threatenings; they are intended to warn the
unruly, and put a check upon the disobedient; so that no sinner may
rush upon his own damnation, without being duly apprised of the
same. "And why is he apprised? Barely to torment him before the
time?" No, verily; but, like the citizen's hearing the sound of the
trumpet, that he may take the warning, and escape the danger. But if
there is an irrevocable decree, if all things are so ordered and
fixed from eternity, then are the threatenings mere scare-crows;
they can answer no valuable end at all, and might as well be given
to stocks and stones as to human beings, if they have no power to
take the awful warning. And does not this make the word of God of
none effect? Certainly; if promises have no power to allure and
encourage, that is, if the human race are not to be moved by them,
and if their power of obeying is wholly taken from them, it is in
vain for God to call out, "How long, ye simple ones, will you love
simplicity? Turn ye at my reproof. Unto you, O men, I call! and my
voice is unto the sons of men." It is in vain for him to say, "Come,
let us reason together; though your sins be like scarlet, they shall
be white as wool: And though they be red like crimson, they shall be
as snow. Come, let us reason together!" "Reason! with what?" Brutes,
nay stocks and stones! How absurd! Would a wise man make such a
proposal? How does this inconsistent scheme reflect upon the
infinitely wise and gracious God? Shall vain man throw such an odium
upon his Maker? God forbid! But such an odium does this decree throw
upon unerring wisdom; and all the quibbles in the world cannot clear
it of the same. Again: let God speak like thunder, "The wicked shall
be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God!" yet if the
sinner is incapable of taking the warning, what empty bombast does
it make of the awful threatening! But let God be true, and every man
a liar who can cast such vile reflections upon his righteous
proceedings.

VI. It is contrary to every attribute in the Deity.--Now his justice
is the severest attribute of the blessed God; that is manifest when
its sword awaked against the Man who was his fellow, when the great
Mediator bled for human crimes. Yet even this attribute must be
consistent with mercy and goodness; nay, the very term itself
implies there is no wrong in it. But how can we clear the justice of
God, if he has ordained that man shall sin; nay, is made for that
v