater than Jonas is here. Here are clearer discoveries of the will of God, and stronger motives and encouragements to repentance, than ever Jonah could afford the men of Nineveh. But alas! where is our repentance! Where are our humiliation and reformation! Shall the light of nature, and one warning from a prophet, bring heathens to the knee before God; and shall not the gofpel, and all its loud calls, have that effect upon a Chriftian land! Shall Nineveh repent in fackcloth and afhes; and shall Virginia fin on ftill, impenitent, thoughtless, luxurious and gay! Alas! what will be the end of this?

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The cafe of the Ninevites, who were brought to repentance fo readily, and fo generally, looks hopeful, and feems to promise them an exemption from the threatened vengeance. And yet, fo fenfible was the king of Nineveh of their demerit, and the infufficiency of their repentance to make atonement for their fins, that he is doubtful, after all, what would be the confequence. Who can tell, fays he; who knoweth, if God will turn and repent, and turn away from the fierceness of his anger, that we perish not! 9. d. Let us humble ourselves ever fo low, we are not affured we fhall escape: vengeance may, after all, feize us; and we may be made monuments to all the world of the juftice of the King of kings, and the dreadful confe

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quences of national impiety and vice. His uncertainty in this matter might proceed from the juft fenfe he had of the intolerable height to which the national wickednefs had arrived, and of the strictness of the divine juftice. He knew that, even in his own government, it would have very bad confequences, if all crimes fhould be forgiven, or pafs unpunished, upon the repentance of the offender: and he forms the fame judgment concerning the divine government. Indeed, it is natural to a penitent, while he has a full view of his fins, in all their aggravations, and of the juftice of God, to queftion whether fuch fins can be forgiven by fo holy a God. He is apt even to fall into an extreme in this refpect. It does not now appear fo eafy a thing to him to obtain a pardon, as it once did, when he had no juft views of his guilt.— Now it appears a great thing indeed; fo great, that he can hardly think it poffible. Or the uncertainty of the king of Nineveh in this point might proceed from Jonah's being fo referved upon it. He might have had no commiffion from God to promise them deliverance upon their repentance; but he was to warn them, and then leave them in the hands of a gracious and righteous God, to deal with them according to his pleasure. This tended to make them more fenfible that they lay at mercy, and that he might juftly do what he pleased with them. The event indeed fhewed there was a condition implied in the threatening; and that God did fecretly intend to fpare them, upon their repentance. But this was wifely concealed, and it was fufficient that the event fhould make it known. It is certain that national as well as perfonal repentance, may fometimes come too late; and that fometimes the punishment may fall by way of chastisement, even when the repentance is fincere, and the fin is forgiven, fo that it shall not bring on the deftruction of the finner in the eternal world. But we may well fuppofe, an heathen monarch, who probably had no inftruction but from Jonah's fhort VOL. III. warning,

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warning, would be much at a lofs about these things. From this uncertainty of his about the fate of his empire, we may infer this truth, which I intend to illuftrate with regard to ourfelves, viz.

That fometimes a nation may be in fuch a fituation, that no man can tell what will be the iffue; or whether it fhall be delivered from the threatened vengeance, or deftroyed.

But though the king of Nineveh was uncertain about this; yet, there was one thing that he was very certain of, viz. That if there was any poffibility of efcape, it was to be hoped for only in the way of earneft prayer to God, general humiliation and reformation. This is evident from the connection of the context. Let man and beaft, fays he, be covered with fackcloth, and cry mightily to God, yea, let them turn every one from his evil way :-Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not! i. e. Who can tell but he may turn away from his fierce anger, in cafe we turn from our evil ways, and humble ourfelves before him? If we do not reform, and humble ourfelves, the cafe is dreadfully plain; any one can tell that we cannot escape; there is not fo much as a peradventure for it; unavoidable deftruction will be our doom, beyond all queftion. But if we repent, who knows what that may do? Who knows but God may repent, and turn from the fiercenefs of his wrath! If there be any hope at all, it is in this way. This he learned from the light of nature, if not from Jonah's preaching. And this fuggefts another seasonable truth, which, if my time will allow, I fhall also illustrate, viz.

That when a nation is in fuch a ftate, that no man can certainly determine what will be its doom, if there be any poffible hope, it is only in the way of general humiliation, earnest prayer and public reformation.

To prevent mistakes, I have one thing more to observe upon the text; and that is, that when God is faid to repent, it only fignifies, that the visible conduct

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of divine Providence has fome refemblance to the conduct of men, when they repent; and not that he is capable of repentance in a proper fenfe, or of that changeablenefs, imperfect knowledge, forrow and selfaccufation, which repentance among men implies.When men repent that they have made a thing, they deftroy it; and therefore, when God deftroyed man by a deluge, he is faid to repent that he made him; and when he depofed Saul, it is faid, he repented that he had made him king. When men do not execute their threatenings, it is fuppofed they repent of them; and hence, when God does not inflict the threatened evil, he is faid to repent of the evil; i. e. he acts as men do when they repent of their purpose; though when he made the denunciation, he well knew the event, and determined not to execute it, upon the repentance of the offenders. So with regard to Nineveh, there was no proper repentance in God, but an uniform, confiftent purpose. He purpofed to denounce his vengeance against that city; and he did fo: he purposed and forefaw their repentance; and it accordingly came to pafs: he purposed to spare them upon their repentance; and he did fo. All this is very confiftent, and implies no proper repentance in God for in this fenfe, God is not a man, that he fhould repent, Numb. xxiii. 19. but he is of one mind, and who can turn him? and what his foul defireth, even that he doth. Job xxiii. 13.

I now enter upon the illuftration of the firft inference upon the text, viz.

I. That fometimes a nation may be in fuch a fituation, that no man can tell what will be their doom; whether the threatened vengeance will fall upon them, or whether they fhall escape.

This, we have feen, was the fituation of Nineveh, though now lying in deep repentance, and not in danger, as far as appears from any vifible caufe. Thoufands were now mourning, praying, and reforming; and we have no account of an enemy preparing to