like, and others that they greatly dislike; but consider him as he is, and as he is offered to them in the gospel, and they will not have him. They are not willing to accept of Christ as he is offered; for in doing so, they must of necessity part with all their sins; they must sell the world, and part with their own righteousness. But they are not willing to do that; they had rather, for the present, run the venture of going to hell than do that.

When men are truly willing to come to Christ, they are freely willing. It is not what they are forced and driven to by threatenings; but they are willing to come, and choose to come without being driven, But natural men have no such free willingness; but, on the contrary, have an aversion. And the ground of it is that which we have heard, viz. That they are enemies to God. Their having such a reigning enmity against God, makes them obstinately refuse to come to Christ. If a man is an enemy to God, he will necessarily be an enemy to Christ too; for Christ is the son of God; he is infinitely near to God, yea he is God. He has the nature of God, as well as the nature of man. He is a Saviour appointed of God. God anointed him, and sent him into the world. And in doing what he did in the work of redemption, he wrought the works of God. He always did those things that pleased God; and all that he does as a Saviour, is to the glory of God. And one great thing that he aimed at in his redemption, was to deliver them from their idols which they had chosen, and bring them to God, The case being so, and sinners being enemies to God, they will necessarily be opposite to coming to Christ; for Christ is of God, and as a Saviour, seeks to bring them to God only: But natural men are not of God, but are averse to him.

we may learn, how dreadful Their state is a state of en

Inf. III. From this doctrine the condition of natural men is. mity with God. If we consider what God is, and what men are, it will be easy for us to conclude, that such men as are God's enemies, must be miserable. Consider, ye that are enemies to God, how great a God he is that ye are enemies to, He is the eternal God: The God that fills heaven and earth,

and whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain. He is the God that made you; the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways; the God in whom you live, and move, and have your being; the God who has your soul and body in his hands every moment.

You would look on yourself as in very unhappy circumstances, if your neighbors were all your enemies, and none of your fellow creatures were your friends. If every body were set against you, and all despised and hated you, you would be ready to think, you had better be out of the world than in it. But if it be such a calamity to have enmity maintained between you and your fellow creatures, what is it when you and the Almighty God are enemies one to another? What avails either the friendship or enmity of your neighbor, poor little worms of the dust, that are about you, in comparison of the friendship or enmity of the great God of heaven and earth? Consider,

(1.) If you continue in your enmity a little longer there will be a mutual enmity between God and you to all eternity. God will appear to be your dreadful and irreconcilable enemy. And you know not how soon it will come to this. If you, should die an enemy to God, there will be no such thing as any reconciliation after death. God will then appear in hatred of you. As you are a mere enemy to God, so God will then appear a mere enemy to you; he will appear in perfect hatred without any love, and without any pity, and without any mercy at all. As you hate God, he will hate you. And that will be verified of you: My soul loathed them, and their soul abhorred me, Zech. xi. 8. And then God will be your enemy forever. If you be not reconciled so as to become his friend in this life, God never will become your friend after death. If you continue an enemy to God till death, God will continue an enemy to you to all eternity, There will nothing avail to reconcile God to you hereafter. You will find that you cannot move the heart of God by any of your cries. You will have no mediator offered you; there will be no day's man bewixt you. So that it becomes you to

consider what it will be to have God your enemy to all eterníty, without any possibility of being reconciled.

You are now a viper, sheep's clothing; but

Consider, what will it be to have this enmity to be mutual or maintained forever on both sides? For as God will forever continue an enemy to you, so you will forever continue an enemy to God. If you continue God's enemy until death, you will always be his enemy. And after death your enmity will have no restraint, but it will break out and rage without control. When you come to be a firebrand of hell, you will be a firebrand in two respects, viz. As you will be all on fire, full of the fire of God's wrath: And also as you will be all on a blaze with spite and malice towards God. You will be as full of the fire of malice, as you will with the fire of divine vengeance; and both will make you full of torment. Then you will appear as you are, a viper indeed. but under great disguise; a wolf in then your mask will be pulled off; you shall lose your garments, and walk naked, Rev. xvi. 15. Then will you as a serpent, spit poison at God, and vent your rage and malice in fearful blasphemies. Out of that mouth, out of which, when you open it, will proceed flames, will also proceed dreadful blasphemies against God. That same tongue, to cool which you will wish for a drop of water, will be eternally employed in cursing and blaspheming God and Christ. And that not from any new corruption being put into your heart, but only from God's withdrawing his hand from restraining your old corruption. And what a miserable way will this be of spending your eternity!

(2.) Consider what will be the consequence of a mutual enmity between God and you, if it be continued. Now you find yourself left alone; you find no very terrible event, but there will be great changes. Though hitherto you have met with no very great changes, yet they will come. After a little while, dying time will come; and then what will be the consequences of this enmity? God, whose enemy you are, has the frame of your body in his hands. Your times are in his hand; and he it is that appoints your bounds. And when he sends death to arrest you, and change your countenance, and

dissolve your frame, and take you away from all your earthly friends, and from all that is dear and pleasant to you in the world; what will be the issue then of God and you being enemies one to another? Will not you then stand in need of God's help? Would not he be the best friend in such a case, worth more than ten thousand earthly friends? If God be your enemy, then whom will you betake yourself to for a friend? When you launch forth into the boundless gulph of eternity, then you will need some friend to take care of you; but if God be your enemy, where will you betake yourself? Your soul must go naked into another world, in eternal separation from all worldly things; and you will not be able to dispose of yourself; your soul will not be in its own power to defend or dispose of itself. Will you not then need to have God for a friend, into whose hands you may commend your spirit? And how dreadful will it be to have God for your enemy then?

The time is coming when the frame of this world shall be dissolved. Christ shall descend in the clouds of heaven, in the glory of his Father; and you, with all the rest of mankind, must stand before the judgment seat of God. Then what will be the consequence of this mutual enmity between God and you! If God be your enemy, who will stand your friend? Who else will be able to help you, and what will you do? And what will be the event of God's being your enemy then? Now, it may be, it does not appear to be very terrible to you to have God for your enemy; but when such changes a these are brought to pass, it will greatly alter the appearance of things. Then God's favor will appear to you of infinite worth. They, and they only will then appear happy, who have the love of God; and then you will know that God's enemies are miserable.

But under this head, consider more particularly several things.

(1.) What God can do to his enemies. Or rather, what can he not do? How miserable can he, who is almighty, make his enemies, and those that he is an enemy to? Consider, you that are enemies to God, whether or no you shall be able to

make your part good with him. "Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he ?" 1 Cor. x. 22. Have you such a conceit of your own strength as that you think to try it out with God? Do you intend to run the risk of an encounter with him? Do you imagine that your hands can be strong, or your heart endure? Do you think you shall be well able to defend yourself? Or will you be able to escape out of his hand? Or do you think to harden your own heart and fortify yourself with courage, and set yourself to bear? And do you think that you shall be able to uphold your spirits when God acts as an enemy towards you? If so, then gird up your loins and prepare to meet God and see what the event will be. Therefore thus will I do unto thee...." And because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God...' Amos iv. 12. Is it not in vain to set the briars and thorns in battle against God? Is it not like setting dry briars and thorns in battle array against devouring flames; which, though they seem to be armed with natural weapons, yet the fire will pass through them, and burn them together? See Isa, xxvii. 4.

And if you endeavor to support yourself under God's wrath, cannot God lay so much upon you as to sink and crush you ? Cannot he lay you under such misery as to cause your spirit quite to fail; so that you shall find no strength to resist him, or to uphold yourself? Why should a little worm think of supporting himself against an omnipotent adversary? Has not he that made you, and gave you your strength, and your courage, got your strength and courage in his hands? Is it an hard thing for him to overcome it? Consider God has made your soul; and he that made it knows how to punish it to what degree he will. He can fill it with misery; he can bring what degree of sorrow, and anguish, and horror he will. And he that made your body can bring what torments he will upon it. He has made every vein and sinew; and has every one in his hands, and he can fill every one as full of torments as he will. God, who made you, has given you a capacity to bear torment; and he has that capacity in his hands; and he can enlarge it, and make you capable of more misery, as much more as he will. If God hates any one, and sets himself