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the other the judgement will pafs on men according to what they have been in this world. Now the door of mercy ftands open for pardons, but death being once come, there is no more access to a pardon. As the tree falls, it must lie.

3. Men are very apt to mistake their state in this matter. Many draw a pardon to themselves, that God will not fet his feal to, and all it ferves for is to blind their own eyes If. xliv. 20. The foolish virgins dreamed very confidently of peace with God; but they met with a fad disappointment. They called themselves the friends of the Bridegroom, but he fhut the door on them as on his enemies.

4. Lastly, A miftake in this point is very dangerous. It makes people let the time of obtaining a pardon flip, as fancying they have it already. The foolish virgins might have got oil to their lamps, if they had feen their want of it, ere it was out of time. And thus it brings a ruining furprise, while people fleeping to death in their dreams of peace, are awakened with the noife of war that God will have with them for ever and ever, without any more poffibility of truce. Now ye may try it by the following things. 1. Have ye been apprehended, fifted before God the Judge, and brought to a reckoning of your fins? No man gets out his abfolviture before the Lord, till he appear and answer to his libel. This is neceffary to make the finner flee to Chrift; for this end the law was given, and for this end it is brought into the confcience, Gal. iii. 24. That ftate of fin which the foul never was made truly fenfible of, does without doubt continue. They that never faw themselves in a ftate of condemnation are to this day under it. To what end fhould one have looked for healing to the brazen ferpent, that were not flung with the fiery ferpents? If the law has not had this effect on you to let you fee your fin, and stopped your mouth before the Lord, ye are not come to Chrift for juftification. But ye have feen your fin and ftate of condemnation by F f

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VOL. II.

nature, and fo have fled for mercy to Jefus Chrift, then ye may conclude ye are juftified.

2. I would ask you, Have ye been carried freely out of yourselves to Jefus Chrift for righteoufnefs, renouncing all other confidences in whole and in part, Phil. iii. 7. 8.? There are many who, being convinced of fin, fall down and beg pardon, and hope for it upon their prayers, repentance, and reformation: but they never confider how the law fhall be anfwered by a perfect righteoufnefs. But the juftified perfon fees there is no pardon to be got, without a righteoufnefs that will fatisfy the law, and that no work of his can do that; therefore he lays hold on Chrift for his righteousness, and pleads that for pardon. They unite with the Mediator by faith, and fo he fpreads his fkirt over them. They get in under the covert of the Mediator's blood, and place their confidence there, believing that it is of fufliciency to fhield them from wrath, and trusting upon his righteoufnefs for that end, Phil. iii. 3. They continue not in mere fufpenfe Jam. i. 6. 7. but fo wreftle against doubting as to caft their anchor, and lay their weight for eternity, upon the righteoutnefs of Christ.

3. The dominion and reigning power of fin is broken in the juftified, Rom. vi. 14. Where the condemning power of fin is removed, its reigning power is alfo taken away. If the condemned man get his remiffion, he is taken out of his irons, his prifon, and the jailor's power; and fo the pardoned finner is no more taken captive by Satan at his will, 2 Tim. . ult. Will the liar lie on, the fwearer fwear on, the drunkard drink drunk on, the formalift ftill hold on with his mere form of godlinefs, and hope that God has pardoned him? No; let no man deceive himself. Thofe chains of reigning lufts that are still rattling about thee, declare thee to be yet a condemned man, Rom. viii. 1. 2. Doubt ye not but if ye were juftified, ye would be washed? 1 Cor. vi. 9. 10. 11. pretend to the pardon of fin which thou art ftill living

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and going on in, is practical blafphemy, as if Chrift were the minifter of fin; it is a turning the grace of God into licentioufnefs, which will bring a heavy vengeance at length. But if the reigning power of fin be broken in thee, thou art a juftified man; it is a fign thou art healing, when the ftrength of the disease of fin is abating.

4. Habitual tenderness of conscience with respect to fin, temptations, and appearance of evil, is a good fign of a judified ftate, Acts xxiv, 16. Burnt bairns dread fire; and the man who has brought himfelf under a fentence of death, if he escape, it may be thought, he will beware of falling into the fnare again, If. xxxviii. 17. compare ver. 15. Juftified perfons may fall into acts of untenderness many a time; but habitual untenderness is a black mark, when people habitually and ordinarily take to themselves a finful latitude in their thoughts, words, or actions. It is a fad fign that fin has never been made very bitter to them, when they can fo eafily go into it. It is easy to pretend to tenderness in opinions, and with respect to church differences; but I would to God there appeared more tendernefs among us in matters of morality, that there were more fobriety among us, that people who have money to fpare, would give it to the poor, and not lay it out in a way that God has fo often vifibly blafted, or fpend it on their lufts; that men would not, by their prefence or otherwife, encourage penny-weddings (condemned both by the law of the land and the church), thefe nurseries of profanenels, which have fo often among us left a ftink behind them in the noftrils of truly tender perfons, and before a holy God. I would recommend to you the apostle's general rule, Phil. iv. 8. Whatfoever things are true, whatfoever things are boneft, whatsoever things are just, whatjoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatfoever things are of good report; if there be any vir tue, and if there be any praife, think on these things.

5. Lastly, The fruits of faith in a holy life. We are

juftified by faith without works; but that faith that juftifies is always followed with good works, Acts xv, 9. If the curfe be taken away, under which the foul remains barren, it will become fruitful in the fruits of the Spirit, Gal. v. 22. 23. Our faith juftifies our perfons as it receives Chrift with his righteousness; but our faith must be juftified by our works, i, e. it must be by our good works evidenced to be true faith. Therefore the apostle James difputes against that faith that is without works, fhewing it to be no true juftifying faith, Jam. ii. 17. 18. There is a difference betwixt juftification and fanctification, but they are infeparable companions. And no man can evidence his juftification without the fruits of holiness. Examine yourfelves by these things what ftate ye are in before God.

USE III. of exhortation. This I fhall address both to finners and faints.

First, To finners yet in the state of fin and wrath. Here is good news of pardon and acceptance with God for you. I would exhort you to be concerned to get out of the ftate of wrath and condemnation; and while God is fitting on a throne of grace, do not flip the opportunity, but fue out your abfolviture from before the Lord in his own way. Take no reft till ye be juftified before God through Chrift. To make way for this exhortation, I will lay before you the following motives.

Mot. 1. While you are out of a juftified ftate, a fentence of condemnation ftands against thee in the court of heaven, and thou knoweft not how foon it may be executed, Gal. iii, 10. John iii. 18. & ult. If thou wert under a fentence of death by the laws of men, wouldst thou not beftir thyfelf for a pardon, if there were any hope? But, poor foul, thou art under a fentence of eternal death; and yet thou livest at eafe. God's law has condemned thee, as a malefactor, his truth confirms the fentence, and juftice craves execution. All things are ready for it, Pfal. vii, 12. 13:

When thou lieft down, thou haft no fecurity for that it fhall not be executed ere thou arife; and when thou goeft out, thou haft no fecurity that it shall not be executed ere thou come in. Only long-fuffering procures thee a reprieve one day after another, to fee if thou wilt fue out a pardon. But as fecure as thou art, the fword of juftice hangs over thy head by the hair of long-tired patience; and if that break, thou art a dead.

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Mot. 2. A pardon and acceptance with God is not fo cafily obtained as generally people think. gives pardon freely, yet none come by it lightly. They that get it, get it fo as they are taught to prize the mercy, Mic. vii. 18. They that know not the evil of fin, nor the holy juft nature of God, and that were never preffed with the fenfe of unpardoned guilt, think it a very eafy thing to get a pardon, as if there were no more but to afk it and receive. But I would have you to confider,

(1.) The juftifying and pardoning of a finner is one of the greateft works of God. It is a greater work than to make a world. God had no more ado but to fay, in the creation, Let there be light, &c. and there was. But when finners were to be abfolved, juftice ftands up for fatisfaction, the truth of God for the honour of a broken law, wifdom is fet awork to find out a way how pardoning mercy may get a vent, and for that cause the Son of God pays down the price of blood to buy the abfolviture. If God could have abfolved the finner from guilt and punishment by a bare word, how would he have paffed by that eafy way, and fetched a compass by the blood of his own Son? John iii. 16. And after all it is a work of power, to be exercifed according to the greatnefs of mercy, Num, xiv. 17. 19.

(2.) Sin is the greatcft of evils, no wonder it be hard to take it away. It is of all things moft contrary to the holy nature of God, Hab. i. 13. When thou goeft on in thy fin, thou art engaged against all the at,

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