misery of it. There are five memorials I may thence give into the whole assembly of the saints, who are no more children of wrath, but heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, though as yet in their minority. (1.) Remember, that in the day our Lord took you by the hand, ye were in no better condition than others.. O what moved him to take you, when he passed by your neighbours! he found you children of wrath, even as others; but he did not leave you so. He came into the common prison, where you lay in your fetters, even as others; and from amongst the multitude of condemned malefactors, he picked out you, commanded your fetters to be taken off, put a pardon in your hand, and brought you into the glorious liberty of the children of God, while he left others in the devil's fetters. (2.) Remember there was nothing in you to engage him to love you, in the day he first appeared for your deliverance. Ye were children of wrath, even as others, fit for hell, and altogether unfit for heaven; yet the King brought you into the palace; the King's Son made love to you, condemned criminals, and espoused you to himself, on the day in which ye might have been led forth to execution.

"Even

so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight," Matth. ix. 26. (3.) Remember, ye were fitter to be lothed than loved in that day. Wonder, that when he saw you in your blood, he looked not at you with abhorrence, and passed by you. Wonder that ever such a time could be a time of love, Ezek. xvi. 8. (4.) Remember, ye are decked with borrowed feathers. It is his comeliness which is upon you, ver. 14. It was he that took off your prison garments, and clothed you with robes of righteousness, garments of salvation; garments wherewith ye are arrayed as the lilies, which toil not, neither do they spin. He took the chains from off your arms, the rope about your necks; put you in such a dress as ye may be fit for the court of heaven, even to eat at the King's table. (5.) Remember your faults this day; as Pharaoh's butler, who had forgotten Joseph. Mind how you have for gotten, and how unkindly you have treated him, who remembered you in your low estate. Is this your kindness to your friend? In the day of your deliverance, did ye think ye could have thus requited him, your Lord?

from

Secondly, Pity the children of wrath, the world that

lies in wickedness. Can ye be unconcerned for them, ye who were once in the same condition? Ye have got ashore indeed, but your fellows are yet in hazard of perishing; and will not ye make them all possible help for their deliverance? What they are, ye sometimes were, This may draw pity from you, and engage you to use all means for their recovery. See Tit. iii. 1, 2, 3.

Thirdly, Admire that matchless love, which brought you out of the state of wrath. Christ's love was active love, he loved thy soul from the pit of corruption. It was no easy work to purchase the life of the condemned sinner; but he gave his life for thy life. He gave his precious blood to quench that flame of wrath, which otherwise would have burnt thee up. Men get the best view of the stars from the bottom of a deep pit; from this pit of misery into which thou wast cast by the first Adam, thou mayest get the best view of the Sun of righteousness, in all his dimensions. He is the second Adam, who took thee out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay. How broad were the skirts of that love, which covered such a multitude of sins! Behold the length of it, reaching from everlasting to everlasting, Psal. cii. 17. The depth of it, going so low as to deliver thee from the lowest hell, Psal. lxxxi. 13. The height of it, in raising thee up to sit in heavenly places, Eph. ii. 6.

Fourthly, Be humble, carry low sails, walk softly all your years. Be not proud of your gifts, graces, privileges, or attainments; but remember ye were children of wrath, even as others. The peacock walks slowly, hangs down his starry feathers, while he looks to his black feet. Look ye to the hole of the pit, whence ye are digged, walk humbly as it becomes free grace's debtors.

Lastly, Be wholly for your Lord. Every wife is obliged to be dutiful to her husband; but double ties lie upon her who was taken from a prison or a dunghill. If your Lord has delivered you from wrath, ye ought, upon that very account, to be wholly his; to act for him, to suffer for him, and to do whatever he calls you to. saints have no reason to complain of their lot in the world, whatever it be. Well may they bear the cross for him, by whom the curse was borne away from them. Well

The

may they bear the wrath of men in his cause, who

has freed them from the wrath of God; and chearfully go to a fire for him, by whom hell-fire is quenched to them. Soul and body, and all thou hadst in the world, were sometimes under wrath; he has removed that wrath, shall not all these be at his service? That thy soul is not overwhelmed with the wrath of God, is owing purely to Jesus Christ; and shall it not then be a temple for his Spirit? That thy heart is not filled with horror and despair, is owing to him only; to whom then should it be devoted but to him alone? That thine eyes are not blinded with the smoke of the pit, thy hands are not fettered with chains of darkness, thy tongue is not broiling in the fire of hell, and thy feet are not standing in that lake which burns with fire and brimstone, is owing purely to Jesus Christ; and shall not these eyes be employed for him, these hands act for him, that tongue speak for him, and these feet speedily run his errands? To him who be hieves that he was a child of wrath, even as others, but is now delivered by the blessed Jesus, nothing will ap pear too much, to do or suffer for his deliverer, when he has a fair call to it.

III. To conclude with a word to all: Let no man think lightly of sin, which lays the sinner open to the wrath of God. Let not the sin of our nature, which wreaths the yoke of God's wrath so early about our necks, seem a small thing in our eyes. Fear the Lord, because of his dreadful wrath. Tremble at the thought of sin, against which God has such fiery indignation. Look on his wrath, and stand in awe, and sin not. Do you think this is to press you to slavish fear? If it were so, one had better be a slave to God with a trembling heart, than a free man to the devil, with a seared conscience and a heart of adamant. But it is not so, you may love him, and thus fear him too; yea, ye ought to do it though ye were saints of the first magnitude. See Psal. cxix. 10. Matth. x. 28. Luke xii. 5. Heb. xii. 28, 29. Although ye have passed the gulf of wrath, being in Jesus Christ, yet it is but reasonable your hearts shiver, when ye look back to it. Your sin still deserves wrath, even as the sins of others; and it would be terrible to be in a fiery furnace; although by a miracle, we were sa fenced against it, as that it could not harm us.

MAN'S UTTER INABILITY TO RECOVER HIMSELF.

ROMANS V. 6.

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the Ungodly.

JOHN vi. 44.

No Man can come to me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him.

WE

E have now had a view of the total corruption of man's nature, and that load of wrath which lies on him, that gulph of misery he is plunged into, in his natural state. But there is one part of his misery that deserves particular consideration; namely, his utter inability to recover himself, the knowledge of which is necessary for the due humiliation of a sinner. What I design here is, only to propose a few things, whereby to convince the unregenerate man of this his inability; that may see an absolute need of Christ, and of the power of his grace.

he

As a man that is fallen into a pit cannot be supposed to help himself out of it, but by one of two ways; either by doing all himself alone, or taking hold of, and improving the help offered him by others; so an unconverted man cannot be supposed to help himself out of that state, but either in the way of the law, or covenant of works, by doing all himself without Christ; or else in the way of the gospel, or covenant of grace, by exerting his own strength to lay hold upon, and to make use of the help offered him by a Saviour. But, alas! the unconverted man is dead in the

thing out of an unclean?" Job xiv. 4. And dost think, by sin, to help thyself out of sin and misery? Thy obedience must also be perfect in parts. It mus as broad as the whole law of God; if thou lackest thing, thou art undone; for the law denounceth the c on him that continueth not in every thing written the Gal. iii. 10. Thou must give internal and external dience to the whole law; keep all the command heart and life. If thou breakest any one of them, that insure thy ruin! A vain thought, or idle word, will shut thee up under the curse. (3.) It must be perfe respect of degrees, as was the obedience of Adam, v he stood in his innocence. This the law requires, will accept of no less, Mat. xxii. 37. "Thou shalt the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all soul, and with all thy mind." If one degree of that required by the law, be wanting; if each part of thy ol ence be not screwed up to the greatest height comm ed; that want is a breach of the law, and so leaves still under the curse. One may bring as many bucke water, to a house that is on fire, as he is able to carry, yet it may be consumed; and will be so, if he bring as many as will quench the fire. Even so, although shouldst do what thou art able, in keeping the comma if thou fail in the least degree of obedience which the enjoins, thou art certainly ruined for ever; unless take hold of Christ, renouncing all thy righteousne filthy rags. See Rom. x. 5. Gal. iii. 10.-Lastl must be perpetual, as the man Christ's obedience who always did the things that pleased the Father; for tenor of the law is, " Cursed is he that continueth no all things written in the law, to do them." Hence, the Adam's obedience was for a while absolutely perfect; because at length he tripped in one point, viz. in e the forbidden fruit, he fell under the curse of the law one should live a dutiful subject to his prince, till the of his days, and then conspire against him, he mus for his treason. Even so, though thou shouldst, al time of thy life, live in perfect obedience to the k God, and only at the hour of death entertain a thought, or pronounce an idle word, that idle word, or thought, would blot out all thy former righteousness