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finner, as to furnish one with ftrength to fin against God. See Hab. ii. 11. Jam. v. 3.

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8. The judgments of God bear witness against you. As many rods as have ever been upon you, as many witneffes are there of this fad truth. The rod of God fpeaks; for we are commanded to hear the rod, Micah vi. 9. The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom fhall fee thy name: hear the rod, and who hath appointed it. Every stroke that the hand of God lays upon us, fpeaks; and the first thing it fays, is, Ye have finned and come short of the glory of God. For affliction doth not fpring out of the ground, nor doth trouble arife out of the duft. And here we may boldly with Eliphaz in that iv. of Job and 7. challenge you to give one instance of any innocent who ever fuffered the least wrong or trouble. Remember, I pray thee, fays he to Job, who ever perifbed being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? As if he had faid, Search the records of ancient times; rub up by thy memory, and give me but one inftance of any person who fuffered and was not a finner. I defy thee to give me one inftance. Indeed he was out in the application of that unquestionable truth; for he did thence endeavour to infer that Job was a hypocrite. As to the application, we are not concerned in it; but for the truth itself, that we own, and challenge you to inftance any. Our blessed Lord indeed was free of perfonal failings, but not fo of imputed ones; for the Lord laid upon him the iniquities of us all, and he was wounded for our tranfgreffions. And therefore, his fufferings are no ways inconfiftent with this truth, That none fuffer but finners; and therefore, your fufferings are a proof, and do teftify that ye have

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finned; for God doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men, Lam. iii. 33. He takes not pleasure in afflicting his own creatures; but when he does it, it is for their fins. What God, in his fovereignty, may do, as to the punishing, or rather afflicting of an innocent creature, we shall not determine. Learned men have learnedly, I may fay, played the fool, or trifled in debating this point, the determination whereof makes nothing to edification, were it poffible to determine it fatisfyingly. If any should ask me, Can God punish or afflict an innocent creature? I, fhould anfwer, (1.) That questions about what God can do, are dangerous, and may for moft part be forborn. (2.) Punish an innocent creature he cannot, for that prefuppofeth fuch a fault. (3.) God in the first formation of his creatures did fet them fuch a law for their rule, as did lead them directly to the highest perfection their natures were capable of; and they walking according to that rule, i. e. being innocent, it is hard to conceive how they could fail fhort, or in any meafure fwerve from the end. If it be ftill enquired, whether God may not in his abfolute fovereignty pafs over this, which feems to be the fixed and fettled order of his conduct towards the creatures, and afflict them, or fuffer them to meet with inconveniences, while they hold close to the rule that God has fet them; if I fay any ftate the queftion thus, Then, (4.) I fhall only propose another question to the enquirer, Can there poffibly fall within the compafs of God's knowlege a defign which will make it worthy of his infinite wifdom and goodnefs to do fo, to break this law of nature, which is every way fuited to his wifdom and goodness? If he fay there may, then he is o

bliged to produce it, which he will find hard enough to do: if he fay not, then he determines the question in the negative, but dangerously enough; for who knows the infinitely wife designs which may fall within the compass of the thoughts of the omniscient God, whofe ways and thoughts are as far above the thoughts of man, as the heavens above the earth? But whatever be in this nice debate, wherein we shall not immix ourselves, the truth we have advanced is certain, That no inftance can be given wherein God has afflicted those who have been abfolutely free from fin, inherent or imputed: and therefore, the rods of God are witnesses against you that ye have finned. Speak, O finners, did you never meet with an affliction in body or mind, in your perfons or families, in yourselves or in your relations, young or old? Who, or where is the man or woman that never had a cross? I believe that perfon is scarce to be found in the world who has no complaints, that is, who has no croffes. Well then, as many croffes as ye have had, as many witnesses are there giving in teftimony against you, that ye have finned. For no finning, no fuffering.

9. In fine, to name no more witnelles, Death the king of terrors is a witness against you, and gives teftimony against all, that they have finned; for the wages of fin is death, Rom. vi. 23. It is only fin that gives death a power over you. If any of you can plead exemption from death, then you may with fome reafon plead freedom from the charge we have laid against you; but if not, then in vain will all pretences, fhifts and evafions be. It may be now we fhall not, no not by the teftimony of all the famous witneffes we have led against you, bring you to a conviction of fin: but

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when death, the king of terrors, begins his evidence; he will convince you, ere he have done with you; or he will fend you, where ye shall be convinced not much to your comfort. Death is ferjeant to the great King; and when he takes you, arrests you, cites you anon to appear before the bar that is in the higher houfe, how will your hearts fail you then? O finners, the fight of the grim meffenger, death, of the executioner Satan, of the place of torment, hell, and the awful folemnity of the judge of the quick and the dead, will fuperfede any further proof, and will awaken the moft fleepy confcience, which will then be not only witness but judge, and even executioner, to these who shall not be able to plead an interest in Chrift Jefus, who have never been convinced foundly of fin at the bar of the word.

Thus we have made good our charge against all and every one of you, by the teftimony of a great many witneffes of unquestionable credit: it is therefore high time, O finners, for you to bethink yourselves what ye fhall answer when ye are reproved.

Hitherto we have held in the general: we have charged fin upon you all, without fixing any particular fin upon any particular fort of perfons: now we come to that which in the next place we propofed in the management of this charge against you; and that is,

III. To make good the charge by dealing particularly with the confciences of feveral forts of perfons among you, to bring you, if poffible, to a fenfe of your fin.

All who are in this houfe. may be ranked, according to the apoftle John his divifion, into children, young men and fathers; or into children,

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thefe of a middle age, and old perfons. Under young men and women are comprehended all these, whether they have families or not, who are not come to declining years, who are yet in the flower of their strength and vigour. To each of these I would apply myself in a way of conviction, and endeavour to bring them to a sense of fin, and that even of particular fins.

But that I may proceed in this with the more clearness, I fhall premife a few things, which may clear the way to what we defign upon this head. And,

1. There are two great defigns which every man fhould continually aim at, ufefulnefs here, and happiness hereafter. We come not to the world, as fome foolishly apprehend, to spend or pafs our time, and no more of it, No, God has cut us out our work. We are all obliged in fome one station or other, to lay out ourselves for the advancement of the glory of God in this world. Every one is furnished with endowments more or lefs. To fome God has given an ample stock, many talents; to fome fewer; and to fome but one. All have received, and if all do not employ their endowments, put the cafe they appear very inconfiderable,, they will find it hard to an fwer for the mifimprovement. He who had but one talent, for his neglect of it had a dreadful doom pronounced against him, Matth. xxv. 30. Caft ye the unprofitable fervant into utter darknefs: there fhall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. We are not born to ourselves only, but to the world, and therefore we fhould defign usefulness in it; and withal should take a due care of our own principal concern, the falvation of our fouls. If he who provides not for his own family, has de

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