be persuaded by any argument whatsoever; if you are entirely attached to the flesh and the world, and resolutely set in your ways of sin and vanity; see, hell is before you; understand what you do; and consider what will be your end!

Alas! such is the temper of mankind, that no arguments, as of themselves, will effectually divorce them from their lusts. and turn them to God, and to real religion. Their alienation from the life of God, their enmity to his holy law and Gospel, is unconquerable, by any but a special divine influence, (Rom. viii. 7. 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7.) And since this is the case, it is infinitely fit, in the nature of things, that the great Governor of the world, if he does save any of this guilty rebellious race, should be at liberty to save whom he pleases. He has declared himself reconcilable to any that will return to him through Jesus Christ. But since none will be persuaded to this, since none will do this, if they can help it, he is certainly now at liberty; he may let sinners take their course and go on to perdition, if he pleases: or, he may have mercy on whom he will have mercy. O see your entire dependance on sovereign mercy for salvation; and be looking diligently lest you fail of the grace of God, by resisting the holy Spirit, and wilfully indulging unbelief and impenitence.

Young people fondly flatter themselves, that hereafter they shall have a better time, and then they will repent, then they will believe and obey the Gospel and so they quiet their consciences for the present, and, securely give way to delays from time to time. But, alas! they understand not what it means to remember their Creator, or become truly religious; nor how averse to it they are, as of themselves: nor do they consider, that this very temper of mind, which makes them unwilling to turn to God now, will always do so, if sovereign grace do not over-rule and prevent it. They imagine not how the case really stands; nor do they once glance at half the misery and danger attending their condition. But O the safety and blessedness of such as are early seized by divine grace, and brought to an early acquaintance with God in Christ! Who know the things of their peace, and choose the good part; who taste the sweetness of religion now, and are training up for erernal glory in the world to come! O the

happy condition such of you are in! Adore sovereign and distinguishing mercy; be deeply sensible of your obligations to God; sing the praises of redeeming love; and let all your days be devoted to him who has called you by his grace, who hath delivered you from the power of darkness, and translated you into the kingdom of his dear Son; to whom be dominion and glory for ever. AMEN.

THE GREAT EVIL OF SIN,

AS IT IS

COMMITTED AGAINST GOD.

SERMON,

PREACHED IN GOSHEN,

AT A MEETING OF THE CONSOCIATION OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, IN SAID TOWN, MAY 30, 1753.

Numb. xiv. 9. Rebel ye not against the Lord.

Jer. xliv. 4. Oh, do not this abominable thing which I hate.

Mal. i. 14. I am a great KING, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name. is DREADFUL among the heathen.

THE GREAT EVIL OF SIN,

AS COMMITTED AGAINST GOD.

PSAL. li. 4.

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.

A SENSE of the great evil of sin, is essential to true repentance. It may be laid down as a general maxim, that

we cannot be suitably affected towards things, unless we see them as they are. Be they, on the one hand, ever so amiable and lovely, yet if their beauty is not seen, our hearts will be untouched. Even the infinite glory and excellence of God will not excite our esteem and love, if we have no sense of it: and let the moral beauty of the divine government be ever so great, although it may ravish the heavenly world who see it, yet we, while blind to it, shall be wholly unmoved. And be the Gospel-way of salvation, by free grace through Jesus Christ, ever so glorious, yet if the glories of it are not discerned, we may be far from admiring that divine constitution. So, on the other hand, let sin be ever so great an evil, yet if the great evil of it is not seen, we shall never be suitably affected towards it. Though it deserves to be hated ever so much, and though there be ever so great reason that we should be humbled and abased before God on the account of it, and mourn in the bitterness of our hearts for it, and be afraid of, and watch against it, as the greatest of evils; yet we shall not, unless it be seen as it is. Did we see it perfectly as it is, we should feel towards it perfectly as we ought: but unless we see it in some measure as it is, we shall feel towards it in no measure as we ought. So that a sense of the great evil of sin is plainly essential to true repentance. And, indeed, it is that from which repentance does nextly and most immediately take its rise. Love to God, faith in Christ, and hope in the mercy of God through him, prepare and dispose the heart to mourn for sin: but it is a 63

VOL. III.