The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners

Romans 3:19 — That every mouth may be stopped.

The main subject of the doctrinal part of this epistle is the free grace of God, in the salvation of men by Jesus Christ; especially as it appears in the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And the more clearly to demonstrate this doctrine, and show the reason of it, the apostle, in the first place, establishes that point, that no flesh living can be justified by the deeds of the law. And to prove it, he is very large and particular in showing, that all mankind, not only Gentiles, but Jews, are under sin, and so under the condemnation of the law; which is what he insists upon from the beginning of the epistle to this place. He first begins with the Gentiles; and in the first chapter, shows that they are under sin, by setting forth the exceeding corruptions and horrid wickedness that overspread the Gentile world. And then through the second chapter, and the former part of this third chapter, to the text and following verse, he shows the same of the Jews, that they also are in the same circumstances with the Gentiles in this regard. They had a high thought of themselves, because they were God's covenant people, and circumcised, and the children of Abraham. They despised the Gentiles, as polluted, condemned, and accursed; but looked on themselves, on account of their external privileges, and ceremonial and moral righteousness, as a pure and holy people, and the children of God. It was therefore strange doctrine to them, that they also were unclean and guilty in God's sight, and under the condemnation and curse of the law. The apostle therefore, on account of their strong prejudices against such doctrine, the more particularly insists upon it, and shows that they are no better than the Gentiles (Romans 3:9). And to convince them of it, he then produces certain passages out of their own law, or the Old Testament, from the 9th verse to the verse wherein is our text. The apostle first cites certain passages to prove that mankind are all corrupt (verses 10-12): There is none righteous, no not one; there is none that understands; there is none that seeks after God; they are all gone out of the way. Second, the passages he cites next are to prove that not only are all corrupt, but each one is fully corrupt, all over unclean from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet; and therefore several particular parts of the body are mentioned, as the throat, tongue, lips, mouth, and feet (verses 13-15). And third, he quotes other passages to show that each one is not only all over corrupt, but corrupt to a desperate degree (verses 16-18). And then, lest the Jews should think these passages of their law do not concern them, the apostle shows in the verse of the text, not only that they are not exempt, but that they especially must be understood. So that the law shuts all up in universal and desperate wickedness, that every mouth may be stopped — the mouths of the Jews as well as of the Gentiles, notwithstanding all those privileges by which they were distinguished from the Gentiles.

The things that the law says are sufficient to stop the mouths of all mankind, in two respects.

First, to stop them from boasting of their righteousness, as the Jews were accustomed to do. That the apostle has respect to stopping their mouths in this respect, appears by the 27th verse of the context: Where is boasting then? It is excluded. The law stops our mouths from making any plea for life, or the favor of God, or any positive good, from our own righteousness.

Second, to stop them from making any excuse for themselves, or objection against the execution of the sentence of the law, or the infliction of the punishment that it threatens. That this is intended, appears by the words immediately following: that all the world may become guilty before God. That is, that they may appear to be guilty, and stand convicted before God, and justly liable to the condemnation of his law.

And thus the apostle proves that no flesh can be justified in God's sight by the deeds of the law; and so prepares the way for establishing the great doctrine of justification by faith alone, which he proceeds to do in the next verse and in the following part of the chapter and of the epistle.

Doctrine: It is just with God eternally to cast off and destroy sinners.

For this is the punishment which the law condemns to; which the things that the law says may well stop every mouth from all manner of objection against.

The truth of this doctrine may appear, by the joint consideration of two things, namely man's sinfulness, and God's sovereignty.

First, it appears from the consideration of man's sinfulness. And that whether we consider the infinitely evil nature of all sin, or how much sin men are guilty of.

First, if we consider the infinite evil and heinousness of sin in general. It is not unjust in God to inflict what punishment is deserved; because the very notion of deserving any punishment is, that it may be justly inflicted. A deserved punishment and a just punishment are the same thing. To say that one deserves such a punishment, and yet to say that he does not justly deserve it, is a contradiction; and if he justly deserves it, then it may be justly inflicted.

Every crime or fault deserves a greater or lesser punishment, in proportion as the crime itself is greater or less. If any fault deserves punishment, then so much the greater the fault, so much the greater is the punishment deserved. The faulty nature of any thing is the formal ground and reason of its desert of punishment; and therefore the more any thing has of this nature, the more punishment it deserves. And therefore the terribleness of the degree of punishment, let it be never so terrible, is no argument against the justice of it, if the proportion does but hold between the heinousness of the crime and the dreadfulness of the punishment. So that if there be any such thing as a fault infinitely heinous, it will follow that it is just to inflict a punishment for it that is infinitely dreadful.

A crime is more or less heinous, according as we are under greater or lesser obligations to the contrary. This is self-evident, because it is herein that the criminalness or faultiness of any thing consists, that it is contrary to what we are obliged or bound to, or what ought to be in us. So the faultiness of one being hating another is in proportion to his obligation to love him. The fault of disobeying another is greater or less, as any one is under greater or lesser obligations to obey him. And therefore if there be any being that we are under infinite obligations to love, and honor, and obey, the contrary toward him must be infinitely faulty.

Our obligation to love, honor, and obey any being is in proportion to his loveliness, honorableness, and authority. For that is the very meaning of the words, when we say any one is very lovely — it is the same as to say, that he is one very much to be loved. If we say any one has great authority over us, it is the same as to say that he has great right to our subjection and obedience.

But God is a being infinitely lovely, because he has infinite excellency and beauty. He is a being of infinite greatness, majesty and glory; and therefore is infinitely honorable. He is infinitely exalted above the greatest potentates of the earth, and highest angels in heaven; and therefore is infinitely more honorable than they. His authority over us is infinite; and the ground of his right to our obedience is infinitely strong; for he is infinitely worthy to be obeyed in himself, and we have an absolute, universal, and infinite dependence upon him.

So that sin against God, being a violation of infinite obligations, must be a crime infinitely heinous; and so deserving of infinite punishment. Nothing is more agreeable to the common sense of mankind than that sins committed against any one must be proportionably heinous to the dignity of the being offended and abused. The eternity of the punishment of ungodly men renders it infinite; and it renders it no more than infinite; and therefore renders it no more than proportionable to the heinousness of what they are guilty of.

If there be any evil or faultiness in sin against God, there is certainly infinite evil; for if it be any fault at all, it has an infinite aggravation, namely, that it is against an infinite object. If it be ever so small upon other accounts; yet if it be anything, it has one infinite dimension; and so is an infinite evil. Which may be illustrated by this: if we suppose a thing to have infinite length, but no breadth and thickness, but to be only a mere mathematical line, it is nothing; but if it have any breadth and thickness at all, though never so small, yet if it have but one infinite dimension, namely that of length, the quantity of it is infinite; it exceeds the quantity of anything, however broad, thick and long, wherein these dimensions are all finite.

So that the objections that are made against the infinite punishment of sin, from the necessity, or rather previous certainty of the occurrence of sin, arising from the decree of God, or unavoidable original corruption of nature, if they argue anything, do not argue against the infiniteness of the degree of the faultiness of sin directly, and no otherwise than they argue against any faultiness at all. For if this necessity or certainty leaves any evil at all in sin, that fault must be infinite by reason of the infinite object.

But every such objector, as would argue from hence that there is no fault at all in sin, confutes himself, and shows his own insincerity in his objection. For at the same time that he objects that men's acts are necessary, from God's decrees and original sin, and that this kind of necessity is inconsistent with faultiness in the act, his own practice shows that he does not believe what he objects to be true. Otherwise why does he at all blame men? Or why are such persons at all displeased with men, for abusive, injurious, and ungrateful acts toward them? Whatever they pretend, by this they show that indeed they do believe that there is no necessity in men's acts, from divine decrees or corruption of nature, that is inconsistent with blame. And if their objection is this, that this previous certainty is by God's own ordering, and that where God orders an antecedent certainty of acts, he transfers all the fault from the actor on himself; their practice shows that at the same time they do not believe this, but fully believe the contrary. For when they are abused by men, they are displeased with men, and not with God only.

The light of nature teaches all mankind, that when an injury is voluntary, it is faulty, without any manner of consideration of what there might be previously to determine the occurrence of that evil act of the will. And it really teaches this, as much to those that object and cavil most, as to others, as their universal practice shows. By which it appears that such objections are insincere and perverse. Men will mention others' corrupt nature in their own case, or when they are injured, as a thing that aggravates their crime, and that wherein their faultiness partly consists. How common is it for persons, when they look on themselves greatly injured by another, to inveigh against him, and aggravate his baseness, by saying, He is a man of a most perverse spirit; he is naturally of a selfish, niggardly, or proud and haughty temper; he is one of a base and vile disposition. And yet men's natural corrupt dispositions are mentioned as an excuse for them, with respect to their sins against God, as if they rendered them blameless.

Second, that it is just with God eternally to cast off wicked men, may more abundantly appear if we consider how much sin they are guilty of. From what has been already said, it appears that if men were guilty of sin but in one particular, that is sufficient ground of their eternal rejection and condemnation. If they are sinners, that is enough. But sinful men are not only thus, but they are full of sin; full of principles of sin, and full of acts of sin. Their guilt is like great mountains, heaped one upon another, until the pile is grown up to heaven. They are totally corrupt, in every part, in all their faculties; and all the principles of their nature, their understandings and wills; and in all their dispositions and affections, their heads, their hearts, are totally depraved. All the members of their bodies are only instruments of sin; and all their senses — seeing, hearing, tasting, etc. — are only inlets and outlets of sin, channels of corruption. There is nothing but sin, no good at all (Romans 7:18). There are the seeds of the greatest and blackest crimes. There is pride; there is enmity; there is contempt; there is quarreling; there is atheism; there is blasphemy. There is hardheartedness, hardness greater than that of a rock or an adamant stone. There is obstinacy and perverseness, incorrigibleness and inflexibleness in sin, that will not be overcome by threatenings or promises, by awakenings or encouragements, by judgments or mercies. The very blood of God will not win the heart of a wicked man.

And there is actual wickedness without number or measure. There are breaches of every command, in thought, word, and deed; a life full of sin; days and nights filled up with sin; mercies abused and frowns despised; mercy, and justice, and all the divine perfections trampled on; and the honor of each person in the Trinity trod in the dirt. Now if one sinful word or thought has so much evil in it as to deserve eternal destruction, how they deserve to be eternally cast off and destroyed, who are guilty of so much sin!

Second, if with man's sinfulness, we consider God's sovereignty, it may serve further to clear God's justice in the eternal rejection and condemnation of sinners, from men's cavils and objections. I shall not now pretend to determine precisely what things are, and what things are not, proper acts and exercises of God's holy sovereignty; but only that God's sovereignty extends to the following things.

First, such is God's sovereign power and right, that he is originally under no obligation to keep men from sinning; but may in his providence permit, and leave them to sin. It is unreasonable to suppose that God should be obliged, if he makes a reasonable creature capable of knowing his will, and receiving a law from him, and being subject to his moral government, at the same time to make it impossible for him to sin or break his law. For if God is obliged to this, it destroys all use of any commands, laws, promises, or threatenings, and the very notion of any moral government of God over those reasonable creatures. For to what purpose would it be for God to give such and such laws, and declare his holy will to a creature, and annex promises and threatenings to move him to his duty, and make him careful to perform it, if the creature at the same time has this to think of, that God is obliged to make it impossible for him to break his laws? If God is obliged never to permit a creature to fall, there is an end of all divine laws and government.

God may permit sin, though the occurrence of sin will certainly ensue on that permission. If there were any such thing as mere chance, it would have been very unfit that God should have left it to mere chance whether man should fall or not. For chance, if there should be any such thing, is undesigning and blind. And certainly it is more fit that an event of so great importance, attended with such an infinite train of great consequences, should be disposed and ordered by infinite wisdom, than that it should be left to blind chance.

If it is said that God need not have interposed to render it impossible for man to sin, and yet not leave it to mere contingence or blind chance neither, but might have left it with man's free will to determine whether to sin or not — I answer, if God did leave it to man's free will, without any sort of ordering in the case, whence it should be previously certain how that free will should determine, then still that first determination of the will must be merely contingent or by chance. It could not have any antecedent act of the will to determine it; for I speak now of the very first act or motion of the will, respecting the affair, which may be looked upon as the prime ground and highest source of the event. To suppose this to be determined by a foregoing act is a contradiction. God's ordering this determination of the will, by his permission, does not in any respect infringe the liberty of the creature. For if the determination of the will be from blind, undesigning chance, it is no more from the agent himself, or from the will itself, than if we suppose, in the case, a wise, divine disposal by permission.

Second, it was fit that it should be at the ordering of the divine wisdom and good pleasure, whether every particular man should stand for himself, or whether the first father of mankind should be appointed as the moral and federal head and representative of the rest. If God has not liberty in this matter to determine either of these two as he pleases, it must be because determining that the first father of men should represent the rest is injurious to mankind. For if it is not injurious to mankind, how is it unjust? But it is not injurious to mankind; for there is nothing in the nature of the case itself that makes it better for mankind that each man should stand for himself, than that all should be represented by their common father. And if there is nothing in the nature of the thing that makes the former better for mankind than the latter, then it will follow that mankind are not hurt in God's choosing and appointing the latter rather than the former.

Third, when men are fallen, and become sinful, God by his sovereignty has a right to determine about their redemption as he pleases. He has a right to determine whether he will redeem any or no. He might, if he had pleased, have left all to perish, or might have redeemed all. Or, he may redeem some, and leave others; and if he does so, he may take whom he pleases, and leave whom he pleases. To suppose that all have forfeited his favor, and deserved to perish, and to suppose that he may not leave any one individual of them to perish, implies a contradiction; because it supposes that such a one has a claim to God's favor, and is not justly liable to perish; which is contrary to the supposition.

It is meet that God should order all these things, according to his own pleasure. By reason of his greatness and glory, by which he is infinitely above all, he is worthy to be sovereign, and that his pleasure should in all things take place. He is worthy that he should make himself his end, and that he should make nothing but his own wisdom his rule in pursuing that end, without asking leave or counsel of any, and without giving any account of any of his matters. It is fit that he who is absolutely perfect, and infinitely wise, and the fountain of all wisdom, should determine everything by his own will, even things of the greatest importance, such as the eternal salvation or damnation of sinners. It is meet that he should be thus sovereign, because he is the first being, the eternal being, from whom all other beings are; he is the Creator of all things; and all are absolutely and universally dependent on him; and therefore it is meet that he should act as the sovereign possessor of heaven and earth.

Application.

In the improvement of this doctrine, I would first direct myself to sinners that are afraid of damnation, in a use of conviction. This may be matter of conviction to you, that it would be just and righteous with God eternally to reject and destroy you. This is what you are in danger of: you that are a Christless sinner are a poor condemned creature; God's wrath still abides upon you, and the sentence of condemnation lies upon you. You are in God's hands, and it is uncertain what he will do with you. You are afraid what will become of you; you are afraid that it will be your portion to suffer eternal burnings; and your fears are not without grounds; you have reason to tremble every moment. But let you be never so much afraid of it, let eternal damnation be never so dreadful, yet it is just; God may nevertheless do it, and be righteous and holy and glorious in it. Though eternal damnation is what you cannot bear; and however much your heart shrinks at the thoughts of it, yet God's justice may be glorious in it. The dreadfulness of the thing on your part, and the greatness of your dread of it, do not render it the less righteous on God's part. If you think otherwise, it is a sign that you do not see yourself, that you are not sensible what sin is, nor how much of it you have been guilty of. Therefore, for your conviction, be directed:

First, to look over your past life. Inquire at the mouth of conscience, and hear what that has to testify concerning it. Consider what sort of person you are, what light you have had, and what means you have lived under — and yet how have you behaved yourself! What have those many days and nights that you have lived been filled up with? How have those years that have rolled over your heads, one after another, been spent? What has the sun shone upon you for, from day to day, while you have used its light to serve Satan? What has God kept your breath in your nostrils for, and given you food and drink from day to day, that you have spent that life and strength that have been supported by them, in opposing God and rebellion against him?

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? You have not only spent the time in worldly, vain, and unprofitable thoughts, but in immoral thoughts; pleasing yourself with the reflection on past acts of wickedness, and contriving new acts. Have you not spent much holy time, in gratifying your lusts in your imaginations; not only holy time, but the very time of God's public worship, when you have appeared in God's more immediate presence? How many Sabbaths have you spent, one after another, in a most wretched manner! Some of you not only in worldly and wicked thoughts, but also in very wicked outward behavior!

And how have you behaved yourself in the time of family prayer! And what a practice 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 — thereby willfully living in a known sin, going directly 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 toward 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 toward them? And when they have displeased you, have you not wished evil to them? And shown your vile spirit in your behavior? Have not some of you mocked them behind their backs; and like the accursed Ham and Canaan, derided your parents' nakedness instead of covering it? Have not some of you often disobeyed your parents, and refused to be subject to them?

What revenge and malice have you been guilty of toward your neighbors? How have you indulged this spirit of the devil, hating others, and wishing evil to them, rejoicing when evil befell them, and grieving at others' prosperity, and living 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 religion. 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 quarreling. 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 been a mere earth-worm, that is never in its element but when groveling and buried in the earth.

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 boasted in your apparel! Others in their riches! Others in their knowledge and abilities! How it has galled you to see others above you! How much has it gone against the grain, for you to give others their due honor! And how have you shown your pride by setting up your wills, and opposing others, and stirring up and promoting division, and a party spirit in public affairs!

How sensual have you been! Are there not some here, that have debased themselves below the dignity of human nature, by wallowing in sensual filthiness, as swine in the mire, or as filthy vermin feeding with delight on rotten carrion? What intemperance have some of you been guilty of! How much of your precious time have you spent at the tavern, and in drinking companies, when you ought to have been at home seeking God, and your salvation in your families and closets!

And what abominable lasciviousness have some of you been guilty of! How have you indulged yourself, from day to day and from night to night, in all manner of unclean imaginations! Has not your soul been filled with them, until it has become a hold of foul spirits, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird? What foul-mouthed persons have some of you been, often in lewd and lascivious talk, and unclean songs, in which were things not fit to be spoken! And such company, where such conversation has been carried on, has been your delight. And what unclean acts and practices have you defiled yourself with! God and your own consciences know what abominable lasciviousness you have practiced in things not fit to be named, when you have been alone; when you ought to have been reading, or meditating, or on your knees before God in secret prayer. And how have you corrupted others, as well as polluted yourselves! By your vile practices and examples, you have made room for Satan, and invited his presence, and established his interest, in the town where you have lived.

What lying have some of you been guilty of, especially in your childhood! And have not your heart and lips often disagreed, since you came to riper years? What fraud, and deceit, and unfaithfulness, have many of you practiced in your dealings with your neighbors, that your own heart is conscious to, if you have not been noted for it by others.

And how have some of you behaved yourselves in your family relations! How have you neglected your children's souls! And not only so, but have corrupted their minds by your bad examples; and instead of training them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, have rather brought them up in the devil's service!

How have some of you attended that sacred ordinance of the Lord's Supper, without any manner of serious preparation, and in a careless, slight frame of spirit, and chiefly to comply with custom! Have you not ventured to put the sacred symbols of the body and blood of Christ into your mouth, while at the same time you lived in ways of known sins, and intended no other than still to go on in the same wicked practices? And it may be you have sat at the Lord's table, with rancor in your heart against some of your brethren that you have sat there with. You have come even to that holy feast of love among God's children, with the leaven of malice and envy in your heart; and so have eaten and drunk judgment to yourself.

What stupidity and sottishness has attended your course of wickedness! Which has appeared in your obstinacy under awakening dispensations of God's Word and providence. And how have some of you backslidden, after you have set out in religion, and quenched God's Spirit after he had been striving with you! And what unsteadiness, and slothfulness, and great misimprovement of God's strivings with you, have you been chargeable with, who have long been the subject of them!

Now, can you think when you have thus behaved yourself, that God is obliged to show you mercy? Are you not after all this ashamed to talk of its being hard with God to cast you off? Does it become one that has lived such a life to open his mouth to excuse himself, or object against God's justice in his condemnation, or to complain of it as hard in God not to give him converting and pardoning grace, and make him his child, and bestow on him eternal life! If this has been your manner, does it not show how little you have considered yourself, and how little a sense you have had of your own sinfulness?

Second, be directed to consider, if God should eternally reject and destroy you, what an agreeableness and exact mutual correspondence there would be between God's so dealing with you and your spirit and behavior. There would not only be an equality but a similarity. God declares that his dealings with men shall be suitable to their disposition and practice. Psalm 18:25-26: 'With the merciful man you will show yourself merciful; with an upright man you will show yourself upright; with the pure you will show yourself pure; and with the perverse you will show yourself perverse.' How much soever you dread damnation, and are frightened and concerned at the thoughts of it, yet if God should indeed eternally damn you, you would but be met with in your own way; you would be dealt with exactly according to your own dealing. God would but measure to you in the same measure in which you measure. Surely it is but fair that you should be made to receive in the same measure in which you give.

Here I would particularly show: first, that if God should eternally destroy you, it would be agreeable to your treatment of God; second, that it would be agreeable to your treatment of Jesus Christ; third, that it would be agreeable to your behavior toward your neighbors; and fourth, that it would be according to your own foolish behavior toward yourself.

First, if God should forever cast you off, it would be exactly agreeable to your treatment of him. That you may be sensible of this, consider,

First, you never have exercised 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 forgiven 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 over deformed and loathsome, as a filthy worm, or rather a hateful viper? You have no benevolence in your heart toward 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 were happy. 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 does for those that are saved? Has it not been so, that if you could but promote your private interest, 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 does 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?

Second, you have slighted, and made light of God; and why then may not God justly slight you? When sinners are sensible in some measure of their misery, they are ready to think it hard that God will take no more notice of them. But then ought they not to consider that as their souls are precious, so is God's honor precious? The honor of the infinite God, the great King of heaven and earth, is a thing of as great importance — and surely may justly be so esteemed by God — as the happiness of you, a poor little worm. But yet you have slighted that honor of God, and valued it no more than the dirt under your feet. You have been told that such and such things were contrary to the will of a holy God, and against his honor; but you cared not for that. God called upon you, and exhorted you to be more tender of his honor; but you went on without regarding him. Thus have you slighted God! And yet, is it a heinous thing for God to slight you? Are you more honorable than God, that he must be obliged to make much of you, however lightly you make of him and his glory?

And you have not only slighted God in time past, but you slight him still. You indeed now make a pretense and show of honoring him, in your prayers, and attendance on other external duties, and by a sober countenance and seeming devoutness in your words and behavior; 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 who have not believed in Christ have not the least jot of honor to God; that show of it is merely forced, and what you are driven to by fear, like those mentioned in Psalm 66:3: Through the greatness of your power shall your enemies submit themselves to you — in the original, they shall lie to you; that is, yield feigned submission, and dissemble respect and honor. Sometimes it may be you weep in your prayers, and in 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 is worthy that God should take much notice of you, because you can cry when you are in danger of being damned, when at the same time you care nothing for God's honor?

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?

Third, why should God be looked upon as obliged 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 clothing, but you have used 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 toward him. It may be you have received many remarkable mercies, recoveries from sickness, or preservations of your life, when at one time and another exposed by accidents, when if you had died, you would have gone directly to hell; but you never had any true 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. 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.

And yet now are you ready to quarrel for mercy, and to find fault with God, not only that 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 himself, for your eternal portion? What ideas have you of yourself, that you think God is obliged to do so much for you, though you treat him never so ungratefully for his kindness that you have been followed with all the days of your life?

Fourth, 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 his 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 you. If men will be with God's enemy, and on his side, why is God obliged to redeem them out of his hands, when they have done his work? Doubtless you would be glad to serve the devil, and be God's enemy while you live, and then to have God your friend, and to deliver you from the devil, when you come to die. But will God be unjust if he deals otherwise by you? No, surely! It will be altogether and perfectly just, that you should have your portion with him with whom you have chosen your work; and that you should be in his possession to whose dominion you have yielded yourself. And if you cry to God for deliverance, he may most justly give you that answer: Go to the gods which you have chosen (Judges 10:14).

Fifth, consider how often you have refused to hear God's calls to you, and how just it would therefore be, if he should refuse to hear you when you call upon him. You are ready, it may be, to complain that you have often prayed, and earnestly begged of God to show you mercy, and yet have no answer of prayer. But do you consider how often God has called, and you have denied him? God has called earnestly and for a long time; he has called again and again, in his Word and in his providence, and you have refused. You were not uneasy for fear you should not show regard enough to his calls. You let him call as loud and as long as he would; for your part, you had no leisure to attend to what he said; you had other business to mind; you had these and those lusts to gratify and please, and worldly concerns to attend. When the ministers of Christ that he sent on that errand have stood and pleaded with you in his name, Sabbath after Sabbath, how little were you moved by it! Was it no crime for you to refuse to hear when God called? And yet is it now very hard that God does not hear your earnest calls, and that though your calling on God is not from any respect to him, but merely from self-love? The devil would beg as earnestly as you, if he had any hope to get salvation by it, and yet be as much of a devil as he is now. What can have more justice in it than that in Proverbs 1:24-28: Because I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but you have set at nothing all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear comes; when your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you: then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.

Sixth, have you not taken encouragement to sin against God, on that very presumption that God would show you mercy when you sought it? And may not God justly refuse you that mercy that you have so presumed upon? That has been what you have flattered yourself with, and that which has made you bold to disobey God, namely, that though you did so, yet God would show you mercy when you cried earnestly to him for it. How righteous therefore would it be in God, to disappoint such a wicked presumption! It was upon that very hope that you dared to affront the majesty of heaven, so dreadfully as you have done; and can you now be so foolish as to think that God is obliged not to frustrate that hope?

When a sinner takes encouragement to neglect that secret prayer that God has commanded, and to gratify his lusts, and to live a carnal vain life, and thwart God, and run upon him, and contemn him to his face, thinking with himself, If I do so, God will not damn me; he is a merciful God, and therefore when I seek his mercy he will bestow it upon me — must God be accounted hard because he will not do according to such a sinner's presumption? If this be the case, God has no liberty to vindicate his own honor and majesty; but must lay himself open to all manner of affronts, and yield himself up to the abuses of vile men, and let them disobey, despise, and dishonor him as much as they will; and when they have done, his mercy and pardoning grace must not be in his own power and at his own disposal, but he must be obliged to dispense it at their call. What mean, low, and strange thoughts have such men of God, who think thus of him?

Consider that you have injured God the more, and have been the worse enemy to him, for his being a merciful God. So have you treated that attribute of God's mercy! How just is it therefore that you should never have any benefit of that attribute!

There is something peculiarly heinous in sinning against the mercy of God more than other attributes. There is such base and horrid ingratitude, in being the worse to God because he is a being of infinite goodness and grace, that it above all things renders wickedness vile and detestable. This ought to win us, and engage us to serve God better; but instead of that, to sin against him the more, has something inexpressibly bad in it, and does in a peculiar manner enhance guilt and increase wrath; as seems to be intimated in Romans 2:4-5: Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But after your hardness and impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

The greater the mercy of God is, the more should you be engaged to love him, and live to his glory. But it has been the contrary with you; the consideration of the mercies of God being so exceedingly great is the thing by which you have encouraged yourself in sin. You have heard that the mercy of God was without bounds, that it was sufficient to pardon the greatest sinner, and you have upon that very account ventured to be a very great sinner. Though it was very offensive to God, though you heard that God infinitely hated sin, and that such practices as you went on in were exceedingly contrary to his nature, will, and glory, yet that did not make you uneasy. You heard that he was a very merciful God, and had grace enough to pardon you, and so cared not how offensive your sins were to him. How long have some of you gone on in sin, and what great sins have some of you been guilty of, on that presumption! Now, how righteous would it be if God should swear in his wrath, that you should never be the better for his being infinitely merciful!

Your ingratitude has been the greater, in that you have not only abused the attribute of God's mercy, taking encouragement from it to continue in sin, but you have thus abused this mercy under that very notion of its being exercised toward you, in a supposition that God would exercise infinite mercy to you in particular; which consideration should have especially endeared God to you. You have taken encouragement to sin the more, from that consideration that Christ came into the world and died to save sinners. That is the thanks Christ has had from you, for enduring such a tormenting death for his enemies! Now, how justly might it be that God should refuse that you should ever be the better for his Son's laying down his life! It was because of these things that you put off seeking salvation: you would take the pleasures of sin still longer, hardening yourself with the thought that mercy was infinite, and it would not be too late if you sought afterward. Now, how justly may God disappoint you in this, and order it so that it shall be too late!

Seventh, how have some of you risen up against God, and in the frame of your minds opposed him in his sovereign dispensations! And how justly upon that account might God oppose you, and set himself against you! You never yet would submit to God; you never could willingly accept that God should have dominion over the world, and govern it for his own glory, according to his own wisdom. You, a poor worm, a potsherd, a broken piece of an earthen vessel, have dared to find fault and quarrel with God (Isaiah 45:9). Yet you have ventured to do it: Who are you, O man, that reply against God (Romans 9:20)? Yet you have thought yourself big enough. You have taken upon yourself to call God to account, why he does thus and thus; you have said to the Almighty, What are you doing?

If you have been restrained by fear from openly venting your opposition and enmity of heart against God's government, yet it has been in you; you have not been quiet in the frame of your mind; you have had the heart of a viper within, and have been ready to spit venom at God. And it is well if sometimes you have not actually done it, by tolerating blasphemous thoughts, and malignant risings of heart against him; yea, and the frame of your heart has in some measure appeared, in an impatient and fretful behavior.

Now, seeing you have thus opposed God, how just is it that God should oppose you! Or, is it because you are so much better, and so much greater than God, that it is a crime for God to make that opposition against you that you do against him? Do you think you ought to appropriate the liberty of making opposition to yourself, as being your prerogative, so that you may be an enemy to God, but God must by no means be an enemy to you, but must be looked upon under obligation nevertheless to help you and save you by his blood, and bestow his best blessings upon you?

Consider how in the frame of your mind, you have thwarted God, in those very exercises of mercy toward others, that you are seeking for yourself. God's exercising his infinite grace toward your neighbors has put you into an ill frame, and it may be set you into a tumult of mind. How justly therefore may God refuse ever to exercise that mercy toward you! Have you not thus opposed God's showing mercy to others, even at the very time when you pretended to be earnest with God for pity and help for yourself? And will you look to God still with a claim of mercy, and contend with him for it notwithstanding? Can you who have such a heart, and have thus behaved yourself, come to God for anything other than mere sovereign mercy?

Second, if you should be forever cast off by God, it would be agreeable to your treatment of Jesus Christ. It would have been just with God if he had cast you off forever, without ever making you the offer of a Savior. But God has not done that; but has provided a Savior for sinners, and offered him to you, even his own Son Jesus Christ; who is the only Savior of men; all that are not forever cast off are saved by him. God offers men salvation through him, and has promised that if we come to him we shall not be cast off. But you have treated, and still treat this Savior after such a manner, that if you should be eternally cast off by God, it would be most agreeable to your behavior toward him; which appears by this:

That you reject Christ, and will not have him for your Savior.

If God offers you a Savior from deserved punishment, and you will not receive him, then surely it is just that you should go without a Savior. Or, is God obliged, because you do not like this Savior, to provide you another? If when he has given an infinitely honorable and glorious Person, even his only begotten Son, to be a sacrifice for sin in the fire of his wrath, and so provided salvation, and this Savior is offered to you, you are not suited in him, and refuse to accept of him — is God therefore unjust if he does not save you? Is he obliged to save you in a way of your own choosing, because you do not like the way of his choosing? Or will you charge Christ with injustice because he does not become your Savior, when at the same time you will not have him, when he offers himself to you, and beseeches you to accept of him as your Savior?

I am sensible that by this time, many persons are ready to open their mouths in objection against this. If all should speak what they now think, we should hear a murmuring all over the meeting-house, and one and another would say, I cannot see how it can be that I am not willing that Christ should be my Savior, when I would give all the world that he were my Savior; how is it possible that I should not be willing to have Christ for my Savior, when this is what I am seeking after, and praying for, and striving for, as for my life?

Here therefore I would endeavor to convince you that you are under a gross mistake in this matter. And first, I would endeavor to show the weakness of the grounds of your mistake. And second, to demonstrate to you, that you have rejected, and do willfully reject Jesus Christ.

First, that you may see the weakness of the grounds of your mistake, consider:

First, there is a great deal of difference between a willingness not to be damned, and being willing to receive Christ for your Savior. You have the former; there is no doubt to be made of that; nobody supposes that you love misery so well as to choose an eternity of it. And so doubtless you are willing to be saved from eternal misery. But that is a very different thing from being willing to come to Christ. Persons very commonly mistake the one for the other, but they are quite two things. You may love the deliverance, but hate the Deliverer. You tell of a willingness; but consider what is the object of that willingness. It does not respect Christ; the way of salvation by him is not at all the object of it; but it is wholly terminated on your escape from misery. The inclination of your will goes no further than self; it never reaches Christ. You are willing not to be miserable; that is, you love yourself; and there your choice terminates. And it is but a vain pretense and delusion to say or think that you are willing to accept of Christ.

Second, there is certainly a great deal of difference between a forced compliance, and a free willingness. Force and freedom cannot consist together. Now that willingness that you tell of, whereby you think you are willing to have Christ for a Savior, is merely a forced thing. Your heart does not go out after Christ of itself; but you are forced and driven to seek an interest in him. Christ has no share at all in your heart; there is no manner of closing of the heart with him. This forced compliance is not what Christ seeks of you; he seeks a free and willing acceptance (Psalm 110:3): 'Your people shall be willing in the day of your power.' He seeks not that you should receive him against your will, but with a free will; he seeks entertainment in your heart and choice.

If you refuse thus to receive Christ, how just is it that Christ should refuse to receive you! How reasonable are Christ's terms, who offers to save all those that willingly, or with a good will, accept of him for their Savior! Who can rationally expect that Christ should force himself upon any man to be his Savior? Or what can be looked for more reasonable, than that all who would be saved by Christ should heartily and freely entertain him? And surely it would be very dishonorable for Christ to offer himself upon lower terms.

But I would now proceed,

Second, to show that it is really so that you are not willing to have Christ for a Savior. To convince you of it, consider:

First, how is it possible that you should be willing to accept of Christ as a Savior from the desert of a punishment, that you are not sensible you have deserved? If you are truly willing to accept of Christ as a Savior, it must be as a sacrifice to make atonement for your guilt. Christ came into the world on this errand, to offer himself as an atonement, to answer for our desert of punishment. But how is it possible that you should be willing to accept of Christ, as an atonement for that guilt that you are not sensible that you have? If you have not really deserved everlasting burnings in hell, then the very offer of an atonement for such a desert is an imposition upon you. Now therefore it is impossible that a man who is not convinced of his guilt can be willing to accept of an offer; because he cannot be willing to accept the charge that the offer implies; that he looks upon as injurious. A man who is not convinced that he has deserved so dreadful a punishment cannot willingly submit to be charged with it. Therefore he cannot freely accept of Christ, under that notion, as a Savior from that guilt, and from the desert of such a punishment; for such an acceptance is an implicit owning that he does deserve such a punishment.

I do not say, but that men may be willing to be saved from an undeserved punishment; they may rather not suffer it than suffer it. But a man cannot be willing to accept one at God's hands, under the notion of a Savior from a punishment deserved from him, that he thinks he has not deserved. Such a one cannot like the way of salvation by Christ; for if he thinks he has not deserved hell, then he will think that freedom from hell is a debt; and therefore cannot willingly and heartily receive it as a free gift.

Now by this it is evident that you are not willing to accept of Christ as your Savior; because you never yet had such a sense of your own sinfulness, and such a conviction of your great guilt in God's sight, as to be indeed convinced that you lay justly condemned to the punishment of hell. You were never convinced that you had forfeited all favor, and were in God's hands, and at his sovereign and arbitrary disposal, to be either destroyed or saved, just as he pleased. You were never yet convinced of the sovereignty of God. Hence are there so many objections arising against the justice of your punishment, from original sin, and from God's decrees, from mercy shown to others, and the like.

Second, that you are not sincerely willing to accept of Christ as your Savior appears by this, that you have never been convinced that he is sufficient for the work of your salvation. You never had a sight or sense of any such excellency or worthiness in Christ, as should give such great value to his blood and his mediation with God, as that it was sufficient to be accepted for such exceedingly guilty creatures, and those who have so provoked God, and exposed themselves to such amazing wrath. A saying it is so, and a customary yielding and allowing it to be as others say, is a very different thing from being really convinced of it, and being made sensible of it in your own heart. The sufficiency of Christ depends upon, or rather consists in, his excellency. It is because he is so excellent a person, that his blood is of sufficient value to atone for sin, and it is hence that his obedience is so worthy in God's sight; it is also hence that his intercession is so prevalent. And therefore those who never had any spiritual sight or sense of Christ's excellency cannot be sensible of his sufficiency.

And that sinners are not convinced that Christ is sufficient for the work he has undertaken, appears most manifestly when they are under great convictions of their sin, and danger of God's wrath. Though it may be before they thought they could allow Christ to be sufficient — for it is easy to allow any one to be sufficient for our defense, at a time when we see no danger — yet when they come to be sensible of their guilt, and God's wrath, what discouraging thoughts do they entertain! How are they ready to draw toward despair, as if there were no hope or help for such wicked creatures as they! The reason is, they have no apprehension or sense of any other way that God's majesty can be vindicated but only in their misery. To tell them of the blood of Christ signifies nothing; it does not relieve their sinking, despairing hearts. This makes it most evident that they are not convinced that Christ is sufficient to be their mediator.

And as long as they are unconvinced of this, it is impossible they should be willing to accept of him as their mediator and Savior. A man in distressing fear will not willingly betake himself to a fort that he judges not sufficient to defend him from the enemy. A man will not willingly venture out into the ocean, in a ship that he suspects is leaky, and will sink before he gets through his voyage.

Third, it is evident that you are not willing to have Christ for your Savior, because you have so mean an opinion of him that you dare not trust his faithfulness. One who undertakes to be the Savior of souls needs to be faithful; for if he fails in such a trust, how great is the loss! But you are not convinced of Christ's faithfulness; as is evident, because at such times as when you are in a considerable measure sensible of your guilt and God's anger, you cannot be convinced that Christ is willing to accept of you, or that he stands ready to receive you if you should come to him, though Christ so much invites you to come to him, and has so fully declared that he will not reject you if you do come; as particularly, John 6:37: He that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. Now, there is no man who can be heartily willing to trust his eternal welfare in the hands of an unfaithful person, or one whose faithfulness he suspects.

Fourth, you are not willing to be saved in that way by Christ, as is evident, because you are not willing that your own goodness should be set at nothing. In the way of salvation by Christ men's own goodness is wholly set at nothing; there is no account at all made of it. Now you cannot be willing to be saved in a way wherein your own goodness is set at nothing, as is evident by the fact that you make much of it yourself. You make much of your prayers and pains in religion, and are often thinking of them; how considerable do they appear to you, when you look back upon them! And how much are some of you in thinking how much more you have done than some others, and in expecting some respect or regard that God should manifest to what you do! Now, if you make so much of what you do yourself, it is impossible that you should be freely willing that God should make nothing of it.

Seeing therefore that it is so evident that you refuse to accept of Christ as your Savior, why is Christ to be blamed that he does not save you? Christ has offered himself to you to be your Savior in time past, and he continues offering himself still, and you continue to reject him, and yet complain that he does not save you. So strangely unreasonable, and inconsistent with themselves, are gospel sinners!

But I expect that there are many of you, that in your hearts still object; your mouths are not stopped. Such an objection as this is probably now in the hearts of many here present.

Objection: If it is so, that I am not willing to have Christ for my Savior, yet I cannot make myself willing.

But I would give an answer to this objection, by laying down two things, that must be acknowledged to be exceedingly evident.

First, it is no excuse that you cannot receive Christ of yourself, unless you would if you could. This is so evident of itself, that it scarcely needs any proof. Certainly if persons would not if they could, it is just the same thing as to the blame that lies upon them, whether they can or cannot. If you were willing, and then found that you could not, your being unable would alter the case, and might be some excuse; because then the defect would not be in your will, but only in your ability. But as long as you will not, it is no matter what the ability is, whether you have ability or no ability.

If you are not willing to accept of Christ, it will follow that you have no sincere willingness to be willing; because the will always necessarily approves of, and rests in, its own acts. To suppose the contrary would be to suppose a contradiction; it would be to suppose that a man's will is contrary to itself, or that he wills contrary to what he himself wills. So that as you are not willing to come to Christ, and cannot make yourself willing, so you have no sincere desire to be willing; and therefore may most justly perish without a Savior. There is no excuse at all for you; for say what you will about your inability, the seat of your blame lies in your perverse will, that is an enemy to the Savior. It is in vain for you to tell of your want of power, as long as your will is found defective.

Second, if you would be willing if you could, that is no excuse, unless your willingness to be willing be sincere. That which is hypocritical, and does not come from the heart, but is merely forced, ought wholly to be set aside, as worthy of no consideration, and that because common sense teaches that that which is not hearty but hypocritical is indeed nothing, being only a show of what is not. But if you set aside all that is not free, and call nothing a willingness but a free hearty willingness, then see how the case stands, and whether or not you have not lost all your excuse for standing out against the calls of the gospel. You say you would make yourself willing to accept if you could; but it is not from any good principle that you are willing for that; it is not from any free inclination, or true respect to Christ, or any love to your duty, or any spirit of obedience, or from the influence of any manner of real respect, or tendency in your heart, toward any thing that is good, or from any other principle than such as is in the hearts of devils, and would make them have the same sort of willingness in the same circumstances. It is therefore evident that there can be no goodness in that wishing to be willing to come to Christ. And that which has no goodness, cannot be an excuse for any badness.

Sinners therefore spend their time in foolish arguing and objecting, making much of that which is good for nothing, making those excuses that are not worth offering. It is in vain to keep making objections: you stand justly condemned; the blame lies all at your door. You continue willfully and wickedly rejecting Jesus Christ, and will not have him for your Savior, and therefore it is foolish madness in you to charge Christ with injustice because he does not save you.

Here is the sin of unbelief! Thus the guilt of that great sin lies upon you! If you had never thus treated a Savior, you might most justly have been damned to all eternity. But besides this, when God, notwithstanding, has offered you his own dear Son to save you from this endless misery you had deserved, and not only so, but to make you happy eternally in the enjoyment of himself, you refused him, and would not have him for your Savior, and still refuse to comply with the offers of the gospel. What can render any person more inexcusable? If you should now perish forever, what can you have to say?

Hereby the justice of God in your destruction appears in two respects:

First, it is more abundantly manifest that it is just that you should be destroyed. Justice never appears so conspicuous as it does after refused and abused mercy. Justice in damnation appears abundantly the more clear and bright, after a willful rejection of offered salvation. What can an offended prince do more than freely offer pardon to a condemned malefactor? And if he refuses to accept of it, will any one say that his execution is unjust?

Second, God's justice will appear in your greater destruction. Besides the guilt that you would have had if a Savior never had been offered, you bring that great additional guilt upon you, of most ungratefully refusing offered deliverance. What more base and vile treatment of God can there be, than for you, when justly condemned to eternal misery, and ready to be executed, and God graciously sends his own Son, who comes and knocks at your door with a pardon in his hand, and not only a pardon, but a deed of eternal glory — and you, out of dislike and enmity against God and his Son, refuse to accept those benefits at his hands! How justly may the anger of God be greatly increased by it! When a sinner thus ungratefully rejects mercy, his last error is worse than the first; this is more heinous than all his former rebellion, and may justly bring down more fearful wrath upon him.

The heinousness of this sin of rejecting a Savior especially appears in two things:

First, the greatness of the benefits offered; which appears in the greatness of the deliverance, which is from inexpressible degrees of corruption and wickedness of heart and life, and from misery that is everlasting; and in the greatness and glory of the inheritance purchased and offered (Hebrews 2:3): How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation?

Second, the wonderfulness of the way in which these benefits are procured and offered. That God should lay help on his own Son, when our case was so deplorable that help could be had in no mere creature; and that he should undertake for us, and should come into the world, and take upon him our nature, and should not only appear in a low state of life, but should die such a death, and endure such torments and contempt for sinners while enemies — how wonderful is it! And what tongue or pen can set forth the greatness of the ingratitude, baseness and perverseness that there is in it, when a perishing sinner who is in the most extreme necessity of salvation, rejects it, after it is procured in such a way as this! That so glorious a person should be thus treated, and that when he comes on so gracious an errand! That he should stand so long offering himself, and calling and inviting, as he has done to many of you, and all to no purpose, but all the while be set at nothing! Surely you might justly be cast into hell without one more offer of a Savior! Herein you have exceeded the very devils; for they never rejected the offers of such glorious mercy; no, nor of any mercy at all. This will be the distinguishing condemnation of gospel sinners (John 3:18): He that has not believed is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

That outward smoothness of your carriage toward Christ, that appearance of respect to him in your looks, your speeches, and gestures, does not argue but that you set him at nothing in your heart. There may be much of these outward shows of respect, and yet you be like Judas that betrayed the Son of Man with a kiss; and like those mockers that bowed the knee before him, and at the same time spit in his face.

Third, if God should forever cast you off and destroy you, it would be agreeable to your treatment of others. It would be no other than what would be exactly answerable to your behavior toward your fellow creatures, who have the same human nature, and are naturally in the same circumstances with you, and whom you ought to love as yourself. And that appears especially in two things.

First, you have many of you been opposed in your spirit to the salvation of others. There are several ways that natural men manifest a spirit of opposition against the salvation of other souls. It sometimes appears by a fear that their companions, acquaintances, and equals will obtain mercy, and so become unspeakably happier than they. It is sometimes manifested by an uneasiness at the news of others having hopefully obtained. It appears when persons envy others for it, and dislike them the more, and disrelish their talk, and avoid their company, and cannot bear to hear their religious discourse, and especially to receive warnings and counsels from them. And it often appears by their backwardness to entertain charitable thoughts of them, and their being hard to convince that it is really so that they have obtained mercy, and a forwardness to listen to anything that seems to contradict it. The devil hated to own Job's sincerity (Job 1:7 and Job 2:3-5). And there appears very often much of this spirit of the devil in natural men. Sometimes they are ready to make a ridicule of others' pretended godliness. There are many that join with Sanballat and Tobiah, and are of the same spirit with them. There always was, and always will be, an enmity between the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman. It appeared in Cain who hated his brother, because he was more acceptable to God than himself; and it appears still in these times, and in this place. There are many who are like the elder brother, who could not bear it that the prodigal when he returned should be received with such joy and good entertainment, and was put into a fret by it, both against his brother that had returned, and his father who made him so welcome (Luke 15).

Thus have many of you been opposed to the salvation of others, who stand in as much necessity of it as you. You have been against others being delivered from everlasting misery, who can bear it no better than you; not because their salvation would do you any hurt, or their damnation help you, any otherwise than as it would gratify that vile spirit that is so much like the spirit of the devil, who, because he is miserable himself, is unwilling that others should be happy. How just therefore is it that God should be opposed to your salvation! If you have so little love or mercy in you, as to begrudge your neighbor's salvation, whom you have no cause to hate, but the law of God and nature requires you to love, why is God bound to exercise such infinite love and mercy to you, as to save you at the price of his own blood? You are not willing that others should be converted, that have behaved themselves injuriously toward you; and yet will you count it hard if God does not bestow converting grace upon you, who have deserved ten thousand times as ill of God, as ever any of your neighbors have of you? You are opposed to God's showing mercy to these and those, that you think have been vicious persons, and are very unworthy of such mercy. Is others' unworthiness a just reason why God should not bestow mercy on them? And yet will God be considered hard, if notwithstanding all your unworthiness, and the abominableness of your spirit and practice in his sight, he does not show you mercy? You would have God bestow liberally on you and not upbraid; but yet when he shows mercy to others, you are ready to upbraid as soon as you hear of it. You immediately think with yourself how ill they have behaved themselves; and it may be your mouths on this occasion are open, enumerating and aggravating the sins they have been guilty of. You would have God bury all your faults, and wholly blot out all your transgressions; but yet if he bestows mercy on others, it may be you will take that occasion to rake up all their old faults that you can think of. One would think that the consideration of these things should forever stop your mouth.

Second, consider how you have promoted others' damnation. Many of you, by the bad examples you have set, by corrupting the minds of others, by your sinful conversation, by leading them into sin, or strengthening them in sin, and by the mischief that you have done in human society in other ways, have been guilty of those things that have tended to others' damnation. You have heretofore appeared on the side of sin and Satan, and have behaved yourself so as to strengthen their interest, and have been in many ways accessory to others' sins, have hardened others' hearts, and thereby have done what has tended to the ruin of their souls.

And without doubt there are those here present, that have been in a great measure the means of others' damnation. Though it is true that it is determined by God who he will save, and who not, from all eternity, yet one man may really be a means of others' damnation, as well as salvation. Christ charges the scribes and Pharisees with this (Matthew 23:13): You shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, neither do you allow those that are entering to go in. We have no reason to think that this congregation has none in it, who are cursed from day to day by poor souls that are crying out in hell, whose damnation they have been a means of, or have greatly contributed to.

There are many who contribute to their own children's damnation, by neglecting their education and setting them bad examples, and bringing them up in sinful ways. They take some care of their bodies, but take but little care of their poor souls; they provide for them bread to eat, but deny them the bread of life that their famishing souls stand in need of. And are there no such parents here who have thus treated their children? If their children are not gone to hell, it is no thanks to them; it is not because they have not done what has tended to their destruction. Seeing therefore you have had no more regard to others' salvation, and have promoted their damnation, how justly might God leave you to perish yourself?

Fourth, if God should eternally cast you off, it would but be agreeable to your own behavior toward yourself; and that in two respects:

First, in being so careless of your own salvation. You have refused to take care for your salvation, as God has counseled and commanded you, from time to time; and why may not God neglect it, now you seek it of him? Is God obliged to be more careful of your happiness, than you are, either of your own happiness, or his glory? Is God bound to take that care for you, out of love to you, that you will not take for yourself, either from love to yourself, or regard to his authority? How long, and how greatly, have you neglected the welfare of your precious soul, refusing to take pains and deny yourself, or put yourself a little out of your way for your salvation, while God has been calling upon you! Neither your duty to God, nor love to your own soul, were enough to induce you to do little things for your own eternal welfare; and yet do you now expect that God should do great things, putting forth almighty power, and exercising infinite mercy for it? You were urged to take care for your salvation, and not to put it off. You were told that that was the best time, before you grew older, and that it might be, if you put it off, God would not hear you afterward. But yet you would not hearken; you would run the risk of it. Now how justly might God order it so, that it should be too late, leaving you to seek in vain!

Second, you have not only neglected your salvation, but you have willfully taken direct courses to undo yourself. You have gone on in those ways and practices that have directly tended to your damnation, and have been perverse and obstinate in it. You cannot plead ignorance; you had all the light set before you that you could desire. God told you that you were undoing yourself; but yet you would do it. He told you that the path you were going in led to destruction, and counseled you to avoid it; but you would not hearken. How justly therefore may God leave you to be undone! You have obstinately persisted in traveling in the way that leads to hell for a long time, contrary to God's continual counsels and commands, until it may be at length you have got almost to your journey's end, and are come near to hell's gate, and so begin to be sensible of your danger and misery. And now you account it unjust and hard, if God will not deliver you! You have destroyed yourself, and destroyed yourself willfully, contrary to God's repeated counsels, yes, and destroyed yourself in fighting against God. Now therefore why do you blame anyone but yourself, if you are destroyed? If you will undo yourself in opposing God, and while God opposes you by his calls and counsels, and it may be too by the convictions of his Spirit, what can you object against it, if God now leaves you to be undone?

Thus I have proposed some things to your consideration, which if you are not exceeding blind, senseless, and perverse, will stop your mouth, and convince you that you stand justly condemned before God, and that he would in no wise deal hardly with you, but altogether justly, in denying you any mercy, and in refusing to hear your prayers, let you pray never so earnestly, and never so often, and continue in it never so long; and that God may utterly disregard your tears and moans, your heavy heart, your earnest desires, and great endeavors, and that he may cast you into eternal destruction, without any regard to your welfare, denying you converting grace, and giving you over to Satan, and at last cast you into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, to be there to eternity, having no rest day nor night, forever glorifying his justice upon you, in the presence of the holy angels, and the presence of the Lamb.

Objection: But here many may still object — God shows mercy to others who have done these things as well as I, yes, who have done a great deal worse than I.

Answer: First, that does not prove that God is any way bound to show mercy to you, or to them either. If God does bestow it on others, he does not bestow it on them because he is bound to bestow it; he might, if he had pleased, with glorious justice have denied it to them. If God bestows it on some, that does not prove that he is bound to bestow it on any; and if he is bound to bestow it on none, then he is not bound to bestow it on you. God is in debt to none, and if he gives to some that he is not in debt to, because it is his pleasure, that does not bring him into debt to others. It alters not the case as to you at all, whether others have it or have it not. You do not deserve damnation the less, than if mercy had never been bestowed on any at all (Matthew 20:15): Is your eye evil, because mine is good?

Second, if this objection is good, then the exercise of God's mercy is not in his own right, and his grace is not his own to give. That which God may not dispose of as he pleases, is not his own; for that which is one's own, is at his own disposal. But if it is not God's own, then he is not capable of making a gift or present of it to any one; it is impossible to give a debt.

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 bestowing his own gifts, but if he bestows them on one, must be looked upon as 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? If any of you see cause to show 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 you deal with God! as though God were not worthy to have as absolute a property in his goods, as you have in yours!

At this rate God cannot make a present of anything; he has nothing of his own to bestow. If God does not do fairly to 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 need never 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 not 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 themselves so much (Matthew 20:15): Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own?

Third, God may justly show greater respect to others than to you, for you have shown greater respect to others than to God. You have shown greater respect to men than to God; you have rather chosen to offend God than offend men. God only shows a greater respect to others that are by nature your equals, than to you; but you have shown a greater respect to those that are infinitely inferior to God, than to him. You have shown a greater regard to wicked men than to God; you have honored them more, loved them better, and adhered to them rather than to him. You have chosen the devil's will and his interest, rather than God's will and his glory. You have chosen a little worldly gain, rather than God; you have set more by a vile lust than by him. You have set your heart on these things, and cast God behind your back. And where is the injustice if God is pleased to show greater respect to others than to you, or if he chooses others and rejects you?

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 at random, without disposing events, or fore-ordering how they should come to pass? And what is that to you, how God has fore-ordered 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 behavior among 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 exceedingly 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. 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 confusion, when hereafter you shall see at whose door all the blame of your misery lies.

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. Romans 3:25-26: 'Whom God has set forth to be a Propitiation, 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 his Righteousness, that he might be just, and the Justifier of him which believes in Jesus.' Yes, God may through this Mediator, not only justly, but honorably, show 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 burned in hell to all eternity. Of such dignity and excellency is Christ in the eyes of God, that seeing he 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.

Indeed it would not become the glory of God's Majesty to show mercy to you, that have been so sinful and vile a creature, for anything that you have done, for such worthless and despicable things as your prayers, and other religious performances; it would be very dishonorable and unworthy of God so to do, and it is in vain to expect it. He will show mercy only on Christ's account, and that according to his sovereign pleasure, on whom he pleases, when he pleases, and in what manner he pleases: you cannot bring him under obligation by your works; do what you will, he will not look on himself obliged. But if it be his pleasure, he can honorably show mercy through Christ, to any sinner of you all, not one in this congregation excepted.

Therefore here is encouragement for you still to seek and wait, notwithstanding all your wickedness; agreeable to Samuel's speech to the children of Israel, when they were terrified with the thunder and rain that God sent, and their guilt stared them in the face: 1 Samuel 12:20 — 'Fear not; you have done all this wickedness; yet turn not aside from following the Lord; but serve the Lord with all your hearts.'

I would conclude this discourse, by improving the doctrine in the second place, very briefly to put the godly in mind of the freeness and wonderfulness of the grace of God towards them. For such were some of you. The 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 had mercy upon you; he has made his glorious grace appear in your everlasting salvation. You behaved yourself so as you have heard towards God; you had no love to God, but yet he has exercised unspeakable love to you. You have contemned God, and set light by him; but so great a value has God's grace set on you, and your happiness, that you have been redeemed at the price of the blood of his own Son. You chose to be with Satan in his service; but yet God has made you a joint-heir with Christ, of his glory. You were ungrateful for past mercies, but yet God not only continued those mercies, but bestowed unspeakably greater mercies upon you. You refused to hear when God called; but yet God heard you, when you called. You abused the infiniteness of God's mercy to encourage yourself in sin against God; but yet God has manifested the infiniteness of that mercy, in the exercises of it towards you. You have rejected Christ, and set him at nothing; and yet he is your Savior. You have neglected your own salvation; but God has not neglected it: you have destroyed yourself; but yet in God has been your help. God has magnified his free grace towards you and not to others; because he has chosen you, and it has pleased him to set his love upon you.

O, what cause is here for praise? What obligations are upon you to bless the Lord, who has dealt bountifully with you, and to magnify his holy name? What cause for you to praise him in humility, to walk humbly before God, and to be conformed to that in Ezekiel 16:63: 'That you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I am pacified toward you, for all that you have done, says the Lord God.' You should never open your mouth in boasting, or self-justification: you should lie the lower before God for his mercy to you. But you have reason, the more abundantly for your past sins, to open your mouth in God's praises, that they may be continually in your mouth, both here and to all eternity, for his rich, unspeakable, and sovereign mercy to you, whereby he, and he alone, has made you to differ from others.