you have done already. God has written this truth in characters of the blood of his own Son. Yea, and you must perfectly obey the law for the time to come. So says the law, Gal. iii. 12, "The man that doth them, shall live in them." Come then, O sinner! see if thou canst make a ladder, whereby thou mayest reach the throne of God: stretch forth thine arms, and try if thou canst fly on the wings of the wind, catch hold of the clouds, and pierce through these visible heavens: and then either climb over, or break through, the jasper walls of the city above. These things thou mayest do, as well as be able to reach heaven in thy natural state. under this covenant. 3. There is no pardon under this covenant. Pardon is the benefit of another covenant, with which thou hast nothing to do, Acts xiii. 39, " By him, all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." As for thee, thou art in the hands of a merciless creditor, who will take thee by the throat, saying, "Pay what thou owest;" and cast thee into prison, there to remain till thou hast paid the utmost farthing: unless thou be so wise as to get a surety in time, who is able to answer for all thy debt, and get up thy discharge. This Jesus Christ alone can do. Thou abidest under this covenant, and pleadest mercy; but what is thy plea founded on? There is not one promise of mercy or pardon in that covenant. Dost thou plead mercy for mercy's sake? Justice will step in between it and thee, and plead God's covenant threatening, which he cannot deny. 4. There is no place for repentance in this covenant, so as the sinner can be helped by it. For as soon as ever thou sinnest, the law lays its curse on thee, which is a dead weight thou canst by no means throw off; no, not though thine "head were waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears, to weep day and night" for thy sin. That is what the law cannot do, in that it is "weak through the flesh," Rom. vii. 3. You are another profane Esau, that has sold the blessing; and there is no place for repentance, though you seek it carefully with tears, while under the covenant. 5. There is no acceptance of the will for the deed under this covenant, which was not made for good will, but good works. The mistake in this point. ruins many. They are not in Christ, but stand under the first covenant; and yet they will plead this privilege. This is just like a man having made a feast for those of his own family, and when they sit down at table, another man's servant, that has run away from his master, presumptuously comes forward and sits down among them would not the master of the feast give such a stranger that check, "Friend, how comest thou in hither?" and since he is none of his family, commanded him to be gone quickly. Though a mas

ter accept the good-will of his own child for the deed, can a hired servant expect that privilege? 6. You have nothing to do with Christ while under that covenant. By the law of God, a woman cannot be married to two husbands at once: either death or divorce must dissolve the first marriage, ere she can marry another. So we must first be dead to the law, ere we can be married to Christ, Rom. vii. 4. The law is the first husband; Jesus Christ, who raises the dead, marries the widow, that was heartbroken, and slain by the first husband. But while the soul is in the house with the first husband, it cannot plead a marriage relation to Christ; nor the benefits of a marriage covenant, which is not yet entered into, Gal. v. 4, "Christ is become of no effect to you; whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace." Peace, pardon, and such like benefits, are all benefits of the covenant of grace. You must not think to stand off from Christ, and the marriage covenant with him, and yet plead these benefits, any more than one man's wife can plead the benefit of a contract of marriage past between another man and his wife. 7. See the bill of exclusion, passed in the court of Heaven, against all under the covenant of works, Gal. iv. 30, "The son of the bond-woman shall not be heir." Compare ver. 24. Heirs of wrath must not be heirs of glory. Whom the first covenant hath power to exclude out of heaven, the second covenant cannot bring into it.

Objection. Then it is impossible for us to be saved. Ans. It is so while you are in that state; but if you would be out of that dreadful condition hasten out of that state. If a murderer be under sentence of death, so long as he lives within the kingdom, the laws will reach his life; but if he can make his escape, and get over the sea, into the dominions of another prince, our laws cannot reach him there. This is what we would have you to do; flee out of the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of God's dear Son; out of the dominion of the law, into the dominion of grace: then all the curses of the law, or covenant of works, shall never be able to reach you.

Motive 2. O ye children of wrath, your state is wretched, for you have lost God, and that is an unspeakable loss. You are without God in the world, Eph. ii. 12. Whatever you may call yours, you cannot call God yours. If we look to the earth, perhaps you can tell us, that land, that house, or that herd of cattle, is yours. But let us look upward to heaven; is that God, that grace, that glory, yours? Truly, you have neither part no lot in this matter. When Nebuchadnezzar talks of cities and kingdoms, O how big does he speak ! "Great Babylon, that I have

built-my power-my majesty;" but he tells a poor tale, when he comes to speak of God, saying, "Your God," Dan. ii. 47, and iv. 30. Alas, sinner! whatever thou hast, God is gone from thee. O the misery of a godless soul! Hast thou lost God? Then, 1. The sap and substance of all thou hast in the world is gone. The godless man, have what he will, is one that hath not, Matt. xxv. 29. I defy the unregenerate man to attain to soul satisfaction, whatever he possesseth, since God is not his God. All his days he eats in darkness: in every condition there is a secret dissatisfaction haunts his heart, like a ghost: the soul wants something though perhaps it knows not what; and so it will be always, till the soul return to God, the fountain of satisfaction. 2. Thou canst do nothing to purpose for thyself; for God is gone, his soul is departed from thee, Jer. vi. 8, like a leg out of joint hanging by, whereof a man has no use, as the word there used signifies. Losing God, thou hast lost the fountain of good; and so all grace, all goodness, all the saving influences of his Spirit. What canst thou do then? What fruit canst thou bring forth, more than a branch cut off from the stock? John xv. 5. Thou art become unprofitable, Rom. iii. 12, as a filthy rotten thing, fit only for the dunghill. 3. Death has come up into thy windows, yea, and has settled on thy face; for God, in whose favour life is, Psalm xxx. 5, is gone from thee, and so the life of thy soul is departed. What a loathsome lump is the body, when the soul is gone! Far more loathsome is thy soul in this case. Thou art dead while thou livest. Do not deny it, seeing thy speech is laid, thine eyes closed, and all spiritual motion in thee ceased. Thy true friends who see thy case, lament, because thou art gone into the land of silence. 4. Thou hast not a steady friend amongst all the creatures of God; for now that thou hast lost the master's favour, all the family is set against thee. Conscience is thine enemy the word never speaks good of thee: God's people loathe so far as they see what thou art, Psalm xv. 4. The beasts and stones of the field are banded together against thee, Job v. 23; Hos. ii. 18. Thy meat, drink, and clothes, grudge being serviceable to the wretch that has lost God, and abuseth them to his dishonour. The earth groans under thee; yea, "the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together," because of thee, and such as thou art, Rom. viii. 22. Heaven will have nothing to do with thee; for "there shall in no wise enter into it, any thing that defileth," Rev. xxi. 27. Only "hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming," Isa. xiv. 9. 5. Thy hell is begun already. What makes hell, but exclusion from the presence of God? "Depart from me, ye cursed." You are gone from God already, with the

curse upon you. That which is now your choice, shall be your punishment at length, if you turn not. As a gracious state is a state of glory in the bud; so a graceless state is hell in the bud, which, if it continue, will come at length to perfection.

Motive 3. Consider the dreadful instances of the wrath of God; and let them serve to awaken thee to flee out of this state. Consider 1. How it is fallen on men. Even in this world, many have been set up as monuments of Divine vengeance, that others might fear. Wrath has swept away multitudes, who have fallen together by the hand of an angry God. Consider how the Lord "spared not the old world-bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly: And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly," 2 Pet. ii. 5, 6. But it is yet more dreadful to think of that weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, amongst those who in hell lift up their eyes, but cannot get a drop of water to cool their tongues. Believe these things and be warned by them, lest destruction come upon thee, for a warning to others. 2. Consider how wrath fell upon the fallen angels, whose case is absolutely hopeless. They were the first that ventured to break the hedge of the Divine law; and God set them up for monuments of his wrath against sin. They once "left their own habitation," and were never allowed to look in again at the hole of the door; but they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day," Jude ver. 6. 3. Behold how an angry God dealt with his own Son, standing in the room of elect sinners, Rom. viii. 32, " God spared not his Son." Sparing mercy might have been expected, if any at all. If any person could have obtained it, surely his own Son would have got it: but he spared him not. The Father's delight is made a man of sorrows: he who is the wisdom of God, becomes sore amazed, ready to faint away in a fit of horror. The weight of this wrath makes him sweat great drops of blood. By the fierceness of this fire, his heart was like wax melted in the midst of his bowels. Behold, here, how severe God is against sin! The sun was struck blind with this terrible sight, rocks were rent, graves opened; death, as it were, in the excess of astonishment, letting its prisoners slip away. What is a deluge, a shower of fire and brimstone, on the people of Sodom, the terrible noise of a dissolving world, the whole fabric of heaven and earth disuniting at once, and angels cast down from heaven into the bottomless pit! What are all these, I say, in comparison with this, God in human nature suffering! groaning! dying upon a cross! Infinite holiness did it, to make sin look like itself, that is, infi

nitely odious. And will men live at ease, while exposed to this wrath?

Motive 4. Consider what a God he is with whom thou hast to do, and whose wrath thou art liable unto. He is the God of infinite knowledge and wisdom; so that none of thy sins, however secret, can be hid from him. He infallibly finds out all means, whereby wrath may be executed, toward the satisfying of justice. He is of infinite power, and so can do what he will against the sinner. How heavy must the strokes of wrath be, which are laid on by an omnipotent hand! Infinite power can make the sinner prisoner, even when he is in his greatest rage against Heaven. It can bring again the several parcels of dust out of the grave, put them together again, re-unite the soul and body, summon them before the tribunal, hurry them away to the pit, and hold them up with the one hand, through eternity, while they are lashed with the other. He is infinitely just, and therefore must punish it were acting contrary to his nature to suffer the sinner to escape wrath. Hence the executing of this wrath is pleasing to him: for though the Lord hath no delight in the death of a sinner, as it is the destruction of his own creature, yet he delights in it, as it is the execution of justice. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest." Mark the reason; "For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness," Psalm xi. 6, 7, "I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted," Ezek. v. 13. "I also will laugh at your calamity," Prov. i. 26. Finally, He lives for ever, to pursue the quarrel. Let us therefore conclude, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

Be awakened then, O young sinner! be awakened, O old sinner! who are yet in the state you were born in! Your security is none

rise out of it, ere the

of God's allowance; it is the sleep of death; pit close its mouth upon you. It is true, you may put on a breastplate of iron, make your brow brass, and your heart as an adamant; and who can help it? But God will break that brazen brow, and make that adamantine heart at last to fly into a thousand pieces. You may, if you will labour to put these things out of your heads, that you may sleep in fancied safety, though in a state of wrath. You may run away, with the arrows sticking in your consciences, to your labour, to work them away; or to your beds, to sleep them out; or to company, to sport and laugh them away: but convictions, so stifled, will have a fearful resurrection; and the day is coming, unless thou takest warning in time, when the arrows of wrath shall so stick in thy soul, as thou shalt never be able to pluck them out through the ages of eternity.