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to hell; and not a few others have gone the fame way. Nay, [3.] I fay to you if ye fhall be damned, all these advantages will be witneffes against you. Your fathers devoted you to God, but ye devoted yourselves to Satan; your fathers prayed for you, but ye prayed not for yourfelves. Thefe and many fuch will come in against you, as aggravations of your fin, and will eternally aggravate your mifery. [4.] Therefore ye are called to work out your falvation with fear and trembling. Since, if ye be ruined, ye must be fo with a witness; if ye go to hell, it must be a hotter hell; therefore improve vigouroudly the advantages put in your hand. Refolve with Mofes, Exod. XV. 2. "He is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; he is my father's God, and I will exalt him." [5.] Pay a double respect to your believing parents. Ye owe them much as your parents, much as believers, much as in Christ before you, and much as inftruments made ufe of by God in promoting your eternal well-being. [6.] Take care that ye turn not afide out of their way; fince this will prove eminently prejudicial, not only to yourselves, but to your pofterity. In fine, I fay to you, if ye trace your parents' fteps, ye shall attain their bleffing, even the end of your faith, the falvation of your fouls.

3dly, I have a few words from this head to say to unbelieving parents. Ye are miferable yourfelves; for he that believeth not “is condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him." Ye entail as many disadvan tages upon your pofterity, as believers tranfmit advanta ges to theirs; ye deprive them of many means which they might enjoy, ye ruin them by your example, ye provoke God against your families in fine, ye do what in you lies to ruin them eternally; fo that, not only your own blood, but the blood of their fouls, will God require at your hands. Therefore, as ye tender their eternal advantage, as ye tender your own, believe in the Lord Jefus Chrift.

4thly, I have a few words to fay to the children of ir, religious parents, and then 1 fhall proceed. Ye are at a great lofs indeed by your parents' infidelity and impiety: yet it is not an irreparable one; for the door is open to you, and ye are called to enter in. The promise of falvation is not only to believers, and to their children, but

it is to "all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God fhall call." A&s ii. 39. Therefore lay hold upon the advantage that ye have of mercy offered to you upon the gospel terms. See that ye believe in the Lord Jefus. Be very thankful to God, and admire the riches of his undeferved kindnefs, in having a regard to you, and calling you notwithstanding your own iniquities, and the iniqui ty of your fathers. Take care that ye tranfmit not thefe inconveniences, that ye yourselves lie under, to your pofterity. And, if ever the Lord do you good, feek by all means the falvation of your parents; and if ye obtain not an answer of peace with refpect to them, then I can affure you, your prayers fhall return into your own bofom, and fo ye fhall be no lofers.

Thus far have we profecuted the last clause of the verse, to which we defign not to return again; we fhall now proceed to that which is our principal defign, in the discovery of Jefus Chrift, as the only relief of finners, as the only one that can effectually quiet the confcience of an awakened finner.

We have fufficiently explained the words already; that. which I shall now infift upon at fome length from them, is expreffed in the following doctrine.

DOCT." An awakened finner, betaking himself to, or believing in the Lord Jefus Chrift, shall be saved."

I think there is no need of any proof of the doctrine, it lies fo plain in the words, and is fo frequently afferted in the fcripture, that one fhall fcarce look into the book of God, but he fhall find fome one proof or other of this truth. In the profecution of this doctrine, we shall, if the Lord will, follow this method:

I. We shall tell you who this convinced finner is, of whom we speak in the doctrine.

II. We fall offer you fome account of the Lord Jefus, in whom he is to believe.

III. We shall shortly explain several scripture-expreffions which point out this duty, that from them we may understand something of its nature; and then,

IV. We shall hold forth the nature of this faith in a

few

few particulars, which may receive light from the former general head.

V. We fhall inquire, what that falvation is which they shall have who believe in the Lord Jefus Christ?

VI. We fhall offer fome evidences of the truth of the doârine, and then apply the whole, If the Lord allow time, and opportunty, and strength.

I. We begin with the first of these, which is to how who this convinced finner is, that shall obtain falvation on his believing in the Lord Jefus Chrift. I fall offer you his character in the few following particulars, in as far as we think it needful for our present design; for that it is in fome measure requifite, is plain, fince none can be faved but such as believe, and none can believe but convinced and awakened finners. Take then the character of fuch an one, thus:

First, He is an ungodly man. It is only fuch as are ungodly who are faved by believing in Jefus: "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him who justifieth the ungodly, is his faith counted for righteoufnefs," Rom. iv. 5. Perfons who are not ungodly have no need of Jefus; and perfons who fee not themfelves to be fuch will never look after him.

Secondly, He is one that fees himself, upon this account, obnoxious to the judgment of God, even that righteous judicial fentence, that he who committeth fin is worthy of death. He fees himself lying open to the curfe of the law, to the death it threatens against finners. When the law fays, "The foul that fins fhall die," the finner hears his own doom in that fentence, because he fees his name in the fentence. The fentence is against the foul that fins, and this he knows to be his very name.

Thirdly, He is a felf-condemned man. He not only hears God paffing fentence against him, but he paffeth fentence against himself. Thus it is with every convinced finner: he is as fevere to himself as God, or the law of God, can be: whatever thefe charge them with, all that he takes with whatever they determine to be done against him, he writes down under it, Just; the Lord is righteous, for I have offended.

Fourthly He is one that has his mouth ftopped, as the

apoftle

apoftle fpeaks, Rom. iii. 16. He has finned, and he is fenfible that there is no hiding of it. He is guilty, and there is no excufe. He is every way fhut up under fin, as the word properly fignifies, Gal. iii. 22. "The fcripture. hath concluded all under fin ;" that is, according to the force of the word, the fcripture hath every way shut up, or shut in, all under fin," that the promife by faith of Jefus Chrift might be given to them that believe." In one word, he is a criminal, that has got fuch a fight of his crime, that he dare neither deny it, nor endeavour to hide it, nor extenuate it, but fubfcribes to the truth of all that the law of God and his own confcience charge him with. As for the fentence paffed against him, he fabfcribes it juft: he knows that he cannot flee from it, nor is able to undergo it. He is an enemy to God, brought to fuch a strait, that he is able neither to fight nor flee. And when he looks to himself, and all those things he once laid fome weight upon, he sees no profpect of relief. Such an one is the convinced finner we speak of; and fuch of you as never were brought to this pass, never did believe on the Lord Jefus Chrift. This being once cleared, we proceed now,

II. To give some account of the Lord Jefus Christ, on whom he is called to believe. Here ye are not to expect a full account of Chrift; this none can give; nor fhall I at large infist on what may be known of him, but only glance at a few things, which fuit the cafe of the convinced inner, of whom we have just now been speaking. And this we shall do in a few particulars.

First, The Lord Jefus Chrift, on whom we are bid believe, is, "Immanuel, God with us," God in our nature, God-man in one perfon." In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And the Word that in the beginning was with God, and was God, in the fulness of time "was made flesh, and dwelt among men upon earth, who did behold his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." This the apostle John doth evince at great length; this he exprfsly teaches, in the firft chapter of his Gospel, and the first fourteen or fifteen verses of it. Now, this difcovery of Chrift is extremely encouraging to a finBer who is under the deep conviction of fin, as was the

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jailor in the text. If ye tell fuch an one, when he cries out with him, What must I do to be faved? Go, believe on God, it would give him no relief, for all his fears are from God; it is deftruction from God that is his terror. He fees the holiness, the truth, the wifdom, and justice of God, all breathing out threatenings against him. Holinels cannot look upon an impure fnner. The truth of God has become furety for his deftruction; the justice of God pleads it reasonable that the finner fhould be punished, and thereby evil taken away, God's honour, and the honour of his law repaired; and wisdom is fo deeply interested in every one of these claims, that it feems to join with them. Hence it is that the finner is horridly afraid of God. So far would he be from looking toward him, that, like Adam, he would flee from him, and endeavour to hide himself. What would fuch a poor trembiing finner reply unto any who fhould bid him believe in God Shall I believe on him who threatens me with deftruction, on him, all whofe attributes confpire, and that moft justly, my everlasting deftruction? He has told me already what I am to expect at his hand, even fure and inevitable death: "In the day thou eatest thou shalt furely die." This God is a confuming fire, and I am as ftubble before him. On the other hand, tell fuch a convinced finner of a man, a mere man, and bid him look to him for relief; this at first blufh appears utterly vain. What! are not all men involved in the fame calamity with me are they not unable to fave themfelves? What! is man able to fuftain the weight of that heavy stroke of wrath, which enraged Omnipotency is ready to lay on? Thus it appears, neither mere God, nor mere man, is fuited to give relief to the finner of whom we speak; but God and man united into one appears exceedingly fuited to give him relief. There are three things which an awakened finner will fee, at the first view, in the perfon of Chrift. (1.) He will fee him to be one that may be approached by him. When one is made fenfible of his own finfulnefs, fo far will he be from defiring a fight of God, that he will rather faint at the thoughts of it, fince he dreads he cannot fee him and live. Nay, fuch is the weakness of man fince the fall, that the fight even of a created angel has made fome of the moft eminent faints exceedingly afraid, as we

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