ishment: Speaking after the manner of men, he did, in the inward temper of his heart, perfectly approve of those words in Gal. iii. 10, as being strictly just-Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them: Therefore he looked on mankind in a perishing condition. But,

(2.) He viewed mankind not only destitute of good, but full of evil;-not only void of the true love to God and to one anoth er, but enemies to God, and living in malice and envy among themselves. He looked down from heaven and viewed a guil ty world, and saw their contrariety to his nature and to his law: Conscious of his own divine temper, he saw every contrary temper in them: What he esteems, they despise ;-what he delights in, they loathe: The end which he prosecutes, they op pose; and they esteem and delight in that which is contrary to him, and prosecute ends and designs contrary to his : He saw their views, their tempers, their wills, their ends, designs, and ways were all contrary to him, and diametrically opposite to his law: He considered them as his enemies, and their tempers as perfect enmity and contrariety to the divine nature....Rom. viii. 7.

(3.) And in as much as he thus saw them entirely destitute of love to him, and diametrically contrary to the divine nature in the temper of their hearts, he knew they would have no inclination to a reconciliation to God; but would be natarally averse to it: He knew their aversion to a reconciliation would be as strong as their contrariety to the divine nature, from which it took its rise: He saw that if he should attempt to reclaim them, he should only meet with resistance ;-that if he should spread the news of pardon and peace through a guilty world, and invite them to return and be reconciled, that they would make light of it and despise it ;-that if he should send messengers after them, to persuade them to return, and beseech them to be reconciled, that they would put many of them to death: He saw just what treatment the prophets, and Christ, and his apostles were like to meet with: He knew not one in all the world would repent and convert, unless brought thereto by his own al

mighty arm, and all-conquering grace.... Mat. xxi. 33-39Rom. viii. 7-I. Cor. iii. 6, 7.

(4.) Yea, so far from a disposition to repent and convert, that, if left wholly to themselves, unrestrained, no wickedness would be too bad for them: All would act as bad as Cain, Manasseth, or Judas; and the whole human race be like so many incarnate devils-they having the seed of all sin in their hearts....Mark vii. 21, 22.

(5.) And yet insensible of their sin and guilt, and just desert, and that they lie merely at the sovereign mercy of God, and that he is at liberty to show mercy, or not, as seems good in his sight: yea, so averse to the knowledge of this their true state, as to be disposed to hate the light, and shut their eyes against it, ready to resist all methods of conviction;-yea, that some would be even so perverse, as actually to rise in arms against his messengers, who endeavored to shew them their ruin and the way of their recovery, and put them to death, as not fit to live; and yet so stupid as to think, that, in all, they did God good service: And that, in general, a great out-cry would be raised round a proud and guilty world, against the Lord, for suppo sing mankind to be in so bad, so very forlorn a state. God knew the pride of man, that he is exceedingly proud; and saw how great offence would be given to a guilty world, who would by no means endure to be so affronted.... John iii. 19, 20, and viii. 33, 47.

Now, such were the grounds upon which God looked upon the human race in a perishing condition....sinful, guilty, justly condemned, helpless, and undone : And considering that the original constitution with Adam, according to which he and all his posterity were doomed to destruction, in case he fell, was holy, just, and good; and considering that the law of nature, which all mankind are naturally under, and according to which the least sin exposes to eternal damnation, is also holy, just, and good; and considering our apostacy in Adam, and what we are in ourselves;-I say, considering all these things, it is most certain and evident that the judgment of God was according to

truth, while he esteemed mankind to be thus in a perishing

condition.

That mankind are actually of such a nature, has been demonstrated in the former discourse: That God, whose understanding is infinite, and who sees all things as being what they really are, must therefore now see mankind to be such, is self-evident: and such as he now sees them to be, such he, from the beginning, knew they would be: It is evident, therefore, â priori, that God must have considered mankind to be such, when he first entered upon his designs of grace revealed in the gospel: And if we consider the nature of the gospel, and what methods God has taken with a sinful, guilty world, to reclaim and recover them, and how they have behaved under all, it will be still more evident that mankind are verily in such a case.— The law....the gospel, and experience, all join to confirm it.

Had not the gospel considered us as being entirely devoid of the divine image, destitute of any spiritual good thing, blind, dead, graceless, why should it so much urge the necessity of our being born again....made new creatures....having our eyes opened...being raised from the dead...being created anew to good works...and having the law written in our hearts, the heart of stone taken away, and an heart of flesh given ?-Had not the gospel considered us as being enemies to God, why should it invite us to be reconciled?-Had not the gospel considered us as being very averse to a reconciliation, why should it pray and beseech us, with so much earnestness and solemnity, to be reconciled....and use so many arguments ?-Had not the gospel considered our reconciliation as unattainable by the most pow erful arguments, of themselves, why should it declare that, after all, neither Paul, nor Apollos, nor Cephas are any thing, or can do any thing, unless God himself give the increase?—And were we not enemies to God, and rebels, and inveterate haters of the light, and disposed to rise in arms against it, why should Christ tell his ministers, I send you forth as sheep among wolves; if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, no wonder they call you so; you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake;

they that kill you will think they do God good service? That generation thought as well of themselves as the present generation now on earth does, and were ready to speak the same language, and say, If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have killed the prophets; but Christ knew their hearts: And, had not mankind, on these accounts, been considered as in a perishing condition, sinful, guilty, justly condemned, helpless and undone, why was there provided such a Redeemer, and such a Sanctifier? And why was the salvation of sinners every where represented as being so entirely owing to the grace, the mere grace, the free, astonishing, wonderful grace of God, from first to last? Surely, from all this, most certain and evident it is, that God does, in the gospel, upon these grounds, consider mankind as being in a perishing condition: And upon these grounds we must, therefore, come to consider ourselves so too, or we can never be in a disposition humbly and thankfully to accept the grace offered, and return home to God in the way provided. ed, that the gospel supposes us to be in so bad a condition; or else never so much as take matters into serious consideration, but do as those invited to the marriage of the king's son, in Mat. xxii. 5.... They made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandize. I do but just hint at these things now, because they have been so largely insisted upon heretofore. And thus we see upon what grounds it is, that the great Governor of the world does, in the gospel, consider mankind as being in a perishing condition.

We shall rather be affront

SECTION II.

SHOWING WHENCE GOD'S DESIGN OF MERCY TOWARDS A PERISHING WORLD ORIGINALLY TOOK ITS RISE.

I proceed now,

II. To show what were the motives which have excited God to do what he has done, for the recovery of sinners out of this their perishing condition. And

1. It was not because the original constitution with Adam, our public head and representative, was too severe : It was not be

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cause it would have been hard and cruel, or in the least inconsistent with his infinite goodness and tender mercies, to have left all mankind in that state of total ruin they were brought into by the fall: For had not that constitution been, in its own nature, holy, just, and good, and so most perfectly agreeable to his own nature....to his holiness, justice, and goodness, he would never have made it; for he necessarily infinitely abhors, in his public conduct, to act counter to the inward temper of his heart. For the very reason that he loves himself for being what he is, for the same reason he loves to act like himself, and infinitely abhors the contrary: And if that constitution was holy, just, and good, in its own nature, originally, it must remain so still; for Adam's apostacy, together with all the dreadful consequences thereof, could not alter its nature. The constitution is perfectly as excellent as if Adam had never fallen....perfectly as good as if it had been the means of laying a foundation for the everlasting blessedness of all the human race; for it is what it was. It was excellently well calculated for the glory of God, and the welfare of mankind, in its own nature; and therefore God made it.... approved of it....was well pleased with it, nor can he ever alter his mind about it: for it is, in itself, just the same it was at first -and if it was holy, just, and good, in its own nature, and if it remains so still....if the holiness, justice, and goodness of his nature prompted him at first to make it, and then to approve of it, and be perfectly well pleased with it, it could not (it is selfevident) possibly have been, in the least, disagreeable to his holiness, justice, or goodness, to have dealt with all mankind, since the fall, according to it: So that, to a demonstration, God's thoughts of mercy towards a guilty, undone world, did not, in any measure, take its rise from any notion that mankind had been hardly dealt with, or that it would be any thing like cruelty and unmercifulness to damn the whole world for Adam's first sin, according to the tenor of the original constitution. Indeed, to suppose such a thing, highly reflects upon that constitution-and upon God, for ever making it: It supposes the constitution was never really holy, just, and good in its own