cursed; and thy head shall be bruised. But guilty man is reprieved from a total ruin, and allowed a space for repentance. And the world has now stood almost six thousand years, reprieved by the tender mercy of God, through Jesus Christ.

Indeed, certain evils were denounced by the Majesty of heaven, as standing monuments of his displeasure, always to attend a guilty race while in this world. Peculiar sorrows were appointed to women, and hard labour and toil to men, and sickness and pain to both, till death should put an end to their reprieve and to their space for repentance. (Ver. 1619.) And when our day to die shall come, we are not to know: we lie at mercy, and God acts sovereignly: so long as he pleases, so long shall we be reprieved, and no longer. And thus, while tender mercy appears in the general reprieve, the holiness, and justice, and sovereignty of God appear in the manner of it. God is exalted; a guilty world lies at his mercy; they are, in a sense, continually under his rod, and every moment liable to drop into an eternal hell. They are held up in his hand: hell gapes to receive them, and now he lets one fall, and then another: now this, and then that, just as it seems good in his sight Surely, this is awful! Surely, mankind are in very humbling circumstances, and in circumstances wonderfully calculated to awaken them to repent and pray to God, if eradventure their wickedness may be forgiven.

When the general reprieve, granted to this lower world, shall come to a period, then will the great Judge of the world proceed, with all who shall be found impenitent, according to law, without any mixture of mercy. The present reprieve granted as a space for repentance, is not of the law, but of mere grace through Jesus Christ. Now grace takes place, and patience, forbearance, and long-suffering, sit on the throne: but then law shall take place, and strict justice reign. The me diation of Christ, at present, secures the honour of law and justice, and opens the door for grace; but then the day of grace will be at an end. A guilty world shall no longer be treated in a way of mercy, and favoured on Christ's account; but be proceeded against in flaming fire and terrible vengeance, and every one be punished according to his deserts. How long tire day of God's patience with a guilty world is to last,

we know not. A guilty world lies at his mercy, and may be all summoned to the bar when he pleases. Surely this is awful and awakening! but this is the state in which God means to show all long-suffering, and to exercise and display the infinite patience of his nature: and surely this should lead us to repentance! Thus, this is one step in a way of mercy, which God, in his infinite grace through Jesus Christ, has taken with a guilty world. And what is the improvement which mankind are disposed to make of it? Why, because sentence against their evil works is not executed speedil, therefore the heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Eccles. viii. 11.

(2.) Another favour granted to mankind in general by the great Governor of the world, through Jesus Chrsit, is a competency of the good things of this life for their comfortable support, while under this reprieve and in this new state of probation. By law mankind, for their apostacy, stood disinherited of every good thing, doomed to a complete destruction. Gen. ii 17; but now through a Mediator, they are dealt with in a way of mercy. It is true, in token of the divine displeasure, God turned man out of paradise, and cursed the ground, and subjected man to hard labour, (Gen. iii.) but then, at the same time, for Christ's sake, a general grant of many good things is made to a guilty world. They are allowed to live on God's earth; breathe in his air; see by the light of his sun: to eat of the herb of the field, and to eat bread in the sweat of their face: to clothe themselves with the skins of slain beasts. Gen. iii. They are allowed summer and winter; seed-time and harvest; and the beasts of the field are given to them. Gen. viii. 22. and ix. 1, 2, 3. Yea, it has been God's way abundantly to do good to a guilty world: to send rain, and grant fruitful seasons, and fill the hearts of men with food and gladness. Acts xiv. 17. So that, considering we are an apostate guilty world, we may well say, with the Psalmist, The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Psalm xxxiii. 5.; and this, notwithstanding all the calamities which overspread the whole earth: for we are now to attribute every thing in our circumstances, whereby we are better of it than the damned in hell are, to the mere mercy and goodness of God, through Jesus Christ. Thus God reprieves a guilty world, and grants

them food and raiment, to the intent that they may have a space for repentance. Surely now it is vile, infinitely vile, to despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, and not to take it in and understand it, that the goodness of God should lead us to repentance. And it is great madness, after our hard and impenitent hearts to go on in our rebellion, and treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Rom. ii. 4, 5. And yet this is the general temper, and common way of the world.

(3.) Another common favour granted to mankind, upon Christ's account, is, a general resurrection from the dead, (1 Cor. xv. 21.) to the intent that all who believe, repent, and return to God through Jesus Christ, may be completely happy in soul and body for ever. It is certain the law threatened death, but made no provision for a resurrection: and if the law had been executed, and no mediator provided, we have no reason to think there ever would have been any resurrection. And I cannot see why a general resurrection may not be considered under the notion of a mercy in itself, notwithstanding many, by their final impenitence, lay a foundation for their being raised up to everlasting shame and confusion. I am ready to think that to be raised from the dead must surely be of the nature of a mercy, and so be the effect of Christ's merits; but the particular manner in which the wicked shall be raised, may nevertheless be considered as a punishment, and so be the effect of their sin and final impenitence. Christ's merit lays the foundation for a general resurrection; and all who believe and repent shall be raised up to glory and complete blessedness; and all who die in their sins shall be raised up to shame and complete misery.

(4.) There are also divers other things granted to mankind in general, which seem pretty evidently to be of the nature of mercies, and so to be owing to the interposition and merits of our glorious Mediator, Christ Jesus, the only Mediator between God and a sinful, guilty world; to whose merits and mediation, every thing which mankind enjoy, which is of the nature of a mercy, is to be attributed; divers things, I say, whereby much is done towards putting such an apostate race

of beings into a capacity of comfortably living together in this world, while they are in their new state of probation; divers things in our temper, which seem originally to take their rise very much from that temperament of body and animal constitution which God, our Former, 'gives us; there is a natural good humour, a natural compassion, a natural modesty, and natural affections. These things, in a greater or less degree, we find to be natural to men, and to have a very great influence to keep under and restrain their corruptions, and to incline and prompt to many actions materially good, and greatly for the comfort of human society and benefit of mankind in general. These things do evidently keep mankind from abundance of wickedness, which otherwise they would commit; they have a heart for a thousand abominations, but these things restrain them: and these things do evidently put mankind on to a thousand actions materially good, which otherwise they would never do: they have a heart bad enough to neglect them, but these things excite them to do them. Were it not for these and other restraints, I see not why mankind should not be as bad in this world, as they will be in the next. Wicked men have no wickedness infused into them at death; and therefore they have no other nature, no other principle of sin in their hearts, after they are dead, than they had before: but, as soon as they are dead, they are evidently no doubt as universally contrary to God and all that is good, as the devils themselves. As soon as ever those things which now restrain them are all removed, their true temper appears without any disguise. It is no doubt, therefore, a great merey for mankind to be thus restrained. They enjoy more comfort, they commit less sin, they merit less punishment, they are under better advantages to live together, to enjoy the means of grace, and attend to the offers of mercy by Jesus Christ, who is the Saviour of all men, but especially of them that believe. 1 Tim. iv. 10.

Thus the great God, instead of executing the sentence of the law in all its severity upon a guilty world, does, through the mediation of Jesus Christ, grant to mankind in general these common favours. They are reprieved from a total ruin; have a comfortable maintenance in this world allowed them; a general resurrection is decreed; several natural endowments are granted, to restrain from bad actions, and to prompt to actions materially good. And hereby the Governor of the world has laid the foundation, and prepared the way to go on to use the methods he designed, more immediately tending to reclaim and recover a sinful, guilty world to himself; for now mankind are put into a sort of capacity of being treated with in such a way.

These things ought deeply to affect mankind. We lie under many calamities, and yet enjoy many mercies in this our natural state of guilt and condemnation; all which ought to be improved to awaken, convince, and humble us, and lead us to repent, and cry to God for pardoning mercy and sanctifying grace, and predispose us cordially to receive and embrace that revelation, which God has made in his word, of our ruin, and the way of our recovery.

But, through the great blindness and corruption of mankind, these things have had a very contrary effect. Mankind, finding themselves thus reprieved, and thus kindly treated by God, have many of them hereby been led to think they are in pretty good standing; not by nature children of wrath, and under condemnation. The devil told Eve they should not surely die; so, many are now ready to think that the old law, which threatened the least sin with death, is repealed; and that we are now born into the world free from any guilt. And mankind, finding themselves endowed with natural modesty, good-humour, compassion, &c. are ready to dream that they are born into the world without any sinful corruption of nature, but rather as holy as Adam in innocence; and hence are very insensible of any need of such a Redeemer and Sanctifier as are provided. And so they are predisposed to dislike that revelation which God has made in his word concerning our ruin and the way of our recovery. And hence mankind are strongly bent to misunderstand, and misinterpret, and disbelieve the law and the gospel. And besides, by this goodness and forbearance of God, men are emboldened in sin, as if it were not a very great evil, nor God very much set against it. They begin to think God is all made up of mercy, and that they are in no great danger. And so, after their hard