What will ye do now? Why, God calleth upon

gainsaying people," Rom. x. 25. Will you cry to God for mercy? you to have mercy upon yourselves, and you will not; ministers see the poisoned cup in the drunkard's hand, and tell him, There is poison in it,' and desire him to have mercy on his soul, and forbear, and he will not hear us; drink it he must, and will; he loves it, and, therefore, though hell comes next, he saith, he cannot help it. What should one say to such men as these? We tell the ungodly, careless worldlings,' It is not such a life that will serve the turn, or ever bring you to heaven. If a bear were at your back, you would mend your pace; and when the curse of God is at your back, and satan and hell are at your back, you will not stir, but ask, 'What needs all this ado?' Is an immortal soul of no more worth? O have mercy upon yourselves! But they will have no mercy on themselves, nor once regard us. We tell them the end will be bitter. Who can dwell with the everlasting fire? And yet they will have no mercy upon themselves. And yet will these shameful wretches say, that God is more merciful than to condemn them? when it is themselves that cruelly and unmercifully run upon condemnation? And if we should go to them with our hats in our hands, and entreat them, we cannot stop them; if we should fall down on our kness to them, we cannot stop them; but to hell they will, and yet will not believe that they are going thither. If we beg of them, for the sake of God that made them, and preserveth them; for the sake of Christ that died for them; for the sake of their own poor souls, to pity themselves, and go no farther in the way to hell, but come to Christ while his arms are open, and enter into the state of life, while the door stands open, and now take mercy while mercy may be had, they will not be persuaded. If we should die for it, we cannot get them so much as now and then to consider with themselves of the matter, and to Turn. And yet they can say, 'I hope God will be merciful.' Did you never consider what he saith, Isa. xxvii. 11. "It is a people of no understanding, therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them; and he that formed them will shew them no favour." If another man will not clothe you when you are naked, and feed you when you are hungry, you will say he is unmerciful. If he should cast

you into prison, or beat or torment you, you would say he is unmerciful. And yet you would do a thousand times more against yourselves, even cast away both soul and body for ever, and never complain of your own unmercifulness. Yea, and God that waited upon you all the while with his mercy, must be taken to be unmerciful, if he punish you after all this. Unless the holy God of heaven will give these wretches leave to trample upon his Son's blood, and with the Jews, as it were, again to spit in his face, and do despite to the Spirit of Grace, and make a jest of sin, and a mock at holiness, and set more light by saving mercy, than by the filth of their fleshly pleasure; and unless, after all this, he will save them by the mercy which they cast away, and would none of, God himself must be called unmerciful by them; but he will be justified when he judgeth; and he will not stand or fall at the bar of a sinful worm.

I know there are many particular cavils, that are brought by them against the Lord, but I shall not here stay to answer them particularly, having done it already in my "Treatise on Judgment," to which I shall refer them. Had the disputing part of the world been as careful to avoid sin and destruction, as they have been busy in searching after the cause of them, and forward indirectly to impute it to God, they might have exercised their wits more profitably, and have less wronged God, and sped better themselves. When so ugly a monster as sin is within us, and so heavy a thing as punishment is on us, and so dreadful a thing as hell is before us, one would think it should be an easy question who is in the fault, and whether God or man be the principal or culpable cause? Some men are such favourable judges of themselves, that they are proner to accuse the Infinite Perfection and Goodness itself, than their own hearts, and imitate their first parents, that said, "The serpent tempted me, and the woman that thou gavest me, gave unto me, and I did eat," secretly implying that God was the cause. So say they, The understanding that thou gavest me was unable to discern; the will that thou gavest me, was unable to make a better choice; the objects which thou didst set before me, did entice me; the temptation which thou didst permit to assault me, prevailed against me.' And some are so loath to think, that God can make a self-determining

creature, that they dare not deny him that which they take to be his prerogative, to be the determiner of the will in every sin, as the first efficient, immediate, physical cause. And many could be content to acquit God from so much causing of evil, if they could but reconcile it with his being the chief cause of good. As if truths would be no longer truths, than we are able to see them in their perfect order and coherence, because our ravelled wits cannot set them right together, nor assign each truth its proper place, we presume to conclude, that some must be cast away. This is the fruit of proud self-conceitedness, when men receive not God's truth as a child his lesson, in a holy submission to the holy omniscience of our teacher, but as censurers that are too wise to learn.

Object. But we cannot convert ourselves till God convert us; we can do nothing without his grace. It is not in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth mercy.'

Answ. 1. God hath two degrees of mercy to shew: the mercy of conversion first, and the mercy of salvation last. The latter he will give to none but those that will and run, and hath promised it to them only. The former is to make them willing that were unwilling; and though your own willingness and endeavours deserve not his grace, yet your wilful refusal deserveth that it should be denied unto you. Your disability is your very unwillingness itself, which excuseth not your sin, but maketh it the greater. You could turn, if you were but truly willing, and if your wills themselves are so corrupted, that nothing but effectual grace will move them, you have the more cause to seek for that grace, and yield to it, and do what you can in the use of the means, and not neglect it, nor set against it. Do what you are able first, and then complain of God for denying you grace, if you have cause.

Object. But you seem to intimate, all this while, that man hath freewill.'

Answ. The dispute about freewill is beyond your capacity, I shall, therefore, now trouble you with no more but this about it. Your will is naturally a free, that is, a self-determining faculty, but it is viciously inclined, and backward to do good; and, therefore, we see by sad experience that it

hath not a virtuous, moral freedom. But that is the wickedness of it which deserveth the punishment. And I pray you let us not befool ourselves with opinions. Let the case be your own. If you had an enemy so malicious, that he falls upon you and beats you every time he meets you, and takes away the lives of your children, will you excuse him, because he saith, I have not freewill, it is my nature, I cannot choose, unless God give me grace?' If you have a servant that robbeth you, will you take such an answer from him? Might not every thief and murderer that is hanged at the assize, give such an answer, I have not free will, I cannot change my own heart. What can I do without God's grace?' And shall they, therefore, be acquitted? If not, why then should you think to be acquitted for a course of sin against the Lord?

2. From hence also you may observe these three things together. (1.) What a subtle tempter satan is. (2.) What a deceitful thing sin is. (3.) What a foolish corrupted creature man is. A subtle tempter, indeed, that can persuade the greatest part of the world to go wilfully into everlasting fire, when they have so many warnings and dissuasives as they have? A deceitful thing is sin, indeed, that can bewitch so many thousands to part with everlasting life, for a thing so base and utterly unworthy! A foolish creature is man, indeed, that will be so cheated of his salvation for nothing; yea, for a known nothing! and that by an enemy, and a known enemy! You would think it impossible that any man in his wits should be persuaded for a trifle, to cast himself into the fire or water, into a coal-pit, to the destruction of his life; and yet men will be enticed to cast themselves into hell. If your natural lives were in your own hands, that you should not die till you would kill yourselves, how long would most of you live? And yet, when your everlasting life is so far in your own hands, under God, that you cannot be undone till you undo yourselves, how few of you will forbear your own undoing? Ah, what a silly thing is man! and what a bewitching and befooling thing is sin!

3. From hence also you may learn, that it is no great wonder, if wicked men be hinderers of others in the way to heaven, and would have as many unconverted as they can, and would draw them into sin, and keep them in it. Can

you expect that they should have mercy on others, that have none upon themselves? and that they should much stick at the destruction of others, that stick not to destroy them selves? They do no worse by others, than they do by themselves.

4. Lastly, You may hence learn that the greatest enemy to man is himself, and the greatest judgment in this life, that can befal him, is to be left to himself; and that the great work that grace hath to do, is to save us from ourselves, and the greatest accusations and complaints of men should be against themselves, and that the greatest work we have to do ourselves, is to resist ourselves; and the greatest enemy we should daily pray, and watch, and strive against, is our carnal hearts and wills; and the greatest part of your work, if you would do good to others, and help them to heaven, is to save them from themselves, even from their own blind understandings, and corrupted wills, and perverse affections, and violent passions, and unruly senses. I only name all these for brevity sake, and leave them to your farther consideration,

Well, sirs, now we have found out the great delinquent and murderer of souls (even men's selves, their own wills); what remains, but that you judge according to the evidence, and confess this great iniquity before the Lord, and be humbled for it, and do so no more? To these three ends distinctly, I shall add a few words more. 1. Farther to convince you. 2. To humble you. And 3. To reform you, if there be yet any hopes,

1. We know so much of the exceeding gracious nature of God, who is willing to do good, and delighteth to shew mercy, that we have no reason to suspect him of being the culpable cause of our death, or call him cruel. He made all good, and he preserveth and maintaineth all. "The eyes of all things do wait upon him, and he giveth them their meat in due season; he openeth his hand, and satisfieth the desires of all the living m." He is not only "righteous in all his ways," (and, therefore, will deal justly)" and holy in all his works, (and, therefore, not the author of sin) but "he is also good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works"." But as for man, we know his mind is dark, his will per