vernment and care of the world; and though he do seldom manifest himself in fupernatural and extraordinary ways, yet he hath not left himself without a witness, by the constant course of nature, in the returns of day and night, in the revolutions of the seasons of the year, in that he gives us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And these standing arguments of his providence, though they be not fo much taken notice of, because they are so common, yet they are daily miracles, and we can hardly imagine greater, and we should be strangely amazed at them, but that they are so very frequent and familiar.

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The cafe is the fame as to divine revelation. God hath not thought fit to gratify the perverse curiofity of men, by affording to every man a particular and immediate revelation of his mind and will: but he hath given us a standing revelation, which at first had the greatest and most miraculous confirmation, and he hath still left us sufficient means of being affured of the truth of this revelation, and of the confirmation that was at the first given to it; and we tempt God, by demanding extraordinary signs, when we may receive so abundant fatisfaction in an ordinary way. This being admitted, I shall proceed in the

Second place to shew, that it is upon the whole matter, and all circumstances confidered, very improbable, that those who reject this publick revelation from God, should be effectually convinced, though one should speak to them from the dead. And this is that which is exprefly afsserted here in the text, If they bear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Not but that any man would be very much startled and amazed, if one should come from the dead to warn him out of the danger of his wicked life; but yet for all that it is very unlikely that they who obstinately and perversely refuse to be convinced by Moses and the Prophets, would be effectually perfuaded, (that is, so as to be brought

to repentance and reformation of their lives) though oné should rise from the dead. And that for these reasons:

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1. Because if such miracles were frequent and familiar, it is very probable they would have but very little effect; and unless we suppose them common and ordinary, we have no reason to expect them at all.

2. Men have as great or greater reason to believe the threatenings of God's word, as the difcourse of one that should speak to them from the dead.

3. The very fame reason which makes men to reject the counsels of God in his word, would in all probability hinder them from being convinced by a particular miracle.

4. Experience does abundantly testify, how ineffectual extraordinary ways are to convince those who are obstinately addicted and wedded to their lufts.

5. An effectual perfuafion (that is, such a belief as produceth repentance and a good life) is the gift of God, and depends upon the operation and concurrence of God's grace, which there is no reason to expect either in an extraordinary way, or in an extraordinary degree, after men have obstinately rejected the ordinary means which God hath appointed to that end.

1. If fuch miracles, as a special messenger from the dead to warn and admonish men, were frequent and familiar, it is very probable they would have but very little effect upon them: and unless we fuppose them common and ordinary, we have no reafon to expect them at all. For it is unreasonable at first fight, that the worst and most obstinate fort of finners should expect this, as a peculiar favour and privilege to themselves, and that God should not do as much for others, who have deserved it more, and would probably make better use of it; and if these things were common, it is very probable that men would not be much moved by them. It may be, while the apprehenfion of fuch a thing were fresh up,

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on them, they would take up some good resolutions, as finners usually do, while they are under present convictions of confcience, and the hand of God, by some great affliction or fickness, lies heavy upon them: but still they would be apt to defer their repentance, and put it off until the present amazement were a little over, and the terror of their first apprehenfions were abated and worn off by degrees, and after a little while they would return to their former.course. And this is too probable, from what we see men do in other cafes not very much remote from this. It is a very terrible and amazing thing to fee a man dy, and folemnly take his last leave of the world. The very circumstances of dying men are apt to strike us with horror: to hear such a man how sensibly he will speak of the other world, as if he were just come from it, rather than going to it; how feverely he will condemn himself for the folly and wickedness of his life; with what passion he will wish that he had lived better, and served God more fincerely; how feriously will he resolve upon a better life, if God would be pleased to raise him up, and try him but once more; with what zeal and earnestness he will commend to his best friends and nearest relations a religious and virtuous course of life, as the only thing that will minister comfort to them when they come to be in his condition. Such discourses as these are very apt to move and affect men for the time, and to ftir up in them very good resolutions, whilft the present fit and impreffion lasts: but because these sights are very frequent, they have seldom any great and permanent effect upon men. Men consider that it is a very common cafe, and finners take example and encouragement from one another; every one is affected for the present, but few are so effectually convinced, as to betake themselves to a better course.

And if apparitions from the dead were as common as it is for men to dy, we may reasonably presume that the discourses of dead and dying, of those that are going, and those who come from the dead, would would have much the fame effect upon the generality of men.

But if we suppose this a fingular cafe, (which there is no reason to do) in that cafe the effect would probably be this; a man that was strongly addicted to his lusts, and had no mind to leave them, would be apt, when the fright was over, to be eafily perfuaded that all this was merely the work of fancy and imagination; and the rather because such things did not happen to others as well as to himfelf.

2. We have as great or greater reason to believe the warnings or threatenings of God's word, as the discourses of one that should come to us from the dead. For the threatenings of God's word against fuch fins as natural light convinceth men of, have the natural guilt and fears of men on their fide, the particular teftimony of every man's confcience, and the concurring testimony of mankind to the probability of the thing; and to give us full assurance of the truth and reality of them, we have a credible relation of great and unquestionable miracles wrought on purpose to give teftimony to those persons who denounced those threatenings, that they came from God. So that here is a very publick and authentick testimony given to the threatenings of God's word, more fuitable to the generality of mankind, and of greater authority than a private apparition, or 'a fingle miracle; and if that will not convince men, why should we suppose that this will?

3. The very fame reason which makes men to rejeft the counsels of God in his word, would, in all probability, hinder men from being convinced by an apparition from the dead. It is not generally for want of evidence that men do not yield a full and effectual affent to the truth of God's word, I mean, that they do not believe it so as to obey it; but from the interest of some luft. The true cause is not in mens understandings, and because there is not reason enough to fatisfy them, that the fcriptures are the word of God: but in the obstinacy of their wills, which are enslayed to their lufts. And the

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the disease being there, it is not to be cured by more evidence, but by more confideration, and by the grace of God, and better resolutions.

The man is addicted to some vice or other, and that makes him unwilling to entertain those truths which would check and controul him in his course. The light of God's word is offensive to him, and therefore he would shut it out. This account our blessed Saviour gives of the enmity of the Jews against him and his doctrine, John iii. 19. Light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil; for every one that doth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh he to the light, left his deeds should be reproved. Upon the fame account it is, that men resist the doctrine of the holy scriptures; not because they have fufficient reason to doubt of their divine authority; but because they are unwilling to be governed by them, and to conform their lives to the laws and precepts of that holy book: For the wills of men have a great influence upon their understandings, to make affent easy or difficult; and as many are apt to affent to what they have a mind to, fo they are flow to believe any thing which croffeth their humours and inclinations; so that though greater evidence were offered, it is likely, it would not prevail with them, because the matter does not stick there. Their wills are distempered, men hate to be reformed, and this makes them caft the laws of God behind their backs; and if God himself should speak to them from heaven, as he did to the people of Ifrael, yet for all that, they might continue a stiffnecked and rebellious people. Though the evidence were such as their understandings could not resist; yet their wills might still hold out, and the present condition of their minds might have no lasting influence upon their hearts and lives; such a violent conviction might affect them for the present, but the sense of it might perhaps wear off by degrees, and then they would return to their former hardness. Men by a long and obstinate continu

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