plead against against a minifter, or a godly neighbour, when they will plead againft the Lord himself, even against the plaineft paffages of his word, and think that they have reafon on their fide: When they weary the Lord with their words, they fay, "Wherein have we wearied him ?" Mal. ii. 17. The priests, that despised his name, durft afk, "Wherein have we defpifed thy name?" And when they polluted his altar, and made the temple of the Lord contemptible, they durft fay, " Wherein have we polluted thee?" Mal. i. 6, 7. But, "Wo unto him, faith the Lord, that ftriveth with his Maker: Let the potfherd ftrive with the potfherds of the earth: Shall the clay fay unto him that fashioned it, What makeft thou?" Ifaiah xlv. 9.

Quest. But why is it that God will reafon the cafe with man?

Anf. 1. Because that man, being a reafonable creature, is accordingly to be dealt with, and by reafon to be perfuaded and overcome. God hath therefore endowed them with reafon, that they might use it for him. One would think a reasonable creature should not go against the clearest and greatest reafon in the world, when it is fet before him.

2. At least, men fhall fee that God did require nothing of them that was unreafonable, but that whatever he commanded them, and whatever he forbiddeth them,

he hath all the right reafon in the world on his fide: And they have good reason to obey him, but none to difobey. And thus even the damned fhall be forced to justify God, and confefs that it was but reafon that they fhould have turned to him; and they fhall be forced to condemn themselves, and confefs that they had little reafon to caft away themselves by the neglecting of his grace in the day of their vifitation.

US E.

Look up your beft and ftrongest reafons, finners, if you will make good your way-You fee now with whom you have to deal.-What fayeft thou, unconverted, fenfual wretch? Dareft thou venture upon a difpute with God? Art thou able to confute him? Art thou ready to enter the lifts? God afketh thee, Why wilt thou die? Art thou furnished with a fufficient anfwer? Wilt thou undertake to prove that God is miftaken, and that thou art in the right? O what an undertaking is that!Why, either he or you are mistaken, when he is for your converfion, and you are against it. He calls upon you to turn, and you will not; he bids you do it presently, even to-day, while it is called to day, and you delay, and think it time enough hereafter. He faith it must be a total change, and you must be holy, and new creatures, and born again; and you think that lefs may ferve the turn, and that it is enough

to patch up the old man, without becoming. new. Who is in the right now? God or you? God calleth on you to turn, and to live a holy life, and you will not; by your difobedient lives it appears you will not. If you will, why do you not? Why have you not done it all this while? and, why do you not fall upon it yet? Your wills have the command of your lives. We may certainly conclude that you are unwilling to turn, when you do not turn. And, why will you not? Can you give any reafon for it that is worthy to be called a reason?

I, that am but a worm, your fellowcreature, of a fhallow capacity, dare challenge the wifeft of you all to reafon the cafe with me, while I plead my Maker's caufe; and I need not be difcouraged, when I know I plead but the caufe that God pleadeth, and contend for him that will have the beft at last. Had I but these two general grounds against you, I am fure that you have no good reafon on your fide.

1. I am fure it can be no good reafon, which is against the God of truth and reafon. It cannot be light that is contrary to the fun. There is no knowledge in any creature but what it has from God; and therefore none can be wifer than God. It were fatal prefumption for the highest angel to compare with his Creator. What is it then for a lump of dirt, an ignorant fot, that knoweth not himfelf, nor his own

foul, that knoweth but little of the things. which he feeth, yet that is more ignorant than many of his neighbours, to fet himfelf against the wifdom of the Lord? It is one of the fulleft discoveries of the horrible wickedness of carnal men, and the stark madness of fuch as fin, that fo filly a mole dare contradict his Maker, and call in question the word of God: Yea, that those people in our parishes, that are so ignorant, that they cannot give us a reafonable answer concerning the very principles of religion, are yet fo wife in their own conceit, that they dare queftion the plain-eft truths of God, yea, contradict them and cavil against them, when they can fcarce fpeak fenfe, and will believe them: no farther than agreeth with their foolish wifdom.

2. And, as I know that God muft needs be in the right; fo I know the cafe is fo palpable and grofs which he pleadeth againft, that no man can have reafon for it.. Is it poffible that a man can have any reafon to break his master's laws? and reason to dishonour the Lord of glory? and reafon to abuse the Lord that bought him ?— Is it poffible that a man can have any good reafon to damn his own immortal foul? Mark the Lord's question, "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" Is eternal death a thing to be defired? Are you in love with hell? What reafon have you wilfully to perish? If you think you have reafon to

135 fin, fhould you not remember that "death. is the wages of fin," Rom. vi. 23. and think whether you have any reafon to undo yourselves, body and foul, for ever?-You fhould not only afk whether you love the adder, but whether you love the fting ?It is fuch a thing for a man to caft away his everlasting happiness, and to fin against God, that no good reafon can be given for it but, the more any one pleads for it, the madder he fheweth himself to be. Had you a lordship or a kingdom offered you for every fin that you commit, it were not reason, but madness, to accept it. Could you by every fin obtain the highest thing on earth that flesh desireth, it were no confiderable value to perfuade you in reafon to commit it. If it were to please your greateft or dearest friends, or to obey the greatest prince on earth, or to fave your lives, or to escape the greateft earthly mifery; all these are of no confideration to draw a man in reafon to the committing of one fin. If it were a right hand or a right eye that would hinder your falvation, it is the gainfullest way to caft it away, rather than go to hell to fave it. For there is no faving a part when you lofe the whole. So exceeding great are the matters of eternity, that nothing in this world deferveth once to be named in comparifon with them; nor can any earthly thing, though it were life, or crowns, or kingdoms, be a reafon