that one of these little ones should perib, ver. 14. It is not falfe but true, that they who truly do believe in Chrift, and are cf the number of those whom God would not have to perish, cannot be so offended as to fall off from the faith to their ruin: Nor do the pathetical difcourfe, and dreadful woes and punishments denounced, imply the contrary; seeing they are used to fhew the care of God over his people, and the natural tendency to ruin fuch offences might have, was it not prevented by his power, and confequently their attempts that way are not lefs finful and criminal. As for Rom. xiv.zo. 1 Cor. viii. 9, 11. Pfal. cxxv. 3. which are urged to the fame purpofe, fee in Numbers VIII, XXXVI, and XXXVII.

NUMB. XXIV. Matt. xi. 21, 23.

Wo unto thee Chorazin, wo unto thee Bethfaida: For if the mighty works which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in fackcloth and afhes. And thou Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, fhall be brought down to bell: For if the mighty works which have been done in thee, ~Bad been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

T

HESE words are frequently infifted on, as proving man's ability to repent, believe, and convert himself, and that unfruftrable and irresistible grace is not neceffary to these things; and that faith, repentance, and converfion are not produced by it. But,

I. Here is no mention made of faith and converfion, only of repentance; and that not spiritual and evangelical, but external and legal; fuch as was performed in fackcloth and afbes, and by virtue of which, Sodom might have remained unto this day; for though fuch a repentance is not unto

* Remonftr. in Coll. Hag. Art. iii, iv. p. 218. A&a Synod. p. 120, &c. Limborch. 1. 4. c. 13. §. 6. p. 370. Whitby, p. 173.

eternal

eternal falvation, yet it is often attended with temporal bleffings, and is the means of averting temporal judgments, as in the cafe of the Ninevites; and may be where the true grace of God is not; with the want of this Christ might, as he justly does, upbraid the cities where his mighty works had been done, and the Jews, in Matt. xii. 41. and xxi. 31, 32. which might have been performed by them, though they had no power to repent in a spiritual and evangelic fenfe, to which more is required than the bare performance of miracles. See Luke xvi. 3 I.

to

II. These words are to be understood, as Grotius obferves, in a popular fenfe, and express what was probable, according an human judgment of things; and the meaning is, that if the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom, had had the advantages of Chrift's ministry, and of seeing his miracles, as the inhabitants of Chorazin, Bethfaida, and Capernaum had; it looks very likely, or one would be ready to conclude, they would have repented of their flagitions crimes, which brought down the judg ments of God upon them, in fuch a remar able manner; as thefe ought to havS ÉLE particularly of their fan of rejecting se Ver

fiah, notwithstanding all the evidence of miracles, and convictions of their own confciences, and fo probably finned the fin againft the Holy Ghoft. And therefore,

III. The words are an hyperbolical exaggeration of their wickedness; fuch as those in Ezek. iii. 5, 6, 7. fhewing that they were worle than the Tyrians and Sidonians, who liv'd moft profligate and diffolute lives; than the inhabitants of Sodom, so famous for their unnatural lufts, yea, than any others; if there were any worfe than these under the heavens ; and therefore would be punished with the worst of punishments, ver. 22, 24. In much the fame way are we to understand Matt. xii. 4. and xxi. 31, 32. where Christ upbraids the Jews with the want even of an external repentance for their fin of rejecting him, though they had fuch a full proof and demonstration of his being the Meffiah; and therefore were worse than the men of Nineveb, who repented externally at the preaching of Jonah; yea, worse, notwithstanding all their pretended fanctity and righteousness, than the publicans and harlots, who went into the kingdom of God, attended on the outward miniftry of the word, and believed John the Baptift, gave at leaft, an affent to what he faid concerning the Meffiah as

true.

IV. These