Jefus Chrift, who is lifted up for that very end, that he may fave his people from their fins, and bids all the ends of the earth look unto him for that end, Ifa. xlv. 22. Look unto me, and be ye faved all the ends of the earth. The God who has been holding him forth to you, who has provided you in all these great and notable advantages, is the God you have finned againft, whom you have rebelled againft, and treated unworthily in these horrid violations of his law, which we have enumerate to you, above; but this is not the only aggravation of your fins, that you had helps against fin. But,

2. You have finned against the God of your mercies, the God who has loaded you with his favours. O fad requital you have given to God, for all the kindneffes he has done to you, fince the morning of your day. May he not justly, nay, may we not in his name, lay that to your charge, which we find him with wonderful folemnity charging upon his own people? Ifa, i. 2. Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. not you been nourished and brought up under the care and by the providence of God? and has he not met with the fame entertainment at your hand? Now this is a dreadful aggravation of your guilt: For,

Have

(1.) It is not one mercy or two, but innumerable mercies, innumerable kindneffes. Reckon, O finners, what the mercies of God are, if ye can. Nay, if ye can count the fters in the heaven, or the fand of the fea-fhore, you may. David fays in that lxxi Pfal. That he knows not the number of God's falvation; and who may not fay with him

in this? God every day preferves you from many thousands of inconveniencies that would deftroy you, and bestows upon you many thousands of mercies. He loads you with his benefits, and ye load yourfelves with your fins against him. Ye turn the point of them all as it were against God, and make these very mercies he gives you weapons of unrighteousness to fight against him. As his favours, fo your fins are more than the hairs of your head. Look round you, whatever you fee, whatever you enjoy, clothes, food, or whatever contributes to the comfort of life, that you have from him; and this is the God, O finners, against whom you have finned, who treats you thus, in whom ye live, move, and have your being, as the apostle obferves, Acts xvii. 28.

(2.) As the mercies are many against which ye have finned, fo they are great. If any can be called fo, thefe which you have at the hand of God may. What is great, if all that is needful for life and godlinefs be not? And no lefs does the provision that God has made amount unto, and no lefs has the Lord God given unto you. Has not his divine power given to you all things that pertain to life and godliness? 2 Pet. i. 3. Have not ye a gofpel difpenfation, food and raiment ? And what more is needful? And yet against these great mercies you have finned. When God has fed you to the full, Jethuran-like you have waxed fat, and kicked against the God that has fed you all your life long, Deut. xxxii. 15.

(3.) Ye have finned notwithstanding of a long tract of these many and great undeserved kindneties; and this extremely enhances your guilt. What, would he not be looked on as a very monfter in nature, who would kill the man that was

put

putting his meat in his mouth? Who would watch opportunities against one who had done him. wonderful kindneffes? and this is exactly your cafe; you have finned, and that against the God of your mercies. And therefore,

(4.) Your fins are all acts of monftrous ingratitude, than which nothing worfe can be laid to the charge of any man. It is a fin that makes a

man worse than the beaft of the field. The ox knoweth his owner, and the afs his master's crib, Ifa. i. 3. The dullest of beasts know who do them kindneffes, and fawn, as it were, upon these that feed them ordinarily; but ye, O finners, have kicked and lifted up the heel against the God that has fed you all your life long, and fo are guilty of the most horrid ingratitude. And do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwife? But this is not all that may be faid for aggravating your wickedness in finning against God: for in the

3d Place, You have done all this wickednefs without any provocation. When fubjects rebel against their fovereign, they have ufually fome fhadow of excufe for the taking up arms against him; but ye have none. What have you to allege in your own defence, O criminals? What iniquity, wat fault have ye found in God, that ye have gone away backward, and forfaken his way? Produce your caufe, faith the Lord; bring forth your strong reafons, faith the king of Jacob, Ifa. Ixi. 21. What have ye to offer in your own juftification? Sure I am, the ordinary pretences which are upon fuch occafions made ufe of, to juftify a fubftraction of obedience from the kings of the earth, will do you no fervice. (1.) You can.. not, you dare not quarrel God's claim to the fo

vereignty of the world. What will, what can make it his due, if creation, prefervation, benefits, and the fupereminent excellencies of his nature, qualifying him as it were for fo great a post, do not give a just claim? And God has a right to the government of the world upon all thefe accounts. He made us, and not we ourselves; he is the mighty preferver of men; he loads us daily with his benefits; and there is none like him to be his competitor. (2.) You cannot allege unjust laws. You cannot fay that he has overstretched his prerogative, and withholden any part of that which was your unquestionable duc. No, who dare implead the moft High of injuftice? Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Are not all his laws moft juft always, and his judgments most righteous? Is he not a God of truth and without iniquity? Sure he is. We boldly bid you a defiance to discover any thing unjuft in that body of laws which God has given to the fons of men. Nor, (3.) can ye allege the rigour of his laws, that he is an auftere one, and has gone to the utmoft he might with you, exacted all that he poffibly could. No, he has confulted your good in the frame of his laws, and has contrived them fo, that every one who understands what he fays, must own, that had mankind been at the making them, they could not by all their joint wit have gone near to make them fo exactly answer the defign of the high God, his glory in the good of the creature, as he has done. Nay further, your fins, in the

4th Place. Have this aggravation, that they are committed without any profpect of advantage to countervail the damage you fuftain. Could ye pretend, that ye can by your disobedience gain

fome

fome great thing; if it did not excufe you, it would yet make you to be pitied, as being overborn by a very great temptation: but this cannot, dare not be alleged; no, you fpend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which doth not profit. You can make no hand of it. You offend the God of your mercies, without any provocation, and that for a very trifle. He has not flood with you upon the greatest, and ye fcruple the leaft points with him; yea, for a very fhadow of pleafure ye ftand not to offend. him. Nay,

5thly, You fin, notwithstanding the interpofition of the moft folemn vows to the contrary; and therefore, we might have made this one of the ingredients of fin, perjury. All of you who are now before the Lord, ftand folemnly engaged to fear, and obey and serve the Lord, all the days of your lives. When you were offered to God in baptifin, then you came under the vows of God; and when you have given your prefence in the public affemblies of God's people, fince ye came to age, ye have folemnly owned and ratified thofe vows; and yet notwithstanding all these, you have finned against God, even your covenanted God, and therefore, there is perjury in all your fins. You have defpifed the oath in breaking the covenant of your God. Once more, in the

6th Place, When you have finned and conti nue to fin against God, yet ye continue to profefs fealty and fubjection to him, and thereby add fearful hypocrify and mockery to your wickedness: like that profane people with whom the prophet Malachy had to do, who dealt traiterously with God, wearied him with their wickedness, robbed him of his due, and yet afferted their own innoE 2 cency