he yet cares for; yet he hath said concerning them, that his Spirit shall strive with them no more:' and thence it is that the word makes no impression on them: its healing virtue is as to them withheld.

And this is the first thing the Lord doth to such poor creatures as he leaves to salt, to barrenness, and ruin, for despising the season and means of their healing. He casts them out of his care, as to the dispensation of the word.

SERMON XXXI.

We shall now proceed to the uses.

Use 1. Wonder not if you see a diversity of success in preaching of the word: some receive it with joy; the most despise it as a thing of nought. Whence is this difference? Multitudes are rejected of God, cast out of his care, barrenland, he will till them no more. A cursed state! Marvel not that many refuse to hear the word, that they love lies; they are given up of God to their heart's lusts. Marvel not that the word which they hear affects them no more; the power of the Spirit is withheld from them; multitudes are thus cast out of the care of God, and tokens of the plague are upon them: they like their condition, rejoice and triumph in it, think none so happy as themselves, and despise them that love the waters of the sanctuary: all which are tokens of this sore plague. Can they expel the gospel from any place? Can they quench the light that is in it? Can they triumph over the ways of God? They suppose they have gotten a great victory. This is not an ordinary judgment: they are, poor creatures, assuredly cast out of the care of God; 'they are given to salt;' and it is a miracle of mercy, if ever any of them be healed.

O, it is a woful thing to look on a place or persons that give evidences of their withstanding the season of their healing, as so many in this nation do! How was our Saviour affected with it in reference to Jerusalem; Luke xix. 41, 42. ' And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.' Oh! if we had but any measure of that pity and compassion which dwelt in his holy soul, how could we pass through towns and cities, and see and hear, and not mourn!

Use 2. Take that advice of the prophet, Jer. xiii. 16. 'Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.'

(2.) The second thing that God doth, in giving up an unhealed land unto barrenness, is his judicial hardening of them, or leaving them to hardness and impenitency, that so they may fill up the measure of their sins; Heb. vi. 8. That which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing.' When the care of God is once taken from them, they are nigh unto cursing; the next thing that God will do to them, is to curse them, as our Saviour did the barren fig.tree.

This woful judgment is at large set forth, Isa. vi. 9, 10... And he said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.' Isaiah was a gospel preacher; yet this, saith God, shall be the effect of thy preaching towards them that have withstood their season, and have not been healed by the word. And John tells us, that this very thing was accomplished, when the gospel was preached by our Saviour himself, chap. xii. 40, 41. And surely their condition is most woful, whom the preaching of the gospel hardeneth, whom the only remedy destroys.

Now there are four things in this spiritual judgment, that God sends upon unhealed souls, that have outlived their season of healing, more or less.

[1.] Blindness of mind and understanding. Their natural blindness and ignorance shall be increased and confirmed; and that by two ways.

1st. God will send them a spirit of slumber,' Rom. xi. 8. that is, a great inadvertency and negligence as to the things of the gospel, that are spoken of, or preached unto them. As men that slumber take little notice of what is spoken to them, or about them; they hear a noise, and sometimes discern a little what is spoken, but not to any use or purpose: so is it with these persons, on whom God doth judicially send this spirit of slumber; they hear the sound of the word, and sometimes it may be take notice of some one thing or other that is spoken; but to receive and understand the design of it, to ponder it and improve it, that they cannot do; they are under a spiritual slumber. We may see

multitudes in this condition every day, the word hath no life nor vigour towards them; they perceive not the mind of God in it; they understand it not; God hath given them a spirit of slumber,' and they die under it.

2dly. God sends them a spirit of giddiness, causing them to err in their ways; Isa. xix. 14. We have a notable instance of this judgment of God, 2 Thess. ii. 10-12. The waters of the sanctuary came unto them, and they were not healed; the gospel was preached unto them, but they with stood their season; they received not the love of the truth; they did not believe and obey, that they might be saved; because they had pleasure in unrighteousness. How then doth God deal with them? ver. 11. He will send them a spirit of giddiness or delusion, that they shall believe a lie,' false doctrine, false worship, superstition, and idolatry. This they shall believe, and have pleasure in; which will have the fearful end mentioned, ver. 12. And this judg ment, as it is already come upon many, so it lies at the door, I fear, of the most. We see men every day, that have for some years, it may be, enjoyed the preaching of the gospel, but not being healed, quickened, and sanctified by it, are now with all greediness given up to follow after fables on the one hand, or superstition on the other; there is a spirit of giddiness from the Lord upon them. And by these means is the darkness of the minds of men increased, when God is giving of them up to barrenness.

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[2.] Obstinacy in the will, or hardness of perly so called, is in this judgment of God also. give up unhealed persons to hardness of heart. that place of Isa. vi. 10. and it is the same with that which the apostle calls, ' A reprobate mind;' Rom. i. 28. that is, a mind and heart that is good for nothing with regard to spiritual things, profligate, and altogether insensible of them. And when this befalls any, they will openly despise the word, and cast it off, using one foolish pretence or other for their so doing, as Jer. xliv. 16. with xliii. 2. Such persons, whenever the word is preached unto them, and it lies cross to their carnal imaginations, or sensual affections, lusts, or sports, rise up in their hearts with contempt, and ragé against it. Sometimes they will colour their wickedness in their hearts by some pretence or other: this is the way,

the humour, the singularity of the preacher. Or sometimes their rage will carry them out directly against the word, without any colour or pretence, but because it displeaseth them. Or if they fall not thus into pride and rage, which usually is occasioned by their temptations, they grow utterly senseless and stupid, and unconcerned in the things of God. Let the word thunder from heaven against their sins, they regard it not. Let the still small voice of the gospel persuade them unto reconciliation, they attend not unto it. Let the judgments of God be abroad in the world, if they escape themselves, they are not concerned about them. Do they reach their own persons; they have wrath, and anger, and vexation; but they cannot repent, or turn to the Lord, This is apparently the condition of most in the world.

[3.] Sensuality of affections is in this judgment also; Rom. i. 26. He gave them up to vile affections; that is, to place their affections on vile, sensual things. Unhealed persons shall do so. Our streets, ale-houses, and many other places, are full of such whose affections are fixed with madness on vile things; and they please themselves in them, little thinking that this is part of the judgment whereunto they are given up of God, for their unprofitableness under the word; for their not being healed by the waters of the sanctuary.

[4.] Searedness of conscience; 1 Tim. iv. 2. Having their conscience seared with a hot iron.' Eph. iv. 19. 'Being past feeling.' Whatever sin they commit, or condition they fall into, conscience shall no more discharge its duty in them, and towards them.

And this is the second thing that God will do towards such unhealed persons.

(3.) The third thing considerable is the event of this dealing of God with them; or what is meant by this land's becoming salt.

Two things, as I have shewed before, are hereby intended: [1.] Barrenness in this world; [2.] Eternal ruin in the world

to come.

[1.] Barrenness: they shall never bear any fruit to God. This was the curse that our Saviour gave to the fig-tree: 'Never fruit grow on thee.' Man was made to bear fruit