THE UNCONVERTED. 148 of it which deserveth the punishment; anJ I pray you, let us not befool ourselves with opinions. Let the case be your own. If you had an enemy that was so malicious, as to fall upon you and beat you, or take away the lives of your children, would you excuse him, because he said, I have not fl-ee-will, it is my nature; I cannot choose unless God give me grace? Ifyou had a servant that robbed you, would you take such an answer from him? Might not every thief and murderer that is hanged at the assize give such an answer: I have not free-will; I cannot change my own heart; what can I do without God's , grace? and shall they therefore be acquitted? If not, why then should you think to be acquitted for a course of sin against the Lord? :2. From hence also you may observe these three things together:-!. What a subtle tempter Satan is. 2. vVhat a deceitful thing sin is. 3'. What a foolish creature corrupted man is. A subtl~ tempter indeed, that qan persuade the greatest part of the worlcl to go into everlasting fire, when they have so many warnings and dissuasives as they have! A deceitful thing is sin indeed, that can bewitch so many thousands to part with everlasting life, for a thing so base and utterly unworthy! A f.'lOlish creature is man indeed, that will he cheated of his salvation for nothing, yea, for a known nothing; and that by an enemy, and a known enemy. You wou!J think it impossible that any man in his wits should be persuaded for a little to cast himself into the fire, or water, or into a coal-pit, to the destruction of his life; and yet men will be enticed to cast themselves into hell. If your natural lives were in your own hands, that you should not die till you would kill yourselves, how long would most of you live? And yet when your everlasting life is so far in your own hands under God, that you cannot be undone till you undo yourselves, how few of you will forbear your own undoing! Ah, what a silly thing is man! and what a bewitching a,nd befooling thing is sin.
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