Baxter - HP BV4920 B38 1829

A CALL TO Doctrine 5. The Lord doth redouble his com· mands and persuasions to the wicked to turn. Doctrine 6. The Lord condescendeth to reason the case with them; and asketh the wicked why they will die? Doctrine 7. If after all this the wicked will not turn, it is not the fault of God that they perish but of themselves; their own wilfulness is the cause of their own damnation; they therefore die because they will die. Having laid the text open in these propositions, I shall next speak somewhat of each of them in order, though very briefly. DocTRINE 1. It is the unchangeable law of God, that wicked men must turn, or die. If you 1vill believe God, believe this: there is but one of these two ways for every wicked man, either conversion or damnation. I know the wicked \vill hardly be persuaded either of the truth or equity of this. No wonder if the guilty quarrel with the law. Few men are apt to bdieve that which they would n0t have to be true, and fewer would have that to be true which they apprehend to be against them. But it is not quarrelling with the law, or with the judge, that will save the malefactor. Believing and regarding the law might have prevented his death, but denying and accusing it will but hasten it. If it were not so, an hundred would bring their reason against the law, for one that would bring his reason to the law, and men would rather choose to give their reasons why they should not be punished, than to hear the commands and reasons of their governors which require them to obey. The law was not made for lou to judge, but that you might be ruled and judge by it. . But if there be any so blind as to venture to ques· tion either the truth or the justice of this law of God,

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