Serm. CXVIII in order to Repentance. _._ And ifafterall this, we can doubt whether the faithful God means as he fairs, hehath for our farther affurance, and toput the matter out of all doubt, confir- med his Word by an Oath, E&ek. 33. r i. As I live; faith the Lord God, I have no pleafure in the death of the wicked, bat that the wicked turn from his mays and live. Turnye, turn yefrom your evil ways ; for why will,ye die, O ..Houle of lfrael ? So that if words can be any Declaration of a hearty and fincere defire, we have no Reafon to doubt, but that God does really delire the Happinefs of men, and would gladly prevent their Ruin and Deftru&ion. If any now ask, Why then are not all men happy ? Whydo they not efcape Ruin and Deftru&ion ? Andparticularly why the People of Ifrael, for whöm God here makes this With, did not efcape thofe Judgments which were threat- ned ; the Prophet (hall anfwer for me, HI 13. 9. 0_Ifrael ! thou haft deftroyed thy felf. And David, Pfal. 81. r r. My people would not hearken to my Poice,, If- rael would none ofme. And our Bleffed Saviour, Mat. 23. 37. Howoften would I have gathered thee, as a Hen gatherethher Chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! And, John 5. 40. re will not come unto me, that ye might., have life. You fee what account the Scripture plainly gives ofthis matter ; it refis upon the wills of men , and God hath not thought fit to force Happinefs upon men, and to make themwife and good whether they will or no. He prefents men with fuch Motives, and offers fuch Arguments to their Confideration, as are fitto prevail with reafonable men, and is ready to afford them all neceffary a(iìftance, if they be not wanting to themfelves; but if they will not be wife and confider, if they will Rand out againft all the Arguments that God can offer, if theywill receive the grace of God in vain and refift his bleedSpirit, and rejeti the counfel of God againf themfelves, God bath not in this Cafe engaged himfelf to provide any remedy againft the obflinacyand perverfenefs of men, but their Deftruc`lion is of themfelves, and their blood(hall beupon their own heads. And there is nonicety and intricacy in this matter; but if men will confider Scripture and Reafon impartially, they will find this tobe the plain Refolution of theCafe. So that no Manbath Reafon either to charge hisFault, or his Punifhment upon God; he isfree froth the Bloodof all Men, he fincerely delires our Happinefs ; but we wilfully ruin our felves: and when he tells us, that He defres not the death of a firmer, but rather that he fhould turn from his wickednefs and live ; that He would have all men to be faved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth ; that He it not willing that any fhouldperifh, but that all fhould come to repentance; he plainly means as he fays, and doth not fpeakto us with any referve, or dark diftinetion between his fecret and revealed Will, he does not decree one thing, and declare another. And if this be fo, no Man bath reafon to be difcouraged from attempting and endeavouring his own Happinefs, upon a jealoule and furmife that God bath by any fatal decreeputa Bar to it fromall eternity : for ifhe had abfolutely refolved to make the greatefi part of Mankind miferable, without any refpe& to their A&i- ons in this World, he would never have faid, that He defsres that all fhould be faved; he would not have exhorted all men to :work out their own Salvation: had he taken up any fuch Refolution, he would have declared it to all the World : for he bath Power enough in his Hands, todo what hepleafeth, and none can refill his Will; ,fo that he did not need tohave diffembled the matter, and to have pre- tended a defire to fave men, when be was refolved to ruin them. This is the Firfl, that God doth really and heartily defire the Happinefs of men, and to prevent their Mifery and Ruin. I proceed to the IL That it is a greatpart ofwfdom to confider ferioufly the laft Iffue and Con - fequence of our A&ions, and whither the Courfe of Life whichwe lead does tend and what will follow upon it. And therefore Wifdom is here explained by Confide- ration, 0 that they were wife, that they would confider their latter end! that is, what will befal them hereafter, what will be the Iffue and Confequenceof all the Sins and Provocations which they are guilty of. And this is a principal Point and Property of Wifdom, to look forward, and not only to confider the prefent Pleafure and Advantage of any A&ion, but the O a future 99
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