Conclusion

And now, my brethren, let me know your minds; what do you intend to do? will you go and die? or will you set upon a thorough and speedy conversion, and lay hold on eternal life? How long will ye linger in Sodom? “How long will ye halt between two opinions?” Have ye not yet resolved whether Christ or Barabbas, whether bliss or torment, whether the land of Cabul or the Paradise of God, be the better choice? Is it a disputable case, whether the Abana or Parphar of Damascus be better than all the streams of Eden; or whether the vile stream of sin is to be preferred before the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb? Can the world in good earnest do that for you that Christ can? Will it stand by you to eternity? Will pleasures, land, titles, treasures, descend with you? If not, had you not need look after somewhat that will? What mean you to stand wavering? Shall I lead you at last no farther than Agrippa? but almost persuaded: why, you are for ever lost if left here: as good not at all, as not altogether Christians. You are half in the mind to give over your former negligent life, and set to a strict and holy course; you could wish you were as some others are, and could do as they can do. How long will you rest in idle wishes and fruitless purposes? When will you come to a fixed, firm, and full resolve? Do not you see how Satan beguiles you, by tempting you to delays? How long hath he toiled you on in the way of perdition! How many years have you been purposed to mend! What if God should have taken you off this while!

Well, put me not off with a dilatory answer: tell me not of hereafter; I must have your immediate consent: if you be not now resolved, while the Lord is treating with you and courting you, much less are you like to be hereafter, when these impressions are worn out, and you are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Will you give me your hand? Will you set open the door, and give the Lord Jesus the full and ready possession? Will you put your names unto this covenant? Will you subscribe? What do you resolve upon? If you are still upon your delays, my labour is lost, and all is like to come to nothing. Fain I would that you should now put in your adventures. Come, cast in your lot; make your choice. “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation: to-day if you will hear his voice.” Why should not this be the day whence thou shouldst be able to date thy happiness? Why shouldst thou venture a day longer in this dangerous and dreadful condition? What if God should this night require thy soul! “O! that thou mightest know, in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace, before they be hid from thy eyes!” This is thy day, and it is but a day. Others have had their day, and have received their doom, and now art thou brought upon the stage of this world, here to act thy part for the whole eternity. Remember, thou art now upon thy “good behaviour” for everlasting; if thou makest not a wise choice now, thou art undone for ever. Look what thy present choice is; such must thine eternal condition be.

And is it true indeed? Are life and death at thy choice? Yea, it is as true as truth is. Why, then, what hinders but that thou shouldst be happy? Nothing doth or can hinder, but thine own wilful neglect or refusal. It was the passage of the Eunuch to Philip: “See here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” See, I may say to thee, See, here is Christ, here is mercy, pardon, life; what hinders but that thou shouldst be pardoned and saved? One of the martyrs, as he was praying at the stake, had his pardon set by him in a box, which indeed he refused deservedly, because upon unworthy terms; but here the terms are more honourable and easy. O sinner! wilt thou perish with thy pardon by thee? Why, do but forthwith give thy consent to Christ, to renounce thy sins, deny thyself, take up the yoke and the cross, and thou carriest the day; Christ is thine; pardon, peace, life, blessedness, are all thine: and is not this an offer worth embracing? Why shouldst thou hesitate or doubtfully dispute about the case? Is it not past controversy whether God be better than sin, and glory than vanity? Why shouldst thou forsake thy own mercy, and sin against thy own life? When wilt thou shake off thy sloth, and lay by thine excuses? “Boast not thyself of to-morrow; thou knowest not” where this night may lodge thee.

Beloved, now the Holy Spirit is striving with you; he will not always strive. Hast thou not felt thine heart warmed by the word, and been almost persuaded to leave off thy sins and come unto God? Hast thou not felt some good motions in thy mind, wherein thou hast been warned of thy danger, and told what thy careless course would end in? It may be thou art like young Samuel, who, when the Lord called once and again, knew not the voice of the Lord, but these motions are the offers, and callings, and strivings, of the Spirit: O! take the advantage of the tide, and know the day of thy visitation.

Now the Lord Jesus stretcheth wide his arms to receive you; he beseecheth you by us. How movingly, how meltingly, how pitifully, how compassionately, he calleth! the church is put into a sudden ecstacy upon the sound of his voice, the voice of my beloved. O! wilt thou turn a deaf ear to his voice? Is it not the voice that breaketh the cedars, and maketh mountains to skip like a calf? that shaketh the wildnerness, and divideth the flames of iire? It is not Sinai’s thunder, but a soft and still voice: it is not the voice of Mount Ebal, a voice of cursing and terror, but the voice of Mount Gerizim, the voice of blessing and glad tidings of good things: it is not the voice of the trumpet, nor the voice of war, but a message of peace from the King of Peace. Methinks it should be with thee as with the spouse; “My soul failed when he spake.” I may say to thee, O sinner, as Martha to her sister, “The Master is come, and he calleth for thee.” O, now, with Mary, arise quickly, and come unto him. How sweet are his invitations! he crieth in the open concourse, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” How free is he! he excludeth none: “Whosoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely.” “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. Come, eat of my bread, drink of the wine that I have mingled. Forsake the foolish and live.” “Come unto me; take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall find rest to your souls.” “Him that cometh to me will I in nowise cast out.” How doth he bemoan the obstinate refuser! “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” “Behold me, behold me; I have stretched out my hands all the day to a rebellious people.” O! be persuaded now at last to throw yourselves into the arms of love.

Behold, O ye sons of men, the Lord Jesus hath thrown open the prison, and now he cometh to you, as the magistrates once to them. Acts xvi. 39. and beseecheth you to come out. If it were from a palace or paradise that Christ did call you, it were no wonder if you were unwilhng; and yet how easily was Adam beguiled thence! But it is from your prison. Sirs, from your chains, from the dungeon, from the darkness, that he calleth you, and yet will you not come? He calls you unto liberty, and yet will you not hearken? His yoke is easy, his laws are liberty, his service is freedom; and, whatever prejudices you have against his ways, if a God may be believed, you shall find them all pleasure and

J peace, and shall taste sweetness and joy unutterable, and take infinite delight and felicity in them.

Behold, I am loath to leave you; I cannot tell how to give you over. What! shall I leave you as I found you at last? Have you read hitherto, and not resolved upon a present abandoning all your sins, and closintr with Jesus Christ? Alas! what shall I say? what shall I do? Will you turn off all my importunity? Have I run in vain? Have I used so many arguments, and spent so much time to persuade you, and you sit down at last in disappointment? But it is a small matter that you turn me off; you put a slight upon the God that made you; you reject the bowels and beseechings of a Saviour, and will be found resisters of the Holy Ghost; if you will not now be prevailed with to repent and be converted.

Well, though I have called you long, and you have refused, I shall yet this once more lift up my voice like a trumpet, and cry from the highest places of the city, before I conclude. Once more I shall call after regardless sinners, that, if it be possible, I may awaken them: “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord!” Unless you be resolved to die, lend your ears to the last calls of mercy. Behold, in the name of God I make open proclamation to you: “Hearken unto me, O ye children; hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not.”

‘’ Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money: come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread, and your

M 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.”

Ho, every one that is sick of any manner of dis- »ease, or is possessed with an evil spirit, whether of pride, fury, lust, or covetousness, come ye to the physician, bring your sick; lo, here is he that “healeth all manner of sicknesses, and all manner of diseases among the people!”

Ho, every one that is in distress from guilt, gather yourselves unto Christ, and he will become a Captain over you; he will be your protection from the arrests of the law, he will save you from the hand of justice. Behold he is an open sanctuary to you; he is a known refuge. Away with your sins, and come in unto him, lest the avenger of blood seize you, lest devouring wrath overtake you.

Ho, every ignorant sinner, come and buy eye-salve, that thou mayest see. Away with thy excuses; thou art for ever lost, if thou continue in this state. But accept of Christ for thy prophet, and he will be a light unto thee. Cry unto him for knowledge, study his word, take pains about the principles of religion, humble thyself before him, and he will teach thee his way, and make thee wise unto salvation. But, if thou wilt not follow him in the painful use of his means, but sit down because thou hast but one talent, he will condemn thee for a wicked and slothful servant.

Ho, every profane sinner, come in and live: return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy on thee; be entreated. O! return — come: thou that hast filled thy mouth with oaths and execrations, all manner of sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven thee, if thou wilt but thoroughly turn unto Christ and come in. Though thou wert as unclean as “Magdalen, yet put away thy whoredoms out of thy sight, and thy adulteries from between thy breasts,” and give up thyself unto Christ, as a vessel of holiness, alone for his use; and then, “though thy sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool; and though they be as crimson, they shall be white as snow.”

Hear, O ye drunkards! “how long will ye be drunken? put away your wine.” Give yourselves up unto Christ, to live soberly, righteously, and godly; embrace his righteousness; accept his government; and, though you have been vile, he will wash you.

Hear, O ye wicked companions, whose delight is in vain and wicked society, to sport away your time in carnal mirth and jolHty with them! come in at wisdom’s call, and choose her and her ways, and you shall live.

Hear, O ye scorners, hear the word of the Lord! though you make a sport at godliness and the professors thereof, though you have made a scorn of Christ and of his ways, yet even to you doth he call, to gather you under the wings of his mercy. In a word, though you should be found among the worst of the rebellious, yet, upon your thorough conversion, you “shall be washed, you shall be justified, M 2 you shall be sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

Ho, every formal professor! thou art but a lukewarm Christian, and restest in the form of godliness. Give over thy halving and thy halting; be a throughout Christian, and be zealous and repent; and then, thouih thou hadst been an offence to Christ, thou shalt be the joy of his heart.

And now bear witness that mercy hath been offered you: “I call heaven and earth to record against you this day, that I, have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that you may live.” I can but entreat and warn you; I cannot compel you to be happy; if I could, I would. What answer will you send me with to my Master? Let me speak to you as Abraham’s servant to them, “And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my Master, tell me?” O, for such a happy answer as Rebecca gave them! “And they said. We will call the damsel, and inquire at her mouth; and they called Rebecca, and said unto her, wilt thou go with this man? and she said, I will go.” O that I had but this from you! why should I be your accuser, who thirst for your salvation? why should tlic passionate pleadings and entreaties of mercy be turned into the horrid aggravation of your obstinacy, and additions to your misery? Judge in yourselves: Do you not think their condemnation will be doubly dreadful that shall still go on in their sins, after all endeavours to recall them. Doubtless “it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, yea, for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for you!”

Beloved, if you have any pity for your perishing souls, close with the present offers of mercy. If the God that made you have any authority with you, obey his command, and come in. If you are not the despisers of grace, and would not shut up the doors of mercy against yourselves, repent and ])e converted; let not heaven stand open for you in vain; let not the Lord Jesus bid you buy without money and without price in vain; let not his ministers and his Spirit strive with you in vain, and leave you now at last unpersuaded, lest the sentence go forth against you: “The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them.”

Father of spuits, take the heart in hand that is too hard for my weakness. Do not thou end, though I have done. A word from thy effectual power will do the work. O thou that hast the key of David, that openeth and no man shutteth, open thou this heart, as thou didst Lydia’s, and let the King of Glory enter in, and make this soul thy captive; let not the tempter harden him in delays; let him not stir from this place, nor take his eyes from these lines, till he resolve to forego his sins, and accept of life on thy self-denying terms. In thy name, O Lord God, did I go forth to these labours; in thy name do I shut them up. Let not all the time they have cost be lost hours; let not all the thoughts of the heart, and all the pains that have been about them, be but lost labour. Lord, put in thy hand into the heart of this reader, and send thy Spirit, as once thou didst Philip, to join himself to the chariot of the Eunuch, while he was reading the word. And, though I should never know it while I live, yet I beseech thee, O Ix)rd God, let it be found, at that day, that some souls are converted by these labours; and let some be able to stand forth and say, that by these persuasions, they were won unto the€. Amen, Amen. Let him that readeth say Amen,