December 6

Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.—Ecclesiastes 7:29.

1. Did God create man upright? then how little reason had man to sin! how little reason had he to desert God! to be weary of his first estate! Could God's making him, his making him upright, be a reason why he should sin against him? was his directing his heart, and the natural course of his affections towards himself, a reason why he should forsake him? What was there in his state that should make it grievous to him? Was his duty too much for him? God made him upright, so that every part of it was connatural to him. Was his privilege too little? He knew, and loved, and enjoyed the highest and infinite good. O think then how unreasonable and disingenuous a thing sin was! that a creature that was nothing a few hours ago, now a reasonable being, capable of God, should yet sin! Urge your hearts with this, we are too apt to think ourselves unconcerned in Adam's sin; we look upon ourselves too abstractly, we should remember we are members of a community, and it should be grievous to us to think that our species hath dealt so unkindly and unworthily with God: and besides, do not we sin daily, after the similitude of Adam's transgression? and is not sin as unreasonable and unjust a thing as ever?

Was our primitive state so good and happy, how justly may we reflect and look back towards our first state! How fitly might we take up Job's words: O that I were as in months past;—as in the days of my youth;—when the Almighty was with me;—when I put on righteousness and it clothed me;—when my glory was fresh in me! With what sadness may we call to mind the things that are past, and the beginnings of ancient time! when there was no stain upon our natures, no cloud upon our minds, no pollution upon our hearts; when with pure and undefiled souls we could embrace and rest, and rejoice in the eternal incomprehensible good! When we remember these things, do not our bowels turn? are not our souls poured out within us?

2. Did man so voluntarily ruin himself? how unlikely is he now to be his own saviour! He that was a self-destroyer from the beginning, that ruined himself as soon as God had made him, is he likely now to save himself? Is it easier for him to recover his station than to have kept it? or hath he improved himself by sinning, and gained strength by his fall for a more difficult undertaking? Is he grown better natured towards himself and his God than he was at first?

How little reason hath he to blame God, though he finally perish! What would he have had God to have done more to prevent it; he gave his law to direct him; his promise for his encouragement was evidently implied; his nature was sufficiently disposed to improve and comport with all these; yet he sins! Is God to be charged with this? Sins upon no necessity, with no pretense; but that he must be seeking out inventions, trying

81 experiments, assaying to better his state, as plainly despising the law, suspecting the truth, envying the greatness, asserting and aspiring to the sovereignty and Godhead of his Maker. Had we any of us a mind to contend with God about this matter, how would we order our cause? how would we state our quarrel? If we complain that we should be condemned and ruined all in one man; that is to complain that we are Adam's children. A child might as well complain that he is the son of a beggar or a traitor, and charge it as injustice upon the prince or law of the land that he is not born to a patrimony; this is a misery to him, but no man will say it is a wrong. And can it be said that we are wronged by the common Ruler of the world, that we do not inherit from our father the righteousness and felicity he had willfully lost long before we were his children? If we think it hard we should be tied to terms we never consented to, might not an heir as well quarrel with the magistrate, that he suffers him to become liable for his father's debts, and to lie in prison if he have not to pay? Can it possibly be thought that any man should rather choose presently to lose his being, and the pleasures and hopes of such a state, than to have consented to such terms? It can not be thought.

Were we once so happy, and have we now undone ourselves? how acceptable should this render the means of our recovery to us! O how welcome should the tidings of deliverance now be to us! how joyful an entertainment should our hearts give them! How greatly doth Scripture commend the love and grace of Christ, under the notion of redeeming! a word that doth not signify deliverance from simple misery only, but also connote a precedent better state, as they expound it who take the phrase, as Scripture uses it, to allude to the buying out of captives from their bondage. And how should it ravish the heart of any man to have mercy and help offered him by another hand, who hath perished by his own! how welcome should gospel grace be on this account! how should this consideration engage souls to value and embrace it! "O Israel, return unto the Lord, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity." Now do but seriously consider this. If you believe the truths you have heard, how precious should Christ be to you! how precious should the gospel, the ordinances and ministry of it be! Do you complain that formerly you were not treated with? By all these God now treats with you.

Now your own personal consent is called for; not to any thing that hath the least hazard in it, but what shall make you certainly happy, as miserable as you have made yourselves; and there is nothing but your consent wanting, the price of your redemption is already paid; it is but taking Christ for your Saviour and your Lord, and living a life of dependence and holiness for a few days, and you are as safe as if you were in glory. Will you now stick at this? O do not destroy yourselves a second time, and make yourselves doubly guilty of your ruin.