they should not be punished, than to hear the commands and reasons of their governours which reThe law was not made for you

quire them to obey. to judge, but that you might be ruled and judged by it.

But if there be any so blind as to venture to question either the truth or the justice of this law of GOD, I shall briefly give you that evidence of both, which methinks should satisfy a reasonable man.

And first, if you doubt whether this be the word of GOD or not, besides an hundred other texts, you may be satisfied by these few. Matt. xviii. 3. "Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." John iii. 3. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of GOD." 2 Cor. v. 17. "If a man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are past away, behold all things are become new." Col. ii. 9. 10. "Ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him." Heb. xii. 14. "Without holiness, no man shall see GOD." Rom, viii. 8, 9. "So then, they that are in the flesh, cannot please GOD. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Gal. vi. 15. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." 1 Pet i. 3. "According to his abundant grace he hath begotten

Verse 23. "Being born

us again to a lively hope. again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of GOD, which liveth and abideth for ever.” 1 Pet. ii. 1,2. "Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocricies, and envies, and evilspeakings as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby," Psal. ix. 17. "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget GOD." Psal. xi. 5. "And the Lord loveth the righteous, but the wicked his soul hateth."

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As I need not stay to open these texts, which are so plain, so I think I need not add any more of that multitude which speak the like. If thou be a man that dost believe the word of GOD, here is already enough to satisfy thee, that the wicked must be converted or condemned. You are already brought so far, that you must either confess that this is true, or say plainly you will not believe the word of GOD. And if once you be come to that pass, there is but small hopes of you; look to yourselves as well as you can, for it is like, you will not be long out of hell. You would be ready to fly in the face of him that should give you the lye; and yet dare you give the lye to GOD? But if you tell GOD plainly that you will not believe him, blame him not if he never warn you more, or if he forsake you and give you up as hopeless. For to what purpose should he warn you, if you will not believe him? Should he send an angel from heaven to you, it

seems you would not believe. For an angel can speak but the word of God; and if an angel should bring you any other gospel, you are not to receive it, but to hold him accursed. Gal. i. 8. And surely there is no angel to be believed before the Son of GOD, who came from the Father to bring us this doctrine. If he be not to be believed, then all the angels in heaven are not to be believed. And if you stand on these terms with GOD, I shall leave you till he deal with you in a more convincing way. GOD hath a voice that will make you hear. Though he intreat you to hear the voice of his gospel, he will make you hear the voice of his condemning sentence, without intreaty. We cannot make you believe against your wills; but GOD will make you feel against your wills.

But let us hear what reason you have, why you will not believe this word of GOD, which tells us that the wicked must be converted or condemned? I know your reason; it is because that you judge it unlikely that GOD should be so unmerciful: you think it cruelty to damn men everlastingly for so small a thing as a sinful life. And this leads us up to the second thing, which is to justify the equity of GOD in his laws and judgments.

And first, I think you will not deny but that it is most suitable to an immortal soul, to be ruled by laws that promise an immortal reward, and threaten an endless punishment. Otherwise the law would not be suited to the nature of the subject: who will not be fully rul

ed by any lower means, than the hopes or fears of everJasting things: As it is in case of temporal punishment, if a law were now made, that the most heinous crimes shall be punished with an hundred years captivity, this might be of some efficacy, as being equal to our lives. But if there had been no other penalty before the flood, when men lived eight or nine hundred years, it would not have been sufficient, because men would know that they might have so many hundred years impunity afterwards. So it is in our present case.

2. I suppose you will confess that the promise of an endless and unconceivable glory is not unsuitable to the wisdom of GOD, or the case of man. And why then should you not think so of the threatening of an endless and unspeakable misery!

3. When you find it in the word of GOD that so it is, and so it will be, do you think yourselves fit to contradict this word? Will you call your Maker to the bar, and examine his word upon the accusation of falsehood? Will you sit upon him and judge him by the law of your conceits? Are you wiser and better, and righteouser than he? Must the GOD of heaven come to you to learn wisdom? Must infinite wisdom learn of folly and infinite holiness be corrected by a swinish sinner, that cannot keep himself an hour clean? Must the Almighty stand at the bar of a worm? O horrid arrogancy of senseless dust! Shall every mole, or clod, er dunghill, accuse the sun of darkness, and undertake to illuminate the world? Where were you when the

Almighty made these laws, that he did not call you to his counsel? sure he made them before you were born, without desiring your advice? and you came into the world too late to reverse them: if you could have done so great a work, you should have stept out of your ́nothingness, and have contradicted Christ when he was on earth, or Moses before him, or have saved Adam and his sinful progeny from the threatened death, that so might have been no need of Christ! And what if GOD withdraw his patience and sustentation, and let you drop into hell while you are quarrelling with his word? will you then believe that there is an hell?

4. If sin be such an evil that it required the death of Christ for its expiation, no wonder if it deserve our everlasting misery,

5. And if the sin of the devils deserved an endless torment, why not also the sin of man?

6. And methinks you should perceive, that it is not possible for the best of men, much less for the wicked, to be the competent judges of the desert of sin. Alas, we are all both blind and partial. You can never

know fully the desert of sin, till you fully know the evil of sin and you can never fully know the evil of sin, till you fully know, 1. The excellency of the soul which it deformeth: 2. And the excellency of holi. ness, which it doth obliterate: 3. And the reason and excellency of the glory which it violateth: And 4, the exccllency of the glory which it doth despise. And 5, the excellency and office of reason, which it treadeth