thofe that pierced him, Rev. i. 7. Thou hat rejected him as well as the Jews did; and by thy rejecting him. thou haft juftified their deed. They indeed did not acknowledge him to be the Son of God, but thou doft. What they did against him, was in a ftate of humiliation; but thou haft acted against him, in his ftate of exaltation. These things will aggravate thy condemnation. What wonder then, if the voice of the Lamb, change to the roaring of the lion, against the traitor and murderer.

Object. But fome will fay, Is there not a vast disproportion betwixt our fin and that wrath you talk of? I answer, No; God punishes no more than the finner defe, ves. To rec tify your miflake, in this matter, confider (1.) The vaft rewards God has annexed to obedience. His word is no more full of fiery 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 happines, where were the proportion? Moreover fin deferves the mifery, but our best works do not deferve the happiness: yet both are fet before us, fin and mifery, holiness and happiness. What reafon is there then to complain? (2.) How fevere foever the threatnings bè yet all has enough ado to reach the end of the law. Fear him fays our LORD, which after he bath killed, hath power to caft into hell; yea, ! fay unto you fear him.' Luke xii. 5. This bespeaks our dread of divine power and majefty; but yet how few fear him indeed? The Lord knows the finners heart to be exceedingly intent upon fulfilling their Jufts: they cleave fo fondly to thofe fulfome breafts, that a Small 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; fo a holy law must be fenced with a dreadful wrath, in a world lying in wickedness. But who are they that complain of that wrath as too great, but those to whom it is too little to draw them off from their finful courses? It was the man who pretended to fear his Lord, because he was an auftere man, that kept this pound laid up in a napkin: and fo he was condemned out of his own mouth, Luke xiv.

20, 21, 22. Thou art that man, even thou whofe objection I am anfwering. 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 spared not, Rom. viii. 32. The wrath of God feized on his foul and body both, and brought him into the duft of death. That bis 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 subject 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 haft done evil things as thon couldft, Jer' iii. 5. That thou haft not done more, and worfe; thanks to him who reflrained 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 restrained by divine power for wife ends: and therefore it is juft he be for ever under wrath. (5.) It is infinite majefty fin (trikes againft; and so it is, in fome fort, an infinite evil. Sin rifeth in its demerit, according to the quality of the party offended. If a man wound his neighbour. his goods muft 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 juft demerit of fin. God is infinitely difpleafed with fin and when he acts, he must act like himself, and fhew his difpleafure by proportionable means. Lafily, I hofe that fhall lie for ever under his wrath will be cicenally finning; and therefore muft eternally fuffer: not only in respect of divine judicial procedure; but because fin is its own punishment, in the fame manner that holy obedience is its own reward,

:

The

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The Doctrine of the Mifery of Man's natural State applied.

USE (1) Of information. Is our flate by nature a flate of wrath? Then,

1. Surely we are born innocent. These 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.

2. What defperate 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 treasure up unto thyfelf wrath against the day of wrath. Rom. ii. 5. Thou mayft perish, when his wrath is kindled but a little, Pfal. ii. 12. Why wilt thou increase it yet more? Thou art already bound with fuch cords of death, as will not eafily be loofed: what need is there 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. iii. 39. If one who has forfeited his life, be banished his native 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 of fickness? Nay, bless God ye are not there, where the worm never dieth. Doft thou grudge that thou are not in fo good a condition in the world as fome of thy neighbours are? Be thankful rather, they are not in the cafe of the damned. Is thy substance gone from thee? Wonder that the fire of God's wrath bath not confumed thyfelf. Kifs the rod, O finner, and acknowledge mercy for God punisheth us less than our ini quities deferve, Ezra ix. 13.

4. Here is a memorandum, both for poor and rich. (1.) The pooreft that go from door to door, and hath not one penny left them by their parents, were born to an inheritance. Their fira father Adam left them children of wrath; and continuing in their natural fate, 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

that will furnish them with an habitation, who have not where to lay their head: they fhall be caft into utter darkness, Mat. xxv. 30. for to them is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever, Jude xiii. whether their bed shall be forrow, They shall ly down in forrow, Ifa. I. 11. their food shall be judgment, for God wil feed them with judgment, Ezek, xxxiv. 16. and their drink fhall be the red wine ol God's wrath, ' the dregs whereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring out, and drink them.' Pfal. lxxv. 8. I know, that these who are destitute 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 shallbe happy in the next :' as if their miserable outward condition in time, would secure 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 Shall fweep away the refuge of lies, Ifa. xxviii. 17. Doft thou think, O finner, that God who commands judges on earth, not to respect the person of the ptor in judgment, Lev. xix. 15. will pervert judgment for thee? Nay, know for certain, that however miferable thou art here, thou fhalt be eternally miserable hereafter, if thou liveft and diest in thy natural state. (2.) Many that have enough in the world, have far more than they know of. Thou hadst, (it may be) O anregenerate man, an eftate, a good portion, or large flock left thee by thy father: thou haft improven it, and the fun of profperity fhines upon thee; fo that thou canft fay with Efau, Gen. xxxiii. 9. I have enough. But know, thou haft more than all that, an inheritance thou doft not confider of, thou art a child of wrath, an heir of hell. This is an heritage which will abide with thee, amidt all the changes in the world; as long as thou continueft in an unregenerate state. When thou shalt leave thy fubftance to others; this fhall go along with thyfelf, into another world. It is no wonder a flaughter ox be fed to the full, and is not toiled as others are, Job xxi. 30. The wicked is referved to the day of deftruction; they fhall be brought forth to the day of wrath.' Well then, Rejoice, let thine heart chear thee, walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the fight of thine eyes: live above reproofs and warnings from

the word of God; fhew thyself a man of a fine spirit, by cafting off all fear of God; mock at seriousness; live like thyfelf, a child of wrath, an heir of hell: But know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment, Ecclef. xi. 9. Affure thyfelf, thy breaking fha com fuddently, at an inftant, Ifa. xxx. 13. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, fo is the laughter of a fool, Ec. vi. 6. The fair blaze, and great noile they make, is quickly gone; fo fhall thy mirth be. And then that wrath that is now filently finking into thy foul, fhall make a fearful biffing. 5. Wo to him, that, like Moab, hath been at eafe from his youth, Jer. xlviii. 11. and never faw the black cloud of wrath hanging over his head. There are many who have no changes, therefore they fear not God, Pfal. Iv. 19. They have lived in a good belief (as they call it) all their days; that is, they never had power to believe an ill report of their fouls ftate. Many have come by their religion too cafily; and as it came lightly to them, fo it will go from them, when their trial comes. Do ye think men flee from wrath, in a morning dream? Or will they flee from the wrath, they never faw pursuing them.

6. Think it not flrange if ye fee one in great diftrefs about his foul's condition, who was wort to be as jovial, and as little concerned about falvation, as any of his neigh bours. Can one get a right view of himself, as in a state of wrath, and not be pierced with forrows, terrors, anxiety? When a weight, quite above one's frength, lies upon him, and he is alone; he can neither ftir hand nor foot: but when one comes to lift it off him, he'll struggle to get from under it. Thunder claps of wrath from the word of God conveyed to the foul by the Spirit of the Lord, will furely keep a man awake.

Lafily, It is no wonder wrath come upon the churches and rations, and upon us in this land, and that infants and children yet unborn smart under it. Molt of the fociety are yet children of wrath; few are fleeing from it, or taking the way to prevent it; but people of all ranks are helping The Jews rejected Chrift; and their children have been fmarting under wrath thefe fixteen hundred years. God grant that the bad entertainment given to Christ and

it on.

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