A CALL TO may desire somewhat which they call by the name ofheaven, yet heaven itself, considered in the true nature of the felicity, they desire not; yea, their hearts are quite against it. H€.8-ven is a state of perfect holiness, and of continual love and praise to God, and the wicked have no heart to this. The imperfect love and praise and holiness which is here to be attained, they have no mind of; much less of that which is so much greater. The joys of heaven are of so pure and spiritual a nature, that the heart of the wicked cannot truly desire them. So that by this time you may see on what ground it is that God supposeth that the wicked are willing of their own destruction. They will not turn, though they must turn or die: they will rather venture on certain misery, than be converted; and then to quiet themselves in their sins, they will make themselves believe that they shall nevertheless es,. cape. 11. And as this controversy is matter of wonder, that ever men should be such enemies to themselves as wilfully to cast away their souls, so are the disputants too. That God should stoop so low as thus to plead the case with man; and that man should be so strangely blind and obstinate as to need all this -in so plain a case; yea, and to resist all this, when their own salvation lieth upon the issue. No wonder that they will~not hear us that are men, when they will not hear the Lord himself: As God saith, Ezek. iii. 7, when he sent the prophet to the Israelites. "The house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard hearted." No wonder if they can plead against a minister, or a godly neighbour, when they will plead against the Lord himself, even against the plainest passages of his word, and think that they have reason on their side. When they weary the Lord with their words, they say, "Wherein have we wearied him?" .M&l. ii. 17. The priests that
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