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stowed unspeakably greater mercies upon you: You refused to hear when God called; but yet God heard you when you called: You abused the infiniteness of God's mercy to encour age yourself in sin against God; but yet God has manifested the infiniteness of that mercy, in the exercises of it towards you: You have rejected Christ, and set him at nought; and yet he is become your Saviour: You have neglected your ●wn salvation; but God has not neglected it: You have destroyed yourself; but yet in God has been your help. God has magnified his free grace towards you, and not to others; because he has chosen you, and it hath pleased him to set hie love upon you.

O! what cause is here for praise? What obligations are upon you to bless the Lord, who hath dealt bountifully with you, and to magnify his holy name? What cause to praise him in humility to walk humbly before God; and to be conform ed to that in Ezek. xvi. 63: "That thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, be cause of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God!" You should nev er open your mouth in boasting, or selfjustification: You should lie the lower before God for his mercy to you. But you have reason, the more abundantly for your past sins, to open your mouth in God's praises, that they may be continu ally in your mouth, both here and to all eternity, for his rich unspeakable, and sovereign mercy to you, whereby he, and he alone, hath made you to differ from others,

SERMON IX.

The future Punishment of the Wicked unavoidable and intolerable.

EZEKIEL xxii. 14.

CAN THINE HEART ENDURE, OR CAN THINE HANDS BE STRONG IN THE DAYS THAT I SHALL DEAL WITH THEE? 3 THE LORD HAVE SPOKEN IT, AND WILL DO IT.

IN the former part of this chapter, we have a dreadful catalogue of the sins of Jerusalem; as you may see from the first to the thirteenth verse. In the thirteenth, which is the verse preceeding the text, God manifests his great displeasure and fearful wrath against them for those their iniquities. "Behold, I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee." The expression of God's smiting his hand, signifies the greatness of his anger, and his preparing himself, as it were to execute wrath answerable to their heinous crimes. It is an allusion to what we sometimes see in men when they are surprised, by seeing or hearing of some horrid offence, or most intolerable injury, which very much stirs their spirits, and animates them with high resentment; on such an occasion they will rise up in wrath and smite their hands together, as an expression of the heat of their indignation, and full resolution to be avenged on those who have committed the injury; as in chap. xxi, 17, "I will also smite Dated April 1741.

mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the Lord have said it."

Then, in the text, the punishment of that people is represented.

1. The nature of their punishment is more generally rep resented in that therein God will undertake to deal with them: God here threatens to deal with the sinners in Jerusalem. The prophets could do nothing with them. God had sent them one after another; but those sinners were too strong for them, and beat one, and killed another. God himself undertakes to deal with them.

Therefore now

2. Their punishment is more particularly represented in three things, viz. The intolerableness, the remedilessness, and the unavoidableness of it.

(1.) The intolerableness of it: Can thine heart endure?

(2.) The remedilessness, or the impossibility of their doing any thing for their own relief: Can thine hands be strong? (3.) The unavoidableness of it: Ithe Lord have spoken it, and will do it.

DOCTRINE.

Since God hath undertaken to deal with impenitent sinners, they shall neither shun the threatened misery, nor deliver themselves out of it, nor can they bear it.

In handling this doctrine, I shall, 1. Show what is impli ed in God's undertaking to deal with impenitent sinners. 2. That therefore they cannot avoid punishment. 3. That they cannot in any measure deliver themselves from it, or de any thing for their own relief under it. 4. That they cannot bear it. 5. I shall answer an inquiry; and then proceed to

the use.

I. I shall show what is implied in God's undertaking to deal with impenitent sinners.....Others are not able to deal with them. They baffle all the means used with them by those that are appointed to teach and to rule over them. They will not yield to parents, or to the counsels, warnings,

or reproofs of ministers: They prove obstinate and stiff hearted. Therefore God undertakes to deal with them..... This implies the following things:

1. That God will reckon with them, and take of them satisfaction to his justice. In this world God puts forth his authority to command them; and to require subjection to him. In his commands he is very positive, strictly requiring of them the performance of such and such duties, and as positively forbidding such and such things which were contrary to their duty. But they have no regard to these commands. God continues commanding, and they continue rebelling. They make nothing of God's authority. God threatens, but they despise his threatenings.....They make nothing of dishonoring God; they care not how much their behavior is to the dishonor of God. He offers them mercy, if they will repent and return; but they despise his mercy as well as his wrath. God calleth, but they refuse.....Thus they are continually plunging themselves deeper and deeper in debt, and at the same time imagine they shall escape the payment of the debt, and design entirely to rob God of his due.

But God hath undertaken to right himself. He will reckon with them; he hath undertaken to see that the debts due to him are paid. All their sins are written in his book; not one of them is forgotten, and every one must be paid. If God be wise enough, and strong enough, he will have full satisfaction: He will exact the very uttermost farthing. He undertakes it as his part, as what belongs to him, to see himself righted, wherein he hath been wronged. Deut. xxxii. 35. "To me belongeth vengeance." Ibid. vii. 10. "He will not be slack to him that hateth him; he will repay him to his face."

2. He hath undertaken to vindicate the honor of his Majes ty. His Majesty they despise. They hear that he is a great God; but they despise his greatness; they look upon him worthy of contempt, and treat him accordingly. They hear of him by the name of a great King; but his authority they regard not, and sometimes trample upon it for years together, VOL. VII.

2 Z

But God hath not left the honor of his Majesty wholly to their care. Though they now trample it in the dust, yet that is no sign that it will finally be lost. If God had left it wholly in their hands, it would indeed be lost. But God doth not leave his honor and his glory with his enemies; it is too precious in his eyes to be so neglected. He hath reserved the care of it to himself: He will see to it that his own injured Majesty is vindicated. If the honor of God, upon which sinners trample, finally lie in the dust, then it will be because he is not strong enough to vindicate himself. He hath sworn that great oath in Numb. xiv. 21. "As truly as I live, all the carth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord."

Sinners despise his Son, and trample him under their feet. But he will see, if he cannot make the glory of his Son appear, with respect to them; that all the earth may know how evil a thing it is to despise the Son of God.....God intends that all men and angels, all heaven and all earth, shall see whether he be sufficient to magnify himself upon sinners who now despise him. He intends that the issue of things with respect to them shall be open, that all men may see it.

3. He hath undertaken to subdue impenitent sinners. Their hearts while in this world are very unsubdued. They lift up their heads and conduct themselves very proudly and contemptuously, and often sin with an high hand. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues walk through the earth. They practically say as Pharaoh did, "Who is the Lord? I know not the Lord, neither will I obey his voice." Job xxi. 41. "They say to God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways."

Some, who cover their sin with specious show, who put on a face of religion, and a demure countenance and behavior, yet have this spirit secretly reigning in their breasts. Notwithstanding all their fair show, and good external carriage, they despise God in their hearts, and have the weapons of war about them, though they are secret enemies, and carry their swords under their skirts. They have most proud, stub-born, and rebellious hearts, which are ready to rise in opposi❤

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