ed, or reproached, &c. I will patiently sit down, and say, 'It is the Lord, let him do with me what seemeth good in his own eyes.' Do any thing with me, lay what burthen thou wilt upon me; so thou dost not give me up to the ways of my own heart.

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Rem. 2. Solemnly consider, that God is as just as he is merciful: as the scriptures represent him to be a very merciful God,' so they represent him to be a very just God;' witness, 'his casting the angels out of heaven,'* and 'his binding them in chains of darkness, till the judgment of the great day, his turning Adam out of Paradise, drowning of the old world, and raining fire from heaven upon Sodom; witness all the losses, crosses, sicknesses, and diseases that are in the world; and Tophet that is prepared of old;' witness, his treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath, unto the revelation of the just judgments of God;' but above all, witness the pouring forth of all his wrath upon his dear Son, when he bore the sins of his people, and cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?' Mat. xxvii. 46.

Rem. 3. Seriously consider, that sins against mercy, will bring the greatest and sorest judgments down upon the heads and hearts of men.

* 2 Pet. ii. 4, 5, 6. God hanged them up in gibbets, as it were, that others might hear and fear, and do no more so wickedly.

Mercy is alpha, Justice is omega. David speaking of these attributes, placeth mercy in the forefront, and justice in the rearward, saying, My song shall be of mercy and judgment,' Ps. ci. 1. When mercy is despised, then justice takes the throne.* God is like a prince, that sends not his army against rebels, before he hath sent his pardon, and proclaimed it by a herald of arms: he first hangs out the white flag of mercy; if this win men over, they are happy for ever; but if they stand out, then God will put forth his red flag of justice and judgment; if the one be despised the other shall be felt with a witness.†

See this exemplified in the Israelites; he loved them and chose them, when they were in their blood, and most unlovely; he multiplied them, not by means but by miracle; from seventy souls, they grew in a few years to six hundred thousand: the more they were oppressed, the more they prospered: like camomile, the more you tread it, the more you spread it; or to a palm tree, the more it is pressed, the further it spreadeth; or to fire, the more it is raked, the fiercer it burneth; their mercies came in upon them like Job's messengers, one upon the neck

The higher we are in dignity, the more grievous is our fall and misery.

"God is slow to anger, but he recompenseth his slowness with grievousness of punishment. If we abuse mercy to serve our lust then, in Salvian's phrase, "God will rain hell out of heaven, rather than not visit such for sins."

of another. He put off their sackcloth, and girded them with gladness, and compassed them about with songs of deliverance; he carried them on the wings of eagles, he kept them as the apple of his eye,' &c. But they abusing his mercy, became the greatest objects of his wrath: as I know not the man that can reckon up their mercies, so I know not the man that can sum up the miseries that are come upon them for their sins; for as our Saviour prophesied concerning Jerusalem, That one stone should not be left upon another:' so it was fulfilled forty years after his ascension, by Vespasian* the emperor, and his son Titus, who having besieged Jerusalem, the Jews were oppressed with a grievous famine, in which their food was old shoes, old leather, old hay, and the dung of beasts; there died partly of the sword, and partly of famine, eleven hundred thousand of the poorer sort; two thousand in one night were embowelled, six thousand were burned in a porch of the temple, the whole city was sacked and burnt, and laid level to the ground, and ninety-seven thousand taken captives, and applied to base and miserable service, according to Eusebius and Josephus. And to this day, in all

* Vespasian brake into their city at Cedron, where they took Christ, on the same feast day that Christ was taken; he whipped them where they whipped Christ; he sold twenty Jews for a penny, as they sold Christ for thirtypence. S. Andr, cat.

parts of the world, are they not the off-scouring of the world? None less beloved, and none more abhorred than they.

And so Capernaum, that was lifted up to heaven, was threatened to be brought down to hell. No souls fall so low into hell (if they fall) as those who by a hand of mercy are lifted up nearest to heaven.* You unthinking souls, that are so apt to abuse mercy, consider this, that in the gospel days, the plagues that God inflicts upon the despisers and abusers of mercy, are usually spiritual plagues; as blindness of mind, hardness of heart, and a benumbed conscience, which are ten thousand times worse than any outward plagues that can befal you; and therefore, though you may escape temporal judg ments, yet you shall not escape spiritual judgment. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?' saith the apostle. Oh! therefore, whenever Satan shall present God to thy soul, as one made up of all mercy, that he may draw thee to do wickedly, tell him, that sins against mercy will bring upon the world the greatest misery, and therefore whatever becomes of thee, thou wilt not sin against, mercy, &c.

Rem. 4. Consider also, that though God's general mercy be over all his works, yet his spe

* Men are therefore worse, because they ought to be better, and shall be deeper in hell, because heaven was offered unto them, but they would not. "Good turns aggravate unkindnesses, and men's offences are increased by their obligations."

cial mercy is confined to those who are divinely qualified, so in Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7, And the Lord passed by before me, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.' Ex. xx. 6.' And shewing mercy unto thousands, of them that love me, and keep my commandments.' Ps. xxv. 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep his covenant, and his testimonies.' Ps. xxxii. 10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.' Ps. xxxiii. 18. 'Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.' Ps. ciii. 11. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.' Ver. 17. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, upon them that fear him.' When Satan attempts to draw thee to sin, by presenting God as a God of all mercy; oh! then reply, that though God's general mercy extend to all the works of his hand, yet his special mercy is confined to them that are divinely qualified, to them that love him and keep his commandments, that trust in him, that by hope hang upon him, and fear him; and that thou must be such a one here, or else thou canst never be happy hereafter; thou must par

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