146 COMING TO GOD WITHOUT CHRIST. myself in snow-water, andmake my hands never so clean, thou wilt plunge mein the ditch, and any own clothes would abhor me. 'I'liat is, if I should use all my own purifications, thou wilt dis- cover me to be still as greatly defiled with sin, as one .who is plunged into a ditch, and is unfit to put on his common raiment, lest he defile that and every thing about him. Alas, how little do men believe this ? How little do they know and think Of their own guilt, in the sight of God, and the depth of their own misery ! How are they led by their own thoughtlessness and shameful ignorance of themselves to build their hopes for eternity on a very sandy foundation, which will never stand in the day of that divine tempest, which shall try every man'swork : You imagine, God will not be .so strict a judge, and so severe, as preachers represent him ; but how do you know that he will net be thus severe in his enquiries and his Judgment ? I am well assured the mere light of nature can never . assure you of it, nor secure you against this severity : And the scripture often represents him thus severe in his judgment, . formed by the rules of his own law, and abstracted from the gospel of his grace. David knew this in ancient times; Psal. cxxx. 3. If thou,'Lord, shouldst mark iniquities; 0 Lord who can stand. Psal. cxliii. 2. No man living shall be justified in thy sight. All mankind are sinners ; There is none righteous, no,, not one: Every mouth is stopped, and the wholeworld lies guilty before God ; Rom. iii. 19. 2 If we were entirely innocent as to man, would that be. sufficient toUnsvvér for all our injuries and dishonours done to God ? Would this honest and blameless conduct among your neighbours; atone for all your neglects of religion, and your shameful forgetfulness of God your Maker ? What ! Did God send you into this world among sensible things, and give you leave to neglect him, whois the eternal and 'almighty Spirit ?. Did.he formyour spirits within you;, and give you understand- ing and reason, and noble powers to know the God that made. you, and never require or expect_that you should use them to obtain this knowledge? Have you a tongue to speak, and yet never speak to him in petition or praise? It is not only cruelty, or falsehood, or injustice to our neighbours, which the holy apostle . charges mankind with, in order to lay their consciences under guilt and condemnation, but their ncglects,of God and religion are brought ïá as a heavy part of the charge ;, Rom. iii. II, 17, 18. There is nonethat understaudeth, there is none that .seeketh after God; there is no fear of God before their eyes. You hear the accusations of this apostle, speaking in the .name of God to ngen, to make them sensible of their guilt and misery ; you have defrauded the great God of his due glory; you have done him muds injury in withholding from him worship and reverence, INN
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