They have the word, and that if they will not turn, And yet wicked they are,

therein shall not know peace *." the oath of the living God for it, they shall not enter into his rest. and wicked they will be, let God and man say what they will: fleshly they are, and fleshly they will be; worldlings they are, and worldlings they will be, though God hath told them, that "the love of the world is enmity to God; and that if any man love the world, (in that measure) the love of the Father is not in him "." So that consequentially these men are willing to be damned, though not directly: they are willing of the way to hell, and love the certain cause of their torment, though they be not willing of hell itself, and do not love the pain which they must endure.

Is not this the truth of your case, sirs? You would not burn in hell, but you will kindle the fire by your sins, and cast yourselves into it; you would not be tormented with devils in hell, but you will do that which will certainly procure it in despite of all that can be said against it. It is just as if you would say, 'I will drink this ratsbane, or other poison, but yet I would not die. I will cast myself headlong from the top of a steeple, but yet I will not kill myself. I will thrust my knife into my heart, but yet I will not take away my life. I will put this fire into the thatch of my house, but yet I will not burn it.' Just so it is with wicked men; they will be wicked, and live after the flesh and the world, and yet they would not be damned. But do you not know, that the means do lead unto the end? and that God hath, by his righteous law, concluded, that ye must repent or perish? He that will take poison may as well say, 'I will kill myself,' for it will prove no better in the end: though perhaps he loved it for the sweetness of the sugar that was mixed with it, and would not be persuaded it was poison, but that he might take it and do well enough; but it is not his conceits and confidence that will save his life. So if you will be drunkards, or fornicators, or worldlings, or live after the flesh, you may as well say plainly, We will be damned;' for so you shall be unless you turn. Would you not rebuke the folly of a thief or murderer that would say, 'I will steal or kill, but I will not be hanged;' when he knows, that if he do the one, the judge in justice will see that the

* Isa. lix. 8.

James iv. 4. John ii. 15.

other be done. If he says, 'I will steal and murder,' he may as well say plainly, I will be hanged;' so if you will go on in a carnal life, you may as well say plainly, ' We will go to hell.'

2. Moreover, the wicked will not use those means without which there is no hope of their salvation: he that will not eat, may as well say plainly he will not live, unless he can tell how to live without meat. He that will not go his journey, may as well say plainly he will not come to the end. He that falls into the water, and will not come out, nor suffer another to help him out, may as well say plainly, he will be drowned. So if you be carnal and ungodly, and will not, be converted, nor use the means by which you should be converted, but think it more ado than needs, you may as well say plainly, you will be damned. For if you have found out a way to be saved without conversion, you have done that which was never done before.

3. Yea, this is not all, but the wicked are unwilling even of salvation itself. Though they may desire somewhat which they call by the name of heaven, yet heaven itself, considered in the true nature of the felicity, they desire not: yea, their hearts are quite against it. Heaven is a state of perfect holiness, and of continual love and praise to God, and the wicked have no heart to this. The imperfect love, praise, and holiness which is here to be obtained, they have no mind of; much less of that which is so much greater: the joys of heaven are of so pure and spiritual a nature, that the heart of the wicked cannot truly desire them.

So that by this time you may see on what ground it is that God supposeth that the wicked are willing of their own destruction they will not Turn, though they must Turn or Die. They will rather venture on certain misery, than be converted; and then to quiet themselves in their sins, they will make themselves believe, that they shall nevertheless escape.

2. And as the controversy is matter of wonder (that ever men should be such enemies to themselves, as wilfully to cast away their souls), so are the disputants too. That God should stoop so low, as thus to plead the case with man; and that man should be so strangely obstinate as to need all

this in so plain a case; yea, and to resist all this, when their own salvation lieth upon the issue.

а

No wonder, if they will not hear us that are men, when they will not hear the Lord himself: as God saith, when he sent the prophet to the Israelites, "The house of Israel will not hearken unto thee: for they will not hearken unto me : For all the house of Israel are impudent, and hard-hearted "." No wonder, if they can plead against a minister, or a godly neighbour, when they will plead against the Lord himself, even against the plainest passages of his word, and think they have reason on their side. When they weary the Lord with their words,' they say, "Wherein have we wearied him a ?” The priests that despised his name, durst ask, "Wherein have we despised thy name." And when they "polluted his altar, and made the tables of the Lord contemptible," they durst say, "Wherein have we polluted theeb?" But "Wo unto him (saith the Lord) that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?" Quest. But why is it that God will reason the case with man?'

Answ. 1. Because that man, being a reasonable creature, is accordingly to be dealt with; and by reason to be persuaded and overcome. God hath therefore endowed them with reason, that they might use it for him. One would think a reasonable creature should not go against the clearest and greatest reason in the world, when it is set before him.

2. At least men shall see that God did require nothing of them that was unreasonable, but that whatever he commandeth them, and whatever he forbiddeth them, he hath all the right reason in the world on his side, and they have good reason to obey him, but none to disobey. And thus even the damned shall be forced to justify God, and confess that it was but reason that they should have turned to him, and they shall be forced to condemn themselves, and confess that they have little reason to cast away themselves by the neglecting of his grace in the day of their visitation. USE. Look up your best and strongest reasons sinners, if you will make good your way you see now with whom you have to deal. What sayst thou unconverted, sensual

Ezek. iii. 7.

a Mal. ii. 7.

b Mal. vi. 1. 7.

c Isa. xlv. 9.

wretch? Darest thou venture upon a dispute with God: art thou able to confute him? Art thou ready to enter the lists? God asketh thee, Why wilt thou die?' Art thou furnished with a sufficient answer? Wilt thou undertake to prove that God is mistaken, and that thou art in the right? O what an undertaking is that! Why either he or you is mistaken, when he is for your conversion, and you are against it. He calls upon you to turn, and you will not: he bids you do it presently, even to-day, while it is called today, and you delay, and think it time enough hereafter. He saith, it must be a total change, and you must be holy and new creatures, and born again; and you think that less may serve the turn, and that it is enough to patch up the old man, without becoming new. Who is in the right now, God or you? God calleth on you to turn, and to live a holy life, and you will not; by your disobedient lives it appears you will not. If you will, why do you not? Why have you not done it all this while? And why do you not fall upon it yet? Your wills have the command of your lives. We may certainly conclude, that you are unwilling to turn, when you do not turn. And why will you not? Can you give any reason for it, that is worthy to be called a reason?

I that am but a worm, your fellow-creature, of a shallow capacity, dare challenge the wisest of you all to reason the case with me, while I plead my Maker's cause, and I need not be discouraged, when I know I plead but the cause that God pleadeth, and contend for him that will have the best at last. Had I but these two general grounds against you, I am sure that you have no good reason on your side.

1. I am sure it can be no good reason, which is against the God of truth and reason; it cannot be light that is contrary to the sun. There is no knowledge in any creature, but what it had from God; and therefore none can be wiser than God. It were damnable presumption for the highest angel to compare with his Creator, what is it then for a lump of dirt, an ignorant sot, that knoweth not himself, nor his own soul; that knoweth but little of the things which he seeth, yea, that is more ignorant than many of his neighbours, to set himself against the wisdom of the Lord? It is one of the fullest discoveries of the horrible wickedness of carnal men, and the stark madness of such who sin, that so

silly a mole dare contradict his Maker, and call in question the word of God: yea, that those people in our parishes, that are so beastly ignorant, that they cannot give us a reasonable answer, concerning the very principles of religion, and yet so wise in their own conceit, that they dare question the plainest truths of God, yea, contradict them, and cavil against them, when they can scarce speak sense, and will believe them no farther than agreeth with their foolish wisdom.

2. And as I know that God must needs be in the right, so I know the case is so palpable and gross which he pleadeth against, that no man can have reason for it. Is it possible that a man can have any good reason to break his master's laws, and reason to dishonour the Lord of glory, and reason to abuse the Lord that bought him? Is it possible that a man can have any good reason to damn his own immortal soul? Mark the Lord's question, "Turn ye, turn ye, Why will ye die? Is eternal death a thing to be desired? Are you in love with hell? What reason have you wilfully to perish? If you think you have some reason to sin, should you not remember that "death is the wages of sind?" And think whether you have any reason to undo yourselves, body and soul for ever? You should not only ask whether you love the adder, but whether you love the sting. It is such a thing for a man to cast away his everlasting happiness, and to sin against God, that no good reason can be given for it; but the more any one pleads for it, the more mad he sheweth himself to be. Had you a lordship or a kingdom offered to you, for every sin that you commit, it were not reason but madness to accept it. Could you by every sin obtain the highest thing on earth that flesh desireth, it were of no considerable value to persuade you in reason to commit it. If it were to please your greatest and dearest friends, or obey the greatest prince on earth, or to save your lives, or to escape the greatest earthly misery, all these are of no consideration to draw a man in reason to the committing of one sin. If it were a right hand, or a right eye that would hinder your salvation, it would be the most gainful way to cast it away, rather than go to hell to save it. For there is no saving a part, when you lose the whole. So exceedingly great are the matters of eternity, that nothing in this world

d Rom. vi. 23.