Of EleClion. if be had fent him to any other Nation, utter Strangers io any of his MeiLges ~ from God; as a Prophet, which were familiar to the Jews, yea, that were un- Chap.4. acquainted with the Prophets Language, had I fent there unto them, they ~-..J would have hearkned unto thee, Ezek. ~· 7· Bttt the hozifeof Ifrael wz/J 11ot hearkfll unto thet; for they wi/J not hearke11 tmtome: For a/J the houfe of 1(. rat/are impudeM and hard.hearted.And yetGod palled by them Nations.Now God,according to his pleafure, difpofeth the outward priviledge of his Word, with fo great a difference towards me11, even of them \\>horn he calls; away fo much more doth he lhew it in Elelling Grace, in his not vouchfafing to catt it upon lelfer finners, nor to go by fuch a Rule, but often upon greater, as upon Publicans and Harlots, when ·not upon Pharifees, the firicte!t fort of Ju!ticiaries, as Paul, Ai1s 26. 5.faid; and as Chrifi's Speeches and Parables fhew; And look as God's vouchfafing his word (Gofpel) to thofe lorementinned;was the highefi aggravation by reafon of the comparative difference between them, fo oh the contrary, that God bath left fuch a Multitude of better difpofed fmners in all Ages pafi, than we, and yet give in both the outward knowledge of his Word, and inward Grace of his Spirit to accompany it, this heightens his Love and Mercy to lis. lrl Matthew the llth. Chrifi having in!tanced in the mofl debauched Cities that have been in the World, Jodomand GomorrAh, and withal, in the mofl Civil and mofl Ingenuous of all the Heathens, Tyre, (I charalhrize them fuch·,becaufe of their Ingenuity unto God's Peopte,the Jews, not malicious as was Edom, f!ic. but friendly and aflifiantj even to the building of the Temple, and who by their vicini<y might eaflly have been made pacta· l<ers of the Priviledges of the Jews,) all advantages tbey had, and their fuf– ceprivenefs and aptnefs to have received tbe Gofpel, if preached unto them, wos fuch as Chrifi fays, that if tho(e works had 6tm doNe i".Tyre, they would have repmtrd inJacluJoth and afhes: And yet God afforded not to thefe the knowledge of his ways, much lefs of theGofpel, as he had done to thefe Ci· tics of <he Jews whom Chrifl there upbraids; the Mercy of which towards them, he upbraids them with to their juf\ Condemnation; which when h5 had done in Vn·fo22,23, 24. he takes occafioli from thence much iriore to magnifie God's Mercy vouchfafed umo his Elect; (whether thofe few of thofe Cities, whom his Minif\ry had wrought upon, or others elfewhere converted by himfelf or John) in his fubfequent Thankfgiving, (we bave fo 01ten made mention of) Verf. 25, 26. Atth~t time Jefm anfwereJ and Jmd, I thanlt, thee, 0 Father, Lord of Hei17Jen and Earth, 6ecaufe thou hafl htd tho{r things from the wtfe andprudent, and hafl revealed thrm unto Babes. Evm fo Fatha, for fo it {eemedgoodm thy (ighr. In which Speech he had his eye upon thofe forecited Examples, ooth of Tyre and Sodom, in compare with thefe hardned Capernaites; that God had hid thefe things from both lelfer arid greater finners, and had not only outwardly declared them (which he had done unto Caper..aum) but inwardly and effectually had wrought upon his Babes thereby; for it was upon occafion Chrifi broke forth into fo folemn an Adoration of God, as thefe words [At that time .7efm anfwered aud Jaid] do fliew: For they are colltmuatio Orationu, a continuation of his former Dif· courfe, as Chemnitim obferves; and the word [he tm(wered] referreth not to others, having fitfl fpoke to him whom he lhould have anfwered; but it rehtes to the matter foregone, and fo that he fpeaks anfwerably thereto: So as this of Chrifl, and the matter b) -pafi, do hold a congenial Connexion with the former, And Chrif\'s Adoration of God fot Electing thofe he had converted, drew down into it, and involved iri it, a comparative wit~] thofe Examples of thofe otners mentioned, that had been paf\ by, both Tyrians, Sodomitn, and thofe of Caper11at1m. And indeed, (if there were no other) this alone would argue wh~t I in– tend, viz. That by the fame Rule whereby Chrifi aggravates the fin and pu– nilhment of thofe Cities, a fin fo highly perpetrated againfi fo great a Mercy ot Chrifl, his preaching the Gofpel, wh1ch he had not vouchfafed to finners of a lelfcrlize, and that would have repented if they had eAjoyed it; and that notwithfianding God had not defigned it to them; by the fame Rule I fay , by way of Parallel,a like reafon ( though alledged to this dean contrary purpofe) V 2 ought
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