rious God has not an abfolute right to difpofe of his own favours, just how, when, and where he pleases; and whether he has not affured us, that he will beftow his everlasting mercy upon none but those who are really conformable to the terms of the covenant of grace.

Now, Sir, If you, while unregenerate, can neither make atonement for your paft fin and guilt, nor come up to the demands of the law of nature; if you can neither pleafe God by your finful performances, nor impose upon him by your hypocritical fhews; if you run further in debt by the fin in your very duties, instead of paying any thing of the old fcore; if you have no claim to acceptance on Chrift's account, without a fpecial intereft in him, nor any claim to the benefits of the covenant of grace, till you actually comply with the terms of it; if both law and gofpel condemn you in your prefent ftate, and nothing but omnipotence can change your heart and make your state better; if God be a sovereign donor of his own favours; and you can have no promise to plead, while you remain under the curfe and wrath of God, and a stranger to the covenants of promife; if even you yourself must allow all these things to be undoubted truths, it must then be true, even to demonftration, that (while in fuch a state) you are capable of no qualifying condition of the divine favour; and had need therefore to feel that you lie at mercy.

To conclude this head; if God himself may be believed in the cafe, He will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy; and whom he will be hardeneth, Rom. ix. 18. It is not for our fakes, that he beftows grace upon us, but for his holy name's fake, Ezek. xxxvi. 22. 31. He predeftinates us unto the adoption of children by Jefus Chrift to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise

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of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved, Eph. i. 5, 6.-He acts, in this cafe, according to his own fovereign pleasure, as a potter that hath power over his clay, to make one veffel to honour, and another to dishonour; and we have no liberty to reply against God: It is infufferable arrogance for the thing formed to fay to him that formed it, Why haft thou made me thus? Rom. ix. 20, 21.-Sir, as you yourself claim a fovereignty in the difpenfation of your favours, furely you will not dare to deny a like fovereignty in the eternal God.-Believe it, the glorious God is a fovereign benefactor; and he will be acknowledged as fuch, by all that ever partake of his faving mercy.

And now I am prepared to fhew you, that the confequence which you draw from this doctrine is unjuft, and even directly contrary to the improvement you ought to make of it.

And the reason I offer for this is, that a realizing belief of the truth before us, directly tends to bring moft glory to God, and most fafety, comfort, and happiness to yourself.-It is easy to conceive how it conduceth moft to God's glory, for us to confider him as the fountain and foundation of all grace and mercy; and to confider all the favours we enjoy, or hope for, as flowing from the mere goodness of his nature, and not from any motive or inducement which we can poffibly lay before him.-In this view of the cafe, we do that honour to an infinite and eternal Being, as to fuppofe him a self-existent, independent, and immutable Sovereign; while, on the contrary, to imagine ourselves capable, by any thing we can do, to change his purposes, engage his affections, or excite and move his compaffions towards us, is to conceive him to be altogether fuch an one as ourselves, liable to new impreffions from our complaints or perfuafions, mutable in his affec

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tions, dependent upon our duties for the exercise of his grace. And I leave it to you to judge, which of these apprehenfions are moft worthy of that God, who is infinitely exalted above us, and is without any variation or Shadow of turning: I leave it likewife to you to judge, which principle is most likely to fubferve our beft interefts, that which does the moft honour, or that which does the most dishonour to God.

If we apply this to the prefent cafe, I ask, In which way can we find moft encouragement to feek or strive for mercy? In which way have we the best prospect of fuccefs? By entertaining false and dishonourable conceptions of the divine Being, and denying to God the glory which is due to his name? Or elfe, by lying at the foot of a Sove. reign, and thereby afcribing to him the infinite perfections of his excellent nature? Though in this latter way you can make no change in God, you will nevertheless have the evidence that he has made a change in you, and a comfortable prospect, that by bringing you to a fubmiffion to his fovereignty, he has a defign of special favour to your foul.

If we fhould yet further continue our view of this cafe, it will appear, that a fubmiffion to the mere fovereign mercy of God is most conducive to your own comfort, fafety, and happiness.This confideration is a juft foundation of comfort and hope, in that it obviates the darkness and difcou ragements that would otherwife arife from a fense of your guilt and unworthiness, and from your impotence, and unavoidable infirmity and imperfection in the fervice of God.-What hope could you find from your duties, when, after your best endeavours, you would fee fo much deadness, formality, and hypocrify, in your highest attainments? What hope from your reformations, when

you

you find fo much fin and corruption gaining ground against all your good purposes and refolutions? What hope from your good affections, when fo much hardness of heart, worldly-mindedness, fenfuality, and carnal difpofitions are feparating between God and you?-Can you quiet your foul by impofing upon an omnifcient God, with your vain fhews, and flattering pretences? No, Sir, if you have any true difcovery of your own heart, these confiderations muft continually perplex and distress your foul with distracting fears and defpondencies, as long as you are thus compaffing yourself about with Sparks of your own kindling. For thefe defects and imperfections will certainly accompany your best resolutions, endeavours, and attainments.-But then, on the other hand, if you lie at mercy, and fubmit to God as the fovereign Difpofer of his own favours, you have good grounds of encouragement and hope.-Are your fins great, and greatly aggravated? the mercy of God exceeds them all.Have you no agreeable qualifications to recommend you to the favour of God? Multitudes of others have found mercy, who had no better qualifications than you have.-Have you no special promife to depend upon, as belonging to you, while in an unconverted state?, yet is it not fufficient, that you have gracious encouragement to leave all in the hands of that mercy, which infinitely exceeds your highest apprehenfions or imaginations?-Are you incapable to come up to the terms of grace proposed in the gospel? there is yet hope in God's omnipotent mercy, that he will work in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure; he has done it for thousands of finners no better than you.

Now, Sir, look around you, and fee what refuge you can poffibly betake yourself to. You are

in the hands of justice; and which way can you make your escape? If you attempt to fly from God, you perish; but if you fly to him, there is hope. He is Sovereign in the donation of his favours; you have therefore as good a prospect of obtaining falvation (in the use of appointed means) as any unregenerate perfon in the world.-Your defects and demerits need not be any difcourage. ment; for his mercy triumphs over the guilt and unworthiness of the greatest finners.-Is it therefore not your greatest fafety to lie at his foot, in the way of his appointments, where there is a bleffed hope fet before you?-In this way you have the infinite mercy of God, the gracious encourage. ments of the gospel, the glorious fuccefs of fo many thousands who have tried this method, to animate your diligence and hope: And there is no other way, in which you have any encouragement to expect renewing grace, and pardoning faving mercy. Since you wholly depend upon God's free fovereign mercy, you fhould ufe the more diligent and earneft application, in all the ways of his appointment, that you may obtain it. Since you must obtain mercy of God, or perish, O. with what diligence and importunity, with what ardour of foul, fhould you addrefs the Throne of Grace, før deliverance from your guilt and danger?-Since, in a way of fovereignty, God is pleafed to beftow his fpecial grace, with an intereft in his Son, and his great falvation, at what time, and by what means it fhall feem beft in his fight, you should therefore at all times, and in the ufe of all the means of grace, be feeking the Lord while he may be found, and calling upon him while he is near.

Can it be thought juft reafoning, that because you cannot help yourself, and there is none but God can help you, it is therefore in vain to apply

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