Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

I. To you that are yet in an unregenerate state, I would sound the alarm, and warn you to see to yourselves, while yet there is hope. O ye children of wrath, take no rest in this dismal state; but flee to Jesus Christ the only refuge. Haste and make your escape thither. The state of wrath is too hot a climate for you to live in, Micah ii. 10. Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest. O sinner knowest thou where thou art? Dost thou not see thy danger? The curse has entered into thy soul: wrath is thy covering; the heavens are growing blacker and blacker above thy head: the earth is weary of thee, the pit is opening her mouth for thee; and should the thread of thy life be cut this moment, thou art henceforth past all hopes for ever. Sirs, if we saw you putting a cup of poison to your mouth; we would fly to you and snatch it out of your hands. If we saw the house on fire about you, while ye were fast asleep in it; we would run to you, and drag you out of it. But alas! ye are in ten thousand tha• greater hazard; yet we can do no more but tell you your danger; invite, exhort, beseech, and obtest you, to look to yourselves; and lament your stupidity and obstinacy, when we cannot prevail with you to take warning. If there were no hope of your recovery, we should be silent, and would not torment you before the time: but tho' ye be lost and undone, there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Wherefore, I cry unto you in the name of the Lord, and in the words of the prophet, Zech. ix. 12. Turn ye to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope. Flee to Jesus Christ out of this your natural state.

Motive 1 While ye are in this state, ye must stand or fall according to the law, or covenant of works. If ye understood this aright, it would strike through your hearts, as a thousand darts. One had ⟨p. 110⟩better be a slave to the Turks, condemned to the galleys, or under Egyptian bondage, than be under the covenant of works now. All mankind were brought under it in Adam, as we heard before: and thou in thy unregenerate state, are still where Adam left thee. It is true, there is another covenant brought in: but what is that to thee, who art not brought into it? Thou must needs be under one of the two covenants; either under the law, or under grace. That thou art not under grace, the dominion of sin over thee, manifestly evinceth; therefore thou art under the law,