there is virtue in his blood to expiate them; for, it cleanfes from all fin. Though the fands be many and large, yet the fea can overflow them all: fo, though your fins be numerous and great, the blood of Chrift can cover them all.-In a word, the queftion is not about the greatnefs of your fins, but your prefent duty: be your fin what it will, the Lord calls you to come to Christ and receive him: and your unbelief, in your rejecting Chrift, is greater than all your other fins; for it is a refufal of the remedy, whereby you may be relieved of all your fin and guilt. Your other fins are but against the law; but this fin, in rejecting Chrift, is against the law and the gofpel both. Other fins are against God; but this fin, in rejecting Chrift, is against God and Chrift both. It is a great fin to think any fin little; but it is a greater fin, to think the righteoufnefs of Chrift is not above all fin. Our difobedience is the difobedience of man; but Chrifl's obedience is the obedience of God: therefore, our believing in Chrift doth please God better, than if we had continued in innocency, and never finned. The leaft fin is unpardonable without this obedience and righteousness of Chrift; and the greatest is pardonable by it. Therefore, O feek in to Christ, to be clothed upon with this righteoufnefs.

2. Objections are drawn from the juftice of God. "Oh, God is juft, and will not hold the finner guiltlefs: therefore, though I fhould fly to the horns of the altar, there I fear juftice would be avenged upon me.". Anf. This is alfo an argument why you fhould receive Chrift. God's juftice indeed must be fatisfied; and there is no way in the world, to give satisfaction to God, but by believing in Chrift; for, God is in Chrift reconciling the world to bimfelf: he hath endured the wrath of God, and fo there is no way to answer juftice, but by flying to that fatisfaction he hath made; and if you do, juftice will not demand a double fatisfaction; one from thee, and another from thy Surety: no, he will deliver from going down to the pit, because he hath found a ranfom. It is contrary to the nature of juftice, to demand a double fatisfaction, when the fatisfaction given by Chrift is infinite.

3. Objection is drawn from the finner's unworthiness. 'Oh! i am utterly unworthy, and have nothing to move God to pity me; will he accept of the like of 'me?' Anf. What think ye is thé ftrength of that reafoning? It comes juft to this: I have no merit; therefore, God will have no mercy: there is no falvation for me by the law; therefore there is no falvation for me by the gofpel. If you look at God with a legal eye, the leaft fin makes you incapable of mercy; but if you look at him in Chrift, or with an evangelical eye, the greatelt finner is capable of mercy; yea, the fenfe of unworthinefs makes a man the more capable. It is an unworthy objection, and argues lamentable ignorance of the gofpel. Come to him as deferving nothing but wrath, and flying to God's free grace, and Chrift's full merit, and the covenant's rich promife. It is with faith, as it is with a bird caft into the water, it cannot fly, the element is fo grofs; it cannot clap its wings there; but cast it into the air, then it will clap its wings and mount: fo, faith is the wing of the foul; when it looks to the man's felf, and his own worthinefs, this is fuch a grofs element, faith cannot mount: but let it out to the air of God's free grace and promife in Christ, then it will act and fly yea, grace cannot act but upon an unworthy object, and without any cause from the object. Juftice hath an eye upon the difpofition of the perfon, in its rewards; but grace and mercy hath an eye upon itself. Thus, if a king execute a malefactor, this is an act of juftice, and the caufe of it is in the offender; but if a king pardon a malefactor, this is an act of grace, and the cause of it is in the king's breast, not in the worthinefs of the delinquent: fo here, if you was worthy, you were not capable of this free gift. If ever there was a gift freely given, it is Chrift; and will you reject hin because you are unworthy? Why, if you was worthy, it would not be a free gift. Nay, your refufing of Chrift, and standing aback from him, for your unworthiness, is great pride you would have a bladder of your own, that you might swim to heaven, without being obliged to Chrift. If you meet a poor beggar, and fee nothing but mifery and poverty in his face, and draw your purse

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and offer him a fhilling; would it not be strange to hear him fay, No, I will not have it; I am not worthy; yonder is a gentleman in gay cloathing, give it him, for he is worthy? Juft as ridiculous is the cafe here, while you fland aback from Chrift, because of your unworthinefs. In a word, Chrift is worthy enough of your taking. What if the greatest prince in the world fhould make fuit to the pooreft beggar, that hath neither beauty nor dowry, though fhe be unworthy to hear of the propofal, yet the perfon is worthy who hath made it, and the acceptance of the motion is reafonable: fo it is here, if Chrift, the Prince of life, and King of glory, be worth the receiving, then reject not his offer that he makes of himfelf and indeed never will you be worthy till you

receive him.

4. Objection is drawn from a doubt and fufpicion arifing in the mind if Chrift be willing: "Oh! I fear "he is not willing to accept of me." Anfw. He declares, in his word, that he is not willing that any fhould perish; and he swears that he hath no delight in the death of finners. And, O finner! will you look up to God's face and fay, though he hath both faid and fworn to that purpofe, yet he is not willing? His purpofe of grace in faving fome, doth not fay that he is willing to deftroy any; it only fays, that, as he is not willing that any fhould perifh, fo, he is refolved that all fhall not get leave to defroy themfelves; as all would do, if he did not catch hold of fome, and pluck them as brands out of the burning; and his doing fo fays, that none are deftroyed by him, unless they destroy themselves. None are willing to be faved by him, until his willingness prevents theirs. His not faving all, is no more an argument of his willingness that any fhould perifh, than a king's not pardoning all rebels, is an argument of that prince's willingness, that any fhould live in rebellion against him, and fall under his furious refentment: and though it was poffible for that earthly prince, to make them all willing subjects to him, yet it were not inconfiftent with a merciful difpofition, for him to fuffer fome to take their will; that he may fhew how obftinate their nature is, and how equal and juft he is in the adminiftra

tion of his government: for, acts of juftice toward fome is not inconfiftent with a will to fhow mercy upon all. Carnal reafon and unbelief ftill fufpects the willingnes of Chrift; efpecially because of a decrce paft in heaven, which the word mentions concerning the falvation of fome, from which they know not but they may be excluded but as this is a powerful temptation of Satan, leading men boldly and arrogantly to meddle with the records of heaven, that are locked up from men and angels, till the decree break forth; fo it is an evidence of our curfed enmity againft God, that we will not believe his good-will in Chrift, revealed in the gofpel toward finners, by fo many commands and promifes, calls and invitations. If you would obferve inftances of Chrift's willingness, behold how he wept over Jerufalem, felf-deftroying Jerufalem, rejecting his offer, Luke xix. 41, 42. “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, faying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at leaft in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes." What a moving fight was this, to fee the Son of God in a flood of tears for loft finners! Had he been enquired at, as he did Mary, in another cafe, Bleffed Lord, what feekest thou? Why weepest thou? His answer readily would have been, "I feek not myself; I weep not for myself; for, I fhall "be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, though finners be "not gathered; but I weep to fee finners fo mad, as to reject their Saviour and falvation, rather than part "with their lufts, that have damnation attending them; "I weep to fee them content, rather to caft themfelves "headlong into the devil's arms, than throw themfelves "into my arms of mercy, or receive and embrace me." Oh! how did Chrift's heart melt with pity for you, and will not your hearts melt with defire toward him! Surely, all the rivers of tears, that flowed from his eyes, and the rivers of blood, that flowed from his pierced head, and feet, and hands, and fide, will be standing monuments of his good-will to fave finners. How would you have him to discover his willingness? Why, man, woman, he just turns a humble fupplicant to you; and, as it were, upon his bare knees befeeches you to be re conciled

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conciled to him; 2 Cor. v. 20. "We are ambassadors for Chrift, as tho' God did befeech you by us; we pray you in Chrift's ftead, be ye reconciled to Ged." O ftupenduous and amazing condefcenfion! Behold, divine mercy, ftooping down to a finner, in the humbleft pofture, importuning him to receive a Saviour, and to receive a free remiflion through him! Surely the humble intreaties of the great God, fhould both convince us of his willingness to receive us, and fhame us out of our unwillingness to receive Chrift, and falvation through him.

5. Objection is drawn from a doubt or fufpicion of our being prepared for receiving of Chrift. • Oh! fays

the finner, that is any way fenfible, I am not hum'bled enough; Chrift comes to bind up the broken'hearted; but my heart is not broken: to give the oil of joy for mourning; but I have not a mourning or melting fpirit: therefore I may not believe, or receive 'Chrift. Anf. You will never reckon yourself humbled enough, if you would have humiliation proportioned to your fin, which is an infinite evil. Legal humiliation, though never fo deep, though your heart fhould be broken in as many pieces, as the glafs doth fhudder against the wall; and though you were roaring day and night, under the difquiet of a guilty confcience, and fearful apprehenfions of God's wrath; yet all this will not fay, that you are now fit for Chrift: thefe humiliations may be merely judicial, and punishments of fin, as were thofe of Cain and Judas; therefore, you cannot judge yourself by your legal humiliations, but only by the iffue and event of them. Think not, then, to bring humiliation in your hand as a price; this will but more unfit you the best humiliation is, to fee your want of humiliation; the beft preparation, to fee your want of preparation, and your want of all good things about you and to receive Chrift is the only way to true gofpel-humiliation. The law is like a thunder-clap, that terrifies; but the gofpel is like a warm fun that diffolves the ice. Nothing melts the foul more than Christ apprehended by faith; "They fhall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they fhall mourn," Zech. xii. 10.