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fay God is merciful: I fay, (1.) It is very true, he is fo. The Lord has long fince proclaimed his name, The Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, and he delights in fuch as hope in his mercy, Pfal. cxlvii. 11. But, (2.) notwithstanding of the mercy of God, there are but few that shall be fav. ed, Luke xiii. 23. Now, who has told you, that ye fhall be among that few? Ye fay, ye hope to be amongst that few who fhall find mercy; and I fear ye fhall not. Now, whether are your hopes or my fears beft grounded? I can give fome account of my fears; but I doubt if ye can give any of your hopes. I fay, I fear that many of you be damned; for, as I faid before, there are but few that fhall be faved; and thefe few are all penitent finners, who have been convinced of fin and mifery, and have laid falvation to heart above all things, and have accepted of Chrift upon the gofpel terms. Now, it is obvious that there are but very few of you of this fort; and our Lord has faid pofitively, That he who believeth not, shall not fee life, but fhall be damned. Now where are the grounds of your hopes? Ye fay, God is mer ciful: and I anfwer, he is juft alfo; and his juftice has as fair a plea against you, as his mercy has for you: ye fay, he has faved fome finners, and therefore hope he will have mercy upon you. I an fwer, He has damned more than he hath had mercy upon, and therefore he may deal fo with you too. C) but, fay ye, I cannot think that God will be fo cruel as to damn me. I answer, What more cruelty will it be to damn you, than to damn the he athen world? What more cruelty to damn you, than to damn the generality of unbe lievers, which make the far greater part of the hearers, of thegofpel In fine, is it cruelty to damn you,who

have innumerable fins, when it was none, God thought it none, to fend fo many angels into hell for one fin? Is it cruelty to punish you, who have neglected the means of falvation, when others have been damned that never had them? Who would fay the prince were cruel, or wanted mercy, who caufed execute the threatened punishment against obstinate offenders? Now, where are all your hopes from the mercy of God? I tell you, there are thousands this day in hell, who have been ruined by fuch prefumptuous hopes of mercy; and I fear there are many more who fhall be fo, ere all be done.

II. Others again, when beat from this defence, betake themselves to another not one whit better: O, fay they, we are in no danger, for we believe in the Lord Jefus Chrift. I anfwer, (1.) It is very true, they who do believe are indeed out of all hazard. But I fay, (2.) Are ye fure that ye believe? Many have been mistaken; and are ye fure that ye are in the right? The foolish virgins thought themselves believers, and it may be went a further length than ye can pretend to have gone; as ye may see if ye look to the parable, Matth. XXV. I. They had profeffions, they had lamps; upon the bridegroom's call they awake, and endeavour to trim their lamps to make them shine; they are convinced of the want of oil, and endeavour to get it; and yet were eternally fhut out from the prefence of God. Now with what face dare any of you pretend to believe, when ye come not up that length that we have just now let you fee others come, and yet perish? Are there not among you who will fay ye believe, and yet can drink drunk, can fwear, mock religion, and entertain a heart-hatred at fuch as go beyond you in

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Part II. strictness, can ridicule them, and call them hypocrites? I fear there may be fome fuch amongst you. I tell you, ye have no faith but such as may go to hell with you. Faith works by love, is a heart-purifying grace, and difcovers itself by a courfe of obedience, according to that of the apostle James, Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will fhew thee my faith by my works, Jam. ii. 16. (3.) Ye fay ye believe: when did ye believe? Did ye always believe? Yes, we always did believe. Say ye fo? O horrid ignorance! Ye fay ye did always believe; I fay, ye did never to this day believe; for we are not born believers, but unbelievers; and if ye think that ye did always believe, it is proof enough, that to this day ye are strangers to the precious faith of God's elect. I shall not at prefent infist in discovering the folly of fuch a pretence to faith, because I fhall have occafion, if the Lord will, afterwards to difcourfe more at length, of faith, and of the difference betwixt it, and those counterfeits of it whereon many do rely. Only I fay at prefent, that where faith is, it will lead to concern about falvation, and will lay hold upon the discoveries of fin, and that faith which is not endeavouring to get the foul in which it dwells, more and more convinced of, and humbled for fin, is to be fufpected.

III. When fin is held forth, and the law preached, then others will shelter themselves under the fig-leaf of their own blameless walk. Come to fome of these who have all their days lived in a ftate of estrangement and alienation from God, and pose them, when they ly upon a fick-bed, or a death-bed, as to their ftate: they will fay, they hope all is well, they shall be faved, they never did any body ill'; and therefore they never feared

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the wrath of God. Wo's me that there is any fo grofly ignorant, in a church that has been bleffed with more clear and fatisfying difcoveries of God's mind and will, than most churches in the world. Ye fay, ye have done no man any injury, and therefore ye will be faved. I answer, Ye have injured God, and therefore ye will be damned. Ye fay, ye have injured no man; I anfwer, Ye understand not well what ye fay, otherwife ye fhould not have the confidence to talk at the rate ye do. (1.) Ye have injured all with whom ye have converfed, in whom ye are concerned, in as far as ye have not laid out yourself in paying the debt ye owe them. Love is a debt we owe to all, Rom. xiii. 8. and he that has never evidenced his love to them, in a serious concern about their falvation, is extremely injurious to them, in as far as he detains from them that which is unqueftionably their due: and paft all peradventure, he that was never ferious about his own falvation, was never really concerned about the falvation of others; and therefore has detained from them what was their undoubted right. (2.) Didft thou never fee thy brother fin? No doubt thou haft. Well then, didst thou reprove him? I fear not. Yea, many of this fort of perfons can, it may be, fee their own children, wives, fervants, and neareft relations, commit grofs acts of fin, and yet never reprove them. Is it not fo with many of you? I am fure ye cannot deny it. Well, is not this a real injury done to those persons ye should have reproved? It is a hating them in your heart. God himself fays fo, and fure his judgment is according to truth, Lev. xix. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: thou shalt in any ways rebuke thy neighbour, and not fuffer fin upon him.

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In fine, with what confidence dare ye fay ye have done no man any injury, when by a tract of fin, ye have been doing the utmost ye could to bring down the wrath of a fin-revenging God upon your felves, and upon all who live with you in the fame fociety?

IV. Others, when purfued by the discoveries of fin, get in behind the church privileges, and think there to fcreen themselves from the wrath of God. Thus it was with the wretches fpoken of by the prophet Jeremiah, in that vii chap, of his book; they did fteal, murder, commit adul tery, fwear falfly, burn incenfe unto Baal. Well, the Lord threatens them with wrath, bids them amend their ways and their doings: but they fat ftill fecure and unconcerned, never affected either with the discovery of fin, or with threatenings of wrath. What is the matter? Have the men no fenfe of hazard at all? They could not altogether fhut their eyes upon the clear difcoveries the prophet made of their fins to them, or of that confequential mifery he did threaten them withal; but they sheltered themselves behind their church privileges, and they cry out to him, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are thefe, ver. 4. And I make no doubt but it is fo with fome of you. It may be, ye reafon as Manoah did in another cafe, If the Lord defigned to damn us, he would not have given us ordinances as he has done. Now, I only offer two or three things that will fufficiently expofe the weakness of this defence, or hiding place. And, (1.) I fay, Ye may indeed reafon thus, God has eftablished gofpel ordinances, the figns of his prefence amongst us; therefore he will fave fome. He will not bring the means of grace without doing

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