for that per

chat end, Ile nds of people

Part I. The guilty Sinner convicted. 63 Jesus Christ, who is lifted up for that very end, that he may save his people from their sins, and bids all the ends of the earth look unto him for that end, Ila. xlv. 22. Look unto me, and be ye saved 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 sinned against, whom you have rebelled against, and treated unworthily in these horrid violations of his law, which we have enumerate to you above; but this is not the only ag- . gravation of your sins, that you had helps against fin. But,

2. You have sinned against the God of your mercies, the God who has loaded you with his favours. O fad requital you have given to God, for all the kindnesses he has done to you, since 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 solemnity charging upon his own people? Ila. i. 2. Hear, O heaven, and give ear, o 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 same 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 kindnesses. Reckon, O finners, what the mercies of God are, if ye can. Nay, if ye can count the stars in the heaven, or the Jand of the sea-shore, you may. David lays in that lxxi Psal. That he knows noi the number of God's salvation; and who may not fay with him

in this? God every day preserves you from many thousands of inconveniencies that would destroy you, and bestows upon you many thousands 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, so your fins are more than the hairs of your hea't. Look round you, whatever you see, whatever you enjoy, clothes, food, or whatever contributes to the comfort, of life, that you have from him; and this is the God, O sinners, against whom you have finned, who treats you thus, in whom ye live, move, and have your being, as the apostle observes, Acts xvii. 28,

(2.) As the mercies are many against which ye have finned, so they are great. If any can be called so, these 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 less does the provision that God has made amount unto, and no less has the Lord God given unto you. Has not his divine power given to you all things that pertain to life ani godlines? 2 Pet. i. 3. Have not ye a gospel dispensation, food and raiment? And what more is needful ? And yet against these great mercies you have finned. When God has fed you to the full, Jethurun-like you have waxed. fat, and kicked against the God that has fed you all your life long, Deut. xxxii. 15. . (3.) Ye have sinned notwithstanding of a long tract of these many and great undeserved kindnefles; 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

pliia

e hairs

r you fet,

putting his meat in his mouth? Who would rom many watch opportunities against one who had done him ald demo wonderful kindnesses? and this is exactly your cousands .

case; you have sinned, and that against the God cs, and of your mercies. And therefore, him. (4.) Your fins are all acts of monstrous ingra-. zanit Gatitude, than which nothing worse can be laid to you wes the charge of any man. It is a sin that makes à him. man worse than the beast of the field. The ox

knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib,

Ifà. i. 3. The dullest of beasts know who do them whateve kindnesses, and fawn, as it were, upon these jou hart that feed them ordinarily : but ye, O sinners, rs, agam have kicked and lifted up the heel against the God thus, that has fed you all your life long, and so are

guilty of the most horrid ingratitude. And do

you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and which se unwise? But this is not all that may be said for

aggravating your wickedness in sinning against
God: for in the .

3d Place, You have done all this wickedness lels does without any provocation. When subjects rebel

against their sovereign, they have usually some is

shadow of excuse for the taking up arms against El things him; but ye have none. What have you to ale 3. Hare

lege in your own deferice, O criminals? What iniquity, what fault have ye found in God, that , ye have gone away backward, and forsaken his

way? Produce your cause, faith the Lord; bring e Waxed

forth your strong reasons, faith the king of Jacob,... feel you . Ifa. Ixi. 21. What have ye to offer in your own

justification? Sure I am, the ordinary pretences Calong which are upon such occasions made use of, to ju- ". E kind stify a substraction of obedience froin the kings of

the earth, will do you no service. (1.) You can.
not, you dare not quarrel God's claim to the so-

VC,

hy can be

hand d s needful

nt unto, to you.

criment?

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God has

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vereignty of the world. What will, what can make it his due, if creation, preservation, benefits, and the supereminent excellencies of his nature, qualifying him as it were for so great a .poft, do not give a just claim? And God has a right to the government of the world upon all these accounts, He made us, and not we ourselves; he is the mighty preserver of men; he loads us daily with his

benefits; and there is none like him to be his :competitor.. (2.) You cannot allege unjust-laws.

You cannot fay that he has overstretched his pre:
rogative, and withholden any part of that which
was your unquestionable due. No, who dare im-
plead the most High of injustice? Shall not the
judge of all the earth da right? Are not all his
lawş most just always, and his judgments most
righteous? Is he not a God of truth and without
iniquity ? Sure he is. We boldly bid you a defi-

ance to discover any thing unjust in that body of .. laws which God has given to the fons of men,

Nor, (3.) can ye allege the rigour of his laws,
that he is an austere one, and has gone to the ut.
most he might with you, exacted all that he pof-
sibly could. No, he has consulted your good in
the frame of his laws, and has contrived them so,
that every one who understands what he says,
must own, that had mankind been at the making
them, they could not by all their, joint wit have
gone near to make them so exactly answer the de-
Tign of the high God, his giory in the good of the
creature, as he has done. Nay further, your sins,
in the .

.
4th Place. Have this aggravation, that they
are committed without any prospect of advantage
to countervail the damage you sustain. Çould ye
pretend, that ye can by your disobedience gain

fome great thing; if it did not excufe you, it

would yet make you to be pitied, as being overA born by a very great temptation : but this cannot, at, di dare not be alleged; no, you spend your inoney too for that which is not bread, and your labour for Do that which doth not profit. You can make no entband of it. You offend the God of your mercies, th no without any provocation, and that for a very trifle. me He has not stood with you upon the greatest, and Lawye fcruple the least points with him; yea, for a

very shadow of pleafure ye stand not to offend him: Nay, .

Sthly, You fin, notwithstanding the interpofi**tion of the most folemn vows to the contrary; and

therefore, we might have made this one of the in

gredients of sin, perjury. Al of you who are now that before the Lord, ftand folemnly engaged to fear,

and obey and serve the Lord, all the days of your Wyd lives. When you were offered to God in baptism, mies then you came under the vows of God; and when

you have given your presence in the public assembiblies of God's people, fince ye came to age, ye have polfolemnly owned and ratified those vows; and yet din notwithstanding all these, you have finned againft 7 105 God, even your covenanted God, and therefore, S there is perjury in all your fins. You have deing spised the oath in breaking the covenant of your 20 God. Once more, in the do f 6th Place, When you have finned and contithe nue to fin against God, yet ye continue to profess Lils, fealty and subjection to him, and thereby add fear

ful hypocrisy and mockery to your wickedness: ney like that profane people with whom the prophet Ege Malachy had to do, who dealt traiterously with ye God, wearied him with their wickedness, robbed in him of his due, and yet asserted their own inno

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cency