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ordinarily hear of fin and death, heaven and hell, falvation and damnation, and easily divert from all, to attend the business or amusements of the prefent world, upon which they freely let out their thoughts.

They care not to reflect in what ftate they are, what they have been doing, and what is like to be their portion for ever. They forget God, with whom they have more to do than with all the world befides. God is not in all their thoughts, Pfal. x. 4. They confider not the evil tendency of their revolt from him, and rebellion against him; how foon they may be called to appear before him, and how fearful a thing it is to fall into his hands, who is as a confuming fire. How different is the temper men discover with reference to their eternal falvation, from what is fhewn in things of an infinitely lower nature! A wretch that is condemned to die to morrow, cannot forget it: And yet, poor finners that are continually uncertain to live an hour, and certain after death to be in endlefs happiness or mifery, can forget those things for which they have their memories given them chiefly, and the thoughts of which, one would think, Should drown all the concerns of this world, as much as the report of a cannon does a whisper. O amazing stupidity! That ever men can forget eternal joy, and eternal woe; the eternal God, and the place of their eternal unchangeable abode, when they ftand even at the door, and have fo fmall a diftance between them, and that eternal gulf, which as creatures daily dying, they are stepping into. This is the cafe and carriage of unrenewed fin

ners.

But

But when the Spirit of God hath, from the word of truth, uncovered the finner's danger before him, he holds his mind closely to confider it, and calls it back as often as it grows weary and starts afide, and revives the thoughts of what he has been and done; of what is denounced against every fin by his offended fovereign and final judge, and his concernment in all : And hereupon with the prodigal, he is brought to himself, and enters into a serious debate on his cafe: O my foul, how innumerable are my fins! How great my guilt! How unutterable the mifery I am liable to! How often and long have I finned against God, and how exprefs and dreadful is the threatning, The foul that fins fhall die! Gan 1 any longer reckon it a fmall thing to have broken the righteous law of God, and to make light of being continually expofed to his wrath? How foon muft I be at bis bar, to be determined by his fentence to my unchangeable state? And Should I thus go bence, nothing remains for me, but a fearful looking for of wrath and fiery indignation, which, who will be able to abide?

3. By fuch a difcovery and view, an impreffion is made upon the confcience, so that the finner can no longer reft fatisfied in his present ftate. The paffage is opened between the head and heart, fo as that what is known and confidered, is not entertained as notion, but applied and felt. Hereupon, the finner is arraigned, tried and caft by himself. It is the voice of the law, The foul that fins fhall die: conscience witnesses to the charge, and then repeats the doom, Thou, O foul, haft finned, and death is thy due. And here the mind is enlarged to take the most ef

fecting

fecting view of both. The man sees himself beyond measure finful, and now thinks of nothing but being beyond expreffion miferable,and prefently cries out the God I have offended, the law I have broken, the foul I have destroyed: O the punishment prepared by the divine power, to be meafured by no leffer a duration than eternity, as the just wages of fin, and of my fin: Who can dwell with devouring fire? Who can endure everlasting burnings? By this the foul is filled with fear and horror under the real fenfe of his cafe.

4. The awakened finner is led to enquire, What he shall do to be faved, and to do this with an earneftness and importunity fome way fuitable to the importance of the cafe. Thus it was with Peter's hearers, Acts ii. 30. Men and brethren, what shall we do? and with the jailor, Acts xvi. 36. Sirs, What shall I do to be faved? Who can pacify an offended God, or avert the wrath that fin deferves? Who can redeem me from the curse of the broken law, or deliver me from going down into the pit? What way is there for a loft finner to escape the wrath to come, and obtain falvation and eternal glory?

5. The enquiring finner is feafonably inftructed in the method of falvation revealed in the gospel : that God fo loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whofoever believeth on him, fhould not perish, but have everlasting life, John iii. 16. That God was in Chrift reconciling the world to himself, not imputing trefpaffes to finners that fly for refuge to lay hold on the hope fet before them: that him, i. e. Chrift, hath God fet forth to be a propitiation for fin, that he might be juft, and the justifier of him that beVOL. II. Dd lieveth

lieveth in Jefus that he was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our juftification, and now ever liveth to make interceffion; whereby he is able to fave to the uttermoft all that come unto God by him. None ever miscarried that received him as offered in the gospel, and gave themselves to him in obedience to his call and claim; and none ever shall.

up

6. Salvation being represented as attainable, the finner, under the divine influence, is led to defire and chufe it, and to hope for it; and thereupon, to labour after it above any thing else in all the world. God draws to this with the cords of a man, and the bands of love; opens to the enlighten'd mind the greatness and compass of that falvation which the gofpel reveals, and fhews that how great foever it is, it may be fecured. Upon which the foul, as greatly affected, can't but cry out, O that I may be made partaker of all! O that Chrift, and the falvation he is able and ready to bestow, may be mine! I can no longer neglect or make light of it, as I have hitherto done. By help from heaven, I will take the courfe the gofpel prescribes, in order to reach it, and hold on seeking, afking, knocking, ftriving, in hope that my labour in the Lord fhall not be in vain. Where any is brought thus to refolve and act, it must be said,. 'tis the Lord's doing: he works to will and do.

2dly. As to the manner of God's working, 'tis faid to be of his good pleasure. This denotes,

That 'tis owing to his fovereign grace that he works in any; and that he is at liberty to work on, or defift, as he pleases.

1. 'Tis owing to his fovereign grace that he works in any. According to his mercy he faveth

us,

us, and worketh in any of us to will and to do, in order to it; and he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. He worketh of his own good pleasure and fo without any constraint, or need on his part; and without, nay contrary to any merit or worthiness on ours.

1

(1.) Without any constraint, or need on his part. The great God can have no need of us, that he fhould thus concern himself about us. He is incapable of any addition to his felicity by our recovery; and therefore cannot make this his motive in what he does, in order to it. 'Twas his free choice to make the world, and man in it. And when we were made, and had afterwards destroyed ourfelves, what obligation was he under to refolve to fave us. When fallen angels are paffed by, that he will bring any out of our world to glory, and employ his power and grace to bring us into the way to it, and train us up for it, what true love is this. Among men, what reason can be given for his working on fome, and paffing by others, but hist own good pleasure. 'Tis all without constraint, and need on his part.

(2.) Without, nay contrary to any merit or worthiness on ours. We had no reafon to expect, that we should have been put into a state of hope, and under the merciful order to work out our falvation. When we proved deaf to this, and went on in a state of rebellion, how far were we from deferving that God should proceed yet farther, to work in us to will and to do, in order to our recovery.

Take a view of man in his natural state, in his neglect of his falvation, and oppofition to it; what can he produce as a plea, for which God fhould do this for him. What reafon is there on the con

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