An Earnest Invitation to Sinners to Turn to God
Dearly beloved and longed for, I gladly acknowledge myself a debtor to you all, and am concerned, as I would be found a good steward to the household of God, to give to every one his portion. But the physician is most solicitous for those patients whose case is most doubtful and hazardous, and the father’s bowels are especially turned towards his dying child — the numbers of unconverted souls among you call for the most earnest compassion and hasty diligence to pluck them out of the burning, and therefore to these first I shall apply myself in these pages.
But whence shall I fetch my argument, or how shall I choose ray words? Lord, wherewith shall I win them? O that I could but tell! I would write unto them in tears, I would weep out every argument, I would petition them on my knees.
verily (were I able) I would. O how thankful would I be, if they would be prevailed with to repent and turn!
How long have I travailed in birth with you? How frequently have I made suit to you? How often would I have gathered you? How instant have I been with you? This is what I have prayed for, and studied for, many years, that I might bring you to God. O that I might but do it! Will you yet be entreated? O what a happy man might you yet make me, if ye would but hearken to me, and suffer me to bring you over to Jesus Christ!
But, Lord, how insufficient am I for this work! I have been many a year pleading for thee, but they would not go with me: Lord, what a task hast thou set me to do! Alas! wherewith shall I pierce the scales of Leviathan, or make the heart to feel, that is hard as stone, hard as a piece of the nether millstone? Shall I go and speak to the grave, and look when the dead shall obey me and come forth? Shall I give the blind to see? From the beginning of the world was it heard that a man opened the eyes of the blind; but thou, O Lord, canst pierce the scales and prick the heart of the sinner: I can but draw the bow at a venture, but do thou direct the arrows between the joints of the harness, kill sin, and save the soul of the sinner that casts his eyes on these labours.
But I must address myself to you to whom I am sent; yet I am at a great loss. Would to God I knew how to go to work with you! Would I forego any labour? God knoweth, you yourselves are my witnesses, how I have followed you in private as well as in public, and have brought the gospel to your doors, testifying to you the necessity of the new birth, and persuading you to look in time after a sound and thorourh chanfre. Beloved, I have not acted a part among you to serve my own advantage.
Our gospel is not yea and nay. Have you not heard the same truths from the pulpit, by public labours, by private letters, and by personal instructions? Brethren, I am of the same mind as ever — that holiness is the best choice; that there is no entering into heaven but by the new birth; that “without holiness you shall never see God.” Ah, my beloved, refresh my bowels in the Lord! “If there be any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any bowels of mercy, fulfil ye my joy.” Now give yourselves unto the Lord. Now set yourselves to seek him. Now set up the Lord Jesus in your hearts, and set him up in your houses. Now come in and “kiss the Son,” and accept the tenders of mercy, touch his sceptre and live; why will ye die? I beg not for myself, but fain I would have you happy: this is the prize I run for, and the object I aim at. My soul’s desire and prayer for you is, that you may be saved.
The famous Lycurgus having instituted most strict and wholesome laws for his people, told them he was necessitated to go a journey, and got them to bind themselves in an oath, that his laws should be observed till his return. This done, he went into a voluntary banishment, and never returned, that they might, by virtue of their oath, be engaged to the perpetual observation of his laws. Methinks I should be glad of the hard condition which he endured, (though I love you tenderly,) so I might but thereby engage you thoroughly to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dearly beloved, would you rejoice the heart of your minister? why then, embrace the counsels of the Lord, by me. Forego your sins; turn to prayer; set up the worship of God in your families; keep at a distance from the corruption of the times. What greater joy, to a minister, than to hear of souls born unto Christ by him, “and his children walk in the truth?”
Brethren, I beseech you, suffer friendly plainness and freedom with you in your deepest concerns. I am not playing the orator, to make a learned speech to you; these lines are upon a weighty errand indeed, that is, to convince, to convert, and to save you. My work is not to please you, but to save you: nor is my business with your fancies, but your hearts: if I have not your hearts, I have nothing. If I were to please your ears, I would sing another song: if I were to preach myself, I would steer another course; I would then tell you a smoother tale, and speak peace to you; for how can Ahab love his Micaiah “that always prophesies evil concerning him?” But how much better are the wounds of a friend than the fair speeches of a harlot, who flattereth with her lips “till the dart strike through the liver,” and “hunteth for the precious life?” If I were to quiet a crying infant, I might sing him a pleasant song, and rock him asleep: but, when the child is fiiUen into the fire, the parent takes another course; he will not go to still him with a song or a trifle. I know, if we speed not with you, you are lost; if we cannot get your consent to “arise and come away,” you perish for ever: no conversion, and no salvation: I must get your good will, or leave you miserable.
But here the difficulty of my work again recurs:” ‘Lord, choose my stones out of the rock;’ I come in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel. I come forth, like the stripling David, to ’ wrestle, not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world.’ This day let the Lord smite the Philistine, and spoil the strong man of his armour, and give me to deliver the captives out of his hand: Lord, choose my words, choose my weapons for me; and when I put my hand into the bag, and take thence a stone and sling it, do thou carry it to the mark, and make it sink, not into the forehead, but the heart of the unconverted sinner, and smite him to the ground. Thou hast sent me, as Abraham did Eleazer, to take a wife unto my master thy son,’ but my discouraged soul is ready to fear the woman will not be willing to follow me. O Lord God of my master, I pray thee send me good speed this day, and show kindness to my master, and send thine angel before me, and prosper my way, that I may take a wife unto thy son: that as thy servant rested not till he had brought Isaac and Rebecca together, so I may be successful to bring
Christ and the souls of my people together before we part.”
But I turn me unto you. Some of you do not know what I mean by conversion, and in vain shall I persuade you to that which you do not understand; and, therefore, for your sakes, I shall show, “what this conversion is.” Others cherish secret hopes of mercy, though they continue as they are; and for them I must show the “necessity of conversion.” Others harden themselves with a vain conceit that they are converted already, unto them I must show the “marks of the unconverted.” Others, because they feel no harm, fear none, and so sleep upon the top of the mast; to them I shall show “the misery of the unconverted.” Others sit still, because they see not their way; to them I shall show the “means of conversion.” And, finally, for the quickening of all, I shall close with the “motives to conversion.”