is become of him. In this they discover the first workings of an evil heart of unbelief, which doubts of an event that must necessarily follow in the course of things; and of which it hath received all possible assurance. Moses had departed from them, only to return better furnished and instructed for the execution of his ministry; and without his return, his departure could have no meaning. Of this, however, the people doubted; and from unbelief they proceeded to ungodly living and profaneness. The evil servant in the text, having put off the day of reckoning, begins to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken: as the disobedient Israelites, taking advantage of the delay of Moses, sat down be fore an idol to eat and drink, and rose up to play; first encouraging a principle of unbelief, and then defiling themselves with corrupt practices.

But the Lord of these servants came in a day when they looked not for him, and in an hour that they were not aware of. Moses, whose authority they had renounced, and whose very person they had almost forgotten, comes down from the mount unlooked for, and surprises them in the midst of their ungodly mirth. They had eaten and drank to excess, and were now busy in singing and dancing before the golden calf. Their folly and ingratitude were now manifest: there was no time for repentance, neither were they disposed for it, while they were in the midst of their sin. Their judge was come upon them; and nothing remained, but that they should receive the punishment of their apostacy. This is the last article, wherein the evil servant resembles the rebelHious Israelites. He, according to the terms of this parable, is to be cut asunder, and to have his portion with the hypocrites, where shall be weeping and gnashing

of teeth; so they were instantly cut asunder with the sword. For Moses said, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

St. Paul hath wisely exhorted us, not to be ignorant of the history of those servants, who were before us in the church of God: because the things which are recorded of them happened for ensamples to us, and are written for our admonition. Their trials were the same in kind with ours, and our miscarriages were foreshewn in their disobedience. Amongst other particulars of their history, the Apostle hath selected that which we are now considering, and applied it as a warning to all Christians: neither, says he, be ye idolaters, as were some of them: as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. In this he hath followed the doctrine of our blessed Saviour, who hath represented this story to us in other words, and applied it for our admonition. This history of the idolatrous Israelites, and his parable of the evil servant, consist of the same particulars, succeeding in the same order, and requiring the same interpretation; which observation will be of much use to us in applying the words of the text to Christ and the Christian Church; of whom the person of Moses, and the camp of Israel in the wilderness were the most considerable figures the world ever saw.

The Lord, mentioned in the text, is without all

doubt the Lord Christ; who said of himself to his disciples, ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am. As the Israelites were redeemed from the bondage of Egypt, then passed through the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness; so we Christians have been redeemed from the powers of sin, and conducted, through the waters of baptism, into the church of Christ, the camp of the true Israelites, which is upon its progress through the wilderness of this world to the heavenly land of promise. As Moses, who was their Lord, left the camp for a time, and went up into the mount, to receive a law, which he was to deliver to the people: so Christ, our Lord, ascended up on high, that he might send a new law into the world by the hands of his Apostles. He is now absent from us at the right hand of God, and we his servants are here below in this wilderness. With respect to this his absence from the day of his ascension to his return in judgment, he represents himself to us as a Samaritan upon a journey; who, after a certain time, was to come again and reckon with the host. In another place he describes himself as a bridegroom; who tarried for a while, but at length should return from the wedding. Again he is signified to us by a man travelling into a far country; who, after a long time, should come back again to reckon with his servants.

If we go on with the comparison, we shall conclude, that the behaviour of the faithless Israelites, in the absence of Moses, will be accomplished in the people of the Christian world; of whom it is but too apparent, that the far greater number now do, and will continue to corrupt themselves, as the evil servant in the parable. He used the absence of his master as an opportunity of indulging his own vicious

nature, and of acting as if he had no master but himself. And are we not all of us witnesses, that Christians make the same use of the absence of Jesus Christ, as if their Lord would never return to require any account of them? Within the compass of a few years the people of this nation seem far advanced in all sorts of wickedness; and from the principles which prevail, the next generation may be worse than the present. And what is the beginning of all this? What but a neglect of the great doctrines of faith, and a consequent inattention to the judgment that must shortly come upon us? Does not the world cry out as it were with one common voice, my Lord delayeth his coming? Or, in the language of St. Peter, who set down the words which should afterwards be used by the scoffers of the last days, where is the promise of his coming ; for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the creation of the world? If you should go amongst a large company of people, commonly called by the name of Christians, and should mention the coming of their Saviour, as an event soon to be expected, and greatly to be wished for; some would be ready to laugh at your simplicity; others would look grave, and be out of countenance for you; and it is to be questioned whether one single person, in any polite assembly, would have either the courage or the inclination to go on with the subject. And is not this a melancholy proof that they say in their hearts, though they do not declare it openly with their lips, my Lord delayeth his coming; and that they have a secret satisfaction in putting away all thought of their Master's second appearance in the world?

If you proceed to consider their life and manners, you will discover them to be of such a sort as can agree only with an evil heart of unbelief. When the

people had forgotten Moses, they fell to making a molten image, and were given up to all kinds of excess in eating, drinking, singing, and dancing in the worship of it. So it is now: when faith is gone, then the heart is given up to the service of the world; and idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, gaming, a multiplicity of theatres, and places of public diversion, extravagance, debauchery, profaneness and sedition, are the sad marks of its apostacy. Is not the Christian world over-run with these corrupt practices? Have they not first said in their hearts, and then have they not proceeded to act, as the evil servant in the text? This being the case, it is easy to pronounce what will follow: for it cannot possibly be long before the Lord of such servants shall come in a day when they look not for him, and in an hour that they are not aware. When Moses was forgotten by the Israelites, he came upon them, and surprised them in the midst of their idolatry. Thus it hath been and thus it will be it is an invariable rule in the order of God's providence, that when men say peace, then sudden destruction cometh upon them. Such was the state of the world in the days of Noah, that preacher of righteousness. He declared publicly to the world, that God would bring a flood upon them to destroy them; and they had an opportunity of seeing him prepare the ark for an hundred and twenty years: yet they believed nothing of the judgment which hung over their heads; but continued all their evil practices till the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away. So also in the days of Lot, they were secure in their pleasures; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded: but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from