powerful to effect it; faith comes by hearing his word, his command. Thus it fhall be to fome whom he hath a mind to help. Nor does he deceive others, by commanding and calling of them, becaufe thus he touches their confcience, and difcovers their enmity, while by the word they are convinced, and yet not conquered; which thews the more, that their ruin is of themselves.

O finner! thou haft deftroyed thyself; yea, thy unbelief is the fin that would destroy God, if it could. It deftroys his truth, and makes him a liar; it destroys his mercy, and fays he is cruel, notwithfianding all his offers of grace. By unbelief refufing God's help, you, in an eminent manner, darken and oppofe the glory of God; his glorious perfections, that thine only molt bright in the face of Jefus, on whom your help is laid; and oppofe his highett defign for glorifying these perfections, Ephef. i. 11,-14. Your unbelief is direct murder, by which, more than all your other fins, you defroy yourself. Way, it is a fin that rejects the only remedy. There is no balm in Gilead, no phyfician there, but Christ, Acts iv. 12. and him you undervalue. It is a fin that binds all your other fins upon you. Tho' all fin be damning and killing, yet no fin fhall damn you, if you add not thereto the fin of neglecting and refufing God's help and mercy, that he offers in Christ. Why are not thefe condemned that believe in Chrift? Is it because they have no fin to condemn them? No; but because, believing in Jefus, all their fins are done away; but He that believeth not, is condemned alreay.' Why? Is it becaufe he is a finner in general? Or because his fins are many and great? No; but because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. Hence fee, that the immediate caufe of damnation is not this or that fin, but the refufing of Christ by unbelief. The man refufes a whole eternity of glorious and unspeakable happiness, and chufes rather fin and death. Unbelief leaves you without all excufe, or the leaft fhadow and colour of excufe, John xv. 22. You must be fpeechlefs in the great day. You cannot fay pardon and falvation was not offered to you; you

cannot

cannot fay the offer was not full and free; you cannot fay you had to do with a hard mafter. And as it will leave you without excufe, fo without appeal. Here we may fay, as in 1 Sam. ii. 25. “If a man fin against another, the judge fhall judge him; but if a man fin against the Lord, who fhall intreat for him?" If a man fin against the law, he may appeal to the gofpel, and the grace of God in Chrift; but if he reject Chrift, and the grace of the gofpel, where then fhall he appeal? Truly there is no relief to be found for him. A finner may appeal from juftice to the mercy-feat: but if he flight the offer of mercy, he hath nothing to appeal to, that may adminifter relief to him. Nay, thus he, in effect, pulls down the mercy-feat.

Let me exhort you, then, to come to Jefus for help and falvation, O felf-deftroying finner, that you may not be eternally deftroyed. Is it like a reafonable foul, to live in that miferable cafe, to ftand tottering upon the brink of Tophet, and dancing merrily away to everlasting destruction? To be living at the mercy of death, or of every difeafe tending thereto, which, if it will but fall upon thee, will fend thee into the burning pit? Suppofe you faw a condemned wretch, hanging over Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace, by nothing but a twined thread, ready to break every moment, would not your heart tremble for fuch an one? Why, but thou art the man, infinitely more miferable, man' or woman; this is thy very cafe, thou waft never yet drawn to Chrift, by all the preaching ever you heard. What if the thread of thy life fhould break? You know not but it may, the next night, the next day, the next moment; and where wouldst thou then be? Whither wouldft thou then drop? Behold, upon the crack of this thread of life, thou falleft into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, where thou fhalt ly, and die, and roar for ever, even as long as God hath a being, if theu dieft in thy prefent cafe; and yet does not thy foul tremble nor begin to fmite upon thy breaft, and bethink thyself, what need thou haft of this Jefus that is offered to thee, and who requires thee to come to him? Oh! what is thy

heart

heart made of, that thou haft not only loft all regard to God, but all love and pity to thyfelf? Alas! if you knew your mifery, you would cry out for Chrift more than ever a wounded mau did for a chirurgeon, or a drowning man for a boat. If there be any point of wif dom or reafon in the world, it is that you return to God, and come in to Jefus, for life and falvation from fin and wrath. If there be any thing that can be called madness and folly in the world, any thing brutish, abfurd, and unreasonable, it is that you live in live in your fin, and remain in a Chrittlefs fiate.

But if harsh arguments will not do, and indeed nothing but a day of power, will do the bufinefs; tell me, is there no power and virtue in a day of grace and mercy, or an offer of grace? I tell you therefore, you are welcome to come to Jefus, whatever you have done, or whatever you have been hitherto; "Whofoever will, let him come; and him that cometh, I will in no wife caft out." The day of wrath is not yet come; the day of grace is yet continued, notwithstanding all the offers of grace you have flighted heretofore. Sometimes God makes them very gracious who have been very gracelefs, fuch as Paul, Manaffeh, and Mary Magdalene; whatever, therefore, be your finfulness and filthinefs, there is a fountain opened to the houfe of David, and the inhabitants of Jerufalem, for fin and for uncleanness.-Though you had crucified the Son of God; here is his blood that cleanfes from all fin. Though your heart be made of flint and stone, yet God can of stones raise up

children to Abraham.

O young finner, come to Jefus. He welcomes young feekers of him, faying, "They that feek me early fhall find me." Old finner, that haft long been dead in fin, and rotting in the grave of corruption, and buried a mong the fluff of this world, Oh! wilt thou arife, and come out of thy grave? The Mafter calls upon you. Come, come, and feek to him, that he may glorify his name in your falvation. What think you is his reafon in calling fuch wretched finners as you are? It is just upon a defign of glorifying himself in your falvation. It is, 1. To magnify the grace of God, that where fin Gg3 hath

hath abounded, grace may much more abound. 2. It is to magnity the blood of Chrift, that can wafh away fuch fcarlet-coloured fins as yours are. 3. It is to magnify the power of the Spirit, that can convert and draw to himfelf fuch a:ftubborn finner as thou art. O then wilt thou fall in with this defign of God, praying, that God may glorify himfelf; that Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft may be magnified in your falvation. Alas! wretched finner! wilt thou neither let God have the honour he craves, nor your foul the happinefs it wants?

Let none object, faying, O this help is far off, when Gd fays, It is in me; In me is thy help. God fpeaks here in the prefent time; and God is a prefent help. Chrift the helper is not at a di.iance. He is IMMANUEL, God with us; and you need not fay, "Who will ascend to bring him down? and defcend to bring him up?" He is near, in this. word, and you are called to take him at his word, and to take his help offered in this word; In 'me is thy belp.

Neither let any object, faying, "O this help is not for me; may be it.is not defigned for me: perhaps he hath not a mind to give help to me." Why, man, woman, how fhall you know God's mind, but by his word? And will you contradict the truth of God flatly, faying, It is not for me, when he is faying, In me is thy help, thy help, man, thy help, woman, thy help, O felt deftroying finner? Do not, through unbelief, make God a liar, faying, In him is not my help, when he is faying fo exprefly, In me is thy help. How will this aggravate thy condemnation, if thou neglecteft this great falvation, when to thee is the word of this falvation fent? To thee is this help fent: O poor foul, put it not away from thee.

Let none fay, How is it poffible that I can be faved? when you fee it is God that undertakes this work, faying, In me is thy help. Look to me and be faved: for Lam God, and there is none elfe?" Is there any thing too hard for me to do? And let none fay, Alas! I am without ftrength, I can do nothing but ruin my felf. It true; and therefore God fays not in thee is thy help, but in me. Never look for a ground of faith or hope

in thyfelf; for thou fhalt never find it any where, but in me in my name, in my blood, in my promise, in my power, in my free mercy and fovereign grace, reigning through juftice-fatisfying righteoufnefs to eternal life; In me is thy help. Come and take what belongs to thee through my fovereign grant in this word of grace; and take it by believing upon my divine teftimony, and believing with particular application to thyself, that In me is thy help: he that thus believeth, fhall be faved.

May the Lord himfelf perfuade you to come to him for help, who fays, O Ifrael! thou haft deftroyed thyfelf; but in me is thine belp.