 section 25 of Select Sermons of Jonathan Edwards this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Father Xyle of Detroit Select Sermons of Jonathan Edwards section 25 hypocrites deficient in the duty of prayer part 2 the application application may be in and use of exhortation in two branches one I would exhort those who have entertained and hope of their being true converts and yet since their supposed conversion have left off the duty of secret prayer and do ordinarily allow themselves in the omission of it to throw away their hope if you have left off calling upon God it is time for you to leave off hoping and flattering yourselves with an imagination that you are the children of God probably it will be a very difficult thing for you to do this it is hard for a man to let go and hope of heaven on which he hath once allowed himself to lay hold and which he hath retained for a considerable time true conversion is a rare thing but that men are brought off from a false hope of conversion after they are once settled and established in it and a continued in it for some time is much more rare those things in men which if they were known to others would be sufficient to convince others that they are hypocrites will not convince themselves and those things which would be sufficient to convince them concerning others and to cause them to cast others entirely out of their charity will not be sufficient to convince them concerning themselves they can make larger allowances for themselves than they can for others they can find out ways to solve objections against their own hope when they can find none in the light case for their neighbor but if your case be such as is spoken of in the doctrine it is surely time for you to seek a better hope and another work of God's spirit than ever you have yet experienced something more thorough and effectual when you see and find by experience that the seed which was sown in your hearts though at first it sprang up and seemed flourishing yet is withering away as by the heat of the sun or is choked as with thorns this shows in what sort of ground the seed was sown that it is either stony or thorny ground and that therefore it is necessary you should pass through another change where by your heart may become good ground which shall bring forth fruit with patience I insist not on that as a reason why you should not throw away your hope that you had the judgment of others that the change of which you were the subject was right it is a small matter to be judged of man's judgment whether you be approved or condemned and whether it be by minister or people wise or unwise first Corinthians four verse three it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment if your goodness have proved to be as the morning cloud and early do if you be one of those who have forsaken God and left off calling upon his name you have the judgment of God and the sentence of God in the scriptures against you which is a thousand times more than to have the judgment of all the wise and godly men and ministers in the world in your favor others from your account of things may have been obliged to have charity for you and to think that provided you were not mistaken and in your account did not misrepresent things or express them by wrong terms you were really converted but what a miserable foundation is this upon which to build and hope as to your eternal state here I request your attention to a few things in particular which I have to say to you concerning your hope first why will you retain that hope which by evident experience you find poisons you is it reasonable to think that and holy hope and hope that is from heaven would have such an influence no surely nothing of such a malignant influence comes from that world of purity and glory no poison growth in the paradise of God the same hope which leads men to sin in this world will lead to hell hereafter why therefore will you retain such an hope of which your own experience shows you the ill tendency in that it encourages you to lead a wicked life for certainly that life is a wicked life wherein you live in the neglect of so well known a duty as that of secret prayer and in the disobedience of so plain a command of God as that by which this duty is enjoined and is not a way of disobedience to God a way to hell if your own experience of the nature and tendency of your hope will not convince you of the falseness of it what will are you resolved to retain your hope let it prove ever so unsound and hurtful will you hold it fast till you go to hell with it many men cling to a false hope and embrace it so closely that they never let it go till the flames of hell cause their arms to unclench and let go their hold consider how you will answer it at the day of judgment when God shall call you to an account for your folly in resting in such an hope will it be a sufficient answer for you to say that you had a charity of others and that they thought your conversion was right certainly it is foolish for men to imagine that God had no more wisdom or could contrive no other way of bestowing comfort and hope of eternal life than one which should encourage men to forsake him second how is your doing as you do consistent with loving God above all if you have not spirit to love God above your dearest earthly friends and your most pleasant earthly enjoyments the scriptures are very plain and full in it that you are not true Christians but if you had indeed such a spirit would you thus grow weary of the practice of drawing near to him and become habitually so averse to it as in a great measure to cast off so plain a duty which is so much the life of a child of God it is the nature of love to be averse to absence and to love a near access to those whom we love we love to be with them we delight to come often to them and to have much conversation with them but when a person who hath here to before been want to converse freely with another by degrees forsakes him grows strange and converses with him but little and that although the other be important with him for the continuance of their former intimacy this plainly shows the coldness of his heart towards him the neglect of the duty of prayer seems to be inconsistent with supreme love to God also upon another account and that is that it is against the will of God so plainly revealed true love to God seeks to please God in everything and universally to conform to his will third your thus restraining prayer before God is not only inconsistent with the love but also with the fear of God it is an argument that you can cast off fear as is manifest by that text Job 15 verse four yea thou castest off fear and restrained prayer before God while you thus live in the transgression of so plain a command of God you evidently show that there is no fear of God before your eyes psalm 36 verse one the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes fourth consider how living in such a neglect is inconsistent with leading and holy life we are abundantly instructed in scripture that true Christians do lead and holy life that without holiness no man shall see the Lord Hebrews 12 verse 14 and that every one that hath this hope in him purifyeth himself even as Christ is pure first John 3 verse 3 in Proverbs 16 verse 17 it is said the highway of the upright is to depart from evil i.e. it is as it were the common beaten road in which all the godly travel to the like purpose is Isaiah 35 verse 8 a highway shall there be and a way and it shall be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it when it shall be for those i.e. those redeemed persons spoken of in the foregoing verses it is spoken of in Romans 8 verse 1 as the character of all believers that they walk not after the flesh but after the spirit but how is a life in a great measure prayerless consistent with an holy life to lead and holy life is to lead a life devoted to God a life of worshiping and serving God a life consecrated to the service of God but how does he lead such a life who doth not so much as maintain the duty of prayer how can such a man be said to walk by the spirit and to be a servant of the most high God and holy life is a life of faith the life that true Christians live in the world they live by the faith of the Son of God but who can believe that man lives by faith who lives without prayer which is the natural expression of faith prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life and to say a man lives a life of faith and yet lives a prayerless life is every wit as inconsistent and incredible as to say that a man lives without breathing a prayerless life is so far from being in holy life that it is a profane life he that lives so lives like an heathen who call us not on God's name he that lives a prayerless life lives without God in the world fifth if you live in the neglect of secret prayer you show your goodwill to neglect all the worship of God he that prays only when he prays with others would not pray at all were it not that the eyes of others are upon him he that will not pray where none but God seeth him manifestly does not pray at all out of respect to God or regard to his all-seeing eye and therefore does in effect cast off all prayer and he that casts off prayer in effect casts off all the worship of God of which prayer is the principal duty now what a miserable saint is he who is no worshipper of God he that casts off the worship of God in effect casts off God himself he refuses to own him or to be conversant with him as his God for the way in which men own God and are conversant with him as their God is by worshiping him sixth how can you expect to dwell with God forever if you so neglect and forsake him here this your practice shows that you place not your happiness in God in nearness to him and communion with him he who refuses to come and visit and converse with a friend and who in a great measure forsakes him when he is abundantly invited and importune to come plainly shows that he places not his happiness in the company and conversation of that friend now if this be the case with you respecting God then how can you expect to have it for your happiness to all eternity to be with God and to enjoy holy communion with him let those persons who hope they are converted and yet have in a great measure left off the duty of secret prayer and whose manner it is ordinarily to neglect it for their own sake seriously consider these things for what will profit then to please themselves with that when they live which will fail them at last and leave them in fearful and amazing disappointment it is probable that some of you who have entertained a good opinion of your state and have looked upon yourselves as converts but have of late in a great measure left off the duty of secret prayer will this evening attend secret prayer and so continue to do for a little while after you're hearing this sermon to the end that you may solve the difficulty and the objection which is made against the truth of your hope but this will not hold as it have been in former instances of the light nature so what you now here will have such effect upon you but a little while when the business and cares of the world shall again begin to crowd a little upon you or next time you should go out into young company it is probable you will again neglect this duty the next time a frolic shall be appointed to which it is proposed to you to go it is highly probable you will neglect not only secret prayer but also family prayer or at least after a while you will come to the same pass again as before in casting off fear and restraining prayer before God it is not very likely that you will ever be constant and persevering in this duty until you shall have obtained a better principle in your hearts the streams which have no springs to feed them will dry up the drought and heat consume the snow waters although they run plentifully in the spring yet when the sun ascends higher with a burning heat they are gone the sea that is sown in stony places though it seemed to flourish at present yet as the sun shall rise with a burning heat will wither away none will bring forth fruit with patience but those whose hearts are become good ground without any heavenly seed remaining in them men may whenever they fall in among the godly continue all their lives to talk like saints they may for their credit's sake tell of what they have experienced but their deeds will not hold they may continue to tell of their inward experiences and yet live in the neglect of secret prayer and of other duties two i would take occasion from this doctrine to exhort all to persevere in the duty of prayer this exhortation is much insisted on in the word of god it is insisted on in the old testament first chronicles 16 verse 2 seek the lord and his strength seek his face continually isaia 62 verse 7 ye that make mention of the lord keep not silence i.e. be not silent as to the voice of prayer as is manifest by the following words and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth israel of old is reproved for growing weary of the duty of prayer isaia 43 verse 22 but thou has not called upon me jakem thou has been weary of me israel perseverance in the duty of prayer is very much insisted on in the new testament as luke 18 at the beginning a man ought always to pray and not to faint i.e. not to be discouraged or weary of the duty but should always continue in it again luke 21 verse 36 watch ye therefore and pray always we have the example of anna the prophet is set before us luke 1 verse 36 and so forth who though she had lived to be more than a hundred years old yet never was weary of this duty it is said she departed not from the temple but served god with fastings and prayers night and day cornelius also is commended for his constancy in this duty it is said that he prayed to god always acts 10 verse 2 the apostle paul in his epistles insists very much on constancy in this duty romans 12 verse 12 continuing instant in prayer Ephesians 6 18 and 19 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there on to with all perseverance colossians 4 verse 2 continue in prayer and watch in the same 1st thessalonians 5 verse 17 pray without ceasing to the same effect the apostle peter first peter chapter 4 verse 7 watch unto prayer thus abundantly the scripture insists upon it that we should persevere in the duty of prayer which shows that it is a very great importance that we should persevere if the contrary be the manner of hypocrites as have been shown in the doctrine then surely we ought to be aware of this leaven but here let the following things be particularly considered as motives to perseverance in this duty first that perseverance in the way of duty is necessary to salvation and is abundantly declared so to be in the holy scriptures as isaia 64 verse 5 thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness those that remember thee in thy ways behold thou art wroth for we have sinned in those is continuance and we shall be saved Hebrews 10 verses 38 39 now the just shall live by faith but if any man draw back my soul have no pleasure in him but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul Romans 11 verse 22 behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou also shall be cut off so in many other places many when they think they are converted seem to imagine that their work is done and that there is nothing else needful in order to their going to heaven indeed perseverance in holiness of life is not necessary to salvation as the righteousness by which a right to salvation is obtained nor is actual perseverance necessary in order to are becoming interested in that righteousness by which we are justified for as soon as ever a soul have believed in Christ or have put forth one act of faith in him it becomes interested in his righteousness and in all the promises purchased by it but persevering in the way of duty is necessary to salvation as a concomitant and evidence of a title to salvation there is never a title to salvation without it though it be not the righteousness by which a title to salvation is obtained it is necessary to salvation as it is the necessary consequence of true faith it is an evidence which universally attends uprightness and the defect of it is an infallible evidence of the want of uprightness Psalm 124 verse 4 5 there such as are good and upright in heart are distinguished from such as fall away or turn aside do good oh lord to those that are good and to them that are upright in their hearts as for such as turn aside to their crooked ways the lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity but peace shall be upon israel it is mentioned as an evidence that the hearts of the children of israel were not right with God that they did not persevere in the ways of holiness Psalm 78 verse 8 a generation that set not their hearts are right and whose spirit was not steadfast with God Christ gives this as a distinguishing character of those that are his disciples indeed and of a true and saving faith that it is accompanied with perseverance in the obedience of Christ's word John 8 verse 31 then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him if you continue in my word then ye are my disciples indeed this is mentioned as a necessary evidence of an interest in Christ Hebrews 3 verse 14 we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end perseverance is not only a necessary concomitant and evidence of a title to salvation but also a necessary prerequisite to the actual possession of eternal life it is the only way to heaven the narrow way that leadeth to life hence christ exhorts the church of philadelphia to persevere in holiness from this consideration that it was necessary in order to her obtaining the crown revelation 3 verse 11 hold fast that which now haste that no man take thy crown it is necessary not only that person should once have been walking in the way of duty but that they should be found so doing when christ cometh luke 9 verse 43 bless it is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing holding out to the end is often made the condition of actual salvation matthew 10 verse 22 he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved and revelation 2 verse 10 be thou faithful unto death and i will give thee a crown of life second in order to your own perseverance in the way of duty your own care and watchfulness is necessary for though it be promised that true saint shall persevere yet that is no argument that their care and watchfulness is not necessary in order to it because their care to keep the commands of god is the thing promised if the saint should fail of care watchfulness and diligence to persevere in holiness that failure of their care and diligence would itself be a failure of holiness they who persevere not in watchfulness and diligence persevere not in holiness of life for holiness of life very much consists in watchfulness and diligence to keep the commands of god it is one promise of the covenant of grace that the saint shall keep god's commandments ezekiel 11 verses 19 20 yet that is no argument that they have no need to take care to keep these commandments or to do their duty so the promise of god that the saint shall persevere in holiness is no argument that it is not necessary that they should take heed lest they fall away therefore the scriptures abundantly warn men to watch over themselves diligently and to give earnest heed lest they fall away first Corinthians 15 verse 13 watch ye stand fast in the faith quit you like men be strong first Corinthians 10 verse 12 let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall Hebrews 3 verses 12 13 14 take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living god but exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end Hebrews 4 verse 1 let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it 2nd Peter 3 verse 17 ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness 2nd John 5 verse 8 look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward thus you see how earnestly the scriptures press on Christians exhortations to take diligent heed to themselves that they fall not away and certainly these cautions are not without reason the scriptures particularly insist upon watchfulness in order to perseverance in the duty of prayer watch and pray saith christ which implies that we should watch under prayer as the apostle peter says first peter 4 verse 7 it implies that we should watch against a neglect of prayer as well as against other sins the apostle in places which have been already mentioned directs us to pray with all prayer watching there unto with all perseverance and to continue in prayer and watch in the same nor is it any wonder that the apostle so much insistent on watching in order to a continuance in prayer with all perseverance for there are many temptations to neglect this duty first to be inconstant in it and from time to time to omit it then in a great measure to neglect it the devil watches to draw us away from God and to hinder us from going to him in prayer we are surrounded with one and another tempting object business and aversion particularly we meet with many things which are great temptations to a neglect of this duty third to move you to persevere in the duty of prayer consider how much you always stand in need of the help of God if persons who have formally attended this duty leave it off the language of it is that now they stand in no further need of God's help that they have no further occasion to go to God with requests and supplications when indeed it is in God we live and move and have our being we cannot draw a breath without his help you need his help every day for the supply of your outward wants and especially you stand in continual need of him to help your souls without his protection they would immediately fall into the hands of the devil who always stands as a roaring lion ready whenever he is permitted to fall upon the souls of men and devour them if God should indeed preserve your lives but should otherwise forsake and leave you to yourselves you would be most miserable your lives would be a curse to you those that are converted if God should forsake them would soon fall away totally from a state of grace into a state more miserable than ever they were in before their conversion they have no strength of their own to resist those powerful enemies who surround them sin and Satan would immediately carry them away as a mighty flood if God should forsake them you stand in need of daily supplies from God without God you can receive no spiritual light nor comfort can exercise no grace can bring forth no fruit without God your souls will wither and pine away and sink into a most wretched state you continually need the instructions and directions of God what can a little child do in a vast howling wilderness without someone to guide it and to lead it in the right way without God you will soon fall into snares and pits and many fatal calamities seeing therefore you stand in such continual need of the help of God how reasonable is it that you should continually seek it of him and perseveringly acknowledge your dependence upon him by resorting to him to spread your needs before him and to offer up your requests to him in prayer let us consider how miserable we should be if we should leave off prayer and God at the same time should leave off to take any care of us or to afford us any more supplies of his grace by our constancy in prayer we cannot be profitable to God and if we leave it off God will sustain no damage he does not need our prayers Job 10 verse six and seven but if God sees to care for us and to help us we immediately sink we can do nothing we can receive nothing without him fourth consider the great benefit of a constant diligent and persevering attendance on this duty it is one of the greatest and most excellent means of nourishing the new nature and of causing the soul to flourish and prosper it is an excellent mean of the keeping up and acquaintance with God and of growing in the knowledge of God it is the way to a life of communion with God it is an excellent mean of taking off the heart from the vanities of the world and of causing the mind to be conversant in heaven it is an excellent preservative from sin and the wiles of the devil and a powerful antidote against the poison of the old serpent it is a duty whereby strength is derived from God against the lusts and corruptions of the heart and the snares of the world it has a great tendency to keep the soul in a wakeful frame and to lead us to a strict walk with God and to a life that shall be fruitful in such good works as tend to adorn the doctrine of Christ and to cause our light so to shine before others that they seeing our good works shall glorify our father who is in heaven and if the duty be constantly and diligently attended it will be a very pleasant duty slack and sloughful attendance upon it and unsteadiness in it are the causes which make it so great a burden as it is to some persons their sloughfulness in it have naturally the effect to beget a dislike of the duty and a great indisposition to it but if it be constantly and diligently attended it is one of the best means of leading not only a Christian and amiable but also a pleasant life a life of much sweet fellowship with Christ and of the abundant enjoyment of the light of his countenance besides the great power which prayer when duly attended hath with God is worthy of your notice by it men become like Jacob who as a prince had power with God and prevailed when he wrestled with God for the blessing see the power of prayer represented in James five verses sixteen eighteen by these things you may be sensible how much you will lose if you shall be negligent of this great duty of calling upon God and how ill you will consult your own interest by such a neglect I conclude my discourse with two directions in order to constancy and perseverance in this duty first watch against the beginnings of a neglect of this duty persons who have for a time practiced this duty and afterwards neglect it commonly leave it off by degrees while their convictions and religious affections last they are very constant in their closets and no worldly business or company or diversion hinders them but as their convictions and affections begin to die away they begin to find excuses to neglect it sometimes they are now so hurried they have now such and such things to attend to or there are now such inconveniences in the way that they persuade themselves they may very exclusively omit it for this time afterwards it pretty frequently so happens that they have something to hinder something which they call a just excuse after a while a less thing becomes a sufficient excuse than was allowed to be such at first thus the person by degrees contracts more and more of an habit of neglecting prayer and becomes more and more indisposed to it and even when he doth perform it it is in such a poor dull heartless miserable manner that he says to himself he might as well not do it at all as do it so thus he makes his own dullness and indisposition an excuse for wholly neglecting it or at least for living in a great measure in the neglect of it after this manner do satan and men's own corruptions invagle them to their ruin therefore beware of the first beginnings of a neglect watch against temptations to it take heed how you begin to allow of excuses be watchful to keep up the duty in the height of it let it not so much as begin to sink for when you give way though it be but little it is like giving way to an enemy in the field of battle the first beginning of a retreat greatly encourages the enemy and weakens the retreating soldiers second let me direct you to forsake all such practices as you find by experience do indispose you to the duty of secret prayer examine the things in which you have allowed yourselves and inquire whether they have had this effect you are able to look over your past behavior and may doubtless on an impartial consideration make a judgment of the practices and courses in which you have allowed yourselves particularly let young people examine their manner of company keeping and the round of diversions in which with their companions they have allowed themselves i only desire that you would ask at the mouth of your own consciences what has been the effect of these things with respect to your attendance on the duty of secret prayer have you not found that such practices have tended to the neglect of this duty have you not found that after them you have been more indisposed to it and less conscientious and careful to attend it yay have they not from time to time actually been the means of your neglecting it if you cannot deny that this is really the case then if you seek the good of your souls forsake these practices whatever you may plead for them as that there is no hurt in them or that there is a time for all things and the like yet if you find this hurt in the consequence of them it is time for you to forsake them and if you value heaven more than a little worldly diversion if you set an higher price on eternal glory than on a dance or a song you will forsake them if these things be lawful in themselves yet if your experience show that they are attended with such a consequence as i have now mentioned that is enough it is lawful in itself for you to enjoy your right hand and your right eye but if by experience you find they cause you to offend it is time for you to cut off the one and pluck out the other as you would rather go to heaven without them then go to hell with them into that place of torment where the worm dieeth not and the fire is not quenched end of section 25 recording by father xyle of detroit section 26 of select sermons of jonathan edwards this is a liber box recording all liber box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberbox.org select sermons of jonathan edwards section 26 the justice of god in the damnation of sinners part one 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 christ jesus especially as it appears in the doctrine of justification by faith alone and the more clearly to events 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 in particular in showing that all mankind not only the gentiles but jews are under sin and so under the condemnation of the law which is what he insists 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 as the apostle observes in the second chapter 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 does 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 and as in the ninth verse of this chapter quote what then are we better than they no in no wise for we have before proved both jews and gentiles that they are all under sin and quote and to convince them of it he then produces certain passages out of their own law or the old testament to whose authority they pretend a great regard from the ninth verse to our text and it may be observed that the apostle first cites certain passages to prove that all mankind are corrupt versus 10 to 12 quote as it is written there is none righteous no not one there is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after god they are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that do with good no not one end quote secondly the passages he cites next are to prove not that only are all corrupt but each one holy corrupt as it were all over unclean from the crown of the head to the soles of his feet and therefore several particular parts of the body are mentioned the throat the tongue the lips the mouth the feet versus 13 to 15 quote their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues they have used to deceit the poison of asps is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood end quote and thirdly he quotes other passages to show that each one is not only all over corrupt but corrupt to a desperate degree by affirming the most pernicious tendency of their wickedness destruction and misery are in their ways and then by denying all goodness or godliness in them and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of god before their eyes and then lest the jews think these passages of their law do not concern them and only the gentiles are intended in them the apostle shows in the text not only that they are not exempt but that they especially must be understood now we know that whatsoever things the law sayeth it sayeth to them who are under the law by those that are under the law is meant the jews and the gentiles by those that are without law as appears by the 12th verse of the preceding chapter there is a special reason to understand the law as speaking to and of them to whom it was immediately given and therefore the jews would be unreasonable in exempting themselves and if we examine the places of the old testament once these passages are taken we shall see plainly that special respect is had to the wickedness of the people of that nation in every one of them 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 not withstanding 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 one to stop them from boasting of their righteousness as the jews are want to do as the apostle observes in the 23rd verse of the preceding chapter 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 two to stop them from making any excuse for ourselves or objection against the execution of the sentence of the law or the infliction of the punishment that it threatens that it 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 as guilty of death according to the jewish way of speaking and thus the apostle proves that no flesh can be justified in god's sight by the deeds of the law as he draws the conclusion in the following verse and so prepares the way for establishing the great doctrine of justification by faith alone which he proceeds to do 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 the truth of this doctrine may appear by the joint consideration of two things viz man's sinfulness and god's sovereignty one 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 one 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 less 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 anything is the formal ground and reason of its dessert of punishment and therefore the more anything half of this nature the more punishment it deserves and therefore the terribleness of the degree of punishment let it never be so terrible is no argument against the justice of it if the proportion does not 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 less obligations to the contrary this is self-evident because it is herein that the criminalness or faultiness of anything 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 crime of one being despising and casting contempt on another is proportionably more or less heinous as he was under greater or less obligations to honor him the fault of disobeying another is greater or less as anyone is under greater or less 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 towards 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 anyone is very lovely it is the same as to say that he is one very much to be loved or if we say such a one is more honorable than another the meaning of the words is that he is one that we are more obliged to honor if we say anyone has great authority over us it is the same to say that he has great right to our subjection and obedience but god is a being infinitely lovely because he have infinite excellency and beauty to have infinite excellency and beauty is the same thing as to have infinite loveliness he is a being of infinite greatness majesty and glory and therefore he is infinitely honorable he is infinitely exalted above the greatest potentates of the earth and highest angels in heaven and therefore he 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 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 anyone must be proportionably heinous to the dignity of the being offended and abused it is also agreeable to the word of god first samuel 225 if one man sin against another the judge shall judge him i.e. shall judge him and inflict a finite punishment such as finite judges can inflict but if a man sin against the lord who shall entreat for him this was the aggravation of sin that made joseph afraid of it genesis 39 9 how shall i commit this great wickedness and sin against god it was the aggravation of david sin in comparison of which he esteemed all others as nothing because they were infinitely exceeded by it psalm 51 4 against thee the only have i sinned 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 is an infinite aggravation vis 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 or thickness a mere mathematical line it is nothing but if it have any breadth and thickness though never so small and infinite 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 made against the infinite punishment of sin from the necessity or rather previous certainty of the futurition of sin arising from the unavoidable original corruption of nature if they argue anything 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 chose his own insincerity in his objection for at the same time that he objects that man's acts are necessary and that this kind of necessity is inconsistent with the 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 abuse injurious and ungrateful acts towards them whatever they pretend by this they show that indeed they do believe that there is no necessity in man's acts that are inconsistent with blame and if their objection be 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 consideration of what there might be previously to determine the future rition of the evil act of the will and it really teaches this as much to those that object and cavill 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 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 invade 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 man's natural and corrupt dispositions are mentioned as an excuse for them with respect to their sins against God as if they rendered them blameless to 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 merely this might be sufficient to keep them from ever lifting up their heads and cause them to smite on their breasts with the public in that cried God be merciful to me a sinner but sinful men are full of sin full of principles and acts of sin their guilt is like great mountains heaped one upon another till 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 roman 718 in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing there is all manner of wickedness there are the seeds of the greatest and blackest crimes there are principles of all sorts of wickedness against men and there is all wickedness against God there is pride there is enmity there is contempt there is quarreling there is atheism there is blasphemy there are these things in exceeding strength the heart is under the power of them is sold under sin and is a perfect slave to it there is hard-heartedness 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 neither by that which is terrifying nor that which is winning the very blood of God our savior will not win the heart of a wicked man and there are actual wickednesses 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 do they deserve to be eternally cast off and destroyed that are guilty of so much sin two 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 cavals 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 one that such as 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 he was not obliged to keep either angels or men from falling 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 be 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 or 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 how can God's threatenings move to care or watchfulness when at the same time God is obliged to render it impossible that he should be exposed to the threatenings or to what purpose is it for God to give a law at all for according to the supposition it is God and not the creature that is under the law it is the law givers care and not the subjects to see that his law is obeyed and this care is what the law giver is absolutely obliged to if God be obliged never to permit a creature to fall there is an end of all divine laws or government or authority of God over the creature there can be no manner of use in these things God may permit sin though the being of sin will certainly ensue on that permission and so by permission he may dispose and order the event if there were any such thing as chance or mere contingents and the very notion of it did not carry a gross absurdity as might easily be shown that it does it would have been very unfit that God should have left it to mere chance whether man should fall or no 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 and that is attended with such an infinite train of so great consequences should be disposed and ordered by infinite wisdom than that it should be left to blind chance if it be said that God need not have interposed to render it impossible for man to sin and yet not leave it to mere contingents or blind chance neither but might have left it with man's free will to determine whether to sin or no I answer if God did leave it to man's free will without any sort of disposal or ordering or rather adequate cause in the case when such it should be previously certain how that free will should determine and 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 of motion of the will respecting the affair that 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 disposing this determination of the will by his permission does not at all infringe the liberty of the creature it is in no respect any more inconsistent with liberty than mere chance or contingents for if the determination of the will be from blind undesigning chance it is no more from the agent itself or from the will itself than if we suppose in the case a wise divine disposal by permission to it was fit that it should be at the ordering of the divine wisdom and good pleasure whether any 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 and not that everyone should stand for himself is injurious to mankind for if it be not injurious 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 that each man should stand for himself then that all should be represented by their common father as the least reflection or consideration will convince anyone and if there be nothing in the nature of the thing that makes the former better for mankind than the latter then it will follow that they are not hurt in God's choosing and appointing the latter rather than the former or which is the same thing that it is not injurious to mankind three 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 not 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 meat 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 a count 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 that he effects by his own will even things of the greatest importance it is meat that he should be thus sovereign because he is the first being the eternal being whence all other beings are he is the creator of all things and all are absolutely and universally dependent on him and therefore it is meat that he should act as the sovereign possessor of heaven and earth application in the improvement of this doctrine i would chiefly direct myself to sinners who are afraid of damnation in a use of conviction this may be a 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 who 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 be you 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 though eternal damnation be what you cannot bear and how much so ever your heart shrinks at the thought 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 say concerning it consider what you are what light you have had and what means you have lived under and yet how you have behaved yourself what have those many days and nights 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 shown upon you for from day to day while you have improved his light to serve satan by it what has god kept your breath in your nostrils for and given you meat and drink that you have spent your life and strength supported by them in opposing god and rebellion against him how many sorts of wickedness have you not 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 to sacraments how profanely have you talked many of you about these 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 yay 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 in contriving new acts have not you spent much holy time in gratifying your lusts in your imaginations yay not only holy time but the very time of god's public worship when you have appeared in god's more immediate presence how have you not only attended the worship but have in the meantime been feasting your lusts and wallowing yourself in abominable uncleanliness 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 a very wicked outward behavior when you on sabbath days have got along with your wicked companions how has holy time been treated among you what kind of conversation has there been yay how have some of you by a very indecent carriage openly dishonored and cast contempt on the sacred services of god's house and holy day and what have you done some of you alone what wicked practices have there been in secret even in holy time god in your own consciences no and how have you behaved yourself in the time of family prayer and what a trade 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 therein willfully living in a known sin going abreast against as plain a command as any in the bible have you not been one that has cast off fear and restrained prayer before god what wicked carriage have some of you been guilty of towards your parents how far have you been from paying that honor to them which god has required have you not even harbored ill will and malice towards them and when they have displeased you have wished evil to them yay and shown your vile spirit in your behavior and it is well if you have not mocked them behind their backs and like the cursed ham and canan as it were derided your parents nakedness instead of covering it and hiding your eyes from it have not some of you often disobeyed your parents yay and refused to be subject to them is it not a wonder of mercy and forbearance that the proverb has not before now been accomplished on you proverbs 30 17 the eye that mocketh at his father and refuses to obey his mother the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young eagles shall eat it what revenge and malice have you been guilty of towards your neighbors how have you indulged the spirit of the devil hating others and wishing evil to them rejoicing when evil befell them and grieving at others prosperity and lived in such a way for a long time have not some of you allowed a passionate furious spirit and behaved yourselves in your anger more like wild beasts than like christians what covetousness has been in many of you such has been your inordinate love of the world and care about the things of it that it has taken up your heart you have allowed no room for god and 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 envied and hated your neighbor for the world you have cast god and christ and heaven behind your back for the world you have sold your own soul you have as it were drowned your soul in worldly cares and desires you have been a mere earthworm that is never in its element but when 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 wanted yourselves in your apparel others in your riches others in their knowledge and abilities how has it galled you to see others above you how much has it gone against the grain for you to give others their due honor and how have you shown your pride by setting up your wills and in opposing others and stirring up and promoting division and a party spirit in public affairs how sensual you have 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 the light on rotten carrion what in temperance 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 managed to indulge yourself from day to day and from night to night in all manner of unclean imaginations has not your soul been filled with them till 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 wherein were things not fit to be spoken and such company where such conversation has been carried on has been your delight and with what unclean acts and practices have you defiled yourself 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 what vile uncleanness have you practiced in company what abominations have you been guilty of in the dark such as the apostle doubtless had respect to in Ephesians 512 for it is a shame even to speak of those things that are done of them in secret some of you have corrupted others and done what in you lay to undo their souls if you have not actually done it and by your vile practices an example have made room for satan invited his presence and established his interest in the town where you have lived what lying some of you have 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 own dealings with your neighbors of which your own heart is conscious if you have not been noted by others and how 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 suffer without any manner of serious preparation and in a careless slighty frame of spirits 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 have lived in ways of known sins and intended no other than still to go on in the same wicked practices and it may be 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 drank judgment to yourself what stupidity and soddishness 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 on steadiness and slothfulness and long misimprovement of god's strivings with you have you been chargeable with 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 who has lived such a life to open his mouth to excuse himself to 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 or to talk of his duties and great pains in religion as if such performances were worthy to be accepted and to draw god's heart to such a creature 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 secondly be directed to consider if god should eternally reject and destroy you what an agreeableness and exact mutual answerableness there would be between god so dealing with you and your spirit and behavior there would not only be an equality but a similitude god declares that his dealings with men shall be suitable to their disposition and practice psalm 18 25 and 26 quote with the merciful man thou wilt show thyself merciful with an upright man thou wilt show thyself upright with the pure thou wilt show thyself pure and with the fro-word thou wilt show thyself fro-word end quote how much soever you dread damnation and are afraid and concerned at the thoughts of it yet if god should indeed eternally damn you you would be met with but in your own way you would be dealt with exactly according to your own dealing surely it is but fair that you should be made to buy in the same measure in which you sell end of section 26 section 27 of select sermons of jonathan edwards this is a liberbox recording all liberbox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberbox.org select sermons of jonathan edwards section 27 the justice of god in the damnation of sinners part two here i would particularly show one that if god should eternally destroy you it would be agreeable to your treatment of god two that it would be agreeable to your treatment of jesus christ three that it would be agreeable to your behavior towards your neighbors four that it would be according to your own foolish behavior towards yourself one 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 one 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 have never 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 towards god you never rejoiced in god's happiness if he had been miserable and that had been possible you would have liked it as well as if he were happy you would not have cared how miserable he was nor mourned for it any more than you now do for the devils being miserable and why then should god be looked upon as obliged to take so much care of your happiness as to do such great things for it as he doth for those that are saved or why should god be called hard in case he should not be careful to save you from misery you care not what becomes of god's glory you are not distressed how much so ever his honor seems to suffer in the world and why should god care any more for your welfare has it not been so that if you could but promote your private 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 doth 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 upon you eternal glory you are not willing to deny yourself for god you never cared to put yourself out of your way for christ whenever anything cross or difficult came your way that the glory of god was concerned in it has been your manner to shun it and excuse yourself from it you did not care to hurt yourself for christ whom you did not see worthy of it and why then must it be looked upon as a hard and cruel thing if christ has not been pleased to spill his blood and be tormented to death for such a sinner two you have slighted 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 notice of them that he will see them in such a lamentable distressed condition beholding their burdens and tears and seem to slight it and manifest no pity to them their souls they think are precious it would be a dreadful thing if they should perish and burn in hell forever they do not see through it that god should make so light of their salvation 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 his 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 hard that god should slight you are you more honorable than god that he must be obliged to make much of you how light so ever 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 sober countenance and seeming devoutness in your words and behavior but it is all mere dissembling the downcast look and seeming reverence is not from any honor you have to god in your heart though you 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 thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves to thee in the original it is shall lie unto thee that is yield feigned submission and assemble respect and honor to thee there is a rod held over you that makes you seem to pay such respect to god this religion and devotion even the very appearance of it would soon be gone and all vanish away if that were removed sometimes it may be that you weep in your prayers and in your hearing sermons and hope god will take notice of it and take it for some honor but he sees it all to be hypocrisy you weep for yourself you are afraid of hell and do you think that is worthy of god to take much notice of you because you can cry when you are in danger of being damned when at the same time you indeed 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 three why should god be looked upon is 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 raiment but you have improved both in the service of sin he has preserved you while you slept but when you arose it was to return to the old trade of sinning god notwithstanding this ingratitude has still continued his mercy but his kindness has never won your heart or brought you to a more grateful behavior towards him it may be you have received many remarkable mercies recoveries from sickness or preservations of your life when 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 so long a time while you did not regard your own salvation so much as in secret to ask god for it and now god has greatly added to his mercy to you by giving you the strivings of his spirit whereby a most precious opportunity for your salvation is in your hands 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 ever so ungrateful for his kindness wherewith you have been followed all the days of your life for 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 councils you have chosen rather to harken 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 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 to 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 judges 1014 go to the gods which you have chosen five 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 one says i have been constant in prayer for so many years and god has not heard me another says i have done what i can i have prayed as earnestly as i am able i do not see how i can do more and it will seem hard if after all i am denied 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 and called 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 could 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 you could not afford to stand considering of what god had to say to you when the ministers of christ have stood and pleaded with you in his name sabbath after sabbath and have even spent their strength in it how little was you moved it did not alter you but you went on still as you used to do when you went away you returned again to your sins to your lasciviousness to your vain mirth to your covetousness to your intemperance and that has been the language of your heart and practice exodus 5 to who is the lord that i should obey his voice 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 you're calling on god be 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 a thousand times as earnestly and yet be as much of a devil as he is now are your calls more worthy to be heard than gods or is god more obliged to regard what you say to him than you to regard his commands councils and invitations to you what can be more justice than this proverbs 124 etc quote because i have called and you refused i have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but you have said it not all my council and would none of my reproof i will also laugh at your calamity i will mock when your fear cometh when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon you then shall they call upon me but i will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me six 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 you have flattered yourself that though you did so yet god would show you mercy when you cried earnestly to him for it how righteous therefore it would 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 saddish as to think that god is obliged not to frustrate that hope when a sinner takes encouragement to neglect secret prayer which god has commanded to gratify his lusts to live a carnal vain life to thwart god to run upon him and condemn him to his face thinking with himself if i do so god would 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 cannot he be excused from showing such a sinner mercy when he is pleased to seek it without incurring the charge of being unjust if this be the case god has no liberty to vindicate his own honor and majesty but must play himself open to all manner of affronts and yield himself up to the abuse of vile men though they 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 he must take those bold and vile contimmers of his majesty when it suits them to ask it and must forgive all their sins and not only so but must adopt them into his family and make them his children and bestow eternal glory upon them 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 worst 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 never should 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 in gratitude in being the worst 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 all the more has something inexpressibly bad in it and does in a peculiar manner enhance guilt and incense wrath as seems to be intimated romans to foreign five quote or despises to thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of god leadeth thee to repentance but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurist up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of god and quote 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 contrary wise with you the consideration of the mercies of god being so exceeding great is the thing wherewith 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 exceeding 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 your own conscience can give testimony to it that this has made you refuse god's calls and has made you regardless of his repeated commands 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 that you have not only abused the attribute of god's mercy taking encouragement from it to continue in sin but you have also presumed 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 such thanks has christ had from you for enduring such a tormenting death for his enemies now how justly might god refuse that you should ever be the better for his sons 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 because mercy was infinite and it would not be too late if you sought it afterwards now how justly may god disappoint you in this and so order it that it shall be too late seven 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 never willingly comply that god should have dominion over the world and that he should govern it for his own glory according to his own wisdom you a poor worm a potchard a broken piece of an earthen vessel have dared to find fault and quarrel with god isaia forty five nine woe to him that strived with his maker let the potchards drive with the potchards of the earth shall the clay say to him that fashioned it what make us thou but yet you have ventured to do it roman's nine twenty who art thou old man that reply us against god but yet you have thought you was big enough you have taken upon you to call god to account why he does thus and thus you have said to Jehovah what dust thou 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 your venom at God it is well if sometimes you have not actually done it by tolerating blasphemous thoughts and malignant risings of heart against him yay and the frame of your heart in some measure appeared 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 him to make that opposition against you which you make against him do you think that the liberty of making opposition is your exclusive 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 towards others that you are seeking for yourself God exercising his infinite grace towards your neighbors has put you into an ill frame and it may be sent you into a tumult of mind how justly therefore may God refuse ever to exercise that mercy towards you have you not thus opposed God showing mercy to others even at the very time when you pretended to be an earnest with God for pity and help for yourself yay and while you was endeavoring to get something wherewith to recommend yourself to God and will you look to God still with a challenge of mercy and contend with him for it not withstanding can you who have such a heart and have thus behaved yourself come to God for any other than mere sovereign mercy to if you should forever be 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 hath not done that he 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 us that if we come to him we shall not be cast off but if 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 towards him which appears by this vis 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 the savior to provide you another has he given an infinitely honorable and glorious person even his only begotten son to be a sacrifice for sin and so provided salvation and the savior is offered to you now if you refuse to accept 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 besieges you to accept of him as your savior I am sensible that by this time many persons are ready to object against this if I 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 this can be that I am not willing that Christ should be my savior when I would give all the world that he was 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 grounds of your mistake and secondly to demonstrate to you that you have rejected and do willfully reject Jesus Christ first that you may see the weak grounds of your mistake consider one there is a great deal of difference between a willingness not to be damned and to being willing to receive Christ for your savior you have the former there is no doubt of that nobody supposes that you love misery so 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 will and choice terminate and it is but a vain pretense and delusion to say or think that you are willing to accept of Christ two 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 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 verse 3 thy people shall be willing in the day of thy 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 and 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 secondly to show that you are not willing to have Christ for a savior to convince you of it consider one how it is possible that you should be willing to accept of Christ as a savior from the dessert 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 dessert of punishment but how can you be willing to have Christ as a savior from a dessert of hell if you be not sensible that you have a dessert of hell if you have not really deserved everlasting burnings in hell then the very offer of an atonement for such a dessert is an imposition upon you if you have no such guilt upon you then the very offer of a satisfaction for that guilt is an injury because it implies in it a charge of guilt that you are free from now therefore it is impossible that a man who is not convinced of his guilt can be willing to accept of such an offer because he cannot be willing to accept the charge which the offer implies a man who is not convinced that he has deserved so dreadful a punishment cannot willingly submit to be charged with it if he thinks he is willing it is but a mere forced feigned business because in his heart he looks upon himself greatly injured and therefore he cannot freely accept of Christ under that notion of a savior from the dessert of such a punishment for such an acceptance is an explicit 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 deserve from him which he thinks he has not deserved it is impossible that anyone should freely allow a savior under that notion such in 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 if a king should condemn a man to some tormenting death which the condemned person thought himself not deserving of but looked upon the sentence as unjust and cruel and the king when the time of execution drew nigh should offer him his pardon under the notion of a very great act of grace and clemency the condemned person never would willingly and heartily allow it under that notion because he judged himself unjustly condemned 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 own great guilt in God's sight as to be indeed convinced that you lay justly condemned to the punishment of hell you never was convinced that you had forfeited all favor and was in God's hands and at his sovereign and arbitrary disposal to be either destroyed or saved just as he pleased you never yet was 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 decree from mercy shown to others and the like two that you are not sincerely willing to accept of Christ as your savior appears by this that you never have been convinced that he is sufficient for the work of your salvation you never had a sight or a 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 exceeding guilty creatures who have so provoked God and exposed themselves to such amazing wrath saying it is so and allowing it to be as others say is a very different thing from being really convinced of it and a 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 that 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 anyone 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 towards 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 that they should be willing to accept of him as their mediator and savior a man in distressing fear will not willingly be take 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 three 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 durst not trust his faithfulness one that undertakes to be the savior of souls had need 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 six thirty seven him that cometh to me i will in no wise cast out now there is no man can be heartily willing to trust his eternal welfare in the hands of an unfaithful person or one whose faithfulness he suspects 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 not in the way of salvation by Christ men's own goodness is wholly set at not there is no accounted all made of it now you cannot be willing to be saved in a way where in your own goodness is set at not as is evident because 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 some of you are thinking how much more you have done than others and 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 as we may see in other things if a man is proud of a great estate or if he values himself much upon his honorable office or his great abilities it is impossible that he should like it and heartily approve of it that others should make light of these things and despise them seeing therefore 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 end of section 27