ss A CALL TO out against him, and given those mercies which thou didst sacrifice to thy flesh, and afforded thee that provision which thou spentest to satisfy thy greedy throat: he gave thee every minute of that time which thou didst waste in idleness, or drunkenness, or worldliness; and doth not all his patience and mercy show that.he desired not thy damnation? Can the candle burn without the oil? Can your houses stand without the earth to bear them? No more can you live an hour without the support of God. And why did he so long support thy life, but to see when thou wouldst bethink thee of the folly of thy ways, and return and live? Will any man purposely put arms into his enemy's hands to resist him, or hold a candle to a murderer that is killing his children, or to an idle servant that plays or sleeps the while ? Surely it is to see whether thou wilt at last return and live, that God hath so long waited on thee. 5. It is further proved by the sufferings of his Son, that God taketh no pleasure in the death of the wicked . Would he have ransomed them from death at so dear a rate ? Would he have astonished angels and men by his condescension? Would God have dwelt in flesh, and have come in the form of a servant, and have assumed humanity into one person with the Godhead; and would Christ have lived a life of suf-. fering, and died a cursed death for sinners, if he had rather taken pleasure in their death? Suppose you saw him but so busy in preaching and healing of them, as you find him in Mark iii. 21. or so long in fasting, as in Matt. iv. or all night in prayer, a,s in Luke vi. 12. or praying with the drops of blood trickling from him instead of sweat, as Luke xxii. 44. or suffering a cursed death upon the cross, and pouring out his soul as a sacrifice for our sins. Would you have thought these the signs of one that delighted in the death of the wicked? And think not to extenuate it by saying, that it was only for his elect: for it was thy sin, and the
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