The words of the text are not directly and immediately addreffed to you; yet they contain matter of inftruction, conviction, admonition and exhortation to you; to which it is of the greatest importance that you fhould attend.

You are here taught your finful, depraved, undone ftate; that you are fo under the dominion of evil propenfities, that you will not be perfuaded and difpofed to exercise one right volition or thought, unless God work it in you by his good Spirit; to do which he is under no obligation, and you are conftantly provoking him not to do it, but to give you up to eternal deftruction. Here you have fet before you your guilt, mifery and danger in a moft clear and affecting light. At the fame time you are taught that your neglect of falvation, and all that moral depravity, in the exercife of which you are finning against Christ, and running into ruin, is your own inexcufable, aggravated wickedness, of which you are continually guilty, and is enough to fink you down to the deepeft hell; and will certainly do it, unlefs God fhall exercife fovereign mercy to you, and you repent and turn, and are willing to work out your own falvation with fear and trembling.

And as your oppofition of heart to this, and even the neglect of this falvation, is altogether your own fault, for which you have no excufe, confifting in your own inclination and choice, heaven and all the bleffings of it are opened and freely offered to your acceptance, and you are invited, exhorted and commanded to work out your own falvation with fear and trembling, having a promise that in this way you fhall certainly be faved.

All this is fet before you and urged upon you in the difcourfes on this fubject which you have heard. Your attention to thefe truths is therefore demanded by all the authority of heaven. And you are required heartily to receive and comply with them, and thus to lay hold on eternal life, which is now fet before you and of fered to you as really as to any one elfe. Therefore if you perifh, it will be by your own inexcufable and

I i

greatly

greatly aggravated fault. Thefe truths are infinitely important and interefting to you; for you will be forever happy or miferable, accordingly as you cordially embrace or reject them.

Say not, "I am not elected, and therefore cannot be faved, let me do what I will, as the decrees of God are against me." This is horrid prefumption, for you to meddle with and pretend to determine that which is fecret, and act upon it. Befides, it is revealed and certain that if you perifh you will perifh as really and as much by your own inexcufable fault, as if there were no decree of God concerning you. This plea and excufe will appear to be vain and unreafonable, when the truth comes to light; and that it proceeded from a heart full of enmity against God; and being filenced it will ferve to aggravate the deftruction of those who make it. Oh! of what infinite importance then is it to you, that you fhould wholly lay it aside before it is

too late!

Do not entertain the thought that you cannot embrace the gofpel and work out your own falvation, and imagine that this is a good excufe for your not doing it. For this is taking upon you the character of the flothful fervant, who thought to excufe himself for neglecting the right improvement of the talent which was committed to him, by faying, "Lord, I knew thee, that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou haft not fown, and gathering where thou haft not ftrawed.” there ever was or can be a perfon of the character which Jefus here defcribes, thou art the man, and your excufe will be turned against you, and you will meet with the doom pronounced on fuch a fervant : "Caft ye the unprofitable fervant into outer darkness there fhall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

If

It is true that you are under an inability to do any thing by which you fhall be faved, which has been explained as confifting in the finful inclinations of your own heart; and you depend entirely on God for a new heart, and he will give fuch an heart, or not, according

to

you

to his good pleasure; and will determine whether fhall be faved or not. But it has been fully fhewn that this kind of inability is fo far from being an excufe for not doing, that it is the very thing wherein the finner's criminality and blame confist; and to make this an excufe for not doing implies a great degree of ftupidity and perverfenefs, and is replying againft God, in the fame manner that the flothful fervant is reprefented to do.

Do not give yourselves up to floth and indifference in religion, and indulge your evil inclinations, in neglect of all concern about the falvation of your foul, because you think this is already determined by God, and you cannot alter the cafe, therefore you will not trouble yourself about it. This is the certain way to determine that you never fhall be faved, and are going in the way to deftruction; for this is the certain way to perish forever, if you persist in it, as none can go to heaven in this careless way.

Befides, fuch a conclufion and practice is moft unreasonable, and muft proceed from amazing blindness and ftupidity. It is a difpofition of mind which is condemned as an evidence of the greateft ftupidity and fottishness by all who exercife any reafon and common fenfe, in temporal concerns. If a man be accufed of a capital crime, and is to be tried in a day or two, when it will be determined whether he shall be put to death or not, and fuch a man fhould appear to be perfectly unconcerned about himself and the iffue of the cafe' with refpect to him, who could be found to juftify him in this? Would not all join to condemn him as an unreasonable stupid man? Or fhould a perfon be condemned to death, for fome crime, and the day of his execution be fixed; could he be perfectly unconcerned and easy about his cafe and fate even till the moment of execution came? If this were poffible, and fuch an inftance fhould be known, all would cry out on him, as funk below the reafon, fenfibility and feelings of a man, being as thoughtless and stupid as a beast. as a beaft. How. much

much more unreasonable, infenfible and ftupid muft he be, who is upon the verge of eternity, and it must foon be determined whether he fhall be unfpeakably happy, or beyond all conception miserable forever, and yet has no concern about the matter, but is trifling away his time in carelessnefs about his eternal intereft, and vain amufements! This is an inftance of stupidity, fottishness, phrenzy or madnefs, which cannot be defcribed!

Do not therefore give way to fuch unreasonableness, ftupidity and infatuation, as to spend your time and ftrength in care and exertions about temporal things, while you neglect the utmoft, conftant attention to, and highest concern about, those infinitely important and weighty matters, which hang upon every moment of your lives.

Do not entertain fo good an opinion of yourselves as to think you are willing to be Christians, and that the reafon why you are not, is not the want of a willingness to embrace the gofpel, and because you will not come to Chrift for falvation; but from fome other caufe, for which you are not blameable.

Many who are under fome concern about the falvation of their fouls, fall into this delufion, and think they are willing to come to Chrift and be Chriftians if Chrift were willing to receive them. Such are ignorant of their own hearts, and have no trus idea of that which is implied in being a Chriftian; and really charge Jefus Chrift and the gofpel with falfehood; for in that he declares that whofoever will may come and be faved. In this way they overlook the true reafon why they are not Chriftians, and fhut their eyes to their own true character, guilt and odiousness. It is of the greatest importance that this delufion fhould be removed.

Do not attempt to evade all conviction of the truth, and concern about your falvation, by flattering yourfelves that you are in no prefent danger of deftruction, and you fhall have time enough hereafter to obtain falvation, though you neglect it now. Remember that you have no fecurity from falling into hell one moment;

and

and the voice of God and of reafon to you is," Make hafte! Efcape for thy life, left thou be deftroyed

And do not indulge a thought of your own fuffi ciency and moral ftrength to work out your own falvation, unless God work in you to will and do. Many are fo ignorant of themfelves, and of the work of a Chrif tian, as to imagine they are fufficient to begin and go through the work, without feeling their dependence on God. And they think they are truly religious, and working out their own falvation, while they are only gratifying their own felfifhnefs and pride, and are in the fight of God abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate..

There are others who are fo confident of their own independent fufficiency to help and fave themselves, when they fhall fet about it in earneft, that by this confidence in themselves they are led to indulge in neglect of religion, and carnal fecurity, for the prefent; and by this delufion many are faftened down in floth and neg, lect of their fouls, till it is eternally too late. Could they be perfuaded to try their fuppofed ftrength in earnest, there would be hope that they would be convinced of their delufion; as many have been in this way thorough ly convinced and humbled. But fo long as they cannot be awakened and roufed to try their boafted ftrength, they are like to remain in the fatal delufion."

It is of infinite importance to you that you do not," on the one hand, prefume upon our own ftrength and fufficiency to work out your own falvation, and, trufting in yourselves that you are righteous, depend upon obtaining falvation by your own righteousness, or, on/ this prefumption of your own fufficiency, live in cafe and fecurity, at prefent, in the indulgence of your own corrupt inclinations, depending on yourfelves for ftrength and help when it fhall be neceffary for you to be religious to escape deftruction; or that you do not, on the other hand, live in eafe and the neglect of falvation, from the confideration of your depravity and inability to fave yourselves, and your dependence on God for