which he takes up and applies to them, all the important ideas contain ed in the body of the discourse, by a discriminating appropriation of them to persons of different characters and situations in life, by a particular mention of the circumstances in which they are called upon to perform particular duties or are in danger of falling into temptation and sin, and lastly by a solemn, earnest, impressive appeal, to every feeling and active principle of our nature, if by any means he may arouse to consideration and persuade to immediate decision and action. He counsels, exhorts, warns, expostulates, as if he were determined not to suffer his hearers to depart, until they were convinced of their duty and persuaded to choose it We have made a large selection of passages to illustrate each of these qualities, as they appear in this part of his discourses, and we look them over with regret that we cannot enrich our pages with them all, and in a state of indecision which to select. The following exhibits the first quality, which we mentioned, viz. plainness, and at the same time is an instance of the graphic descriptions of revealed truth, very common in his discourses. You sinners who are here present, you are the very persons spoken of in the text; you are the sinners in Zion. How many of these people of God's wrath are there sitting here and there in the seats of this house at this time? You have often been exhorted to fly from the wrath to come. This devouring fire, these everlasting burnings, of which we have been speaking, are the wrath to come. You hear to day of this fire, of these burnings, and of that fearfulness which will seize and surprize sinners in Zion hereafter; and O what reason have you of thankfulness that you only hear of them, that you do not as yet feel them, and that they have not already taken hold of you! They are, as it were, following you, and coming nearer and nearer every day. Those fierce flames are, as it were, already kindled in the wrath of God; yea, the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God burn against you; it is ready for you: That pit is prepared for you, with fire and much wood, and the breath of the Lord, as a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.-Vol. viii. pp. 171, 172. His plainness in one passage approaches to personality. backsliding, the last time of the revival of There were some who were guilty of religion among us. While the talk upon religious subjects was generally kept alive, they continued to seek ; but when this began to abate,and they saw others less zealwhen they saw some micarriages of proous than they had been, and especially fessors, they began to grow more careless, to seek less earnestly, and to plead these things as an excuse. And they are left behind still; they are to this day in a miserable condemned state, in danger of the devouring fire, and of everlasting burnings; in twice so dangerous a state as they God only knows what will become of were in before they were awakened; and them. And as it was then, so we dread it will be now. Vol. viii. p. 175. We give the following specimen of closeness of application to the conscience. How is your doing, as you do, consistent with loving God above all? If you have not a spirit to love God above your dearest earthly friends, and your most pleasant earthly enjoyments; the Scriptures are very plain, and full in it, that you are not true Christians. But if you had indeed such a spirit, would you thus grow weary of the practice of drawing averse to it, as in a great measure to cast near to him, and become habitually so off so plain a duty, which is so much the life of a child of God? It is the nature of love to be averse to absence, and to love a near access to those whom we love. We love to be with them; we delight to come often to them, and to have much conversation with them. But when a person who hath heretofore been wont to converse freely with another, by degrees forsukes him, grows strange, and converses with him but little, and that although the other be importunate with him for the continuance of their former intimaey; this plainly shows the coldness of his heart towards him. Your thus restraining prayer before God is not only inconsistent with the love, but also with the fear of God. It is an argument that you cast off fear, as is manifest by that text, Job xv. 4. " Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God." Whilst you thus live in the transgression of so plain a command of God, you evidently show, that there is no fear of God before your eyes.--Vol. viii. pp. 217, 218. How is a life, in a great measure pray. erless, consistent with an holy life? To lead an holy life is to lead a life devoted to God; a life of worshipping and serving God; a life consecrated to the service of who doth not so much as maintain the duty of prayer? How can such a man be said to walk by the Spirit, and to be a servant of the Most High God? An holy God. But how doth he lead such a life life is a life of faith. The life that true Christians live in the world, they live by the faith of the Son of God. But who can believe that that man lives by faith who lives without prayer, which is the natural expression of faith? Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life; and to say a man lives a life of faith, and yet lives a prayerless life, is every whit as inconsistent and incredible, as to say that a man lives without breathing. A prayerless life is so far from being an holy life, that it is a profane life: He that lives 2 so, lives like an Heathen, who calleth not on God's name; he that lives a prayerless life, lives without God in the world. penitent sinners, mingled with arguments and answers to objections, all fitted to convince them that God would be just in executing upon them the threatenings of the law. His end is to produce conviction of sin, as a means, by the grace of God, of producing repentance for sin, and faith in the Saviour of sinners. We do not envy the state of that man's heart, who can read it through, unmoved, or without a desire to reperuse it. Therefore, for your conviction, be directed to look over you past life: Inquire at the mouth of conscience, and hear what that has to testify concerning it. Consider what you are, what light you have had, and what means you have lived under; and yet how have you behaved yourself! If you live in the neglect of secret pray. What have those many days and nights, er, you show your good will to neglect that you have lived, been filled up with? all the worship of God. He that prays How have those years, that have rolled over your heads, one after another, been only when he prays with others, would not pray at all, were it not that the eyes spent? What has the sun shone upon you for, from day to day, while you have of others are upon him. He that will not pray where none but God seeth him, mau- improved his light to serve Satan by it? What has God kept your breath in your ifestly doth not pray at all out of respect to nostrils for, and given you meat and drink, God, or regard to his all-seeing eye, and therefore doth in effect cast off all prayer. from day to day for, that you have spent And be that casts off prayer, in effect casts your life and strength that have been supoff all the worship of God, of which pray-ported by them, in opposing God and reer is the principal duty. Now, what a bellion against him? miserable saint is he who is no worshipper of God! He that casts off the worship of God, in effect casts off God himself: He refuses to own him, or to be conversant with him as his God. For the way in which men own God, and are conversant with him as their God, is by worshipping him. Vol. viii. pp. 218, 219. We omit all our other intended extracts, to turn our attention particularly to the sermon entitled "The Justice of God in the damnation of sinners." It is perhaps the most finished discourse which the author has published, and a favourable specimen of his peculiar manner. His text is "that every mouth may be stopped." After attending to its meaning in his usual manner, in connexion with the context, he derives the doctrine, "It is just with God, eternally to cast off and destroy sinners." This he illustrates and proves in few words, and proceeds to "the application," which is more than half of the whole discourse, and is a direct appeal to the conscience, an application to it of the doctrine, an expostulation with im How many sorts of wickedness have you been guilty of? How manifold have been the abominations of your life? What profaneness and contempt of God has been exercised by you? How little regard have you had to the scriptures, to the word preached, to sabbaths, 'and sacraments? How profanely have you talked, many of you about those things that are holy? After what manner have many of you kept God's holy day, not regarding the holiness of the time, not caring what you thought of in it? Yea, you have not only spent the time in worldly, vain, and unprofitable thoughts, but in immoral thoughts; pleasing yourself with the reflection of past acts of wickedness, and in contriving new acts.-Vol vii. pp. 338, 339. And how have you behaved yourself in the time of family prayer! and what trade have many of you made of absenting yourselves from the worship of the families you belong to, for the sake of vain company! And how have you continued in the neglect of secret prayer! Wherein wilfully living in a known sin, going abreast against as plain a command as any in the Bible! Have you not been one that has cast off fear, and restrained prayer before God? What wicked carriage have some of you been guilty of towards your parents? How far have you been from paying that honor to them that God has required! Have you not even harbored ill will and malice towards them? And when they have displeased you, have wished evil to them? Yea and shown your vile spirit in your behaviour? And it is well if you have not mocked them behind their backs; and like the cursed Ham and Canaan, derided your parents' nakedness instead of covering it, and hiding your eyes from it. Have not some of you often disobeyed your parents, yea, and refused to be subject to them? It is a wonder of mercy and forbearance, that that has not before now been accomplished on you, Prov.xxxi. 17. "The eye that mocketh at his father, and refuseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young eagles shall eat it. What revenge and malice have you been guilty of towards your neighbours? How have you indulged this spirit of the devil, hating others, and wishing evil to them, rejoicing when evil befel them, and grieving at others' prosperity, and lived in such a way for a long time! Have not some of you allowed a passionate, furious spirit, and behaved yourselves in your anger, more like wild beasts than like christians! What covetousness has been in many of you? Such has been your inordinate love of the world, and care about the things of it, that it has taken up your heart; you have allowed no room for God and religron; you have minded the world more than your eternal salvation. For the vanities of the world you have neglected reading, praying and meditation: For the things of the world, you have broken the sabbath For the world you have spent a great deal of your time in quarrelling: For the world you have envied and hated your neighbour: For the world you have cast God, and Christ, and heaven, behind your back For the world you have sold your own soul: You have, as it were, drowned your soul in worldly cares and desires: You have been a mere earthworm, that is never in its element but when grovelling and buried in the earth.-Vol. vii. pp. 340, 341. How much of a spirit of pride has appeared in you, which is in a peculiar manner the spirit and condemnation of the devil! How have some of you vaunted yourselves in your apparel! Others in their riches! Others in their knowledge and abilities! How has it galled you to see others above you! How much has it gone against the grain for you to give oth ers their true honor! And how have you shown your pride by setting up your wills, and in opposing others and stirring up and promoting division, and a party spirit in public affairs! How sensual bave you been, Are there not some here who have debased themselves below the dignity of human nature, by wallowing in sensual filthiness. Vol. vii. pp. 340, 341. If God should forever cast you off, it would be exactly agreeable to your treat. ment of him. That you may be sensible of this, consider, that you never have esercised the least degree of love to God; and therefore it would be agreeable to your treatment of him if he should never express any love to you. When God converts and saves a sinner, it is a wonderful and unspeakable manifestation of divine love. When a poor lost soul is brought home to Christ, and has all his sins forgiv en him, and is made a child of God, it will take up a whole eternity to express and declare the greatness of that love. And why should God be obliged to express such wonderful love to you, who never exercised the least degree of love to him in all your life? You never have loved God, who is infinitely glorious and lovely; and why then is God under obligation to love you who are all deformed and loath. some as a filthy worm, or rather a hateful viper? You have no benevolence in your beart towards God; you never rejoiced in God's happiness; if he had been miserable, and that had been possible, you would have liked it as well as if he had been happy; you would not have cared how miserable he was, nor mourned for it, any more than you now do for the devil's being miserable. And why then should God be looked upon as obliged to take so much care for your happiness, as to do such great things for it, as he doth for those that are saved? Or why should God be called hard, in case he should not be careful to save you from misery? You care not what becomes of God's glory; you are not distressed how much soever his honor seems to suffer in the world: And why should God care any more for your welfare? Has it not been so, that if you could but promote your private interests, and gratify your own lusts, you cared not how much the glory of God suffered? And why may not God advance his own glory in the ruin of your welfare, not caring how much your interest suffers by it? You never so much as stirred one step, sincerely making the glory of God your end, or acting from real respect to him: And why then is it hard if God do not do such great things for you as the changing of your nature, raising you from spiritual death to life, conquering the powers of darkness for you, translating you out of the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of his dear Son, delivering you from eternal misery, and bestowing eternal glory upon you? You do not choose to be willing to deny yourself for God; you never cared to put yourself out of your way for Christ: Whenever any thing cross or difficult came in your way, that the glory of God was concerned in, it has been your manner to shun it, and excuse yourself from it: You did not care to hurt yourself for Christ, that you did not see worthy of it: and why then must it be looked upon as such a hard and cruel thing, if Christ has not been pleased to spill his blood and be tormented to death for such a sinner. You have slighted and made light of God; and why then may not God justly slight you?-Vol. vii. pp. 343-845. And you have not only slighted God in time past, but you slight him still. You indeed now make a pretence and shew of honouring him in your prayers, and attendance on other external duties, and by a sober countenance, and seeming devoutness in your words and behaviour; but it is all mere dissembling. That downcast look and seeming reverence, is not from any honor you have to God in your heart, though you would have it go so, and would have God take it so. You that have not believed in Christ, bave not the least jot of honor to God; that shew of it is merely forced and what you are driven to by fear, like those mentioned in Psalm Ixvi. 3. "Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit them selves to thee." In the original it is, "shall lie unto thee," that is, yield feigned submission, and dissemble respect and honor to thee. There is a rod held over you that makes you seem to pay such respect to God. This religion and devotion, even the very appearance of it, would soon be gone, and all vanish away, if that were removed. Sometimes it may be you weep in your prayers, and in your hearing sermons, and hope God will take notice of it, and take it for some honor; but he sees it to be all hypocrisy. You weep for yourself; you are afraid of hell; and do you think that that is worthy that God should take much notice of you, hecause you can cry when you are in danger of being damned; when at the same time you indeed care nothing for God's bonor? Seeing you thus disregard so great a God, is it a heinous thing for God to slight you, a little wretched, despicable creature; a worm, a mere nothing, and less than nothing; a vile insect, that has risen up in contempt against the Majesty of heaven and earth? Why should God be looked upon as ob. liged to bestow salvation upon you, when you have been so ungrateful for the mercies he has bestowed upon you already? God has tried you with a great deal of kindness, and he never has sincerely been thanked by you for any of it. God has watched over you and preserved you, and provided for you, and followed you with mercy all your days; and yet you have continued sinning against him. He has given you food and raiment, but you have improved both in the service of sin. He has preserved you while you slept; but when you arose, it was to return to the old trade of sinning. God, notwithstanding this ingratitude, has still continued his mercy; but his kindness has never won your heart, or brought you to a more grateful behavior towards him. It may be you have received many remarkable mercies, recoveries from sickuess, or preservations of your life, when at one time and another exposed by accidents, when, rectly into hell: But you never had any if you had died, you would have gone ditrue thankfulness for any of these mercies. God has kept you out of hell, and continued your day of grace, and the offers of salvation, this so long a time; and that, it may be, while you did not regard your own salvation so much as to go in secret and ask God for it: And now God has greatly added to his mercy to you, by giv ing you the strivings of bis Spirit, whereby you have a most precious opportunity for your salvation in your bands. But what thanks has God received for it? What kind of returns have you made for all this kindness? As God has multiplied mercies, so have you multiplied provocations for mercy, and to and fault with God, not And yet now are you ready to quarrel only because he does not bestow more mercy, but to contend with him, because he does not bestow infinite mercy upon you, heaven with all it contains, and even ideas have you of yourself, that you think bimself, for your eternal portion. What God is obliged to do so much for you. though you treat him so ungratefully for his kindness that you have been followed with all the days of your life? You have voluntarily chosen to be with Satan in his enmity and opposition to God; how justly therefore might you be with him in his punishment? You did not choose to be on God's side, but rather chose to side with the devil, and have obstinately continued in it, against God's often repeated calls and counsels. You have chosen rather to hearken to Satan than to God, and would be with him in his work: You have given yourself up to him, to be subject to bis power and government, in opposition to God. How justly therefore may God also give you up to him, and leave you in his power, to accomplish your ruin? Seeing you have yielded yourself to his will, to do as he would have you, surely God may leave you in his hands to execute his will upon and on his side, why is God obliged to reyou. If men will be with God's enemy, deem them out of his hands, when they 347. have done his work?-Vol. vii. pp. 345– What is it that you would make of God? Must the great God be tied up to that, that he must not use his own pleasure in bes towing his own gifts, but if he bestows them on one, must be looked upon obliged to bestow them on another? Is not God worthy to have the same right, with respect to the gifts of his grace, that a man has to his money or goods? Is it because God is not so great, and should be more in subjection than man, that this cannot be allowed him? If any of you see cause to shew kindness to a neighbor, do all the rest of your neighbors come to you, and tell you, that you owe them so much as you have given to such a man? But this is the way that you deal with God, as though God were not worthy to have as absolute a property in his goods, as you bave in yours. At this rate God cannot make a present of any thing; he has nothing of his own to bestow: If he has a mind to shew peculiar favor to some, or to lay some particular persons under peculiar obligations to him, he cannot do it; because he has no special gift, that his creatures stand in great need of, and that would tend greatly to their happiness, at his own disposal. If this be the case, why do you pray to God to bestow saving grace upon you? If God does not fairly deny it to you, because he bestows it on others, then it is not worth your while to pray for it, but you may go and tell him that he has bestowed it on these and those, as bad or worse than you, and so demand it of him as a debt. And at this rate persons never need to thank God for salvation, when it is bestowed; for what occasion is there to thank God for that which was not at his own disposal, and that he could fairly have denied? The thing at bottom is, that men have low thoughts of God, and high thoughts of themselves; and therefore it is that they look upon God as having so little right, and they so much. Matth. xx. 15. "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?"-Vol. vii. p. 370. And will you not be ashamed, notwithstanding all these things, still to open your mouth, to object and cavil about the decrees of God, and other things that you cannot fully understand! Let the decrees of God be what they will, that alters not the case as to your liberty, any more than if God had only foreknown. And why is God to blame for decreeing things? How unbecoming an infinitely wise Being would it have been to have made a world, and let things run out at random, without disposing events, or foreordering how they should come to pass? And what is that to you, how God has foreordered things, as long as your constant experience teaches you, that that does not hinder your liberty, or your doing what you choose to do. This you know, and your daily practice and behaviour amongst men declares that you are fully sensible of it, with respect to yourself and others And still to object, because there are some things in God's dispensations above your understanding, is exceeding unreasonable. Your own conscience charges you with great guilt, and with those things that have been mentioned, let the secret things of God be what they will. Your conscience charges you with those vile dispositions, and that base behaviour towards God, that you would at any time most highly resent in your neighbour towards you, and not a whit the less for any concern those secret counsels and mysterious dispensations of God may have in the matter. It is in vain for you to exalt yourself against an infinitely great, and holy and just God. If you continue in it, it will be to your eternal shame and con fusion, when hereafter you shall see at whose door all the blame of your misery lies. I will finish what I have to say to nat ural men in the application of this doc trine with a caution not to improve the doctrine to discouragement. For though it would be righteous in God forever to cast you off, and destroy you, yet it will also be just in God to save you, in and through Christ, who has made complete satisfaction for all sin. Rom. iii. 25, 26 "Whom God hath set forth to be a propit iation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time bis righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Yea, God may, through this Mediator, not only justly, but honorably shew you mercy. The blood of Christ is so precious, that it is fully sufficient to pay that debt that you have contracted, and perfectly to vindicate the divine Majesty from all that dishonor that has been cast upon it, by those many great sins of yours that have been mentioned. It was as great, and indeed a much greater thing, for Christ to die, than it would have been for you and all mankind to have burnt in hell to all eternity. Of such dignity and excellency is Christ in the eyes of God, that, seeing be has suffered so much for poor sinners, God is willing to be at peace with them, however vile and unworthy they have been, and on how many accounts soever the punishment would be just. So that you need not be at all discouraged from seeking mercy, for there is enough in Christ.-Vol. vii. pp. 371, 372. I would conclude this discourse by im. proving the doctrine, in the second place very briefly to put the godly in mind of the wonderfulness of the grace of God to wards them. For such were some of youThe case was just so with you as you have heard; you had such a wicked heart, you lived such a wicked life, and it would have been most just with God forever to have cast you off: But he has bad mercy |