purchase. You give God nothing as a valuable price for his mercy, but you throw away the sin that is inconsistent with your happiness. Still I shall tell you, you may have Christ if you will. Pleasures and profits are flattering you to your destruction, and God calls you from them, and offereth you his Son and everlasting life, and entreateth you to accept them. And here you have your choice. The offer is, "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely;" Rev. xxii. 17. And if you will but choose that happiness that is offered you, and Christ the way to that happiness, all the world cannot bereave you of your choice. It is brought to your hand and urged on you. You have now your choice, whether you will have Christ or the flesh, grace or sin, heaven or hell. As you choose, so you shall have. And if you miss of life, it will be because you did not choose it. Even because you" would not come to Christ that might have life" (John v. 40.), and "would not have him to rule over you" (Luke xix. 27.), and "would not have the Lord indeed for your God" (Psal. lxxxi. 11.), and "did not choose the fear of the Lord" (Prov. i. 29.); yea, when "Christ would have gathered you, would not be gathered;" Matt. xxiii. 37. It is this "turning away of the simple that doth slay them, because they refuse when Christ calls them, and regard not when he stretcheth forth his hand, but set at naught his counsel, and will have none of his reproof;" Prov. i. 24, 25.32. See therefore that you refuse not him that speaketh; for if you turn away from him that speaks from heaven, and neglect or make light of so great salvation, how do you think it possible you should escape? Heb. xii. 25. ii. 3. Matt. xxii. 5.

you

But perhaps some of you will think to excuse yourselves for want of freewill, and say,' How is it in our choice, when God must give us to will and to do? and we can do nothing of ourselves? Have we freewill or power to choose the better part? You must not set up the power or will of man too

high.'

Answ. No; it is you that would set up your wills too high, in making us believe that you are not wilfully ungodly and impenitent, but omit all the good, and do all the evil that you do, because you cannot help it. You cannot but know that he is the sinner to be blamed and punished, that can and will not, rather than he that would but cannot do

good, and forbear the contrary. You know that it is wilfulness, and not unwilling impotency that the venom of malice and naughtiness lieth in; and therefore you are excusing your wills, and laying all upon your impotency, which is but to excuse your faults. I would make you know the baseness of your wills, and that it is long of your badness that you are like to be undone, if grace prevent it not by your thorough conversion. I do not say that you have any power but what you have from God; but I say you have the natural and legal power, and more than power, even a grant and offer of such a mercy from God. You have human faculties, and leave, and offers, and entreaties; and you may have Christ and life as he is offered if you will. When I say it is in your choice, I do not say that you have the wit or the heart to make a right choice. No; if you had but so much wit and grace, I need not use all these words to you to persuade you to choose the better part. Your wills are free from any force that God puts upon them to determine them to sin; or from any force that satan or any enemy you have can use to determine them to sin. All they can do is morally to entice you. God doth not make you sin. If you choose your death, and forsake your own mercy, it is not God that determineth your wills to make this choice. Yea, he commandeth, and persuadeth, and urgeth you to make a better choice. And though satan tempt you, he can do no more. You have so much power, that you may have Christ if you will. You cannot say, I am truly willing to have Christ, and cannot. Thus much freewill undoubtedly you have.

But I must confess that your wills are not free from the misguiding of a blinded mind, nor from the seduction of a sensual inclination; nor from a base and wicked disposition of your own. This kind of freewill you shew us that you have not. But is your wickedness your excuse? and is your wilfulness your innocency? What then can be culpable?

Sirs, I would not have you abuse God, and befool yourselves with names and words, saying, you have not power and freewill, as if you might thus excuse your sin. I have opened the matter in plain terms to you, that children may understand it, though learned men have endeavoured to obscure it. God giveth you your choice, though your own

wickedness do hinder you from choosing aright. You have a price in your hands, but fools have not a heart to their own good; Prov. xvii. 16. I know that you want both wisdom and a sanctified will; and I know that your minds and wills are contrarily disposed. You need not tell me that you are wilful and wicked, when there must be so many words spoken, and so many books written, and so much mercy and patience of God, and so many afflictions from his hand, and all will not serve to make you choose the better part. But if you were willing, if you were truly willing, the principal part of the work were done. For if you are willing, Christ is willing; and if Christ be willing, and you be willing, what can hinder your salvation?

Having laid this groundwork from the plain word of God, methinks I may with this advantage now plead the case, even with common reason. One thing is needful; the good part is that one; and this is tendered to you by the Lord. What is it then that you do make choice of? and what do you resolve? May you have Christ, and pardon, and everlasting life, and will you not have them? Shall it be said of you another day, that you had your choice, whether you would have Christ and life, or sin and death; and you chose destruction and refused life? I beseech thee, reader, whosoever thou art that readest these lines, that thou wouldst a little turn thine ears to God, and withdraw thyself from the delusions of the flesh and world, and use thy reason for thy everlasting peace; and consider with thyself what a dreadful thing it will be, if thou be everlastingly shut out of the presence of God, upon thy own choice? And if thou lose thy part in Christ, and pardon, and everlasting glory upon thy own choice. And if thou must lie in hellfire, and conscience must tell thee there for ever, Thou hast but the fruit of thine own choice. Heaven was set open to me as well as others. I had life, and time, and teaching, and persuasions as well as others; but I chose the pleasure of sin for a season, though I was told and assured that hell would follow; and now I have that which I made choice of, and taste but the fruit of my own wilfulness! Will not such gripes of conscience be a hellish torment of themselves, and an intolerable vexation, if thou hadst no more? Had you rather have sin, than Christ and holiness? Alas, I see by your lives you had! But had you rather have hell than

God and glory? If not, then choose not the way to hell. Why do you give God such good words, and prefer your sin when you have done, before him? Why do you speak so well of Christ and heaven, and yet refuse them? Why do you speak so ill of sin and hell, and yet choose them to the loss of your salvation? Surely if you were soundly persuaded that Christ is better than the world, and holiness than sin, you would choose that which you say is the best. For that which men think indeed to be the best, and best for them, they will choose and seek after. And therefore, when you have said all that you can in commendation of grace and a holy life, no wise men will believe that you are heartily persuaded of the truth of what you say, as long as you run away from Christ, and follow the flesh, and take that course that is contrary to your profession. For that which you like best you will certainly choose and seek with the greatest care and diligence. Now you have your choice; if you would have the better part, now choose it.

5. I have one other motive yet from the text to persuade you to choose the better part. If you choose it, it shall never be taken from you. You hear this is the resolution of Christ himself concerning Mary's choice, and that which is spoken of her will be as true of you, if you make the same choice. If all the enemies you have in the world should endeavour to deprive you of Christ and your salvation, they cannot do it against your choice. If by power or by policy they would rob you of your portion, they cannot do it. For which way should they do it? They cannot turn the heart of God against you, nor make him break his covenant with you, nor repent him of his gift and calling which he hath extended to you. For he is unchangeable, and loveth you with an everlasting love; Mal. iii. 6. Jer. xxxi.3. Isa. liv. 8. Jer. xxxiii. 20, 21. 23. 1.5. Rom. xi. 29. They cannot undermine the rock that you are built upon, nor batter the fortress of your souls, nor overcome your great Preserver and defence, nor take you out of the hands of Christ; Psal. lxxiii. 26. xxxi. 2, 3. lxii. 2. lix. 9. 16. John x. 28. Cast not away the salvation that is offered you, and then never fear lest it be taken from you. See that you choose the better part, and resolvedly choose it, and it will be certainly your own for ever. For man cannot take it from nor devils cannot take it from you, and God will not take it

you,

from you. Rust and moths will not corrupt this treasure ; nor can thieves break through and steal it from you; Matt. vi. 19, 20.

But you cannot say so of worldly riches. If you choose to be lords and princes on the earth, you cannot have your choice; but if you could, you cannot keep it. If you choose the wealth and credit of the world, and were sure to get it, you were as sure to leave it. For naked you came into the world, and naked you must go out; Job i. 21. If you choose your ease, and mirth, and pleasure, these will be taken from you. If you choose the satisfying of your fleshly desires, and all the delight and prosperity that the world can afford you, yet all must be taken from you, yea quickly and easily taken from you. Alas! one stroke of an apoplexy, or a few fits of a fever, or the breaking of a small vein, or many hundred of the like effectual means, are ready at the beck of God, to take you from all that you have gathered for your flesh. And then whose shall all these things be? None of yours I am sure, nor will they redeem your souls from death or hell; Luke xii. 20. Psal. xlix. 7. If you be in honour, you abide not in it, but are (as to your body) as the beasts that perish. If you think to perpetuate your houses and your names, this your way is but your folly, though your posterity go on to approve your sayings, and succeed you in your sins; Psal. xlix. 11-13. "The worldly wise man doth perish with the fool as sheep they are laid in the grave. Death shall feed on him, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;" ver. 10. 14. "They shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb;" Psal. xxxvii. 2. "I have seen the wicked in great prosperity, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree; yet he passed away, and lo he was not; yea, I sought him, but he could not be found;" ver. 35, 36.

You think it a fine thing to have the fulness of the creature, to be esteemed with the highest, and fed and clothed with the best, and fare deliciously every day, as the rich man, Luke xvi. But hath he not paid dear, think you for his riches and pleasure by this time? His feeding and fulness was quickly at an end; but his torment is not yet ended, nor ever will be. You think it a brave thing to clamber up to riches, and that which you call greatness and honour in the world; but how quickly, how terribly must you come