The Justice
of GOD
in the
Damnation of Sinners
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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.
DOCTRINE
"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 honour 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 honour, and obey, the contrary towards him must be infinitely faulty.
Our obligation to love, honour, 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 honour. 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 Saviour 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 honour 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 honour 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 honour! 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 foul spirits, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird? What foul-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 behaviour. 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 behaviour towards
your neighbours. 4. That it would be according to your own foolish behaviour 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 honour 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 honour precious? The honour 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 honour 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 honour; but you cared not for that. God
called upon you, and exhorted you to be more tender of his honour; 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 behaviour; but it if all mere dissembling. That downcast look and seeming reverence,
is not from any honour 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 honour 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 honour 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 honour;
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 honour.
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 behaviour 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 honour 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
16:9. "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
behaviour.- 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 Saviour. But God hath not done that; he has
provided a Saviour for sinners, and offered him to you, even his own Son Jesus Christ,
who is the only Saviour 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 Saviour
after such a manner, that if you should be eternally cast off by God, it would be
most agreeable to your behaviour towards him; which appears by this, viz. "That
you reject Christ, and will not have him for your Saviour."
If God offers you a Saviour from deserved punishment, and you will not receive him,
then surely it is just that you should go without a Saviour. Or is God obliged, because
you do not like this Saviour, 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 Saviour 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 Saviour,
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 Saviour?
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 Saviour, when I would give all the world that he
was my Saviour: how is it possible that I should not be willing to have Christ for
my Saviour 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 Saviour, 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 Saviour!
Who can rationally expect that Christ should force himself upon any man to be his
Saviour? 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 Saviour. To convince
you of it, consider,
1. How it is possible that you should be willing to accept of Christ as a Saviour
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 Saviour, 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 Saviour 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 Saviour 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 Saviour from a punishment deserved from
him which he thinks he has not deserved; it is impossible that any one should freely
allow a Saviour 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 Saviour;
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 favour, 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.
2. That you are not sincerely willing to accept of Christ as your Saviour, 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 Saviour. 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 Saviour, because
you have so mean an opinion of him, that you durst not trust his faithfulness. One
that undertakes to be the Saviour 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 Saviour,
why is Christ to be blamed that he does not save you? Christ has offered himself
to you, to be your Saviour 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 Saviour, 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 Saviour. 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 Saviour. 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 Saviour, 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 Saviour, 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 Saviour,
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 Saviour 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 Saviour 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 Saviour! 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 behaviour 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 neighbour'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 behaviour
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 neighbour, 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 favour 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 behaviour 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 behaviour towards God, that
you would at any time most highly resent in your neighbour 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 Saviour. 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.
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