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 monftrous 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 dullest of beasts know who do them kindneffes, and fawn, as it were, upon thefe that feed them ordinarily but ye, O finners, have kicked and lifted up the heel against the God that has fed you all your life long, and so are guilty of the moft 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 in the

:

3d Place, You have done all this wickedness without any provocation. 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 you to allege in your own defence, O criminals? What iniquity, what fault have ye found in God, that ye have gone away backward, and forfaken his way? Produce your caufe, faith the Lord; bring forth your ftrong reafons, faith the king of Jacob, Ifa. lxi. 21. What have ye to offer in your own juftification? Sure I am, the ordinary pretences which are upon fuch occafions made ufe of, to juftify 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 fo

vereignty of the world. What will, what can make it his due, if creation, prefervation, benefits, and the fupereminent excellencies of his nature, qualifying him as it were for fo great a post, do not give a juft 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 preferver of men; he loads us daily with his benefits; and there is none like him to be his competitor. (2.) You cannot allege unjuft laws. You cannot fay that he has overstretched his prerogative, and withholden any part of that which was your unquestionable due. No, who dare implead the most High of injuftice? Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Are not all his laws moft juft always, and his judgments most righteous? Is he not a God of truth and without iniquity? Sure he is. We boldly bid you a defiance to discover any thing unjuft 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 auftere one, and has gone to the ut moft he might with you, exacted all that he poffibly could. No, he has confulted your good in the frame of his laws, and has contrived them fo, that every one who understands what he fays, muft own, that had mankind been at the making them, they could not by all their joint wit have gone near to make them fo exactly answer the defign of the high God, his glory in the good of the creature, as he has done. Nay further, your fins, in the

4th Place. Have this aggravation, that they are committed without any profpect of advantage to countervail the damage you fuftain. Could ye pretend, that ye can by your difobedience gain

fome

fome great thing; if it did not excufe you, it would yet make you to be pitied, as being overborn by a very great temptation: but this cannot, dare not be alleged; no, you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which doth not profit. You can make no hand of it. You offend the God of your mercies, without any provocation, and that for a very trifle. He has not flood with you upon the greatest, and ye fcruple the leaft points with him; yea, for a very shadow of pleafure ye ftand not to offend him. Nay,

5thly, You fin, notwithstanding the interpofition of the moft folemn vows to the contrary; and therefore, we might have made this one of the ingredients of fin, perjury. All of you who are now before the Lord, ftand folemnly engaged to fear, and obey and ferve the Lord, all the days of your lives. When you were offered to God in baptifm, then you came under the vows of God; and when you have given your prefence in the public affemblies of God's people, fince ye came to age, ye have folemnly owned and ratified thofe vows; and yet notwithstanding all thefe, you have finned against God, even your covenanted God, and therefore, there is perjury in all your fins. You have defpifed the oath in breaking the covenant of your God.

Once more, in the

6th Place, When you have finned and conti nne to fin against God, yet ye continue to profefs fealty and fubjection to him, and thereby add fearful hypocrify and mockery to your wickedness: like that profane people with whom the prophet Malachy had to do, who dealt traiterously with God, wearied him with their wickedness, robbed him of his due, and yet afferted their own innoE 2 cency

cency in all; and this, throughout the whole of that book is charged upon them, as an aggravation of their guilt. Their profeffion they still kept up, and challenged God to fhew wherein they had failed of their duty. Now, this is much your cafe, your very appearance here carries in it fuch a challenge. Would ye come here without feruple, and fo boldly rush into God's prefence whom ye have offended, were ye not at this with it, that ye judge God either knows not, or will not be of fended with what ye have done?

Now you have heard your charge opened, it is not as we have faid before, fome petty misdemeanour that is libelled against you, but crimes as black as hell, atheism, idolatry, blafphemy, robbery, rebellion and murder, and that against the God of your mercies, over the belly of a great many notable preventing means of grace, in fpite of the most folemn vows to the contrary, without any fhadow of provocation, any profpect of real advantage, and all this notwithstanding a great many profeffions to the contrary.

Here is the fum and fubftance of your indictment, enough to make heaven and earth aftonished, that God does not in fury fall upon us and make an utter end of us. If every one faw his own concernment in this matter, how would we be affected? it would make a strong work in this houfe.

This, O finners, is your charge: what have you to answer to it? Plead ye guilty or not? Sure I am, every foul in this houfe may fay with Job in that ix chapter of his book, and 20 ver. If Tjustify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I fay I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverfe. If you plead guilty, and take with the charge

chage, what means this fecurity we see among you? Is it not a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God? Is it an eafy thing to fuffer the punishment due to fuch crimes? Sure none can fay it is.

But it may be fome of you may be ready to fay, indeed we cannot deny ourselves to be finners. God help us, for we have all finned; but indeed we never thought, nor can we yet think that every fin has in it all these monftrous evils you have mentioned. God forbid we were all of us atheists, idolaters, blafphemers, robbers, murderers, and perjured rebels, as you have made us. No, we have indeed finned, but our confciences did never accufe us of any fuch monftrous impieties as these are. To thefe who fhall dare to fay or think fo, we answer, i. We do indeed believe that many of your confciences did never accufe you of any fuch crimes. Many of you keep the eyes of confcience fast shut in ignorance. You fear to bring your deeds to the light of a well informed confcience, left they fhould be reproved. Others of you have finned your confciences afleep, or rather you have abused them, fo that they are either faint, that they cannot speak loud, or ftupified that they cannot speak at all. But all this will not prove your innocence as to the crimes alleged. Wherefore, 2. Who has the jufter eftimate of fin, God or you? Who knows beft what malignity, what evil there is in its nature? Surely God knows best what the honour of his own laws and authority is, and how far it is trampled upon by every fin. We are but of yesterday, and know nothing. 3. Whose word, think ye, will ftand, God's or yours? God has by his word reprefented no lefs to be in it than we have faid to be in it, and therefore there is no E 3

lefs