himself as kind as he can be out of heaven: He fpeaks by his fon,he intreats & befeecheth us, As the Apoft le faith, We befeech you in Chrifts ftead.2 Cor.5. 20.He commands that you beleeve. And he theatens that be that beleeves not shal be damned. Mark, 16. 16. Was there ever like love fhewed to this, that God fhould beg of us, who fhould pray to him, that he fhould befeech us who fhould lay our felves as pittiful objects before him, and fil heaven with cryes continually? That he fhould command us, and make it our duty to beleeve, In whom it would be a prefumption naturally and great boldnefs of fpirit? That he fhould make nothing damnable but only not beleeving unto men that live under the meanes? Set this I fay before you, and refusal then wil be exceeding great and odious in thine eyes. To refufe a command! To flight a threaten, To be deafe to intreaties: And not to be wood by kindness! To be fought unto by greatnefs and al for the things of a mans own good. To fhut up al,what wil you count a great fin, if not unbeleife? Nothing certainly. For nothing is fo great a breach of the law, nothing keeps a man in fin, nothing keeps us from good like to that. By what weight or ballances wil you come to find out the weight of any iniquity? If you cannot difcerne fo great a matter to be in the fin of unbeleife, com. pare it with the Tables. Its against the firft table; The great Commandment is in that table. Compare it with duties. It's the leaft duty that can be injoyned,and it hath the greatest wages and reward, for if you beleeve,al things are yours. Wilt thou fuffer thy understanding to grow dark, and thy mind fo perverfe as that every evil fhould be fmal unto thee? If thou doft accompt unbeleife a great fin, thou wilt make haft to Jefus Chrift for pardon; it wil make thee to admire the grace of God which

doth

doth pardon thee: It wil ingage thee to Chrift that hath delivered thee from it. If fin be little in thy eyes,thy pardon wil be little, free favor wil be bnt little favor: Nay my beloved if you could fee the greatnefs of your fin, you would be eafed of the fin of unbelief, if you could but account it a great matter for God to pardon it, it fhould be pardoned, and that would deftroy the power of it: for in the Scripture you fhal find that proportionably to the grace and favor which we beleeve God wil do us in the pardoning of a fin, is the death and mortification of a fin. In Rom. 6. 14. Sin fhall not have dominion over you, because you are under grace. If more under grace than lefs under fins dominion, as well as if altogether under grace then not at all under fins dominion. Therefore I befeech you again and again, do like Paul, Spy out the fin of unbelief at the end of every fin. I did it ignorantly through unbelief. It was my unbelief that made me do this fin, or that made me leave this duty.

Count your unbelief to be the fediment, the filth and the mud (what fhal I cal it) the worst of all thy fin. Wert thou never fo finful, didft thou believe,thou shouldft be washed and cleanfed and freed from it: Hadft thou never fo good a mind to be holy, if thou doft not beleeve, thy fin fhal ftil abide upon thee. Oh that fo great love of Chrift fhould be fo ill requited! that there fhould be a mind in us fo contrary to what is in him! That he fhould be contented to reckon that we wrong and neglect him more in not coming to him, than in not doing for him. Or thus. That we do moft for him, when we come to him for moft; and that we should count it fuch a fmal fin. Stir up thy felf O! unbeleeving heart, and fit no longer debating the matter whether thou fhouldft go to Chrift or not: Sin Ifay is not to be committed upon any terms,

But

But if thou wouldft put the Cafe thus, that the leffer evill is to be done, but unbelief is the greater evil, therefore you must not leave going to Chrift. Ring this continually in the ear of thy foul, Oh my Soul what haft thou done in spending thy ftrength in loofing the opportunity of grace for the gathering of the fruit of fin? What haft thou done? what haft thou gained in al the fervice of fin? There is nothing but blowes, and nothing but mifery and danger that wil enfue. But this is theevil of al evils, al circumftances being confidered, It is worfe that thou fitteft dumpishly and heavily and drowfily,and carelefly,and negligently, & doft not ftand up & fet forward & run forward & make haft to the Lord Jefus Chrift,than al that thou hast done befides. Do not fay now that I cannot, for the Command I fay hath power in it to make thee to beleeve, Give that confent thou haft, as Virgins fomtimes do,if their Parents wil confent, that is,do thou fay that its juft,& its reafon,its equal,its righteousthat I fhould, its beft,and I ought to beleeve if the Lord bestow his fpirit on me. If thou findft not the fpirit come in to help thee, yet turn again upon thy felfe and fay, This is the ftone that prefeth down, the color that makes thee deformed, the evill that makes thee abhorred of God that thou doft not go to Jefus Chrift. Lie beating upon thy foul continually til thou canft find it, and when thou canst not find ftrength to go to Jefus Chrift, that its worse with thee through thy unbelief than any other fin. And fo I have done with this use.

Chap.

CHAP. X.

Doc. II. Though the fin of Unbelief be very great. yet it is pardonable. The Doctrine opened, and proved. 1. God hath pardoned Unbelief. 2. God mil pardon it.

1. TIM. I 15.

But I obtained Mercy because or [ although] I did it ignorantly and in unbelief.

From the words as you may remember were

thefe two Points raised.

First, the greatnefs of the fin of unbelief, for which the Apostle doth here make himself the chief of finners, and God in pardoning of it to have exceeded and gone beyond his ordinary courfe of mercy. Yea he faith he was the firft of that fort that ever God fhewed mercy unto, as you may fee in verfe 16. And therefore I fhewed you this, that the word on, tranflated [Because] is rather to be read thus although.] For unbelief could not be a caufe of mercy in a proper fence, And the word on doth fignifie although in divers places of the Scripture, both in the Greek and alfo in that which anfwers to it, in the Hebrew. I have done with that Point.

DOCT.

DOCT. II.

The second point that I raised from the words was this, That though the fin of Unbelief is very great, yet it's pardonable and forgiven by God.

I obtained mercy faith be although I did it fo and fo in or by unbelief. The fin I fay of unbelief is very great, but it's that which is pardonable. When I Ipeak of the pardonableness of unbelief, you must firft take unbelief alone by its felf, in its own finful nature and defert, As it gives God the lie, and ftains his glory and tempts him, and hinders God in doing his great work of mercy. Unto which head I have spoken at large heretofore.

Secondly, You muft alfo take unbelief with its train and attendance with all the iffue and children of it. For fo Paul brings it in, and makes it the mother of abominations. I was (faith he ) a Blafphemer, a Perfecutor, & injurious through unbelief. Unbelief was the mother of them. Unbelif is here spoken of in its ftength and acting to the utmost: Unbelief in its own nature is a fin against the first Table, and it plaies fowl pranks there with every Commandment: But herethe Apostle speaks of unbelief as overflowing the boundsjof that Table, and breaking forth into thebrea ch of the fecond Table by perfecution & injuriousness. As.a Disease or Sore may be in one part of the body, but may diffuse it felf into the other parts to corrupt them. Lungs may be rotten and the Liver hard, and that The may weaken althe rest of the body. So a fin may

be