when we accufe you of fin; for, as you have just now heard, rebellion and fin is in fcripture-account, and therefore in God's account, one and the fame; and bow heinous this crime is, we find the Spirit of God telling us, in that 1 Sam. xv. 23. "Rebellion is as the fin of witchcraft." Once more, 6. We charge murder upon you. An hard charge, will you fay, if it be well proven; a charge which, if it be made good against us, we deferve by the law of God and man to die. Well, as difficult as you may think it, we shall make it good against every foul of you, and that after this manner. You have finned, and every finner is a murderer, and that the worst of murderers. Well might the wife man fay, Eccl.. ix. 18. "One finner deftroyeth much good." For, (1.) He murders his own foul by it. What is faid of adultery is indeed applicable to every fin, Prov. xvi. 32. "He that doth it destroyeth his own foul," and fo is guilty of that worst of wickedness, felf-murder. He flays a foul, and not a body only, who commits fin.. (2.) He is in difpofition a murderer of God, who commits fin. This is plain, if you confider two fcriptures: 1 John iii. 5. it is afferted, that hatred is murder, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life." And Rom. vii. 7. it is faid, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." So that the natural man, in the state wherein he is born, is a hater, an enemy of God, and therefore in God's account a murderer of God; for indeed he that bates one, forbears murdering only for want either of opportunity, or power, or fecrecy, or fome fuch like advantage. Now, every fin is the product of that natural enmity, the fruit of which grows on the carnal mind; and therefore must partake of the nature of the root, must have enmity or hatred against God in it, and implies a judging him unworthy of a being. That principle of enmity which inclines and prompts man to fin, to tread upon God's law, would ex. cite him to destroy God, were it poffible; every fin aims at no less than the life of God. We fay not that every or any finner doth intend the destruction of God, but that it is the aim of every fin. A man, in every fin, aims at the advancement of his own will above that of God's: and could the finner attain his end, God would be destroyed; for for God cannot furvive his will. He can as foon ont-live his being as his glory; and he that aims at the one, aims at the other allo: and this is the cafe of every finner. Now, I have made it good, that every fin has murder in it; and confequently that all who have finned, as ye all have done, have committed murder, and that of the worst fort, felf-murder, foul-murder, nay, and God-murder: and if the blood of the body of another fhall be required at the hand that sheds it, what do you think will be the cafe of fuch as have hed the blood of a foul? And if it ftand hard with fuch, what will become of the murderer of God? Sure, if fimple murder be avenged, then felf-mur. der, foul-murder, will be avenged feven times more; and if foul-murder be fo evil, and bring complicated deftruction upon the guilty, what, O finners! think ye will be the cafe of thefe who fhall be found confpirators against the life of God? Now, can ye think the crime alleged against you small, after we have a little opened it to you? fure he who will, must be totally deftitute of all fenfe of God, or of reli gion, nay, or reason. What is grevious and heavy, if the charge of atheifm, idolatry, blafphemy, robbery, rebellion, and murder, be not fo? And we have made it appear, that our plea, or rather God's plea against you, amounts to no lefs. But this is far from being all that we have to fay in the juftification of God, and for your condemnation. These fins have, 3dly, Aggravations as dreadful and guilt-enhancing, as they themselves are great and monstrous. You have finned, and confequently are guilty of atheism, idolatry, blafphemy, robbery, rebellion, and murder; but not fimply of thefe abominations as in themselves, but as they are attended with a great many fearful and killing aggravations, which add extremely to the fcore of the provocations, being as it were so many cyphers put behind the figures, which, though in themselves they be nothing, yet put behind, they fwell the number to a prodigious greatness. 1. All these evils you have done, notwithstanding a great many notable helps you have received against fin. Not to speak of what you had in Adam, perfect strength, perfect will, and perfect happinefs, you have not only finned in him against all these, but you who are here prefent have finned against many notable means afforded you of God for your prefervation from fin. (1.) You have finued in the face of the dreadful threatenings of God's vengeance against it. You have finned under the very thunderings of mount Sinai : and when the flames of hell have, out of the threatenings of God, been ftaring you in the face, even then you have dared to provoke the Moft High, flighting all these formidable evidences of his anger. (2.) You have finned against dreadful examples or inflances of the judgments of God against offenders. You have, as it were, feen your companions turned into hell, and yet you have perfifted in the crimes for which they were ferved fo. Say now, who of you, in fome one remarkable instance or other, has not feen the judgments of God against fin and finners? Sure our land has of late afforded remarkable inftances not a few. Have you not feen fome, out of a fever of luft, fall into ficknefs, and out of this drop into the bot. tomlefs abyss of the fcorching wrath of God? and, notwithftanding all this, you have finned on, and have not guarded against fin. (3.) You have finned contrary to great and precious gofpel-promises; thefe great and precious promiles, that are breafts full of light, full of life, confolation, and ftrength, full of fpiritual tupplies for ftrengthening poor men against the affaults of fin. (4.) You have finned a gainst the glorious gospel-ordinances, all of which are defigned for the destruction and ruin of fin, and are the pipes through which the fupplies contained in the promises are conveyed to the Lord's people. (5.) You have finned a. gainst all the frivings of the Spirit of God with you, in ordinances and providences; and confequently have refifted the Holy Ghoft in your fins. (6.) You have finned against that fovereign ordinance of God, the antitype of the brazen ferpent, Jefus Chrift, who is lifted up for that very end, that he may fave his people from their fins; and bids all the ends of the earth look unto him for that end, Ifa. xlv. 22. "Look unto me, and be ye faved, all the ends of the earth." The God who has been holding him forth to you, who has provided you in all these great and notable advantages, is the God you have finned againft, whom you have rebelled against, and treated unworthily in thefe horrid violations of his law, which we have enumerated to you above. But this is not the only only aggravation of your fins, that you had helps against fin: But, 2. You have finned against the God of your mercies, the God who has loaded you with his favours. O fad requit al you have given to God for all the kindneffes he has done to you, fince the morning of your day! May he not justly, nay, may we not in his name, lay that to your charge, which we find him with wonderful folemnity charg ing upon his people, Ifa. i. 2. "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, earth; for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." Have not you been nourished and brought up under the care, and by the providence of God? and has he not met with the fame entertainment at your hand? Now, this is a dreadful aggravation of your guilt. For, (1.) It is not one mercy, or two, but innumerable mercies, innumerable kindneffes. Reckon, O finners! what the mercies of God are, if you can. Nay, if ye can count the stars in the heaven, or the fand of the fea-fhore, you may. David fays in that 71ft Pfalm, "That he knows not the number of God's falvation;" and who may not fay with him in this? God every day preferves you from many thousands of inconveniences that would destroy you, and bestows upon you many thoufands of mercies. He loads you with his benefits, and ye load yourselves with your fins against him. Ye turn the point of them all, as it were, against God, and make these very mercies he gives you weapons of unrighteousness to fight against him. As his favours, fo your fins are more than the hairs of your head. Look round you, whatever you see, whatever you enjoy, chothes, food, or whatever contributes to the comfort of life, that you have from him; and this is the God, O finners! against whom ye have finned, who treats you thus, "in whom ye live, move, and have your being," as the apostle obferves, Acts xvii. 28. (2.) As the mer. cies are many against which ye have finned, so they are great. If any can be called fo, thefe which you have at the hand of God may. What is great, if all that is needful for life and godliness be not. And no lefs does the provifion that that God has made amount anto; and no lefs has the Lord God given unto you; Has not "his divine power given to you all things that pertain to life and godliness?" 2 Pet. i. 3. Have not ye a gospel-defpenfation, food and raiment? And what is more needful? And yet against these great mercies you have finned. When God has fed you to the full, Jefhurun-like, you have waxed fat, and kick ed against the God that has fed you all your life long, Deut. xxxii. 15. (3.) Ye have finned notwithstanding of a long tract of thefe many and great undeferved kindneffes; and this extremely enhances your guilt. What! would he not be looked on as a very monster in nature, who would kill the man that was putting his meat in his mouth? who would watch opportunities against one who had done him wonderful kindneffes? and this is exactly your cafe; you have finned, and that against the God of your mercies. And therefore, (4.) Your fins are all acts of monstrous ingratitude, than which nothing worse can -be laid to the charge of any man. It is a fin that makes a man worse than the beaft of the field: The ox knoweth his owner, and the afs his master's crib," Ifa. i. 3. The dulleft of beafts know who do them kindneffes, and fawn, as it were, upon thofe that feed them ordinarily; but ye, O finners! have kicked and lift up the heel against the God that has fed you all your life long, and fo are guilty of the most horrid ingratitude. And do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwife! But this is not all that may be faid for aggravating your wickedness in finning against God. For, 3. You have done all this wickedness without any prevocation. When fubjects rebel against their fovereign, they have ufually fome fhadow of excufe for the taking up arms against him; but ye have none. What have ye to allege in your own defence, O criminals? What iniquity, what fault have ye found in God, that ye have gone backward and forfaken his ways? "Produce your cause, faith the Lord; bring forth your ftrong reafons, faith the King of Jacob," Ifa. xli. 21. What have you to offer in your juftification? Sure I am, the ordinary pretences which are upon fuch occafions made ufe of, to justify a fubftraction of obedience from the kings of the earth, will do you no fervice. (1.) You cannot, you dare not quarrel God's claim to the fovereignty of the world. What will, what can make it his due, if creation, prefervation, benefits, and the fupereminent excellencies of his nature, qualifying |