(John xvi. 8.) this teftimony muft needs be true; for the Spirit of truth cannot witnefs an untruth. Mean-while, true believers being freed from the ftate of wrath, receive not the fpirit of bondage again to fear, but receive the Spirit of adoption, Rom. iii. 15. And therefore, if fears of that nature do arife, after the foul's union with Chrift; they come from the faint's own fpirit, or from a worfe. Laftly, The fufferings of Chrift plainly prove this doctrine. Wherefore was the Son of God, a Son under wrath, but becaufe the children of men were children of wrath? He fuffered the wrath of God, not for himfelf, but for thofe that were liable to it, in their own perfons. Nay, this not only fpeaks us to have been liable to wrath; but alfo that wrath must have a vent, in the punishing of fin. If this was done in the green tree, what will become of the dry? What a miserable cafe muft a finner be in that is out of Chrift; that is not virtually united to Chrift, and partakes not of his Spirit? God who fpared not his own Son, furely will not fpare fuch an one.

And

But the unregenerate man, who has no great value for the honour of God, will be apt to rise up against his Judge, and in his own heart condemn his procedure. Nevertheless, the Judge being infinitely juft, the fentence, must be righteous. therefore, to top thy mouth, O proud finner, and to ftill thy clamour against the righteous Judge, confider, First, Thou art a finner by nature, and it is highly reasonable that guilt and wrath be as old as fin. Why fhould not God begin to vindicate his honour, as foon as vile worms begin to impare it? Why fhall not a ferpent bite the thief, as foon as he leaps over the hedge? Why fhould not the threatning take hold of the finner, as foon as he cafts away the command? The poifeacus nature of the ferpent affords a man fufficient ground to kill it, as foon as ever he can reach it; and, by this time, thou mayst be convinced, that thy nature is a very compound of enmity against God. Secondly, Thou haft not only an enmity against God, in thy nature; but haft difcovered it, by actual fins, which are in his eye acts of hoftility. Thou haft brought forth thy lufls into the field of battle againft thy. foverign Lord. And now that thou art fuch a criminal, thy condemnation is just for, befides the fin of thy nature, thou hast done that against heaven, which if thou had done against men, thy life behoved to have gone for it; and fhall not wrath from heaven overtake thee? (1.) Thou art guiky of high treafon and rebellion against the King of heaven. The thought and wish of thy heart, which he

-2

knows

knows as well as the language of thy mouth, has been," No God," Pfal. xiv. 1. Thou hait rejected his government, blown the trumpet, and fet up the ftandard of rebellion against him; being one of thefe that fay, "We will not have this man to reign over us," Luke xix. 14. Thou haft ftriven against, and quenched his Spirit, pratically "difowned his laws, proclaimed by his meffengers; ftopped thine ears at their voice, and fent them away mourning for thy pride. Tho uhaft confpired with his grand enemy the devil. Although thou art a fworn fervant of the King of glory, daily receiving of his favours, and living on his bounty: thou art holding a correfpondence; and haft contracted a friend with his greatest enemy, and art acting for him against thy Lord; for" the lufts of the devil ye will do," John vii! 44. (2.) Thou art a murderer before the Lord Thou haft laid the ftumbling block of thine iniquity before the blind world; and haft rained the fouls of others by thy finful course. And tho' thou dost not fee now, the time may come, when thou that fee the blood of thy relations, neighbours, acquaintances and others, upon thy head, Matth. xviii. 7. “ Wo unto the world because of offences: Wo to that man by whom the offence cometh" Yea, thou art a felf-murderer before God, Prov. viii. 36. He that finneth against me, wrongeth his own foul: all they that hate me, love death." Ezek. xviii. 31. 66 Why will ye die?" The laws of men go as far as they can against the felf-murderer, denying his body a burial-place amongst others, and confifcating his goods: what wonder is it the Law of God is fo fevere against foul-murderers ? Is it strange, that they who will needs depart from God now, coft what it will, be forced to depart from him at laft, into everlafting fre? But what is yet more criminal, thou art guilty of the murde: of the Son of God; for the Lord will reckon thee amongst thofe that pierced him, Rev. i. 7. Thou haft rejected him as well as the Jews did; and by thy rejecting him, thou hast juftified their deed. They indeed did not acknowledge him to be the Son of God, but thou dot. What they

did against him, was in a flate of humiliation; but thou haft acted against him, in his ftate of exaltation. These things will aggravate thy conde.nnation. what wonder then, if the voice or the Lamb, change to the roaring of the Lion, against the traitor and murderer.

·Object, But fome will fay, Is there not a vast difp oportion betwixt our fin, and that wrath you talk of? I anfwer, No: God panishes, no more than the finner deferves. To rectity

your mistake, in this matter, confider, (1.) The vaft rewards God has annexed to obedience. His word is no more full of fery wrath against fin, than it is of gracious rewards to the obedience it requires. If heaven be in the promises, it is altogether equal that hell be in the threatnings. If death were not in the balance with life, eternal mifery with eternal happiness, where were the proportion? Moreover fin deferves the misery, but our beft works do not deserve the happiness: yet both are fet before us; fin, and mifery; holinefs, and happiness. What eafon is there then to complain? (2.) How fevere soever the threatnings be, yet all has enough ado to reach the end of the Law. "Fear him," fays our Lord' "which after he hath killed, hath power to caft into hell; yea I fay unto you, fear him," Luke xii. 5. This befpeaks our dread of divine power and majefty; but yet how few fear him indeed! The Lord knows the finners hearts to be exceedingly intent upon fulfilling their lufts: they cleave fo fondly to thofe fulfome breafts, that a mall force does not fuffice to draw them from them. They that travel through defarts, where they are in hazard from wild beafts, have need to carry fire along with them: and they have need of a hard wedge, that have knotty timber to cleave So a holy Law must be fenced with a dreadful wrath in a world lying in wickednefs. But who are they that complain of that wrath as too great, but thofe to whom it is too little to draw them off from their finful courfes? It was the man who pretended to fear his Lord because he was an auftere man, that kept his pound laid up in a napkin; and fo he was condemned out of his own mouth, Luke xix. 20, 21, 22. Thou aft that man, even thou whose objection I am answering. How can the wrath thou art under, and liable to, be too great, while yet it is not fufficient to awaken thee to fly from it? Is it time to relax the penalties of the Law, when men are trampling the commands of it under foot? (3) Confider how God dealt with his own Son, whom he fpared not, Rom. viii. 32. The wrath of God feized on his foul and body both, and brought him into the duft of death. That his fufferings were not eternal flowed from the quality of the fufferer, who was infinite; and therefore able to bear at once, the whole load of wrath and upon that account, his fufferings were infinite in value. But in value they must be protracted to an eternity. And what confidence can a rebel fubject have to quarrel (for his part) a punishment execute on the King's Son? (4.) The finner doth against God what he can. Behold thou halt done evil things as thou

couldft,"

couldft," Jer. iii. 5. That thou haft not done more, and worfe thanks to him who restrained thee; to the chain which the wolf was kept in by, not to thyself. No wonder God fhew his power on the finner, who puts forth his power against God, as far as it will reach. The unregenerate man puts no period to his finful courfe; and would put no bounds to it neither, if he were not reftrained by divine power for wife ends; and therefore it is just he be for ever under wrath. (5) It is infinite majefty fin ftrikes against ; and fo it is, in fome fort, an infinite evil. Sin rifeth in its demerit, according to the quali-y of the party offended. If a man wound his neighbour, his goods must go for it but if he wound his prince, his life must go to make amends for that. The infinity of God makes infinite wrath the just demerit of fin. God is infinitely difpleafed with fin and when he acts, he must act like himself, and fhew his displeasure by proportionable means.. Laftly, Thofe that fhall lie for ever under his wrath will be eternally finning; and therefore muft eternally fuffer:: not only in refpect of divine judicial procedure; but becaufe fin is its own punishment, in the fame manner that holy obedience is its own reward..

The Doctrine of the Mifery of Man's natural State ap

plied.

USE (T) OF INFORMATION IS our ftate, by nature, of wrath ? Then,

a state 1. Surely we are not born innocent. Thefe chains of wrath, which by nature are upon us, fpeak us to be born criminals, The fwaddling bands wherewith infants are bound hand and foot as foon as they are born, may put us in mind of the cords of wrath, with, which they are held prifoners, as children of wrath..

12. What desperate madness is it for finners to go on in their finful courfe: What is it but to heap coals of fire on thine own head, and lay more and more fuel to the fire of wrath, to treafure up unto thyfelf wrath against the day of wrath, Rom. ii. 5. Thou mayft perish, when his wrath is kindled but a little, Pfal. 2. Why wilt thou increase it yet more? Thou art already bound with

what need ch cords of death, as will not easily be loofed ;

of more? Stand, careless finner, and confider this. 3. Thou haft no reafon to complain, as long as thou art out of hell. "Wherefore doth a living man complain?" Lam. If one who has forfeited his life, be banished his native

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Coun

country, and expofed to many hardfhips; he may well bear all patiently, feeing his life is fpared. Do ye murmur, for that ye are under pain or ficknefs? Nay, blefs God ye are not there, where the worm never dieth. Doft thou grudge that thou art not in fo good a condition in the world as fome of thy neighbours are? Be thankful rather, that ye are not in the cafe of the damned. Is thy fubftance gone from thee? Wonder that the fire of God's wrath hath not confumed thyfelf. Kils the rod, O finner, and acknowledge mercy: for God punishes us lefs than our iniquities deferve, Ezra ix. 13.

4. Here is a memorandum, both for poor and rich. (1.) The poorest that go from door to door, and have not one penny left them by their parents, were born to an inheritance. Their first father Adam left them children of wrath; and continuing in their natural ftate, they cannot mifs of it; for "This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God," Job xx. 29. An heritage, that will furnish them with an habitation, who have not where to lay their head: they shall be caft into utter darkness, Matth. xxv. 30. for to them is referved the blacknefs of darkness, for ever, Jude 13. where their bed fhall be forrow, “ They fhall ly down in for row," Ifa. L 11. their food fhall be judgment, for God will feed them with judgment, Ezek. xxxiv. 16. and their drink fhall be the red wine of God's wrath, the dregs whereof all the wicked of the earth fhall wring out, and drink them, Pfal. lxxxv. 8. I know that thefe who are deftitute of worldly goods, and withal void of the knowledge and grace of God, who therefore may be called the devil's poor, will be apt to fay here, We hope God will make us fuffer all our mifery in this world, and we fhall be happy in the next: as if their miferable outward condition in time, would fecure their happiness in eternity. A grofs and fatal mistake! And this is another inheritance they have, viz. "Lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit," Jer. xvi. 19. But, "The hail fhall fweep away the refuge of lies," Ifa. xxviii 17. Doft thou think, Laner, that God, who commands judges on earth, not to refpect the perfon of the poor in judgment, Lev. xix. 15. will pervert judgment for thee? Nay, know for certain, that however mifer. able thou art here, thou fhalt be eternally miferable hereafter, if thou livest and dieft in thy natural state. (2.) Many that have: enough in the world, have far more than they know of. Thou haft, (it may be) O unregenerate man, an estate, a good por zion, or large stock, left thee by thy father; thou haft improven