2. Is it because you would have God force you to be good whether you will or no, and by an absolute constraining power drive you out of your flesh-pleasing course ? Consider how unbeseeming it is to the wisdom of God that men should be virtuous and holy by necessity, and not by free choice. Virtue then were no virtue ; not a moral, but a natural property, as burning is to fire ; and it were no more praise- worthy for us to mind heavenly things than it is for a stone to move downward or a spark upward. It is true God must make us willing, but willing we must be. Now there is no such thing on your parts, when you wilfully refuse the helps God afFordeth : Acts xiii. 46, ' It was necessary that the word of God should have been first spoken to you, but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the gentiles.* At least you do not a[)ply your hearts to meet with God, and to improve means and mercies, providences and helps. You refuse his help, and then God justly forsaketh you ; for he forsaketh none but tho.se that forsake him first: 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, ' If thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever ; ' 2 Cin-on. xv. 2, ' If you seek him, he will be found of you ; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.' Did you improve your hel[)S, and beg God's grace, and carry on his common work as far as you can, then it were another matter ; but you break off with God.
3. Is it because God hath given you such a mutable will, and an appetite and desire to those contentments that besot your senses ? God that hath given appetite, he hath given reason to guide it, and scripture to inform reason, and the Spirit to apply scripture. Your appetite was given you as a servant, not as a master. Adam might
474 SERMONS UPON EZEKIEL XVIII. 32. [SeR. IL
have stood as well as fell. He had a mutable will, but more helps to stand than occasions to fall. What of corruption came in since the fall, man must bear the blame of it, not God. If Adam threw away original righteousness, Goditook it not away. He could not leave us original righteousness, no more than a condemned man can leave his goods to his children.
4. Is God to blame for leaving temptations in the world ? Man's foolish heart thinketh so : Gen. iii. 12, ' The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.' She was given as an help, not a snare. The poison is in the spider, not in the flower. It is our naughty lustful hearts and inordinate affections that make our abode in the world dangerous : 2 Peter i. 4, ' The corruption that is in the world through lust.' And therefore, ' Let no man say, when he is tempted, he is tempted of God : but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed,' James i. 13, 14. We are more ready to entertain temptations, than providence is to offer them to us ; for we seek them out when they are wanting. All temptations work, not by constraining efficacy, but objectively, and by enticing persuasion ; and have we not more earnest persuasions to be good, to serve God, and forsake sin ? Persuasions to love God are as frequent as temptations to desert him to please the flesh. If you cannot deny the devil and the flesh, how can you deny God, who pleadeth with you with better arguments than the devil, the world, and the flesh can? by endless joys and easeless torments. The temptations from worldly comforts arise from your naughty hearts. You should thank God for his mercies, and use them as cords of love, rather than snares of sin. The creatures in themselves are God's spokesmen : it is we make them proctors for sin. Is not God and Christ a more lovely object than all the pleasures, profits, and honours of the world ? These things do not force our will ; they do but draw our consent ; and surely more lovely things, and more apt to do that, are those things which God hath propounded to you in the covenant of grace. If the devil entice you, it is because you were more willing to hearken to him than to God who warned 3^ou of his wiles, and told you of your danger, and invited you to a better happiness. Satan can but solicit, not con- strain. He findeth matter to work upon, or else you would not easily give entertainment to his suggestions.
The devil findeth the fire kindled, he only bloweth up the flame. Well, then, you see from all this that God is not to blame. He willeth not the destruction of his creatures, but their salvation. But man is naught, and would fain transfer his guilt upon others. When Zopyrus had cut his own nose and lips, he gave out that the Baby- lonians had so barbarously used him. We ruin ourselves, and lay the fault on others, yea, on God himself. It is said in the gospel, * The enemies of a man are those of his own house ; ' so we harbour these snakes in our bosoms that will sting us to death.