Ezek. xxxiii. 11Ezek.
Say to them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways, for, why will ye die, O house of Israel?
I HAVE now shewn you the reasonableness of God’s commands, and the unreasonableness of wicked men’s disobedience. If nothing will serve their turn, but men will yet refuse to turn, we are next to consider who it is long of if they be damned. And this brings me to the last doctrine; which is,
Doct. 7. That if, after all, these men will not turn, it is not the fault of God that they are condemned, but themselves, even their own wilfulness. They die, because they will die; that is, because they will not turn.
If you will go to hell, what remedy? God here acquits himself of your blood; it shall not lie on him if you be lost. A negligent minister may draw it upon him; and those that encourage you, or hinder you not in sin, may draw it upon them; but be sure of it, it shall not lie upon God. Saith the Lord, concerning his unprofitable vineyard, Isaiah v. 2, 3, 4. “Judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard, what could have been done more to my vineyard: that I have not done in it? When he had planted it in a fruitful soil, and fenced it, and gathered out the stones, and planted it with the choicest vines,” what should he have done more to it? He hath made you men, and endowed you with reason; he hath furnished you with all external necessaries, he hath given you a righteous perfect law: When you had broken it, and undone yourselves, he had pity on you, and sent His Son by a miracle of condescending mercy to die for you, and be a sacrifice for your sins; and he “was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” The Lord Jesus hath made you a deed of gift of himself, and eternal life with him, on the condition you will but accept it and return. He hath, on this reasonable condition, offered you the free pardon of all your sins; he hath written this in his word, and sealed it by his Spirit, and sent it by his ministers; they have made the offer to you, (many a time) and called you to accept it, and to turn to God. They have in his name intreated you, and reasoned the case with you, and answered all your frivolous objections. He hath long waited on you, and staid your leisure, and suffered you to abuse him to his face. He hath mercifully sustained you in the midst of your sins; he hath compassed you about with all sorts of mercies: he hath also intermixed afflictions to mind you of your folly, and call you to your wits; and his spirit hath been often striving with your hearts, and saying there, “Turn, sinner, turn to him that calleth thee: whither art thou going? What art thou doing? Dost thou know what will be the end? How long wilt thou hate thy friends, and love thine enemies? When will thou let go all, and turn, and deliver up thyself to God, and give thy Redeemer the possession of thy soul? When shall it once be?” These pleadings have been used with thee: And when thou hast delayed, thou hast been urged to make haste, and God hath called to thee, “To-day, while it is called to-day, harden not thy heart: Why not now without any more delay?” Life hath been set before you, the joys of heaven have been opened to you in the gospel; the certainty of them have been manifested; the certainty of the everlasting torments of the damned hath been declared to you. Unless you would have had a sight of heaven and hell, what could you desire more? Christ hath been, as it were, set forth crucified before your eyes, Gal. iii. 1. You have been a hundred times told that you are but lost men till you come unto him. As oft you have been told of the evil of sin, of the vanity of the world, and all the pleasures and wealth it can afford, or the shortness and uncertainty of your lives, and the endless duration of the joy or torment of the life to come. All this, and more than this, have you been told, and told again, even till you were weary of hearing it, and till you could make the lighter of it, because you had so often heard it, like the smith’s dog, that is brought by custom to sleep under the noise of the hammers, and when the sparks do fly about his ears; and, though all this have not converted you, yet you are alive, and might have mercy to this day, if you had but hearts to entertain it. And, now let reason itself be the judge, whether it be long of God or you, if after this you will be unconverted and be damned? If you die now, it is because you will die. What should be said more to you? or what course should be taken that is more likely to prevail? Are you able to say, and make it good, “We would fain have been converted, and become new creatures, but we could not; we would fain have forsaken our sins, but could not; we would have changed our company, and our thoughts, and our discourse, but we could not.”—Why could you not, if you would? What hindered you, but the wickedness of your hearts? Who forced you to sin? or who held you back from duty? Had not you the same teaching, and time, and liberty to be godly, as your godly neighbours had? Why then could not you have been godly as well as they? Were the church-doors shut against you? or did you not keep away yourselves? or sit and sleep, or hear as if you did not hear? Did God put in any exceptions against you in his word, when he invited sinners to return; and when he promised mercy to those that do return? Did he say, “I will pardon all that repent except thee?” Did he shut you out from the liberty of his holy worship? Did he forbid you to pray to him any more than others? You know he did not. God did not drive you away from him, but you forsook him, and ran away yourselves. And when he called you to him, you would not come.—If God had excepted you out of the general promise and offer of mercy, or had said to you, “Stand off; I will have nothing to do with such as you; pray not to me, for I will not hear you; if you repent never so much, and cry for mercy never so much, I will not regard you.”—If God had left you nothing to trust to but desperation, then you had had a fair excuse. You might have said, “To what end do I repent and turn, when it will do no good?”—But this was not your case. You might have had Christ to be your Lord and Saviour, as well as others, and you would not; because you felt not yourselves sick enough for the physician, and because you could not spare your disease: In your hearts you said, as those rebels, Luke xix. 14. “We will not have this man to reign over us” Christ “would have gathered you under the wings of his salvation, and you would not” Matt. xxiii. 37. What desires of your welfare did the Lord express in his holy word! With what compassion did he stand over you, and say, “O that my people had hearkened unto ne, and that they had walked in my ways!” Psalm lxxxi. 13. “O that there were such a heart in this people, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children for ever!” Deut. v. 20. “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” Deut. xxxiii. 29. He would have been your God, and done all for you that your souls could well desire; but you loved the world and your flesh above him, and therefore you would not hearken to him; though you complimented with him, and gave him high titles; yet, when it came to the closing, “you would have none of him” Psalm lxxxi. 11, 12. “No marvel, then, if he gave you up to your own lusts, and you walked in your own counsels.”—He condescends to reason, and pleads the case with you, and asketh you, “What is there in me or my service, that you should be so much against me? What harm have I done thee, sinner? Have I deserved this unkind dealing at thy hand? Many mercies have I shewen thee; for which of them dost thou thus despise me? Is it I, or is it Satan, that is your enemy? Is it I, or is it thy carnal self that would undo thee? Is it a holy life, or a life of sin that thou hast cause to fly from? If thou be undone, thou procurest this to thyself, by forsaking me, the Lord, that would have saved thee,” Jer. ii. 7. “Doeth not thy own wickedness correct thee, and thy sin reprove thee, that thou mayest see that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken me?” Jer. ii. 19. “What iniquity have you found in me, that you have followed after vanity, and forsaken me?” Jer. ii. 5, 6. He calleth out as it were to the brutes, to hear the controversy he hath against you. Micah vi. 3, 4, 5. “Hear, O ye mountains, the Lord’s controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth, for the Lord God hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel. O my people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against me, for I brought you up out of Egypt, and redeemed thee, &c.” “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken it. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider! Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, &c.” Isaiah i. 2, 3, 4. “Do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy Father that bought thee? Hath he not made thee, and established thee?” Deut. xxii. 6. When he saw that you forsook him, even for nothing, and turned away from your Lord and life, to hunt after the chaff and feathers of the world, he told you of your folly, and called you to a more profitable employment, Isaiah lv. 1, 2, 3. “Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: Hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.—Seek ye the Lord while he may be found: Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon,” ver. 6, 7. and so Isaiah i. 16, 17, 18. And, when you would not hear, what complaints have you put him to, charging it on you as your wilfulness and stubbournness!—Jer. ii. 13. “Be astonished: O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid!—For, my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”—Many a time hath Christ proclaimed that free invitation to you, Rev. xxii. 17, “Let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” But you put him to complain after all his offers: “They will not come to me, that they may have life” John v. 40. He hath invited you to feast with him in the kingdom of his grace, and you have had excuses from your grounds, and your cattle, and your worldly business; and, when you would not come, you have said you could not; and provoked him to resolve that you should never taste of his supper, Luke xiv. 15, 24. And who is it long of now but yourselves? and what can we say is the chief cause of your damnation, but your own wills? You will be damned. The whole case is laid open by Christ himself, Prov. i. from the 20th to the end, “Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets, she crieth in the chief place of concourse: How long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity, and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn ye at my reproof; behold I will pour out my spirit unto you, and I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hands, and no man regarded, but ye have set at nought all my counsel, would none of my reproofs; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh, when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind. When distress and anguish come upon you, then shall they call on me, but I will not answer: They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof: Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For, the away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth to me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from the fear of evil.”—I thought best to recite the whole text at large to you, because it doth so fully show the cause of the destruction of the wicked. It is not because God would not teach them, but because they would not learn. It is not because God would not call them, but because they would not turn at His reproof. Their wilfulness is their undoing.