thou hast more than all that, an inheritance thou dost not consider of; thou art a child of wrath, an heir of hell. That is an heritage which will abide with thee, amidst all the changes in the world, as long as thou continuest in an unregenerate state. When thou shalt leave thy substance to others, this shall go along with thyself into another world. It is no wonder a slaughter-ox is fed to the full, and is not toiled as others are, Job xxi. 30. "The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." Well then, rejoice, let thine heart cheer thee; walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes." Live above reproofs and warnings from the word of God show thyself a man of afine spirit, by casting of all fear of God; mock at seriousness; live like thyself, a child of wrath, an heir of hell; "But know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee into judgment," Eccles. xi. 9. Assure thyself, thy breaking shall come suddenly, at an instant, Isa. xxx. 13. "For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool," Eccles. vii. 6. The fair blaze and great noise they make, is quickly gone; so shall thy mirth be. And then that wrath, that is now silently sinking into thy soul, shall make a fearful hissing.

5. "Wo to him that (like Moab) hath been at ease from his youth," Jer. xlviii. 11, and never saw the black cloud of wrath hanging over his head. There are many who "have no changes, therefore they fear not God," Psal. lv. 19. They have lived in a good belief (as they call it) all their days; that is, they never had power to believe an ill report of their soul's state. Many have come by their religion too easily; and as it came lightly to them, so it will go from them when their trial comes. Do ye think men flee from wrath in a morning dream? Or will they flee from the wrath they never saw pursuing them?

6. Think it not strange, if ye see one in great distress about his soul's condition, who was wont to be as jovial, and as little concerned about salvation as any of his neighbours. Can one get a right view of himself, as in a state of wrath, and not to be pierced with sorrows, terrors, and anxiety? When a weight, quite above one's strength, lies upon him, and he is alone, he can neither stir hand nor foot; but when one comes to lift it off him, he will struggle to get from under it. Thunder-claps of wrath from the word of God conveyed to the soul by the Spirit of the Lord will surely keep a man awake. LASTLY, It is no wonder wrath comes upon churches and nations, and upon us in this land; and that infants and chil

dren yet unborn smart under it. Most of the society are yet children of wrath; few are flying from it, or taking the way to prevent it; but people of all ranks are helping it on. The Jews rejected Christ, and their children have been smarting under wrath these sixteen hundred years. God grant that the bad entertainment given to Christ and his gospel, by this generation, be not pursued with wrath on the succeeding one. USE (2.) Of EXHORTATION. And here, 1. I shall drop a word to those who are yet in an unregenerate state. those that are brought out of it. 3. To all indifferently.

2. To

I. To you that are yet in an unregenerate state, I would sound the alarm, and warn you to see to yourselves, while yet there is hope. O ye children of wrath, take no rest in this dismal state; but flee to Jesus Christ the only refuge. Haste and make your escape thither. The state of wrath is too hot a climate for you to live in, Micah ii. 10, “Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest." O sinner, knowest thou where thou art? Dost thou not see thy danger? The curse has entered into thy soul; wrath is thy covering, the heavens are growing blacker and blacker above thy head; the earth is weary of thee, the pit is opening her mouth for thee; and should the thread of thy life be cut this moment, thou art henceforth past all hopes for ever. Sirs, if we saw ye putting a cup of poison to your mouth we would fly to you, and snatch it out of your hands; if we saw the house on fire about you, while ye were fast asleep in it, we would run to you, and drag you out of it; but, alas! ye are in ten thousand times greater hazard; yet we can do no more but tell you of your danger; invite, exhort, beseech, and obtest you, to look to yourselves, and lament your stupidity and obstinacy, when we cannot prevail with you to take warning. If there were no hope of your recovery, we should be silent, and would not torment you before the time; but though ye be lost and undone, there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Wherefore, I cry unto you in the name of the Lord, and in the words of the Prophet, Zech. ix. 12, "Turn ye to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope." Flee to Jesus Christ out of this your natural state.

MOTIVE 1. While ye are in this state, ye must stand or fall according to the Law, or Covenant of works. If ye understood this aright, it would strike through your hearts as a thousand darts. One had better be a slave to the Turks, condemned to the galleys, or under Egyptian bondage, than be under the covenant of works now. All mankind were brought under it in Adam, as we heard before; and thou in

thy unregenerate state, art still where Adam left thee. It is true, there is another covenant brought in; but what is that to thee, who art not brought into it? Thou must needs be under one of the two Covenants; either under the Law, or under Grace. That thou art not under Grace, the dominion of sin over thee, manifestly evinceth; therefore thou art under the Law, Rom. vi. 14. Do not think God has laid aside the first covenant, Mat. v. 17, 18. Gal. iii. 10. No, "He will magnify the Law and make it honourable." It is broken indeed on thy part: but it is absurd to think, that therefore your obligation is dissolved. Nay, thou must stand and fall by it, till thou canst produce thy discharge from God himself, who is thy party in that covenant; and this thou canst not pretend to, seeing thou art not in Christ.

Now to give you a view of your misery in this respect, consider these following things, (1.) Hereby ye are bound over to death, in virtue of the threatening of death in that covenant, Gen. ii. 17. The condition being broken, ye fall under the penalty. So it concludes you under wrath. (2.) There is no salvation for you under this covenant, but on a condition impossible to be performed by you. The justice of God must be satisfied for the wrong you have done already. God hath written this truth in characters of the blood of his own Son. Yea, and you must perfectly obey the Law for the time to come. So saith the Law, Gal. iii. 12, "The man that doth them, shall live in them." Come then, O sinner, see if thou canst make a ladder, whereby thou mayest reach the throne of God; stretch forth thine arms, and try if thou canst fly on the wings of the wind, catch hold of the clouds, and pierce through these visible heavens; and then either climb over, or break through the jasper walls of the city above. These things shalt thou do, as soon as thou shalt reach heaven in thy natural state or under this Covenant. (3.) There is no pardon under this covenant; pardon is the benefit of another covenant, with which thou hast nothing to do, Acts xiii. 39, "And by him, all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses." As for thee, thou art in the hand of a merciless creditor, who will take thee by the throat, saying, "Pay what thou owest," and cast thee into prison, there to remain till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing; unless thou be so wise as to get a sufficient cautioner for yourself in time, who is able to answer for all thy debt, and get up thy discharge. This Jesus Christ alone can do. Thou abidest under this Covenant, and pleadest mercy: but what is thy plea founded on? There is not one promise of

mercy or pardon in that Covenant. Dost thou plead mercy for mercy's sake? Justice will step in betwixt it and thee; and plead God's covenant-threatening, which he cannot deny. (4.) There is no place for repentance in this Covenant, so as the sinner can be helped by it. For as soon as ever thou sinnest, the Law lays its curse on thec, which is a dead weight thou canst by no means throw off; no, not though thine head were waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears, to weep day and night for thy sin. That is what the law cannot do, in that it is weak through the flesh, Rom. viii. 3. Now thou art another profane Esau, that hath sold the blessing; and there is no place for repentance, though thou seekest it carefully with tears, while under that Covenant. (5.) There is no accepting of the will for the deed, under this Covenant, which was not made for good will, but good works. The mistake in this point ruins many. They are not in Christ, but stand under the first covenant; and yet they will plead this privilege. This is just as if one having made a feast for those of his own family, when they sit down at table, another man's servant that has run away from his master, should presumptuously come forward and sit down amongst them: would not the master of the feast give such a stranger that check, "Friend, how camest thou in hither?" And since he is none of his family, command him to be gone quickly. Though a master accept the good will of his own child for the deed, can a hired servant expect that privilege? (6.) Ye have nothing to do with Christ, while under that Covenant. By the law of God, a woman cannot be married to two husbands at once: either death or divorce must dissolve the first marriage, ere she can marry another. So we must first be dead to the Law, ere we can he married to Christ, Rom. vii. 4. The Law is the first husband; Jesus Christ who raiseth the dead, marries the widow that was heart broken and slain by the first husband. But while the soul is in the house with the first husband, it cannot plead a marriage-relation to Christ; nor the benefits of a marriagecovenant, which is not yet entered into, Gal. v. 4. "Christ is become of no effect to you, whosoever of you are justified by the Law, ye are fallen from grace." Peace, pardon, and such like benefits, are all benefits of the covenant of grace. And ye must not think to stand off from Christ, and the marriage-covenant with him, and yet plead these benefits; more than one man's wife can plead the benefit of a contract of marriage past betwixt another man and his own wife. Lastly, See the bill of exclusion, passed in the court of heaven, against all under the covenant of works, Gal. iv. 30. "The son of the

bond-woman shall not be heir." Compare ver. 24. Heirs of wrath must not be heirs of glory. Whom the first covenant hath power to exclude out of heaven, the second covenant cannot bring into it.

Objection. Then it is impossible for us to be saved. Answer, It is so, while you are in that state. But if you would be out of that dreadful condition, hasten out of that state. If a murderer be under sentence of death; so long as he lives within the kingdom, the laws will reach his life; but if he can make his escape, and get over the sea, into the dominions of another prince, our laws cannot reach him there. This is what we would have you to do: flee out of the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of God's dear Son; out of the dominion of the Law, into the dominion of grace; then all the curses of the Law, or covenant of works, shall never be able to reach you.

The

MOTIVE 2. O ye children of wrath, your state is wretched, for ye have lost God, and that is an unspeakable loss, "Ye are without God in the world." Eph. ii. 12. Whatever you may call yours, you cannot call God yours. If we look to the earth, perhaps you can tell us, that land, that house, or that herd of cattle, is yours. But let us look upward to heaven, is that God, that grace, that glory yours? Truly, you have neither part nor lot in that matter. When Nebuchadnezzar talks of cities and kingdoms, O how big does he speak! "Great Babylon that I have built,-my power,-my majesty:" but he tells a poor tale when he comes to speak of God, saying, "Your God," Dan. ii. 47, and iv. 30. Alas! sinner, whatever thou hast, God is gone from thee. O the misery of a godless soul! Hast thou lost God? Then, (1.) The sap and substance of all that thou hast in the world, is gone. godless man, have what he will, is one that hath not, Matth. xxv. 29. I defy the unregenerate man to attain to soul satisfaction, whatever he possesseth, since God is not his God. All his days he eateth in darkness; in every condition, there is a secret dissatisfaction haunts his heart like a ghost; the soul wants something, though perhaps it knoweth not what it is; and so it will be always, till the soul return to God, the fountain of satisfaction. (2.) Thou canst do nothing to purpose for thyself; for God, is gone, his soul is departed from thee, Jer. vi. 8, like a leg out of joint hanging by, whereof a man hath no use, as the word there used doth bear. Losing God, thou has lost the fountain of good: and so, all grace, all goodness, all the saving influences of his Spirit. What canst thou do then? What fruit canst thou bring forth,