A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture…

Give me leave to illustrate it by a few Scriptures, where the World and the Saints are compared. The World are said to be not a People, 1 Pet. 2.10. How so? not for want of Prowess, or Policy, or Pomp, or worldly Splendour, or civil Arts or Crafts; many times in these things they excel the Church: but they are said to be not a People, that is, in God's Account and Esteem they are but a confused Heap of Nations spilt upon the Earth by a general and looser Providence. In Isa. 55.5. There is another Emphatical Expression; Behold, thou shalt call Nations that thou knowest not; and Nations that know not thee, shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God. It is spoken to Christ: It is a strange Expression. Is there any Terra incognita, any Land that is unknown to him? The meaning is, which thou hast no more taken notice of, nor taken Care of, than a Man doth of those whom he never knew; a People of no Esteem and Respect with God, as if he had taken no notice that there were any such in the World. So Acts 17.30. The times of this Ignorance God winked at. In the Original it is [Greek or Hebrew], he overlooked them. The Vulgar read it, despiciens, he did despise them: and our old Translation is better than the new, God regarded them not. It is usually taken to signify God's Indulgence, that he did not deal so strictly with the World, because they had so little means to keep them from Sin; whereas the Scope carrieth it quite otherwise in another Sense, God overlooked, or lightly passed over those times, not caring what became of them that then lived before they were his peculiar People; he overlooked and regarded them not, but let them go on in their Sins, though not unpunished. Thus you see Foreigners to the Church are Strangers to God, and wicked Men are as if they were not; not in regard of God's general Providence, so they are sustained and regarded: ⟨p. 175⟩he preserves Man and Beast; not in regard of calling them to an account for their Sins; they that are sometimes called no People, are at other times called the People of his Curse ▪ But in regard of Value and Esteem, as to special Communion with him, they are not at all.