his ears; and though all this have not converted you, yet you are alive, and might have mercy, to this day, if you had but hearts to entertain it. And now let reason itself be judge, whether it be long of God or you, if after all this you will be unconverted, and be damned? If you die now it is because you will die. What should be said more to you? Or what course should be taken, that is more like to prevail? Are you able to say and make it good, 'We would fain have been converted and become new creatures, but we could not; we would have changed our company, and our thoughts, and our discourse, but we could not.' Why could Why could you not if you would? What hindered you, but the wickedness of your hearts? Who forced you to sin? Or who did hold you back from duty? Had you not the same teaching, and time, and liberty to be godly as your godly neighbours had? Why then could you not have been godly as well as they? Were the church doors shut against you, or did you not keep away yourselves? Or sit and sleep, or hear as if you did not hear? Did God put in any exceptions against you in his word, when he invited sinners to return, and when he promised mercy to those that do return? Did he say, 'I will pardon all that repent, except thee? Did he shut you out from the liberty of his holy worship? pray to him any more than others? God did not drive you away from him, but you forsook him, and run away yourselves. And when he called you to him, you would not come. If God had excepted you out of the general promise and offer of mercy, or had said to you, 'Stand off, I will have nothing to do with such as you; pray not to me, for I will not hear you. If you repent never so much, and cry for mercy never so much, I will not regard you.' If God had left you nothing to trust to but desperation, then you had had a fair excuse. You might have said, 'To what end should I repent and turn, when it will do no good?' But this was not your case. You might have had Christ to be your Lord and Saviour, your Head and Husband, as well as others, and you would not; because that ye felt not yourselves sick enough for the physician; and because you could not spare your disease; in your hearts ye said as those rebels, Luke xix. 14. "We will not have this man to reign over us." Christ would have gathered you under the wings Did he forbid you to You know he did not. of his salvation, and you would not. What desires of your welfare did the Lord express in his holy word? With what compassion did he stand over you and say, "O that my people had hearkened unto me, and that they had walked in my way "." "O that there were such a heart in this people, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever *." "O that they were wise, that they understood this; and that they would consider their latter end "." He would have been your God, and done all for you that your souls could well desire: but you loved the world and your flesh above him; and, therefore, you would not hearken to him; though you complimented with him, and gave him high titles, yet when he came to the closing, you would have none of him. No marvel then, if "he gave you up to your own heart's lusts, and you walked in your own counsels "." He condescends to reason, and pleads the case with you, and asks you, "What is there in me, or my service, that you should be so much against me? What harm have I done thee, sinner? Have I deserved this unkind dealing at thy hands? Many mercies have I shewed thee; for which of them dost thou despise me? Is it I, or is it satan, that is thy enemy? Is it I, or is it thy carnal self that would undo thee? Is it a holy life, or a life of sin, that thou hast cause to fly from? If thou be undone, thou procurest this to thyself, by forsaking me the Lord, that would have saved thee a " "Doth not thine own wickedness correct thee, and thy sin reprove thee. Thou mayst see that it is an evil and bitter thing, that thou hast forsaken me "." "What iniquity have ye found in me, that you have followed after vanity, and forsaken me "." He calleth out, as it were, to the brutes to hear the controversy that he hath against you. "Hear O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel. O my people, what have I done to thee, and wherein have I wearied thee, testify against me; for I brought thee out of Egypt, and redeemed theed." Hear, O heavens, and give ear O earth, * Matt. xxiii. 27. y Deut. xxxii. 29. b Jer. ii. 19. 66 for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers!" &c. "Do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy father that bought thee, and established thee?" When he saw that you forsook him even for nothing, and turned away from your Lord and life, to hunt after the chaff and feathers of the world, he told you of your folly, and called you to a more profitable employment. "Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him, while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon s." And so Isa. i. 16-18. And when you would not hear, what complaints have you put him to, charging it on you as your wilfulness, and stubbornness? "Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; for my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters; and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water "." Many a time hath Christ proclaimed that free invitation to you, “Let him that is athirst come: and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely i." But you put him to complain after all his offers; "They will not come to me that they may have life *." He hath invited you to feast with him in the kingdom of his grace; and you had excuses from your grounds, and your cattle, and your worldly business, and when you would not come, you have said you could not, and provoked him to resolve that you should never taste of his supper1. And who is it long of h h e Isa. i. 2-4. f Deut. xxxii. 6. i Rev. xxii. 17. glsa. lv. 1-3.6,7. have now but yourselves? And what can you say is the chief cause of your damnation, but your own wills? You would be damned. The whole case is laid open by Christ himself, Prov. i. 20. to the end: "Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets: she crieth in the chief place of concourse. How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity, and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would have none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they callupon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof: therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from the fear of evil." I thought best to recite the whole text at large to you, because it doth so fully shew the cause of the destruction of the wicked. It is not because God would not teach them but because they would not learn. It is not because God would not call them, but because they would not turn at his reproof. Their wilfulness is their undoing. USE. From what hath been said, you may further learn these following things: 1. From hence you may see, not only what blasphemy and impiety it is, to lay the blame of men's destruction upon God: but also how unfit these wicked wretches are, to bring in such a charge against their Maker. They cry out upon God, and say, he gives them no grace, and his threatenings are severe, and God forbid that all should be damned that be not converted and sanctified, and they think it hard measure, that a short sin should have an endless suffering; and if they be damned, they say, they cannot help it. When in the meantime they are busy about their own destruction, even cutting the throat of their own souls, and will not be persuaded to hold their hand. They think God were cruel if he should damn them, and yet they are cruel to themselves, and they will run into the fire of hell, when God hath told them it is a little before them; and neither entreaties nor threatenings, nor any thing that can be said, will stop them. We see them almost undone; their careless, worldly, fleshly, lives do tell us, that they are in the power of the devil; we know, if they die before they are converted, all the world cannot save them; and knowing the uncertainty of their lives, we are afraid every day lest they drop into the fire. And, therefore, we entreat them to pity their own souls, and not to undo themselves when mercy is at hand, and they will not hear us. We entreat them to cast away their sin, and come to Christ without delay, and to have some mercy on themselves; but they will have none. And yet they think that God must be cruel if he condemn them. O wilful, wretched sinners! It is not God that is so cruel to you; it is you that are cruel to yourselves. You are told, you must Turn or Burn, and yet you turn not. You are told, that if you will needs keep your sins, you shall keep the curse of God with them, and yet you will keep them. You are told, that there is no way to happiness but by holiness, and yet you will not be holy. What would you have God say more to you? What would you have him do with his mercy? He offered it to you, and you will not have it. You are in the ditch of sin and misery, and he would give you his hand to help you out, and you refuse his help; he would cleanse you of your sins, and you had rather keep them. You love your lusts, and love your gluttony, and sports, and drunkenness, and will not let them go; and would you have him bring you to heaven whether you will or no? Or would you have him to bring you and your sins to heaven together? Why, that is an impossibility; you may as well expect he should turn the sun into darkness. What, an unsanctified, fleshly heart be in heaven! it cannot be! "There entereth nothing that is unclean," Rev. xxi. 17. "For what communication hath light with darkness, or Christ with Belial?" 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. “All the day long hath he stretched out his hands to a disobedient and |