and tamed thee with his plagues, and made thee sober in another world? Alas! how small a matter is it for the Almighty to rule the tongue of the profanest railer, and tie the hands of the most malicious persecutor; or calm the fury of the bitterest of his enemies, and make them know they are but worms. If he should but frown upon thee, thou wouldst drop into thy grave. If he gave commission to one of his angels to go and destroy ten thousand sinners, how quickly would it be done? How easily can he lay thee upon the bed of languishing, and make thee lie roaring there in pain, and make thee eat the words of reproach which thou hast spoken against his servants, his word, his worship, and his holy ways; and make thee send to beg their prayers, whom thou didst despise in thy presumption? How easily can he lay that flesh under gripes and groans, and make it too weak to hold thy soul, and make it more loathsome than the dung of the earth? That flesh which now must have what it loves, and must not be displeased, and must be humoured with meat, drink, and clothes, whatsoever God says to the contrary, how quickly would the frowns of God consume it? When thou wast passionately defending thy sin, and quarrelling with them that would have drawn thee from it, and shewing thy spleen against the reprovers, and pleading for the works of darkness; how easily could God snatch thee away in a moment, and set thee before his dreadful Majesty, where thou mayst see ten thousand times ten thousand of glorious angels waiting on his throne, and call thee there to plead thy cause, and ask thee, 'What hast thou now to say against thy Creator, his truth, his servants, or his holy ways; now plead thy cause, and make the best of it thou canst. Now what canst thou say in excuse of thy sins? Now give account of thy worldliness and fleshly life, of thy time, of all thy mercies thou hast had.' O how thy stubborn heart would have melted, and thy proud looks be taken down, and thy countenance appalled, and thy stout words turned into speechless silence, or dreadful cries; if God had but set thee thus at his bar, and pleaded his own cause with thee, which thou hast here so maliciously pleaded against. How easily can he, at any time, say to thy guilty soul, Come away, and live in that flesh no longer, till the resurrection,' and it cannot resist? A word of his mouth,

would take off the noise of thy present life, and then all thy parts and powers would stand still; and if he say unto thee, 'Live no longer;' or 'Live in hell,' thou couldst not disobey.

But God hath yet done none of this; but hath patiently forborne thee, and mercifully upheld thee, and given thee that breath which thou didst breathe out against him, and given those mercies which thou didst sacrifice to the flesh, and afforded thee that provision which thou spentest to satisfy thy greedy throat: he gave thee every minute of that time which thou didst waste in idleness, and drunkenness, or worldliness. And doth not all his patience and mercy shew that he desired not thy damnation? Can the candle burn without the oil? Can your houses stand without the earth to bear them? As well as you can live one hour without the support of God. And why did he so long support thy life, but to see when thou wouldst bethink thee of the folly of thy ways, and return and live? Will any man purposely put arms into his enemy's hands to resist him? Or hold a candle to a murderer that is killing his children? Or to an idle servant that plays and sleeps the while? Surely it is to see whether thou wilt at last return and live, that God has so long waited on thee.

5. It is further proved by the sufferings of his Son that God taketh no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Would he have ransomed them from death at so dear a rate? Would he have astonished angels and men by his condescension? Would God have dwelt in flesh, and have come in the form of a servant, and have assumed humanity into one person with the Godhead? And would Christ have lived a life of suffering, and died a cursed death for sinners; if he had rather taken pleasure in their death? Suppose you saw him but so busy in preaching and healing of them, as you him in Mark iii. 21.; or so long in fasting, as in Matt. iv.; or all night in prayer, as in Luke vi. 12.; or praying with drops of blood trickling from him instead of sweat, as Luke xxii. 44.; or suffering a cursed death upon the cross, and pouring out his soul as a sacrifice for our sins: would you have thought these the signs of one that delighteth in the death of the wicked?

find

And think not to extenuate it by saying, that it was only for his elect. For it was thy sin, and the sin of all the

world, that lay upon our Redeemer; and his sacrifice and satisfaction is sufficient for all, and the fruits of it are offered to one as well as another; but it is true that it was neve the intent of his mind, to pardon and save any that would not by faith and repentance be converted. If you had seen and heard him weeping and bemoaning the state of disobedience in impenitent people, Luke xix. 41, 42., or complaining of their stubbornness, as Matt. xxiii. 37. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not?" Or if you had seen and heard him on the cross, praying for his persecutors, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do;" would you have suspected that he had delighted in the death of the wicked, even of those that perish by their wilful unbelief? "When God hath so loved" (not only loved, but so loved) "the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him," (by an effectual faith,) "should not perish, but have everlasting life," I think he hath hereby proved, against the malice of men and devils, that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but had rather that they would Turn and Live.

6. Lastly, If all this will not yet satisfy you, take his own word, that knoweth best his own mind, or at least believe his oath. But this leadeth me up to the fourth doctrine.

Doct. IV. The Lord hath confirmed it to us by his oath, that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he Turn and Live; that he may leave man no pretence to question the truth of it.

If you dare question his word, I hope you dare not question his oath. As Christ hath solemnly protested, that the unregenerate and unconverted cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, in Matt. xviii. 3. John iii. 3.; so God hath sworn, that his pleasure is not in their death, but in their conversion and life. And as the apostle saith, Heb. ^i. 13. 16-18. "Because he can swear by no greater than himself, he saith, As I live, &c. For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consola

:

tion, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." If there be any man that cannot reconcile this truth with the doctrine of predestination, or the actual damnation of the wicked, that is his own ignorance; he hath no pretence left to deny or question therefore the truth of the point in hand; for this is confirmed by the oath of God, and therefore must not be distorted, to reduce it to other points, but doubtful points must rather be reduced to it, and certain truths must be believed to agree with it, though our shallow brains do hardly discern the agreement.

USE. I do entreat thee, if thou be an unconverted sinner that hearest these words, that thou wouldst ponder a little upon the forementioned doctrines, and bethink thyself awhile, who it is that takes pleasure in thy sin and damnation. Certainly it is not God. He hath sworn for his part, that he takes no pleasure in it. And I know it is not the pleasing of him that you intend in it. You dare not say that you drink and swear, and neglect holy duties, and quench the motions of the Spirit, to please God. That were as if you should reproach the prince, and break his laws, and seek his death, and say, you did all this to please him.

Who is it then that takes pleasure in your sin and death? Not any that bear the image of God, for they must be likeminded to him. God knows, it is small pleasure to your faithful teachers, to see you serve your deadly enemy, and madly venture your eternal state, and wilfully run into the flames of hell. It is small pleasure to them, to see upon your souls (in the sad effects) such blindness, and hardheartedness, and carelessness, and presumption; such wilfulness in evil, and such uncharitableness, and stiffness, against the ways of life and peace; they know these are marks of death, and of the wrath of God, and they know from the word of God what is like to be the end of them; and therefore it is no more pleasure to them, than to a tender physician to see the plague-marks break out upon his patient. Alas! to foresee your everlasting torments, and know not how to prevent them! To see how near you are to hell, and we cannot make you believe it, and consider it! To see how easily, how certainly you might escape, if we knew but how to make you willing! How fair you are for

everlasting salvation, if you would but turn and do your best, and make it the care and business of your lives! But you will not do it, if our lives lay on it, we cannot persuade you to do it. We study day and night what to say to you, that may convince you, and persuade you, and yet it is undone we lay before you the word of God, and shew you the very chapter and verse where it is written, that you cannot be saved except you be converted; and yet we leave the most of you as we find you: we hope ye will believe the word of God, though you believe not us, and that you will regard it when we shew you plain Scripture for it: but we hope in vain, and labour in vain, as to any saving change upon your hearts. And do you think that this is a pleasant thing to us? Many a time in secret prayers we are fain to complain to God with sad hearts, ' Alas, Lord, we have spoken it to them, in thy name, but they little regard us; we have told them what thou bidst us tell them, concerning the danger of an unconverted state, but they do not believe us; we have told them that thou hast protested, "That there is no peace to the wicked "," but the worst of them all will scarcely believe that they are wicked; we have shewed them the word, where thou hast said, "That if they live after the flesh they shall die," but they say, they will believe in thee, when they will not believe thee: and that they will trust in thee, when they give no credit to thy word, and when they hope that the threatenings of thy word are false, they will yet call this a hoping in God; and though we shew them where thou hast said, "That when a wicked man dieth, all his hopes perish"," yet cannot we persuade them from their deceitful hopes. We tell them what a base, unprofitable thing sin is, but they love it, and therefore will not leave it. We tell them how dear they buy their plea sure, and what they must pay for it in everlasting torment, and they bless themselves and will not believe it, but will do as the most do; and because God is merciful, they will not believe him, but will venture their souls, come on it what will. We tell them how ready the Lord is to receive them; and this does but make them delay their repentance, and be bolder in their sin. Some of them say, they purpose to repent, but they are still the same; and some say, they * Isa. xlviii. 22. lvii. 21.

a Rom. viii. 13.

b Prov. xi. 7.