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as this was in the last year, I cannot but
think he will soon find himself under a necessity, greatly to insist
upon it with them, that God is under no manner of obligation to show
mercy to any natural man, whose heart is not turned to God: and that a
man can challenge nothing either in absolute justice, or by free
promise, from any thing he does before he has believed on Jesus Christ,
or has true repentance begun in him. It appears to me, that if I had
taught those who came to me under trouble any other doctrine, I should
have taken a most direct course utterly to undo them. I should have
directly crossed what was plainly the drift of the Spirit of God in His
influences upon them; for if they had believed what I said, it would
either have promoted self-flattery and carelessness, and so put an end
to their awakenings; or cherished and established their contention and
strife with God, concerning His dealings with them and others, and
blocked up their way to that humiliation before the Sovereign Disposer
of life and death, whereby God is wont to prepare them for His
consolations. And yet those who have been under awakenings have
oftentimes plainly stood in need of being encouraged, by being told of
the infinite and all-sufficient mercy of God in Christ; and that it is
God's manner to succeed diligence, and to bless His own means, that so
awakenings and encouragements, fear and hope, may be duly mixed and
proportioned to preserve their minds in a just medium between the two
extremes of self-flattery and despondence, both which tend to slacknes
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