The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners

Romans 3:19

That every mouth may be stopped.

The main subject of the doctrinal part

of this epistle, is the free grace of God in the salvation of men

by Christ Jesus; especially as it appears in the doctrine of

justification by faith alone. And the more clearly to evince this

doctrine, and show the reason of it, the apostle, in the first

place, establishes that point, that no flesh living can be

justified by the deeds of the law. And to prove it, he is very

large and particular in showing, that all mankind, not only the

Gentiles, but Jews, are under sin, and so under the condemnation

of the law; which is what he insists upon from the beginning of

the epistle to this place. He first begins with the Gentiles; and

in the first chapter shows that they are under sin, by setting

forth the exceeding corruptions and horrid wickedness that overspread

the Gentile world: and then through the second chapter, and the

former part of this third chapter, to the text and following

verse, he shows the same of the Jews, that they also are in the same circumstances

with the Gentiles in this regard. They had a high thought of

themselves, because they were God's covenant people, and

circumcised, and the children of Abraham. They despised the Gentiles

as polluted, condemned, and accursed; but looked on themselves,

on account of their external privileges, and ceremonial and moral

righteousness, as a pure and holy people, and the children of

God; as the apostle observes in the second chapter. It was

therefore strange doctrine to them, that they also were unclean

and guilty in God's sight, and under the condemnation and curse

of the law. The apostle does therefore, on account of their

strong prejudices against such doctrine, the more particularly

insists upon it, and shows that they are no better than the

Gentiles; and as in the 9th verse of this chapter, "What

then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved

both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." And,

to convince them of it, he then produces certain passages out of

their own law, or the Old Testament, (to whose authority they pretend

a great regard,) from the ninth verse to our text. And it may be

observed, that the apostle, first, cites certain passages to

prove that all mankind are corrupt, (verses 10-12.) "As it

is written, there is none righteous, no not one: There is none

that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God: They

are all gone out of the way, they are together become

unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no not one."

Secondly, the passages he cites next, are to prove, that not only

all are corrupt, but each one wholly corrupt, as it were all over

unclean, from the crown of the head to the soles of his feet; and

therefore several particular parts of thebody are mentioned, the

throat, the tongue, the lips, the mouth, the feet, (verses 13-15.)

"Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they

have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose

mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to

shed blood." And, Thirdly, he quotes other passages to show, that

each one is not only all over corrupt, but corrupt to a desperate

degree, by affirming the most pernicious tendency of their

wickedness; "Destruction and misery are in their ways."

And then by denying all goodness or godliness in them; "And

the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God

before their eyes." And then, lest the Jews should think

these passages of their law do not concern them, and only the

Gentiles are intended in them, the apostle shows in the text, not

only that they are not exempt, but that they especially must be understood:

"Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith

to them who are under the law." By those that are under the law

is meant the Jews; and the Gentiles by those that are without law; as

appears by the 12th verse of the preceding chapter. There is a

special reason to understand the law, as speaking to and of them,

to whom it was immediately given. And therefore the Jews would be unreasonable

in exempting themselves. And if we examine the places of the Old

Testament whence these passages are taken, we shall see plainly

that special respect is had to the wickedness of the people of

that nation, in every one of them. So that the law shuts all up

in universal and desperate wickedness, that every mouth may be

stopped; the mouths of the Jews, as well as of the Gentiles, notwithstanding all those

privileges by which they were distinguished from the Gentiles.

The things that the law says, are sufficient to stop the

mouths of all mankind, in two respects.

1. To stop them from boasting of their righteousness, as the

Jews were wont to do; as the apostle observes in the 23rd verse of

the preceding chapter.- That the apostle has respect to stopping

their mouths in this respect, appears by the 27th verse of the

context, "Where is boasting then? It is excluded." The

law stops our mouths from making any plea for life, or the favor of

God, or any positive good, from our own righteousness.

2. To stop them from making any excuse for ourselves, or

objection against the execution of the sentence of the law, or

the infliction of the punishment that it threatens. That it is

intended, appears by the words immediately following, "That

all the world may become guilty before God." That is, that they

may appear to be guilty, and stand convicted before God, and justly

liable to the condemnation of his law, as guilty of death,

according to the Jewish way of speaking.

And thus the apostle proves, that no flesh can be justified in

God's sight by the deeds of the law; as he draws the conclusion in

the following verse; and so prepares the way for establishing of

the great doctrine of justification by faith alone, which he

proceeds to do in the following part of the chapter, and of the

epistle.

"It is just with God eternally to cast off and destroy

sinners."- For this is the punishment which the law condemns

to- The truth of this doctrine may appear by the joint

consideration of two things, viz. Man's sinfulness, and God's

sovereignty.

I. It appears from the consideration of man's sinfulness. And

that whether we consider the infinitely evil nature of all sin,

or how much sin men are guilty of.

1. If we consider the infinite evil and heinousness of sin in

general, it is not unjust in God to inflict what punishment is deserved;

because the very notion of deserving any punishment is, that it

may be justly inflicted. A deserved punishment and a just

punishment are the same thing. To say that one deserves such a

punishment, and yet to say that he does not justly deserve it, is

a contradiction; and if he justly deserves it, then it may be

justly inflicted.

Every crime or fault deserves a greater or less punishment, in

proportion as the crime itself is greater or less. If any fault deserves

punishment, then so much the greater the fault, so much the greater

is the punishment deserved. The faulty nature of any thing is the

formal ground and reason of its desert of punishment; and

therefore the more any thing hath of this nature, the more

punishment it deserves. And therefore the terribleness of the

degree of punishment, let it be never be so terrible, is no argument against

the justice of it, if the proportion does but hold between the

heinousness of the crime and the dreadfulness of the punishment;

so that if there be any such thing as a fault infinitely heinous,

it will follow that it is just to inflict a punishment for it

that is infinitely dreadful.

A crime is more or less heinous, according as we are under

greater or less obligations to the contrary. This is

self-evident; because it is herein that the criminalness or

faultiness of any thing consists, that it is contrary to what we

are obliged or bound to, or what ought to be in us. So the faultiness

of one being hating another, is in proportion to his obligation

to love him. The crime of one being despising and casting

contempt on another, is proportionably more or less heinous, as

he was under greater or less obligations to honor him. The fault

of disobeying another, is greater or less, as any one is under greater

or less obligations to obey him. And therefore if there be any

being that we are under infinite obligations to love, and honor,

and obey, the contrary towards him must be infinitely faulty. Our obligation to love, honor, and obey any being, is in

proportion to his loveliness, honourableness, and authority; for that

is the very meaning of the words. When we say any one is very

lovely, it is the same as to say, that he is one very much to be

loved. Or if we say such a one is more honourable than another,

the meaning of the words is, that he is one that we are more

obliged to honor. If we say any one has great authority over us,

it is the same as to say, that he has great right to our subjection

and obedience.

But God is a being infinitely lovely, because he hath infinite

excellency and beauty. To have infinite excellency and beauty, is

the same thing as to have infinite loveliness. He is a being of

infinite greatness, majesty, and glory; and therefore he is infinitely

honourable. He is infinitely exalted above the greatest

potentates of the earth, and highest angels in heaven; and therefore

he is infinitely more honourable than they. His authority over us

is infinite; and the ground of his right to our obedience is infinitely

strong; for he is infinitely worthy to be obeyed himself, and we

have an absolute, universal, and infinite dependence upon him.

So that sin against God, being a violation of infinite

obligations, must be a crime infinitely heinous, and so deserving

of infinite punishment.- Nothing is more agreeable to the common

sense of mankind, than that sins committed against any one, must

be proportionably heinous to the dignity of the being offended

and abused; as it is also agreeable to the word of God, I Samuel

2:25. "If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge

him;" (i.e. shall judge him, and inflict a finite punishment,

such as finite judges can inflict;) "but if a man sin

against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?" This was the aggravation

of sin that made Joseph afraid of it. Genesis 39:9. "How

shall I commit this great wickedness, and sin against God?"

This was the aggravation of David's sin, in comparison of which he

esteemed all others as nothing, because they were infinitely

exceeded by it. Psalm 51:4. "Against thee, thee only have I

sinned."-The eternity of the punishment of ungodly men renders

it infinite: and it renders it no more than infinite; and

therefore renders no more than proportionable to the heinousness of

what they are guilty of.

If there be any evil or faultiness in sin against God, there

is certainly infinite evil: for if it be any fault at all, it has

an infinite aggravation, viz. that it is against an infinite

object. If it be ever so small upon other accounts, yet if it be

any thing, it has one infinite dimension; and so is an infinite evil.

Which may be illustrated by this: if we suppose a thing to have infinite

length, but no breadth and thickness, (a mere mathematical line,)

it is nothing: but if it have any breadth and thickness, though

never so small, and infinite length, the quantity of it is

infinite; it exceeds the quantity of any thing, however broad,

thick, and long, wherein these dimensions are all finite.

So that the objections made against the infinite punishment of

sin, from the necessity, or rather previous certainty, of the futurition

of sin, arising from the unavoidable original corruption of

nature, if they argue any thing, argue against any faultiness at

all: for if this necessity or certainty leaves any evil at all in

sin, that fault must be infinite by reason of the infinite

object.

But every such objector as would argue from hence, that there

is no fault at all in sin, confutes himself, and shows his own insincerity

in his objection. For at the same time that he objects, that men's

acts are necessary, and that this kind of necessity is

inconsistent with faultiness in the act, his own practice shows

that he does not believe what he objects to be true: otherwise

why does he at all blame men? Or why are such persons at all

displeased with men, for abusive, injurious, and ungrateful acts towards

them? Whatever they pretend, by this they show that indeed they

do believe that there is no necessity in men's acts that is

inconsistent with blame. And if their objection be this, that

this previous certainty is by God's own ordering, and that where

God orders an antecedent certainty of acts, he transfers all the

fault from the actor on himself; their practice shows, that at

the same time they do not believe this, but fully believe the

contrary: for when they are abused by men, they are displeased

with men, and not with God only.

The light of nature teaches all mankind, that when an injury

is voluntary, it is faulty, without any consideration of what

there might be previously to determine the futurition of that

evil act of the will. And it really teaches this as much to those

that object and cavil most as to others; as their universal practice

shows. By which it appears, that such objections are insincere and

perverse. Men will mention others' corrupt nature when they are

injured, as a thing that aggravates their crime, and that wherein

their faultiness partly consists. How common is it for persons,

when they look on themselves greatly injured by another, to

inveigh against him, and aggravate his baseness, by saying, "He

is a man of a most perverse spirit: he is naturally of a selfish,

niggardly, or proud and haughty temper: he is one of a base and

vile disposition." And yet men's natural and corrupt

dispositions are mentioned as an excuse for them, with respect to

their sins against God, as if they rendered them blameless.

2. That it is just with God eternally to cast off wicked men,

may more abundantly appear, if we consider how much sin they are

guilty of. From what has been already said, it appears, that if

men were guilty of sin but in one particular, that is sufficient

ground of their eternal rejection and condemnation. If they are

sinners, that is enough. Merely this, might be sufficient to keep

them from ever lifting up their heads, and cause them to smite on

their breasts, with the publican that cried, "God be

merciful to me a sinner." But sinful men are full of sin;

full of principles and acts of sin: their guilt is like great

mountains, heaped one upon another, till the pile is grown up to

heaven. They are totally corrupt, in every part, in all their

faculties, and all the principles of their nature, their understandings, and

wills; and in all their dispositions and affections. Their heads,

their hearts, are totally depraved; all the members of their

bodies are only instruments of sin; and all their senses, seeing,

hearing, tasting, &c. are only inlets and outlets of sin,

channels of corruption. There is nothing but sin, no good at all.

Romans. 7:18. "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good

thing." There is all manner of wickedness. There are the

seeds of the greatest and blackest crimes. There are principles

of all sorts of wickedness against men; and there is all

wickedness against God. There is pride; there is enmity; there is

contempt; there is quarreling; there is atheism; there is blasphemy.

There are these things in exceeding strength; the heart is under

the power of them, is sold under sin, and is a perfect slave to

it. There is hard-heartedness, hardness greater than that of a rock,

or an adamant-stone. There is obstinacy and perverseness,

incorrigibleness and inflexibleness in sin, that will not be

overcome by threatenings or promises, by awakenings or

encouragements, by judgments or mercies, neither by that which is

terrifying nor that which is winning. The very blood of God our

Savior will not win the heart of a wicked man.

And there are actual wickednesses without number or measure.

There are breaches of every command, in thought, word, and deed:

a life full of sin; days and nights filled up with sin; mercies abused

and frowns despised; mercy and justice, and all the divine

perfections, trampled on; and the honor of each person in the

Trinity trod in the dirt. Now if one sinful word or thought has

so much evil in it, as to deserve eternal destruction, how do

they deserve to be eternally cast off and destroyed, that are

guilty of so much sin!

II. If with man's sinfulness, we consider God's sovereignty,

it may serve further to clear God's justice in the eternal rejection

and condemnation of sinners, from men's cavils and objections. I shall

not now pretend to determine precisely, what things are, and what

things are not, proper acts and exercises of God's holy

sovereignty; but only, that God's sovereignty extends to the

following things.

1. That such is God's sovereign power and right, that he is

originally under no obligation to keep men from sinning; but may in

his providence permit and leave them to sin. He was not obliged

to keep either angels or men from falling. It is unreasonable to

suppose, that God should be obliged, if he makes a reasonable

creature capable of knowing his will, and receiving a law from

him, and being subject to his moral government, at the same time

to make it impossible for him to sin, or break his law. For if

God be obliged to this, it destroys all use of any commands,

laws, promises, or threatenings, and the very notion of any moral

government of God over those reasonable creatures. For to what

purpose would it be, for God to give such and such laws, and

declare his holy will to a creature, and annex promises and

threatenings to move him to his duty, and make him careful to perform

it, if the creature at the same time has this to think of, that

God is obliged to make it impossible for him to break his laws?

How can God's threatenings move to care or watchfulness, when, at

the same time, God is obliged to render it impossible that he

should be exposed to the threatenings? Or, to what purpose is it

for God to give a law at all? For according to this supposition, it

is God, and not the creature, that is under the law. It is the

lawgiver's care, and not the subject's, to see that his law is

obeyed; and this care is what the lawgiver is absolutely obliged to!

If God be obliged never to permit a creature to fall, there is an

end of all divine laws, or government, or authority of God over

the creature; there can be no manner of use of these things.

God may permit sin, though the being of sin will certainly

ensue on that permission: and so, by permission, he may dispose and

order the event. If there were any such thing as chance, or mere contingence,

and the very notion of it did not carry a gross absurdity, (as

might easily be shown that it does,) it would have been very

unfit that God should have left it to mere chance, whether man should fall

or no. For chance, if there should be any such thing, is

undesigning and blind. And certainly it is more fit that an event

of so great importance, and that is attended with such an

infinite train of great consequences, should be disposed and

ordered by infinite wisdom, than that it should be left to blind chance.

If it be said, that God need not have interposed to render it

impossible for man to sin, and yet not leave it to mere contingence

or blind chance neither; but might have left it with man's free

will, to determine whether to sin or no: I answer, if God did

leave it to man's free will, without any sort of disposal, or

ordering [or rather, adequate cause] in the case, whence it

should be previously certain how that free will should determine,

then still that first determination of the will must be merely contingent

or by chance. It could not have any antecedent act of the will to

determine it; for I speak now of the very first act of motion of

the will, respecting the affair that may be looked upon as the prime

ground and highest source of the event. To suppose this to be

determined by a foregoing act is a contradiction. God's disposing

this determination of the will by his permission, does not at all infringe the

liberty of the creature: it is in no respect any more

inconsistent with liberty, than mere chance or contingence. For

if the determination of the will be from blind, undesigning

chance, it is no more from the agent himself, or from the will

itself, than if we suppose, in the case, a wise, divine disposal

by permission.

2. It was fit that it should be at the ordering of the divine

wisdom and good pleasure, whether every particular man should stand

for himself, or whether the first father of mankind should be

appointed as the moral and federal head and representative of the

rest. If God has not liberty in this matter to determine either

of these two as he pleases, it must be because determining that

the first father of men should represent the rest, and not that

every one should stand for himself, is injurious to mankind. For if

it be not injurious, how is it unjust? But it is not injurious to

mankind; for there is nothing in the nature of the case itself,

that makes it better that each man should stand for himself, than

that all should be represented by their common father; as the

least reflection or consideration will convince any one. And if

there be nothing in the nature of the thing that makes the former

better for mankind than the latter, then it will follow, that

they are not hurt in God's choosing and appointing the latter,

rather than the former; or, which is the same thing, that it is

not injurious to mankind.

3. When men are fallen, and become sinful, God by his

sovereignty has a right to determine about their redemption as he pleases.

He has a right to determine whether he will redeem any or not. He might,

if he had pleased, have left all to perish, or might have

redeemed all. Or, he may redeem some, and leave others; and if he

doth so, he may take whom he pleases, and leave whom he pleases.

To suppose that all have forfeited his favor, and deserved to

perish, and to suppose that he may not leave any one individual

of them to perish, implies a contradiction; because it supposes

that such a one has a claim to God's favor, and is not justly

liable to perish; which is contrary to the supposition.

It is meet that God should order all these things according to

his own pleasure. By reason of his greatness and glory, by which

he is infinitely above all, he is worthy to be sovereign, and

that his pleasure should in all things take place. He is worthy

that he should make himself his end, and that he should make

nothing but his own wisdom his rule in pursuing that end, without

asking leave or counsel of any, and without giving account of any

of his matters. It is fit that he who is absolutely perfect, and infinitely

wise, and the Fountain of all wisdom, should determine every

thing [that he effects] by his own will, even things of the

greatest importance. It is meet that he should be thus sovereign,

because he is the first being, the eternal being, whence all

other beings are. He is the Creator of all things; and all are

absolutely and universally dependent on him; and therefore it is meet

that he should act as the sovereign possessor of heaven and

earth.

APPLICATION

In the improvement of this doctrine, I would chiefly direct

myself to sinners who are afraid of damnation, in a use of conviction.

This may be matter of conviction to you, that it would be just

and righteous with God eternally to reject and destroy you. This

is what you are in danger of. You who are a Christless sinner are

a poor condemned creature: God's wrath still abides upon you; and

the sentence of condemnation lies upon you. You are in God's

hands, and it is uncertain what he will do with you. You are

afraid what will become of you. You are afraid that it will be

your portion to suffer eternal burnings; and your fears are not

without grounds; you have reason to tremble every moment. But be

you never so much afraid of it, let eternal damnation be never so

dreadful, yet it is just. God may nevertheless do it, and be

righteous, and holy, and glorious. Though eternal damnation be

what you cannot bear, and how much soever your heart shrinks at

the thought of it, yet God's justice may be glorious in it. The

dreadfulness of the thing on your part, and the greatness of your dread

of it, do not render it the less righteous on God's part. If you

think otherwise, it is a sign that you do not see yourself, that

you are not sensible what sin is, nor how much of it you have

been guilty of. Therefore for your conviction, be directed,

First, To look over your past life: inquire at the mouth of

conscience, and hear what that has to testify concerning it. Consider

what you are, what light you have had, and what means you have lived

under: and yet how you have behaved yourself! What have those

many days and nights you have lived been filled up with? How have

those years that have rolled over your heads, one after another,

been spent? What has the sun shone upon you for, from day to day,

while you have improved his light to serve Satan by it? What has

God kept your breath in your nostrils for, and given you meat and

drink, that you have spent your life and strength, supported by

them, in opposing God, and rebellion against him?

How many sorts of wickedness have you not been guilty of! How

manifold have been the abominations of your life! What profaneness

and contempt of God has been exercised by you! How little regard

have you had to the Scriptures, to the word preached, to

sabbaths, and sacraments! How profanely have you talked, many of

you, about those things that are holy! After what manner have many of

you kept God's holy day, not regarding the holiness of the time,

not caring what you thought of in it! Yea, you have not only

spent the time in worldly, vain, and unprofitable thoughts, but

in immoral thoughts; pleasing yourself with the reflection on

past acts of wickedness, and in contriving new acts. Have not you

spent much holy time in gratifying your lusts in your

imaginations; yea, not only holy time, but the very time of God's

public worship, when you have appeared in God's more immediate presence?

How have you not only attended to the worship, but have in the

mean time been feasting your lusts, and wallowing yourself in

abominable uncleanness! How many sabbaths have you spent, one

after another, in a most wretched manner! Some of you not only in

worldly and wicked thoughts, but also a very wicked outward behavior!

When you on sabbath-days have got along with your wicked

companions, how has holy time been treated among you! What kind

of conversation has there been! Yea, how have some of you, by a

very indecent carriage, openly dishonored and cast contempt on

the sacred services of God's house, and holy day! And what you have

done some of you alone, what wicked practices there have been in

secret, even in holy time, God and your own consciences know.

And how have you behaved yourself in the time of family

prayer! And what a trade have many of you made of absenting yourselves

from the worship of the families you belong to, for the sake of vain company!

And how have you continued in the neglect of secret prayer!

Therein wilfully living in a known sin, going abreast against as

plain a command as any in the Bible! Have you not been one that has

cast off fear, and restrained prayer before God?

What wicked carriage have some of you been guilty of towards

your parents! How far have you been from paying that honor to

them which God has required! Have you not even harboured ill-will and malice

towards them? And when they have displeased you, have wished evil

to them? yea, and shown your vile spirit in your behavior? and it

is well if you have not mocked them behind their backs; and, like

the cursed Ham and Canaan, as it were, derided your parents'

nakedness instead of covering it, and hiding your eyes from it.

Have not some of you often disobeyed your parents, yea, and

refused to be subject to them? Is it not a wonder of mercy and

forbearance, that the proverb has not before now been

accomplished on you, Proverbs 30:17. "The eye that mocketh

at his father, and refuseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the

valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it."

What revenge and malice have you been guilty of towards your

neighbors! How have you indulged this spirit of the devil, hating

others, and wishing evil to them, rejoicing when evil befell

them, and grieving at others' prosperity, and lived in such a way

for a long time! Have not some of you allowed a passionate

furious spirit, and behaved yourselves in your anger more like

wild beasts than like Christians?

What covetousness has been in many of you! Such has been your

inordinate love of the world, and care about the things of it,

that it has taken up your heart; you have allowed no room for God

and religion; you have minded the world more than your eternal

salvation. For the vanities of the world you have neglected

reading, praying and meditation; for the things of the world, you

have broken the sabbath: for the world you have spent a great

deal of your time in quarreling. For the world you have envied

and hated your neighbor; for the world you have cast God, and

Christ, and heaven, behind your back; for the world you have sold

your own soul. You have as it were drowned your soul in worldly cares

and desires; you have been a mere earth-worm, that is never in

its element but when grovelling and buried in the earth.

How much of a spirit of pride has appeared in you, which is in

a peculiar manner the spirit and condemnation of the devil! How

have some of you vaunted yourselves in your apparel! others in their riches!

others in their knowledge and abilities! How has it galled you to

see others above you! How much has it gone against the grain for

you to give others their due honor! And how have you shown your

pride by setting up your wills and in opposing others, and

stirring up and promoting division, and a party spirit in public

affairs.

How sensual have you been! Are there not some here that have

debased themselves below the dignity of human nature, by wallowing

in sensual filthiness, as swine in the mire, or as filthy vermin feeding with

delight on rotten carrion? What intemperance have some of you

been guilty of! How much of your precious time have you spent at

the tavern, and in drinking companies, when you ought to have

been at home seeking God and your salvation in your families and

closets!

And what abominable lasciviousness have some of you been

guilty of! How have you indulged yourself from day to day, and

from night to night, in all manner of unclean imaginations! Has

not your soul been filled with them, till it has become a hold of

soul spirits, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird? What

soul-mouthed persons have some of you been, often in lewd and

lascivious talk and unclean songs, wherein were things not fit to

be spoken! And such company, where such conversation has been

carried on, has been your delight. And with what unclean acts and

practices have you defiled yourself! God and your own consciences

know what abominable lasciviousness you have practised in things

not fit to be named, when you have been alone; when you ought to

have been reading, or meditating, or on your knees before God in secret

prayer. And how have you corrupted others, as well as polluted

yourselves! What vile uncleanness have you practised in company!

What abominations have you been guilty of in the dark! Such as

the apostle doubtless had respect to in Ephesians 5:12. "For

it is a shame even to speak of those things that are done of them in

secret." Some of you have corrupted others, and done what in

you lay to undo their souls, (if you have not actually done it;)

and by your vile practices and example have made room for Satan, invited

his presence, and established his interest, in the town where you

have lived. What lying have some of you been guilty of, especially in your

childhood! And have not your heart and lips often disagreed since

you came to riper years? What fraud, and deceit, and

unfaithfulness, have many of you practised in your own dealings with

your neighbours, of which your own heart is conscious, if you

have not been noted by others.

And how have some of you behaved yourselves in your family

relations! How have you neglected your children's souls! And not

only so, but have corrupted their minds by your bad examples; and instead

of training them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,

have rather brought them up in the devil's service!

How have some of you attended that sacred ordinance of the

Lord's supper without any manner of serious preparation, and in a

careless slighty frame of spirits, and chiefly to comply with

custom! Have you not ventured to put the sacred symbols of the

body and blood of Christ into your mouth, while at the same time

you lived in ways of known sins, and intended no other than still

to go on in the same wicked practices? And, it may be, have sat

at the Lord's table with rancour in your heart against some of

your brethren that you have sat there with. You have come even to

that holy feast of love among God's children, with the leaven of

malice and envy in your heart; and so have eaten and drank judgment

to yourself.

What stupidity and sottishness has attended your course of

wickedness: which has appeared in your obstinacy under awakening

dispensations of God's word and providence. And how have some of you backslidden

after you have set out in religion, and quenched God's Spirit

after he had been striving with you! And what unsteadiness, and

slothfulness, and long misimprovement of God's strivings with you,

have you been chargeable with!

Now, can you think when you have thus behaved yourself, that

God is obliged to show you mercy? Are you not after all this ashamed

to talk of its being hard with God to cast you off? Does it

become one who has lived such a life to open his mouth to excuse

himself, to object against God's justice in his condemnation, or

to complain of it as hard in God not to give him converting and

pardoning grace, and make him his child, and bestow on him

eternal life? Or to talk of his duties and great pains in religion,

as if such performances were worthy to be accepted, and to draw

God's heart to such a creature? If this has been your manner,

does it not show how little you have considered yourself, and how

little a sense you have had of your own sinfulness?

Secondly, Be directed to consider, if God should eternally

reject and destroy you, what an agreeableness and exact mutual answerableness

there would be between God so dealing with you, and your spirit

and behavior. There would not only be an equality, but a

similitude. God declares, that his dealings with men shall be

suitable to their disposition and practice. Psalm 18:25, 26.

"With the merciful man, thou wilt show thyself merciful;

with an upright man, thou wilt show thyself upright; with the

pure, thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward, thou

wilt show thyself froward." How much soever you dread

damnation, and are affrighted and concerned at the thoughts of

it; yet if God should indeed eternally damn you, you would be met

with but in your own way; you would be dealt with exactly

according to your own dealing. Surely it is but fair that you

should be made to buy in the same measure in which you sell.

Here I would particularly show,- 1. That if God should

eternally destroy you, it would be agreeable to your treatment of God.

2. That it would be agreeable to your treatment of Jesus Christ.

3. That it would be agreeable to your behavior towards your

neighbours. 4. That it would be according to your own foolish

behavior towards yourself.

I. If God should for ever cast you off, it would be exactly

agreeable to your treatment of him. That you may be sensible of this,

consider,

1. You never have exercised the least degree of love to God;

and therefore it would be agreeable to your treatment of him, if

he should never express any love to you. When God converts and

saves a sinner, it is a wonderful and unspeakable manifestation

of divine love. When a poor lost soul is brought home to Christ,

and has all his sins forgiven him, and is made a child of God, it

will take up a whole eternity to express and declare the

greatness of that love. And why should God be obliged to express

such wonderful love to you, who never exercised the least degree

of love to him in all your life? You never have loved God, who is

infinitely glorious and lovely; and why then is God under obligation

to love you, who are all over deformed and loathsome as a filthy

worm, or rather a hateful viper? You have no benevolence in your

heart towards God; you never rejoiced in God's happiness; if he

had been miserable, and that had been possible, you would have

liked it as well as if he were happy; you would not have cared

how miserable he was, nor mourned for it, any more than you now do

for the devil's being miserable. And why then should God be

looked upon as obliged to take so much care for your happiness,

as to do such great things for it, as he doth for those that are

saved? Or why should God be called hard, in case he should not be

careful to save you from misery? You care not what becomes of

God's glory; you are not distressed how much soever his honor

seems to suffer in the world: and why should God care any more

for your welfare? Has it not been so, that if you could but

promote your private interest, and gratify your own lusts, you

cared not how much the glory of God suffered? And why may not God

advance his own glory in the ruin of your welfare, not caring how

much your interest suffers by it? You never so much as stirred

one step, sincerely making the glory of God your end, or acting

from real respect to him: and why then is it hard if God doth not

do such great things for you, as the changing of your nature,

raising you from spiritual death to life, conquering the powers

of darkness for you, translating you out of the kingdom of

darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son, delivering you from

eternal misery, and bestowing upon you eternal glory? You were

not willing to deny yourself for God; you never cared to put yourself

out of your way for Christ; whenever any thing cross or difficult

came in your way, that the glory of God was concerned in, it has

been your manner to shun it, and excuse yourself from it. You did

not care to hurt yourself for Christ, whom you did not see worthy

of it; and why then must it be looked upon as a hard and cruel thing,

if Christ has not been pleased to spill his blood and be tormented

to death for such a sinner.

2. You have slighted God; and why then may not God justly

slight you? When sinners are sensible in some measure of their misery,

they are ready to think it hard that God will take no notice of

them; that he will see them in such a lamentable distressed

condition, beholding their burdens and tears, and seem to slight

it, and manifest no pity to them. Their souls they think are

precious: it would be a dreadful thing if they should perish, and

burn in hell for ever. They do not see through it, that God should

make so light of their salvation. But then, ought they not to

consider, that as their souls are precious, so is God's honor

precious? The honor of the infinite God, the great King of

heaven and earth, is a thing of as great importance, (and surely

may justly be so esteemed by God,) as the happiness of you, a

poor little worm. But yet you have slighted that honor of God,

and valued it no more than the dirt under your feet. You have

been told that such and such things were contrary to the will of

a holy God, and against his honor; but you cared not for that.

God called upon you, and exhorted you to be more tender of his

honor; but you went on without regarding him. Thus have you slighted

God! And yet, is it hard that God should slight you? Are you more

honourable than God, that he must be obliged to make much of you,

how light soever you make of him and his glory?

And you have not only slighted God in time past, but you

slight him still. You indeed now make a pretence and show of honouring

him in your prayers, and attendance on other external duties, and

by sober countenance, and seeming devoutness in your words and

behavior; but it if all mere dissembling. That downcast look and

seeming reverence, is not from any honor you have to God in your

heart, though you would have God take it so. You who have not

believed in Christ, have not the least jot of honor to God; that

show of it is merely forced, and what you are driven to by fear,

like those mentioned in Psalm 66:3. "Through the greatness

of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves to thee."

In the original it is, "shall lie unto thee;" that is,

yield feigned submission, and dissemble respect and honor to

thee. There is a rod held over you that makes you seem to pay

such respect to God. This religion and devotion, even the very

appearance of it, would soon be gone, and all vanish away, if

that were removed. Sometimes it may be you weep in your prayers,

and in your hearing sermons, and hope God will take notice of it,

and take it for some honor; but he sees it to be all hypocrisy.

You weep for yourself; you are afraid of hell; and do you think

that is worthy of God to take much notice of you, because you can

cry when you are in danger of being damned; when at the same time

you indeed care nothing for God's honor.

Seeing you thus disregard so great a God, is it a heinous

thing for God to slight you, a little, wretched, despicable

creature; a worm, a mere nothing, and less than nothing; a vile

insect, that has risen up in contempt against the Majesty of

heaven and earth?

3. Why should God be looked upon as obliged to bestow

salvation upon you, when you have been so ungrateful for the mercies

he has bestowed upon you already? God has tried you with a great

deal of kindness, and he never has sincerely been thanked by you

for any of it. God has watched over you, and preserved you, and

provided for you, and followed you with mercy all your days; and

yet you have continued sinning against him. He has given you food

and raiment, but you have improved both in the service of sin. He

has preserved you while you slept; but when you arose, it was to return

to the old trade of sinning. God, notwithstanding this

ingratitude, has still continued his mercy; but his kindness has

never won your heart, or brought you to a more grateful behavior towards

him. It may be you have received many remarkable mercies, recoveries

from sickness, or preservations of your life when exposed by

accidents, when if you had died, you would have gone directly to

hell; but you never had any true thankfulness for any of these

mercies. God has kept you out of hell, and continued your day of grace,

and the offers of salvation, so long a time; while you did not

regard your own salvation so much as in secret to ask God for it.

And now God has greatly added to his mercy to you, by giving you the

strivings of his Spirit, whereby a most precious opportunity for

your salvation is in your hands. But what thanks has God received

for it? What kind of returns have you made for all this kindness?

As God has multiplied mercies, so have you multiplied provocations.

And yet now are you ready to quarrel for mercy, and to find

fault with God, not only that he does not bestow more mercy, but

to contend with him, because he does not bestow infinite mercy

upon you, heaven with all it contains, and even himself, for your

eternal portion. What ideas have you of yourself, that you think

God is obliged to do so much for you, though you treat him ever

so ungratefully for his kindness wherewith you have been followed

all the days of your life.

4. You have voluntarily chosen to be with Satan in his enmity

and opposition to God; how justly therefore might you be with him

in his punishment! You did not choose to be on God's side, but rather chose

to side with the devil, and have obstinately continued in it,

against God's often repeated calls and counsels. You have chosen

rather to hearken to Satan than to God, and would be with him in

his work. You have given yourself up to him, to be subject to his

power and government, in opposition to God; how justly therefore

may God also give you up to him, and leave you in his power, to accomplish your

ruin! Seeing you have yielded yourself to his will, to do as he

would have you, surely God may leave you in his hands to execute

his will upon you. If men will be with God's enemy, and on his

side, why is God obliged to redeem them out of his hands, when

they have done his work? Doubtless you would be glad to serve the

devil, and be God's enemy while you live, and then to have God

your friend, and deliver you from the devil, when you come to

die. But will God be unjust if he deals otherwise by you? No,

surely! It will be altogether and perfectly just, that you should

have your portion with him with whom you have chosen to work; and

that you should be in his possession to whose dominion you have

yielded yourself; and if you cry to God for deliverance, he may

most justly give you that answer. Judges 10:14. "Go to the

gods which you have chosen."

5. Consider how often you have refused to hear God's calls to

you, and how just it would therefore be, if he should refuse to

hear you when you call upon him. You are ready, it may be, to

complain that you have often prayed, and earnestly begged of God

to show you mercy, and yet have no answer of prayer: One says, I

have been constant in prayer for so many years, and God has not

heard me. Another says, I have done what I can; I have prayed as

earnestly as I am able; I do not see how I can do more; and it will

seem hard if after all I am denied. But do you consider how often

God has called, and you have denied him? God has called

earnestly, and for a long time; he has called and called again in

his word, and in his providence, and you have refused. You was

not uneasy for fear you should not show regard enough to his

calls. You let him call as loud and as long as he would; for your

part, you had no leisure to attend to what he said; you had other

business to mind; you had these and those lusts to gratify and please,

and worldly concerns to attend; you could not afford to stand considering

of what God had to say to you. When the ministers of Christ have

stood and pleaded with you, in his name, sabbath after sabbath,

and have even spent their strength in it, how little was you

moved! It did not alter you, but you went on still as you used to

do; when you went away, you returned again to your sins, to your lasciviousness,

to your vain mirth, to your covetousness, to your intemperance,

and that has been the language of your heart and practice, Exodus

5:2. "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?"

Was it no crime for you to refuse to hear when God called? And

yet is it now very hard that God does not hear your earnest

calls, and that though your calling on God be not from any

respect to him, but merely from self-love? The devil would beg as

earnestly as you, if he had any hope to get salvation by it, and a

thousand times as earnestly, and yet be as much of a devil as he

is now. Are your calls more worthy to be heard than God's? Or is God

more obliged to regard what you say to him, than you to regard

his commands, counsels, and invitations to you? What can be more

justice than this, Proverbs 1:24, &c. "Because I have

called, and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man

regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would

none of my reproof: I will also laugh at your calamity, I will

mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation,

and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and

anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer;

they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me."

6. Have you not taken encouragement to sin against God, on

that very presumption, that God would show you mercy when you

sought it? And may not God justly refuse you that mercy that you

have so presumed upon? You have flattered yourself, that though

you did so, yet God would show you mercy when you cried earnestly

to him for it: how righteous therefore would it be in God, to

disappoint such a wicked presumption! It was upon that very hope

that you dared to affront the majesty of heaven so dreadfully as

you have done; and can you now be so sottish as to think that God

is obliged not to frustrate that hope?

When a sinner takes encouragement to neglect secret prayer

which God has commanded, to gratify his lusts, to live a carnal vain

life, to thwart God, to run upon him, and contemn him to his

face, thinking with himself, "If I do so, God would not damn

me; he is a merciful God, and therefore when I seek his mercy he

will bestow it upon me;" must God be accounted hard because

he will not do according to such a sinner's presumption?

Cannot he be excused from showing such a sinner mercy when he

is pleased to seek it, without incurring the charge of being unjust;

if this be the case, God has no liberty to vindicate his own honor and

majesty; but must lay himself open to all manner of affronts, and

yield himself up to the abuse of vile men, though they disobey,

despise, and dishonour him, as much as they will; and when they

have done, his mercy and pardoning grace must not be in his own

power and at his own disposal, but he must be obliged to dispense

it at their call. He must take these bold and vile contemners of

his majesty, when it suits them to ask it, and must forgive all

their sins, and not only so, but must adopt them into his family,

and make them his children, and bestow eternal glory upon them.

What mean, low, and strange thoughts have such men of God, who think

thus of him! Consider, that you have injured God the more, and

have been the worse enemy to him, for his being a merciful God.

So have you treated that attribute of God's mercy! How just is it

therefore that you never should have any benefit of that

attribute!

There is something peculiarly heinous in sinning against the

mercy of God more than other attributes. There is such base and

horrid ingratitude, in being the worse to God because he is a

being of infinite goodness and grace, that it above all things

renders wickedness vile and detestable. This ought to win us, and

engage us to serve God better; but instead of that, to sin

against him the more, has something inexpressibly bad in it, and

does in a peculiar manner enhance guilt, and incense wrath; as

seems to be intimated, Romans 2:4, 5. "Or despisest thou the

riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not

knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But

after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto

thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the

righteous judgment of God."

The greater the mercy of God is, the more should you be

engaged to love him, and live to his glory. But it has been contrariwise

with you; the consideration of the mercies of God being so

exceeding great, is the thing wherewith you have encouraged

yourself in sin. You have heard that the mercy of God was without

bounds, that it was sufficient to pardon the greatest sinner, and

you have upon that very account ventured to be a very great

sinner. Though it was very offensive to God, though you heard

that God infinitely hated sin, and that such practices as you

went on in were exceeding contrary to his nature, will, and

glory, yet that did not make you uneasy; you heard that he was a

very merciful God, and had grace enough to pardon you, and so

cared not how offensive your sins were to him. How long have some

of you gone on in sin, and what great sins have some of you been

guilty of, on that presumption! Your own conscience can give

testimony to it, that this has made you refuse God's calls, and

has made you regardless of his repeated commands. Now, how

righteous would it be if God should swear in his wrath, that you

should never be the better for his being infinitely merciful!

Your ingratitude has been the greater, that you have not only

abused the attribute of God's mercy, taking encouragement from it

to continue in sin, but you have also presumed that God would exercise infinite

mercy to you in particular; which consideration should have

especially endeared God to you. You have taken encouragement to

sin the more, from that consideration, that Christ came into the would

and died to save sinners; such thanks has Christ had from you,

for enduring such a tormenting death for his enemies! Now, how

justly might God refuse that you should ever be the better for

his Son's laying down his life! It was because of these things

that you put off seeking salvation. You would take the pleasures

of sin still longer, hardening yourself because mercy was infinite,

and it would not be too late, if you sought it afterwards; now, how

justly may God disappoint you in this, and so order it that it

shall be too late!

7. How have some of you risen up against God, and in the frame

of your minds opposed him in his sovereign dispensations! And how

justly upon that account might God oppose you, and set himself against

you! You never yet would submit to God; never willingly comply,

that God should have dominion over the world, and that he should

govern it for his own glory, according to his own wisdom. You, a

poor worm, a potsherd, a broken piece of an earthen vessel, have

dared to find fault and quarrel with God. Isaiah 45:9. "Woe

to him that striveth with his Maker. Let the potsherd strive with

the potsherds of the earth: shall the clay say to him that

fashioned it, What makest thou?" But yet you have ventured

to do it. Romans 9:20. "Who art thou, O man, that repliest

against God?" But yet you have thought you was big enough;

you have taken upon you to call God to an account, why he does thus

and thus; you have said to Jehovah, What dost thou?

If you have been restrained by fear from openly venting your

opposition and enmity of heart against God's government, yet it

has been in you; you have not been quiet in the frame of your

mind; you have had the heart of a viper within, and have been

ready to spit your venom at God. It is well if sometimes you have

not actually done it, by tolerating blasphemous thoughts and

malignant risings of heart against him; yea, and the frame of

your heart in some measure appeared in impatient and fretful behavior.-

Now, seeing you have thus opposed God, how just is it that God

should oppose you! Or is it because you are so much better, and

so much greater than God, that it is a crime for him to make that opposition

against you which you make against him? Do you think that the

liberty of making opposition is your exclusive prerogative, so

that you may be an enemy to God, but God must by no means be an enemy

to you, but must be looked upon under obligation nevertheless to help

you, and save you by his blood, and bestow his best blessings

upon you?

Consider how in the frame of your mind you have thwarted God

in those very exercises of mercy towards others that you are

seeking for yourself. God exercising his infinite grace towards

your neighbours, has put you into an ill frame, and it may be,

set you into a tumult of mind. How justly therefore may God

refuse ever to exercise that mercy towards you! Have you not thus

opposed God showing mercy to others, even at the very time when

you pretended to be earnest with God for pity and help for

yourself? Yea, and while you was endeavouring to get something

wherewith to recommend yourself to God? And will you look to God

still with a challenge of mercy, and contend with him for it

notwithstanding? Can you who have such a heart, and have thus

behaved yourself, come to God for any other than mere sovereign

mercy?

II. If you should for ever be cast off by God, it would be

agreeable to your treatment of Jesus Christ. It would have been just

with God if he had cast you off for ever, without ever making you

the offer of a Savior. But God hath not done that; he has

provided a Savior for sinners, and offered him to you, even his

own Son Jesus Christ, who is the only Savior of men. All that

are not for ever cast off are saved by him. God offers men

salvation through him, and has promised us, that if we come to him,

we shall not be cast off. But if you have treated, and still

treat, this Savior after such a manner, that if you should be

eternally cast off by God, it would be most agreeable to your behavior

towards him; which appears by this, viz. "That you reject

Christ, and will not have him for your Savior."

If God offers you a Savior from deserved punishment, and you

will not receive him, then surely it is just that you should go without

a Savior. Or is God obliged, because you do not like this Savior,

to provide you another? He has given an infinitely honourable and

glorious person, even his only begotten Son, to be a sacrifice

for sin, and so provided salvation; and this Savior is offered

to you: now if you refuse to accept him, is God therefore unjust

if he does not save you? Is he obliged to save you in a way of

your own choosing, because you do not like the way of his choosing?

Or will you charge Christ with injustice because he does not

become your Savior, when at the same time you will not have him

when he offers himself to you, and beseeches you to accept of him

as your Savior?

I am sensible that by this time many persons are ready to

object against this. If all should speak what they now think, we should

hear a murmuring all over the meeting-house, and one and another

would say, "I cannot see how this can be, that I am not

willing that Christ should be my Savior, when I would give all

the world that he was my Savior: how is it possible that I

should not be willing to have Christ for my Savior when this is

what I am seeking after, and praying for, and striving for, as for

my life?"

Here therefore I would endeavour to convince you, that you are

under a gross mistake in this matter. And, First, I would endeavour

to show the grounds of your mistake. And Secondly, To demonstrate to you,

that you have rejected, and do wilfully reject, Jesus Christ.

First, That you may see the weak grounds of your mistake,

consider,

1. There is a great deal of difference between a willingness

not to be damned, and a being willing to receive Christ for your

Savior. You have the former; there is no doubt of that: nobody

supposes that you love misery so as to choose an eternity of it;

and so doubtless you are willing to be saved from eternal misery.

But that is a very different thing from being willing to come to

Christ: persons very commonly mistake the one for the other, but

they are quite two things. You may love the deliverance, but hate

the deliverer. You tell of a willingness; but consider what is

the object of that willingness. It does not respect Christ; the

way of salvation by him is not at all the object of it; but it is

wholly terminated on your escape from misery. The inclination of

your will goes no further than self, it never reaches Christ. You

are willing not to be miserable; that is, you love yourself, and

there your will and choice terminate. And it is but a vain

pretence and delusion to say or think, that you are willing to accept

of Christ.

2. There is certainly a great deal of difference between a

forced compliance and a free willingness. Force and freedom cannot

consist together. Now that willingness, whereby you think you are

willing to have Christ for a Savior, is merely a forced thing.

Your heart does not go out after Christ of itself, but you are

forced and driven to seek an interest in him. Christ has no share

at all in your heart; there is no manner of closing of the heart

with him. This forced compliance is not what Christ seeks of you; he

seeks a free and willing acceptance, Psalm 110:3. "Thy

people shall be willing in the day of thy power." He seeks

not that you should receive him against your will, but with a

free will. He seeks entertainment in your heart and choice.- And

if you refuse thus to receive Christ, how just is it that Christ

should refuse to receive you? How reasonable are Christ's terms,

who offers to save all those that willingly, or with a good will,

accept of him for their Savior! Who can rationally expect that Christ

should force himself upon any man to be his Savior? Or what can

be looked for more reasonable, than that all who would be saved

by Christ, should heartily and freely entertain him? And surely

it would be very dishonourable for Christ to offer himself upon

lower terms.- But I would now proceed,

Secondly, To show that you are not willing to have Christ for

a Savior. To convince you of it, consider,

1. How it is possible that you should be willing to accept of

Christ as a Savior from the desert of a punishment that you are

not sensible you have deserved. If you are truly willing to

accept of Christ as a Savior, it must be as a sacrifice to make

atonement for your guilt. Christ came into the world on this

errand, to offer himself as an atonement, to answer for our desert

of punishment. But how can you be willing to have Christ for a

Savior from a desert of hell, if you be not sensible that you

have a desert of hell? If you have not really deserved

everlasting burnings in hell, then the very offer of an atonement

for such a desert is an imposition upon you. If you have no such

guilt upon you, then the very offer of a satisfaction for that

guilt is an injury, because it implies in it a charge of guilt

that you are free from. Now therefore it is impossible that a man

who is not convinced of his guilt can be willing to accept of

such an offer; because he cannot be willing to accept the charge

which the offer implies. A man who is not convinced that he has

deserved so dreadful a punishment, cannot willingly submit to be

charged with it. If he thinks he is willing, it is but a mere

forced, feigned business; because in his heart he looks upon

himself greatly injured; and therefore he cannot freely accept of Christ,

under that notion of a Savior from the desert of such a

punishment; for such an acceptance is an implicit owning that he

does deserve such a punishment.

I do not say, but that men may be willing to be saved from an

undeserved punishment; they may rather not suffer it, than suffer

it. But a man cannot be willing to accept one at God's hands,

under the notion of a Savior from a punishment deserved from him

which he thinks he has not deserved; it is impossible that any

one should freely allow a Savior under that notion. Such an one

cannot like the way of salvation by Christ; for if he thinks he

has not deserved hell, then he will think that freedom from hell

is a debt; and therefore cannot willingly and heartily receive it

as a free gift.- If a king should condemn a man to some

tormenting death, which the condemned person thought himself not deserving

of, but looked upon the sentence as unjust and cruel, and the

king, when the time of execution drew nigh, should offer him his

pardon, under the notion of a very great act of grace and clemency,

the condemned person never could willingly and heartily allow it

under that notion, because he judged himself unjustly condemned.

Now by this it is evident that you are not willing to accept

of Christ as your Savior; because you never yet had such a sense

of your own sinfulness, and such a conviction of your great guilt

in God 's sight, as to be indeed convinced that you lay justly

condemned to the punishment of hell. You never was convinced that

you had forfeited all favor, and was in God's hands, and at his

sovereign and arbitrary disposal, to be either destroyed or

saved, just as he pleased. You never yet was convinced of the

sovereignty of God. Hence are there so many objections arising

against the justice of your punishment from original sin, and

from God's decree, from mercy shown to others, and the like.

2. That you are not sincerely willing to accept of Christ as

your Savior, appears by this, That you never have been convinced

that he is sufficient for the work of your salvation. You never

had a sight or sense of any such excellency or worthiness in

Christ, as should give such great value to his blood and his

mediation with God, as that it was sufficient to be accepted for

such exceeding guilty creatures, who have so provoked God, and

exposed themselves to such amazing wrath. Saying it is so and

allowing it be as others say, is a very different thing from

being really convinced of it, and a being made sensible of it in

your own heart. The sufficiency of Christ depends upon, or rather consists

in his excellency. It is because he is so excellent a person that

his blood is of sufficient value to atone for sin, and it is

hence that his obedience is so worthy in God's sight; it is also

hence that his intercession is so prevalent; and therefore those

that never had any spiritual sight or sense of Christ's

excellency, cannot be sensible of his sufficiency.

And that sinners are not convinced that Christ is sufficient

for the work he has undertaken, appears most manifestly when they

are under great convictions of their sin, and danger of God's

wrath. Though it may be before they thought they could allow

Christ to be sufficient, (for it is easy to allow any one to be

sufficient for our defense at a time when we see no danger,) yet

when they come to be sensible of their guilt and God's wrath,

what discouraging thoughts do they entertain! How are they ready

to draw towards despair, as if there were no hope or help for

such wicked creatures as they! The reason is, They have no

apprehension or sense of any other way that God's majesty can be vindicated,

but only in their misery. To tell them of the blood of Christ

signifies nothing, it does not relieve their sinking, despairing

hearts. This makes it most evident that they are not convinced

that Christ is sufficient to be their Mediator.- And as long as

they are unconvinced of this, it is impossible they should be

willing to accept of him as their Mediator and Savior. A man in distressing

fear will not willingly betake himself to a fort that he judges

not sufficient to defend him from the enemy. A man will not

willingly venture out into the ocean in a ship that he suspects

is leaky, and will sink before he gets through his voyage.

3. It is evident that you are not willing to have Christ for

your Savior, because you have so mean an opinion of him, that you

durst not trust his faithfulness. One that undertakes to be the

Savior of souls had need be faithful; for if he fails in such a

trust, how great is the loss! But you are not convinced of Christ's

faithfulness; as is evident, because at such times as when you

are in a considerable measure sensible of your guilt and God's

anger, you cannot be convinced that Christ is willing to accept

of you, or that he stands ready to receive you, if you should

come to him, though Christ so much invites you to come to him,

and has so fully declared that he will not reject you, if you do

come; as particularly, John 6:37. "Him that cometh to me, I

will in no wise cast out." Now, there is no man can be

heartily willing to trust his eternal welfare in the hands of an unfaithful

person, or one whose faithfulness he suspects.

4. You are not willing to be saved in that way by Christ, as

is evident, because you are not willing that your own goodness should

be set at nought. In the way of salvation by Christ men's own goodness

is wholly set at nought; there is no account at all made of it.

Now you cannot be willing to be saved in a way wherein your own

goodness is set at nought, as is evident, since you make much of

it yourself. You make much of your prayers and pains in religion,

and are often thinking of them; how considerable do they appear

to you, when you look back upon them! And some of you are thinking how

much more you have done than others, and expecting some respect

or regard that God should manifest to what you do. Now, if you

make so much of what you do yourself, it is impossible that you should

be freely willing that God should make nothing of it. As we may

see in other things; if a man is proud of a great estate, or if

he values himself much upon his honourable office, or his great

abilities, it is impossible that he should like it, and heartily

approve of it, that others should make light of these things and

despise them.

Seeing therefore it is so evident, that you refuse to accept

of Christ as your Savior, why is Christ to be blamed that he

does not save you? Christ has offered himself to you, to be your

Savior in time past, and he continues offering himself still,

and you continue to reject him, and yet complain that he does not

save you.- So strangely unreasonable, and inconsistent with themselves,

are gospel sinners!

But I expect there are many of you that still object. Such an

objection as this, is probably now in the hearts of many here present.

Objection. If I am not willing to have Christ for my Savior,

I cannot make myself willing.- But I would give an answer to this

objection by laying down two things, that must be acknowledged to

be exceeding evident.

1. It is no excuse, that you cannot receive Christ of

yourself, unless you would if you could. This is so evident of

itself, that it scarce needs any proof. Certainly if persons

would not if they could, it is just the same thing as to the

blame that lies upon them, whether they can or cannot. If you

were willing, and then found that you could not, your being

unable would alter the case, and might be some excuse; because

then the defect would not be in your will, but only in your

ability. But as long as you will not, it is no matter, whether

you have ability or no ability.

If you are not willing to accept of Christ, it follows that

you have no sincere willingness to be willing; because the will always

necessarily approves of and rests in its own acts. To suppose the contrary, would

be to suppose a contradiction; it would be to suppose that a

man's will is contrary to itself, or that he wills contrary to

what he himself wills. As you are not willing to come to Christ, and

cannot make yourself willing, so you have no sincere desire to be

willing; and therefore may most justly perish without a Savior.

There is no excuse at all for you; for say what you will about your

inability, the seat of your blame lies in your perverse will,

that is an enemy to the Savior. It is in vain for you to tell of

your want of power, as long as your will is found defective. If a

man should hate you, and smite you in the face, but should tell

you at the same time, that he hated you so much, that he could

not help choosing and willing so to do, would you take it the

more patiently for that? Would not your indignation be rather

stirred up the more?

2. If you would be willing if you could, that is no excuse,

unless your unwillingness to be willing be sincere. That which is hypocritical,

and does not come from the heart, but is merely forced, ought wholly

to be set aside, as worthy of no consideration; because common

sense teaches, that what is not hearty, but hypocritical is

indeed nothing, being only a show of what is not; but that which

is good for nothing, ought to go for nothing. But if you set

aside all that is not free, and call nothing a willingness, but a

free hearty willingness, then see how the case stands, and

whether or no you have not lost all your excuse for standing out

against the calls of the gospel. You say you would make yourself

willing to accept if you could; but it is not from any good

principle that you are willing for that. It is not from any free

inclination, or true respect to Christ, or any love to your duty,

or any spirit of obedience. It is not from the influence of any

real respect, or tendency in your heart, towards any thing good,

or from any other principle than such as is in the hearts of

devils, and would make them have the same sort of willingness in

the same circumstances. It is therefore evident, that there can

be no goodness in that would be willing to come to Christ: and

that which has no goodness, cannot be an excuse for any badness.

If there be no good in it, then it signifies nothing, and weighs

nothing, when put into the scales to counterbalance that which is

bad.

Sinners therefore spend their time in foolish arguing and

objecting, making much of that which is good for nothing, making those

excuses that are not worth offering. It is in vain to keep making objection. You

stand justly condemned. The blame lies at your door: Thrust it

off from you as often as you will, it will return upon you. Sew

fig-leaves as long as you will, your nakedness will appear. You

continue wilfully and wickedly rejecting Jesus Christ, and will

not have him for your Savior, and therefore it is sottish

madness in you to charge Christ with injustice that he does not

save you.

Here is the sin of unbelief! Thus the guilt of that great sin

lies upon you! If you never had thus treated a Savior, you might most

justly have been damned to all eternity: it would but be exactly

agreeable to your treatment of God. But besides this, when God,

notwithstanding, has offered you his own dear Son, to save you

from this endless misery you had deserved, and not only so, but

to make you happy eternally in the enjoyment of himself, you have

refused him, and would not have him for your Savior, and still

refuse to comply with the offers of the gospel; what can render

any person more inexcusable? If you should now perish for ever,

what can you have to say?

Hereby the justice of God in your destruction appears in two

respects:

1. It is more abundantly manifest that it is just that you

should be destroyed. Justice never appears so conspicuous as it

does after refused and abused mercy. Justice in damnation appears

abundantly the more clear and bright, after a wilful rejection of

offered salvation. What can an offended prince do more than

freely offer pardon to a condemned malefactor? And if he refuses

to accept of it, will any one say that his execution is unjust?

2. God's justice will appear in your greater destruction.

Besides the guilt that you would have had if a Savior never had been

offered, you bring that great additional guilt upon you, of most

ungratefully refusing offered deliverance. What more base and

vile treatment of God can there be, than for you, when justly

condemned to eternal misery, and ready to be executed, and God

graciously sends his own Son, who comes and knocks at your door

with a pardon in his hand, and not only a pardon, but a deed of

eternal glory; I say, what can be worse, than for you, out of

dislike and enmity against God and his Son, to refuse to accept

those benefits at his hands? How justly may the anger of God be greatly incensed

and increased by it! When a sinner thus ungratefully rejects

mercy, his last error is worse than the first; this is more

heinous than all his former rebellion, and may justly bring down more fearful

wrath upon him.

The heinousness of this sin of rejecting a Savior especially

appears in two things:

1. The greatness of the benefits offered: which appears in the

greatness of the deliverance, which is from inexpressible degrees

of corruption and wickedness of heart and life, the least degree

of which is infinitely evil; and from misery that is everlasting;

and in the greatness and glory of the inheritance purchased and

offered. Hebrews 2:3. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so

great salvation."

2. The wonderfulness of the way in which these benefits are

procured and offered. That God should lay help on his own Son,

when our case was so deplorable that help could be had in no mere creature; and

that he should undertake for us, and should come into the world,

and take upon him our nature, and should not only appear in a low

state of life, but should die such a death, and endure such

torments and contempt for sinners while enemies, how wonderful is

it! And what tongue or pen can set forth the greatness of the

ingratitude, baseness, and perverseness there is in it, when a perishing

sinner that is in the most extreme necessity of salvation,

rejects it, after it is procured in such a way as this! That so glorious

a person should be thus treated, and that when he comes on so gracious

an errand! That he should stand so long offering himself and calling

and inviting, as he has done to many of you, and all to no

purpose, but all the while be set at nought! Surely you might

justly be cast into hell without one more offer of a Savior!

Yea, and thrust down into the lowest hell! Herein you have

exceeded the very devils; for they never rejected the offers of

such glorious mercy; no, nor of any mercy at all. This will be

the distinguishing condemnation of gospel-sinners, John 3:18.

"He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath

not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."-

That outward smoothness of your carriage towards Christ, that appearance

of respect to him in your looks, your speeches, and gestures, do

not argue but that you set him at nought in your heart. There may

be much of these outward shows of respect, and yet you be like

Judas, that betrayed the Son of man with a kiss; and like those

mockers that bowed the knee before him, and at the same time spit

in his face.

III. If God should for ever cast you off and destroy you, it

would be agreeable to your treatment of others.- It would be no other

than what would be exactly answerable to your behavior towards your fellow-creatures,

that have the same human nature, and are naturally in the same

circumstances with you, and that you ought to love as yourself.

And that appears especially in two things.

1. You have many of you been opposite in your spirit to the

salvation of others. There are several ways that natural men manifest

a spirit of opposition against the salvation of souls. It

sometimes appears by a fear that their companions, acquaintances,

and equals, will obtain mercy, and so become unspeakably happier

than they. It is sometimes manifested by an uneasiness at the

news of what others have hopefully obtained. It appears when

persons envy others for it, and dislike them the more, and disrelish

their talk, and avoid their company, and cannot bear to hear

their religious discourse, and especially to receive warnings and

counsels from them. And it oftentimes appears by their backwardness

to entertain charitable thoughts of them, and by their being

brought with difficulty to believe that they have obtained mercy,

and a forwardness to listen to any thing that seems to contradict it.

The devil hated to own Job's sincerity, Job 1:7, &c. and chapter

2, verses 3, 4, 5. There appears very often much of this spirit

of the devil in natural men. Sometimes they are ready to make a

ridicule of others' pretended godliness; they speak of the ground

of others' hopes, as the enemies of the Jews did of the wall that

they built. Nehemiah 4:3. "Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by

him, and he said, That which they build, if a fox go up, he shall

even break down their stone wall." There are many that join

with Sanballat and Tobiah, and are of the same spirit with them. There

always was, and always will be, an enmity betwixt the seed of the

serpent and the seed of the women. It appeared in Cain, who hated

his brother, because he was more acceptable to God than himself;

and it appears still in these times, and in this place. There are

many that are like the elder brother, who could not bear that the prodigal when

he returned should be received with such joy and good

entertainment, and was put into a fret by it, both against his brother

that had returned, and his father that had made him so welcome. Luke

15.

Thus have many of you been opposite to the salvation of

others, who stand in as great necessity of it as you. You have

been against their being delivered from everlasting misery, who

can bear it no better than you; not because their salvation would do

you any hurt, or their damnation help you, any otherwise than as

it would gratify that vile spirit that is so much like the spirit

of the devil, who, because he is miserable himself, is unwilling

that others should be happy. How just therefore is it that God

should be opposite to your salvation! If you have so little love

or mercy in you as to begrudge your neighbor's salvation, whom

you have no cause to hate, but the law of God and nature requires you

to love, why is God bound to exercise such infinite love and

mercy to you, as to save you at the price of his own blood? you,

whom he is no way bound to love, but who have deserved his hatred

a thousand and a thousand times? You are not willing that others

should be converted, who have behaved themselves injuriously

towards you; and yet, will you count it hard if God does not

bestow converting grace upon you that have deserved ten thousand

times as ill of God, as ever any of your neighbours have of you? You

are opposite to God's showing mercy to those that you think have

been vicious persons, and are very unworthy of such mercy. Is

others' unworthiness a just reason why God should not bestow

mercy on them? And yet will God be hard, if, notwithstanding all

your unworthiness, and the abominableness of your spirit and

practice in his sight, he does not show you mercy? You would have

God bestow liberally on you, and upbraid not; but yet when he shows

mercy to others, you are ready to upbraid as soon as you hear of

it; you immediately are thinking with yourself how ill they have

behaved themselves; and it may be your mouths on this occasion

are open, enumerating and aggravating the sins they have been guilty

of. You would have God bury all your faults, and wholly blot out

all your transgressions; but yet if he bestows mercy on others,

it may be you will take that occasion to rake up all their old

faults that you can think of. You do not much reflect on and

condemn yourself for your baseness and unjust spirit towards

others, in your opposition to their salvation; you do not quarrel

with yourself, and condemn yourself for this; but yet you in your

heart will quarrel with God, and fret at his dispensations,

because you think he seems opposite to showing mercy to you. One

would think that the consideration of these things should for

ever stop your mouth.

2. Consider how you have promoted others' damnation. Many of

you, by the bad examples you have set, by corrupting the minds of

others, by your sinful conversation, by leading them into or strengthening

them in sin, and by the mischief you have done in human society

other ways that might be mentioned, have been guilty of those

things that have tended to others' damnation. You have heretofore appeared

on the side of sin and Satan, and have strengthened their

interest, and have been many ways accessary to others' sins, have

hardened their hearts, and thereby have done what has tended to

the ruin of their souls.- Without doubt there are those here

present who have been in a great measure the means of others'

damnation. One man may really be a means of others' damnation as

well as salvation. Christ charges the scribes and Pharisees with

this, Matthew 23:13. "Ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against

men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering,

to go in." We have no reason to think that this congregation

has none in it who are cursed from day to day by poor souls that

are roaring out in hell, whose damnation they have been the means

of, or have greatly contributed to.- There are many who

contribute to their own children's damnation, by neglecting their education,

by setting them bad examples, and bringing them up in sinful

ways. They take some care of their bodies, but take little care

of their poor souls; they provide for them bread to eat, but deny

them the bread of life, that their famishing souls stand in need

of. And are there no such parents here who have thus treated

their children? If their children be not gone to hell, no thanks

to them; it is not because they have not done what has tended to

their destruction. Seeing therefore you have had no more regard

to others' salvation, and have promoted their damnation, how

justly might God leave you to perish yourself!

IV. If God should eternally cast you off, it would but be

agreeable to your own behavior towards yourself; and that in two respects:

1. In being so careless of your own salvation. You have

refused to take care for your salvation, as God has counselled

and commanded you from time to time; and why may not God neglect

it, now you seek it of him? Is God obliged to be more careful of

your happiness, than you are either of your own happiness or his

glory? Is God bound to take that care for you, out of love to

you, that you will not take for yourself, either from love to

yourself, or regard to his authority? How long, and how greatly, have

you neglected the welfare of your precious soul, refusing to take

pains and deny yourself, or put yourself a little out of your way

for your salvation, while God has been calling upon you! Neither

your duty to God, nor love to your own soul, were enough to

induce you to do little things for your own eternal welfare; and

yet do you now expect that God should do great things, putting

forth almighty power, and exercising infinite mercy for it? You

was urged to take care for your salvation, and not to put it off.

You was told that was the best time before you grew older, and that

it might be, if you would put it off, God would not hear you

afterwards; but yet you would not hearken; you would run the

venture of it. Now how justly might God order it so, that it

should be too late, leaving you to seek in vain! You was told,

that you would repent of it if you delayed; but you would not

hear: how justly therefore may God give you cause to repent of

it, by refusing to show you mercy now! If God sees you going on

in ways contrary to his commands and his glory, and requires you

to forsake them, and tells you that they tend to the destruction

of your own soul, and therefore counsels you to avoid them, and you

refuse; how just would it be if God should be provoked by it,

henceforward to be as careless of the good of your soul as you

are yourself!

2. You have not only neglected your salvation, but you have

wilfully taken direct courses to undo yourself. You have gone on

in those ways and practices which have directly tended to your damnation, and

have been perverse and obstinate it. You cannot plead ignorance;

you had all the light set before you that you could desire. God

told you that you was undoing yourself; but yet you would do it.

He told you that the path you was going in led to destruction,

and counselled you to avoid it; but you would not hearken. How

justly therefore may God leave you to be undone! You have

obstinately persisted to travel in the way that leads to hell for

a long time, contrary to God's continual counsels and commands,

till it may be at length you are got almost to your journey's

end, and are come near to hell's gate, and so begin to be

sensible of your danger and misery; and not account it unjust and

hard if God will not deliver you! You have destroyed yourself,

and destroyed yourself wilfully, contrary to God's repeated

counsels, yea, and destroyed yourself in fighting against God.

Now therefore, why do you blame any but yourself if you are

destroyed? If you will undo yourself in opposing God, and while God opposes

you by his calls and counsels, and, it may be too, by the

convictions of his Spirit, what can you object against it, if God

now leaves you to be undone? You would have your own way, and did

not like that God should oppose you in it, and your way was to

ruin your own soul; how just therefore is it, if, now at length,

God ceases to oppose you, and falls in with you, and lets your

soul be ruined; and as you would destroy yourself, so should put to

his hand to destroy you too! The ways you went on in had a

natural tendency to your misery: if you would drink poison in

opposition to God, and in contempt of him and his advice, who can

you blame but yourself if you are poisoned, and so perish? If you

would run into the fire against all restraints both of God's

mercy and authority, you must even blame yourself if you are

burnt.

Thus I have proposed some things to your consideration, which,

if you are not exceeding blind, senseless, and perverse, will

stop your mouth, and convince you that you stand justly condemned before

God; and that he would in no wise deal hardly with you, but

altogether justly, in denying you any mercy, and in refusing to

hear your prayers, though you pray never so earnestly, and never

so often, and continue in it never so long. God may utterly

disregard your tears and moans, your heavy heart, your earnest

desires, and great endeavours; and he may cast you into eternal

destruction, without any regard to your welfare, denying you

converting grace, and giving you over to Satan, and at last cast

you into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, to be there

to eternity, having no rest day or night, for ever glorifying his

justice upon you in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence

of the Lamb.

Objection. But here many may still object, (for I am sensible

it is a hard thing to stop sinners' mouths,) "God shows

mercy to others that have done these things as well as I, yea,

that have done a great deal worse than I."

Answer. 1. That does not prove that God is any way bound to

show mercy to you, or them either. If God bestows it on others,

he does not so because he is bound to bestow it: he might if he

had pleased, with glorious justice, have denied it them. If God

bestows it on some, that does not prove that he is bound to

bestow it on any; and if he is bound to bestow it on none, then

he is not bound to bestow it on you. God is in debt to none; and

if he gives to some that he is not in debt to, because it is his

pleasure, that does not bring him into debt to others. It alters

not the case as to you, whether others have it, or have it not:

you do not deserve damnation the less, than if mercy never had

been bestowed on any at all. Matthew 20:15. "Is thine eye

evil, because mine is good?"

2. If this objection be good, then the exercise of God's mercy

is not in his own right, and his grace is not his own to give. That

which God may not dispose of as he pleases, is not his own; for

that which is one's own, is at his own disposal: but if it be not

God's own, then he is not capable of making a gift or present of

it to any one; it is impossible to give what is a debt.- What is

it that you would make of God? Must the great God be tied up,

that he must not use his own pleasure in bestowing his own gifts, but

if he bestows them on one, must be looked upon obliged to bestow

them on another? Is not God worthy to have the same right, with

respect to the gifts of his grace, that a man has to his money or goods?

Is it because God is not so great, and should be more in

subjection than man, that this cannot be allowed him? If any of

you see cause to show kindness to a neighbor, do all the rest of

your neighbours come to you, and tell you, that you owe them so

much as you have given to such a man? But this is the way that

you deal with God, as though God were not worthy to have as

absolute a property in his goods, as you have in yours.

At this rate God cannot make a present of any thing; he has

nothing of his own to bestow: if he has a mind to show peculiar favor

to some, or to lay some particular persons under peculiar

obligations to him, he cannot do it; because he has no special

gift at his own disposal. If this be the case, why do you pray to

God to bestow saving grace upon you? If God does not do fairly to

deny it you, because he bestows it on others, then it is not

worth your while to pray for it, but you may go and tell him that

he has bestowed it on others as bad or worse than you, and so

demand it of him as a debt. And at this rate persons never need

to thank God for salvation, when it is bestowed; for what occasion

is there to thank God for that which was not at his own disposal,

and that he could not fairly have denied? The thing at bottom is,

that men have low thoughts of God, and high thoughts of themselves;

and therefore it is that they look upon God as having so little

right, and they so much. Matthew 20:15. "Is it not lawful for

me to do what I will with mine own?"

3. God may justly show greater respect to others than to you,

for you have shown greater respect to others than to God. You have

rather chosen to offend God than men. God only shows a greater respect to

others, who are by nature your equals, than to you; but you have

shown a greater respect to those that are infinitely inferior to

God than to him. You have shown a greater regard to wicked men

than to God; you have honoured them more, loved them better, and

adhered to them rather than to him. Yea, you have honoured the

devil, in many respects, more than God: you have chosen his will

and his interest, rather than God's will and his glory: you have

chosen a little worldly pelf, rather than God: you have set more

by a vile lust than by him: you have chosen these things, and rejected

God. You have set your heart on these things, and cast God behind your

back: and where is the injustice if God is pleased to show

greater respect to others than to you, or if he chooses others and

rejects you? You have shown greater respect to vile and worthless

things, and no respect to God's glory; and why may not God set

his love on others, and have no respect to your happiness? You

have shown great respect to others, and not to God, whom you are

laid under infinite obligations to respect above all; and why may

not God show respect to others, and not to you, who never have

laid him under the least obligation?

And will you not be ashamed, notwithstanding all these things,

still to open your mouth, to object and cavil about the decrees

of God, and other things that you cannot fully understand. Let

the decrees of God be what they will, that alters not the case as

to your liberty, any more than if God had only foreknown. And why

is God to blame for decreeing things? Especially since he decrees nothing

but good. How unbecoming an infinitely wise Being would it have

been to have made a world, and let things run at random, without

disposing events, or fore-ordering how they should come to pass?

And what is that to you, how God has fore-ordered things, as long

as your constant experience teaches you, that it does not hinder

your doing what you choose to do. This you know, and your daily

practice and behavior amongst men declares that you are fully

sensible of it with respect to yourself and others. Still to

object, because there are some things in God's dispensations above

your understanding, is exceedingly unreasonable. Your own

conscience charges you with great guilt, and with those things that

have been mentioned, let the secret things of God be what they will.

Your conscience charges you with those vile dispositions, and

that base behavior towards God, that you would at any time most highly

resent in your neighbor towards you, and that not a whit the

less for any concern those secret counsels and mysterious

dispensations of God may have in the matter. It is in vain for

you to exalt yourself against an infinitely great, and holy, and

just God. If you continue in it, it will be to your eternal shame

and confusion, when hereafter you shall see at whose door all the

blame of your misery lies.

I will finish what I have to say to natural men in the

application of this doctrine, with a caution not to improve the

doctrine to discouragement. For though it would be righteous in

God for ever to cast you off, and destroy you, yet it would also

be just in God to save you, in and through Christ, who has made complete

satisfaction for all sin. Romans 3:25, 26. "Whom God hath

set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to

declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,

through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time

his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of

him which believeth in Jesus." Yea, God may, through this

Mediator, not only justly, but honourably, show you mercy. The

blood of Christ is so precious, that it is fully sufficient to

pay the debt you have contracted, and perfectly to vindicate the

Divine Majesty from all the dishonour cast upon it, by these many

great sins of yours that have been mentioned. It was as great,

and indeed a much greater thing, for Christ to die, than it would

have been for you and all mankind to have burnt in hell to all

eternity. Of such dignity and excellency is Christ in the eyes of God,

that, seeing he has suffered so much for poor sinners, God is

willing to be at peace with them, however vile and unworthy they

have been, and on how many accounts soever the punishment would

be just. So that you need not be at all discouraged from seeking

mercy, for there is enough in Christ.

Indeed it would not become the glory of God's majesty to show

mercy to you, so sinful and vile a creature, for any thing that you

have done; for such worthless and despicable things as your

prayers, and other religious performances. It would be very

dishonourable and unworthy of God so to do, and it is in vain to

expect it. He will show mercy only on Christ's account; and that,

according to his sovereign pleasure, on whom he pleases, when he

pleases, and in what manner he pleases. You cannot bring him

under obligation by your works; do what you will, he will not

look on himself obliged. But if it be his pleasure, he can

honourably show mercy through Christ to any sinner of you all,

not one in this congregation excepted.- Therefore here is

encouragement for you still to seek and wait, notwithstanding all

your wickedness; agreeable to Samuel's speech to the children of

Israel, when they were terrified with the thunder and rain that

God sent, and when guilt stared them in the face, 1 Samuel 12:20.

"Fear not; ye have done all this wickedness; yet turn not

aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your

heart."

I would conclude this discourse by putting the godly in mind

of the freeness and wonderfulness of the grace of God towards them.

For such were the same of you.- The case was just so with you as you have

heard; you had such a wicked heart, you lived such a wicked life,

and it would have been most just with God for ever to have cast

you off: but he has had mercy upon you; he hath made his glorious grace

appear in your everlasting salvation. You had no love to God; but

yet he has exercised unspeakable love to you. You have contemned

God, and set light by him: but so great a value has God's grace

set on you and your happiness, that you have been redeemed at the

price of the blood of his own Son. You chose to be with Satan in

his service; but yet God hath made you a joint heir with Christ

of his glory. You was ungrateful for past mercies; yet God not

only continued those mercies, but bestowed unspeakably greater

mercies upon you. You refused to hear when God called; yet God heard

you when you called. You abused the infiniteness of God's mercy

to encourage yourself in sin against him; yet God has manifested

the infiniteness of that mercy, in the exercises of it towards

you. You have rejected Christ, and set him at nought; and yet he

is become your Savior. You have neglected your own salvation;

but God has not neglected it. You have destroyed yourself; but

yet in God has been your help. God has magnified his free grace

towards you, and not to others; because he has chosen you, and it

hath pleased him to set his love upon you.

O! what cause is here for praise! What obligations you are

under to bless the Lord who hath dealt bountifully with you, and magnify

his holy name! What cause for you to praise God in humility, to walk

humbly before him. Ezekiel 16:63. "That thou mayest remember

and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of

thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done,

saith the Lord God!" You shall never open your mouth in

boasting, or self-justification; but lie the lower before God for

his mercy to you. You have reason, the more abundantly, to open

your mouth in God's praises, that they may be continually in your

mouth, both here and to all eternity, for his rich, unspeakable, and

sovereign mercy to you, whereby he, and he alone, hath made you

to differ from others.