indeed, fome have more, and fome have less, according to the pleasure of the great Judge, who, has allowed every one their portion, till the day of execution come, and then all will go. 1 2. God, at whofe inftance ye have been impeached of fin, will have fatisfaction in the death of the offenders. God threatened death to Adam in paradife: In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt furely die, or, dying thou shalt die, Gen. ii. 17. and the foul that finneth fhall die, faith the Lord by the prophet, Ezek. xviii. 20. for the wages of fin is death. This is not to be limited to a natural death; no, but is of a huge extent. It takes in a threefold death, a death spiritual, natural, eternal. Man in innocency had a threefold life, either in poffeffion or profpect. (1.) A fpiritual life, which confifted in the union of his foul to God, in a measure fuited to his prefent condition, and in the fitnefs of all his faculties and powers for acting and doing what was well pleafing unto God. (2.) A natural life, which confifted in the union of foul and body. That lovely pair, his innocent foul and pure body, were matched together, and linked to one another by a thought furpaffing art; fo that they had a moft near alliance, being compacted into one perfon, by a ty fo ftrong, as to occafion a notable fympathy; and yet fo fecret, that no eye could ever fee, no mind ever discover this imperceptible chain. (3.) Man had then a fair prospect of eternal life, in a full and clofe union to God, never to admit of any interruption, or of any fuch interpofition, as was between man and him in this lower world. But now upon his fin, he loft all by virtue of the primitive threatening of death to the foul that fins. Anfwerably hereunto, God will have you punished with a threefold death. O finners, his heart will not pity you, his eye will not spare you. You are already condemned to die. He that believeth not, that is, every finner by nature is condemned already, fays the spirit of God. Nay more, ye are not only condemned already, O finners, but moreover the execution is begun; the fire of God's wrath is already kindled against you; there are fome drops begun to fall, before the shower come that will entirely destroy you. (1.) You are fpiritually dead. I fpeak to all of you who are not favingly changed by grace, being begotten again from the dead, by the refurrection of Jefus Chrift. You are dead in trefpaffes and fins, utterly unmeet to entertain communion and fellowship with God. As a dead man cannot fpeak, act, or exercise any vital power; fo neither can ye act any thing that is fpiritually good, or well pleasing to God. This is a heavy punishment, though as yet ye be not fenfible of it. (2.) Natural death, that confifts in the feparation of the foul from the body, is already begun. Every disease that feizes upon our bodies, is like the pofts that run to meet another, to tell the king of Babylon, that his city was taken at one end, Jer. li. 31. Every disease makes a breach in our walls, and tells that all will in a little fall down flat. Your very life is nothing elfe but a fucceffion of dying: every day and hour wears away part of it; and fo far as it is already fpent, fo far are ye already dead and buried. Difeafes and natural decays do lay clofe fiege as it were to your bodies, routing their guards, battering the walls of your flesh, and forcing your fouls to quite the out-works, and retire into the heart and every minute, ye have reafon to fear that ye may be taken in and become a prey prey to death. In one word, O finners, ye are the mark at which juftice fhoots its arrows. Do not ye fee fometimes the arrow flee over your head, and flay fome great perfon your fuperior? Sometimes it lights at your feet, and kills a child or a fervant, or those who are inferior; fometimes it paffeth by your left hand, and kills an enemy, at whofe death poffibly ye rejoice; and anon it ftrikes the friend of your right hand; and possibly the very next arrow may ftrike you dead, be ye young or old, eternally dead, and hurry you into hell. 3. Your death will not do all; this punishment reaches your honours. Rebels are wont to have their honours torn: and fo God has determined with respect to you, O finners. Man was in his firft eftate advanced, to a high dignity, he was the friend as well as fubject of God; and he was his deputy in this lower world, as the Pfalmift tells us. Thou madeft him to have dominion over the works of thy hand; thou haft put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beafts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the fea, Pfal. viii. 5. Thus was he crowned with glory and honour: but now, O finners, the fentence is paft against all the race of finful Adam: thus faith the Lord, Remove the diadem, and take off the crown from the head of finners. The crown is fallen indeed from your head. Now, tell me, O finners, do not ye already feel the direful effects of this part of your punishment? These beafts which were once man's fubjects, are now turned his enemies, because he is God's enemy. Do not the very flies infult you, and make fometimes your life uneafy? Do not the wild beasts of the field terrify you? Are not fome of them daily making inroads upon you, devouring your cattle, car carrying away your fubftance? and even thefe which are moft serviceable, and feem to retain fomething of their refpect to man, fometime their Lord, do they not rebel? Doth not the horfe fometime throw his rider, the ox gore his owner? This man has loft his honour; nay, now he who once did reign, is become fin's flave, and thereby falls under the lashes of fin and Satan's flaves. This, O finner, is a part of your punishment. 4. This yet will not fatisfy justice. God purfues the quarrel to pofterity. I am a jealous God,fays he in the threatening annexed to the third command, vifiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children. Rebels children fuffer with the fathers in all nations; and shall not rebellion against God be as feverely punished, as that which is against an earthly fovereign? If an Achan fteal a Babylonifh garment, and, fin against the God of Ifrael, then he and his whole family fhall fall, man wife, and child: nay, and the very houfholdftuff, his ox and his affes. God will purfue the quarrel to a dreadful length. You may fee this terrible tragedy described by God, in that 7 chap. of Josh. from the 24 ver. God will spare nothing that finners have used. Becaufe finners have trode upon this earth, it must undergo the fire at the laft day, before it can be freed from the bondage of corruption. O finners, ye tranfmit a fad legacy to your wretched pofterity! a legacy of which the diftreffed church, Lam. v. 7. heavily complains, Our fathers have finned and are not, and we havë born their iniquities. 5. Once more; God purfues his quarrel yet further. He will have your names eternally ruïned. The memory of the wicked fhall rot, Prov.x. 7. After he has killed your bodies, and fouls, and children, and ruined your eftates, then he will kill your names that there shall no rememberance of you be upon the earth, unless it be the ftench of a rotten name, Thus will the Lord deal with you, O finners. The whirlwind of the Lord, that goes forth with fury, will blow away all your enjoyments, turn you out of all your poffeffions. The Lord will banish you his prefence. That almighty arm that stretched out the heavens, will tear your fouls from your bodies, and throw you headlong into perdition: the weight of infinite wrath will sink you down into the bottomless pit; and omnipotence will dig a grave for your memory, wherein it will eternally rot. For the greatnefs of your iniquity ye may expect this. This is thy lot, the portion of thy measure from me, faith, the Lord, becaufe thou hast forgotten me and trufted in falfhood, Jer. xiii. 25. This is the fatisfaction God requires: and think on it; this way will he be glorified in your ruin, if ye continue in your fins. I have at fome length proved you all to be offenders, that God demands a reparation, and what that reparation is, which he doth demand of his injured honour, I have at fome length made appear; I now proceed, according to the method propofed, V. To demonftrate the reasonableness of this demand. I have fhewn your ways to be most unequal; now I come to fhew that God's ways are most equal, and that he acts very reasonably, in demanding fo high and this will appear to the conviction of the moft obftinate finner, if the confiderations we offer for clearing this be duly weighed. And, 1. Let it be confidered, That fin deferves fuch a punishment; and therefore it is very juft to inflict |