302 SEVENTH SERMON word, and executed in his judgments upon wicked men, are great occasions of stumbling unto them, when they are not thereby with Manasseh humbled under God's mighty hand, but with Pharaoh hardened the more in their stubbornness against him. There is such desperate wickedness in the hearts of some men, that they can even sit down and rest in the resolutions of perishing, resolving to enjoy the pleasures of sin while they may. " To-morrow we shall die," there- fore in the mean time, " let us eat and drink," 1 Cor. xv. 32. " This evil is of the Lord, why should we wait for the Lord any longer ?" 2 Kings vi. 33. There are three men in the scripture that have a special brand or mark of ignominy set upon them, Cain, Dathan, and Ahaz. " The Lord set a mark upon Cain," Gen. iv. 15. This is that Dathan, and this is that Ahaz, Numb. xxvi. 9. 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. and if we examine the reasons, we shall find that the sin of stubbornness had a special hand in it. Cain's offer- ing was not accepted, upon this he grew wroth and sullen, and stubborn against God's gentle warning, and slew his brother. Dathan and his companions sent for by Moses, return a proud and stubborn an- swer, " We will not come up, we will not come up." Ahaz greatly distressed by the king of Syria, by the Edomites, by the Philistines, by the Assyrian, and in the midst of all this distress, stubborn still, and tres- passing more against the Lord. It is one of the saddest symptoms in the world for a man or a nation not to be humbled under the correcting hand of God, but like an anvil to grow harder under blows, and a most sure argument that God will not give over, but go on to multiply his judgments still ; for he will overcome when he judgeth, and therefore will judge till he overcome. In musical notation, there are but
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