TO A SOUND CO4VERSION. 383 that made them will not have mercy on them ; and he that formed them will show them no favóur.(g) If ano- ther, man will not clothe you when you are naked, and feed you when you are hungry, you will say he is unmerciful. If he should cast you into prison, or beat and torment you, you would say he is unmerci- ful. And yet you will do a thousand times more against yourselves, and even cast away both soul and body for ever, and never complain of your own un- mercifulness. Yea, and God who waited upon you all the while with his mercy, must be taken to be unmerciful if he punish you after all this. Unless the holy God of heaven will give these wretches leave to trample upon his Son's blood, and do despite to the Spirit of grace, and set more lightly by saving mercy, than by the filth of their fleshly pleasures ; and unless after all this he will save them by the mercy which they cast away, God himself mist be called unmerciful. But he will be justified when he judgeth . and he will not stand or fall at the bar of a sinful worm. 2. From hence you may observe, 1. What a subtle tempter Satan is. 2. What a deceitful thing sin is, 3. What a foolish creature corrupted man is. A subtle tempter indeed, that can persuade the greatest, part of the world to go wilfully into everlasting fire, when they have so many warnings and dissuasives ! A deceitful thing is sin indeed, that can bewitch so -many thou- sands to part with everlasting life, for a thing so base and utterly unworthy! A foolish creature is man, that will be cheated of his salvation for',nothing, yea, for a known nothing; and that by an enemy, and a known enemy ! You would think it impossible that any man should be persuaded for a little to east himself into the fire, or 'water,, 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, so that you should not die till you would kill yourselves, how long would most of you live ! and yet when your everlast- (g) Isa. xxvii. 11.
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