Of the Necessity of Conversion
It may be you are ready to say, what meaneth this stir? and are apt to wonder why I follow you with such earnestness, still ringing the same lesson in your ears, “that you should repent, and be converted.” But I must say unto you, as Ruth to Naomi, “entreat me not to leave you, nor to turn from following after you.” Were it a matter of indifference, I would never make so much ado: might you be saved as you are, I would gladly let you alone. But would you not have me solicitous for you, when I see you ready to perish? As the Lord liveth, before whom I am, I have not the least hopes to see one of your faces in heaven, except you be converted: I utterly despair of your salvation, except you will be prevailed with to turn thoroughly, and give up yourself to God in holiness and newness of life. Hath God said, “except you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God,” and yet do you wonder why your ministers do so plainly travail in birth with you? Think it not strange that I am earnest with you to follow after holiness, and long to see the image of God upon you. Never did any, nor shall any, enter into heaven by any other way but this. The conversion described is not the high attainment of some advanced Christians, but every soul that is saved undergoeth this universal change.
It was a passage of the noble Roman, when he was hasting with corn to the city in the famine, and the mariners were loath to set sail in foul weather, “Our voyage is more necessary than our lives.” What is it that thou dost count necessary? Is thy bread necessary? Is thy breath necessary? Then thy conversion is much more necessary. Indeed, this is the one thing necessary. Thine estate is not necessary; thou mayest sell all for “the pearl of great price,” and yet be a gainer by the purchase. Thy life is not necessary; thou mayest part with it for Christ to infinite advantage. Thine esteem is not necessary; thou mayest be reproached for the name of Christ, and yet be happy; yea, much more happy in reproach than in repute. But thy conversion is necessary; thy damnation depends upon it: and is it not needful, in so important a case, to look about thee? On this one point depends thy making or marring to all eternity.
But I shall more particularly show the necessity of conversion in five things; for without this,
I. Thy being is in vain. Is it not a pity thou shouldst be good for nothing, an unprofitable burden on the earth, a wart or wen in the body of the universe? Thus thou art, whilst unconverted: for thou canst not answer the end of thy being. Is it not for the divine “pleasure that thou art and wast created?” Did he not make thee for himself? Art thou a man, and hast thou reason? Why, then, bethink thyself why and whence thy being is. Behold God’s workmanship in thy body, and ask thyself, to what end did God rear this fabric? Consider the noble faculties of thy heaven-born soul. To what end did God bestow these excellencies? Was it to no other than that thou shouldst please thyself and gratify thy senses? Did God send men into the world, for no higher purpose, than like swallows, only to gather a few sticks and mud, and build their nests, and rear up their young, and then away? The very heathens could see farther than this. Art thou so “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and dost thou not yet think with thyself, surely it was for some noble and glorious end?
O man! set thy reason a little in its seat. Is it not a pity such a goodly fabric should be raised in vain? Verily thou art in vain, except thou art for God. Better thou hadst no being than not be for him. Wouldst thou serve thy end? thou must repent and be converted: without this, thou art to no purpose; yea, to bad purpose.
First, To no purpose. Man, unconverted, is like a choice instrument that hath every string broken or out of tune. The Spirit of the living God must repair and tune it by the grace of regeneration, and sweetly move it by the power of actuating grace, or else thy prayers will be only discordant tones, and thy services will make no music in the ears of the most Holy. All thy powers and faculties are so corrupt in thy natural state, that, except thou “be purged from dead works,” thou canst not “serve the living God.”
An unsanctified man cannot work the work of God. 1. He hath no skill in it; he is altogether as unskilful in the work as in the word of ri<rhteousness. There are great mysteries, as well in the practices as principles of godliness. Now the unregenerate know not the “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” You may as well expect him that never learned the alphabet, to read, or one that never set his hand to an instrument, to perform with skill and beauty, as that a natural man should do the Lord any pleasing service. He must first be taught of God, taught to pray, taught to profit, taught to go, or else he will be utterly at a loss. 2. He hath no strength for it. How weak is his heart! he is presently tired. The Sabbath, “what a weariness is it!” He is “without strength,” yea, stark “dead in sin.” 3. He hath no mind to it; he desires not the knowledge of God’s ways, he doth not know them, and he doth not care to know them, he knows not, neither will he understand. 4. He hath neither due instruments nor materials for it. A man may as well hew the marble without tools, or build without materials, as perform any acceptable services without the graces of the Spirit, which are both the materials and instruments in the work. Alms -giving is not a service of God, but of vain-glory, if not held forth by the hand of divine love. What is the prayer of the lips without grace in the heart, but the carcass without the life? What are all our confessions, unless they be exercises of godly sorrow and unfeigned repentance? What our petitions, unless animated all along with holy desires and faith in the divine attributes and promises? What our praises and thankssivino-s, unless from the love of God, and a holy gratitude and sense of God’s mercies in the heart? So that a man may as well expect the trees should speak, or motion from the dead, as for any service holy and acceptable to God from the unconverted. When the tree is evil, how can the fruit be good?
Secondly, To bad purpose. The unconverted soul is a very “cage of unclean birds,” a sepulchre full of “corruption and rottenness.” O dreadful case! Dost thou not yet see a change to be needful? Would it not have grieved one to have seen the golden consecrated vessels of God’s temple turned into quaffing bowls of drunkenness, and polluted with the idol’s service? Was it such an abomination to the Jews, when Antiochus set up the picture of a swine at the entrance of the temple? How much more abominable then would it have been to have had the very temple itself turned into a stable or a sty, and to have had the “holy of holies” served like the house of Baal. This is the very case of the unregenerate: all thy members are turned into “instruments of unrighteousness,” servants of Satan; and thy inmost heart into a receptacle of undeanness. You may see what kind of guests are within, by what comes out; for “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies,” &c. This discovers what wickedness there is within,
O abuse insufferable! to see a heaven-born soul abased to such vileness! to see the glory of God’s creation, the chief of the works of God, the Lord of this lower world, eating husks with the prodigal. Was it such a lamentation to see those that did feed delicately sit desolate in the streets; and the precious sons of Sion, comparable to fine gold, esteemed as earthen pitchers? and is it not much more fearful to see the only being that hath immortality in this lower world, and carries the stamp of God, “become as a vessel wherein there is no pleasure?” O indignity intolerable! Better thou wert dashed in a thousand pieces, than continue to be abased to so vile a service.
II. Not only man, but the whole visible creation, “is in vain without this.” Beloved, God hath made all the visible creatures in heaven and earth for the service of man, and man only is the spokesman for all the rest. Man is, in the world, like the tongue to the body, which speaks for all the members. The other creatures cannot praise their Maker, but by dumb signs and hints to man, that he should speak for them. Man is, as it were, the high priest of God’s creation, to “offer the sacrifice of praise” for all his fellow-creatures. The Lord God expecteth a tribute of praise from all his works. Now, all the rest do bring in their tribute to man, and pay it by his hand: so then, if a man be false, and faithless, and selfish, God is wronged of all, and shall have no active glory from his works.
O dreadful thought to think of! that God should create such a world as this is, and lay out such infinite power, and wisdom, and goodness, thereupon, and all in vain; and man should be guilty, at last, of robbing and spoiling him of the glory of all! O, think of this! While thou art unconverted, all the offices of the creatures to thee are in vain; thy meat nourishes thee in vain; the sun holds forth his light
k to thee in vain; the stars, that serve thee in their courses by their powerful, though hidden, influence, do it in vain; thy clothes warm thee in vain; in a word, the unwearied labour and continual travail of the whole creation (as to thee) are in vain. The service of all the creatures that drudge for thee, and yield forth their strength unto thee, (that therewith thou shouldst serve their Maker,) is all but lost labour. Hence “the whole creation groaneth” under the abuse of this unsanctified world, that pervert them to the service of their lusts, quite contrary to the very end of their being.
IIL Without this, thy religion is vain. All thy religious performances will be but lost; for they cannot please God, which are the very ends of religion. Be thy services ever so specious, yet God “hath no pleasure in them.” Is not that man’s case dreadful, whose sacrifices are polluted, and whose prayers are a breath of abomination? Many, under convictions, think they will set upon mending, and that a few prayers and alms will salve all again; but, alas, sirs! while your hearts remain unsanctified, your desires will not pass. How punctual was Jehu! and yet all was rejected, because his heart was not upright. How blameless was Paul! and yet being unconverted, all was but loss. Men think they do much in attending God’s service, and are ready to set him down so much their debtor, whereas, their persons being unsanctified, their duties cannot be accepted.
O soul! do not think, when thy sins pursue thee, a little praying and reforming thy course will pacify God. Thou must begin with thine heart: if that be not renewed, thou canst no more please God than one that, having unspeakably offended thee, should insult thee in order to pacify thee.
It is a great misery to labour in the fire. The poets could not invent a worse hell for Sisyphus than to be getting the stone still up the hill, and then that it should presently fall down again and renew his labour. God threatens it as the greatest of temporal judgments, that they should build and not inhabit, plant and not gather, and their labours should be eaten up by strangers. Is it so great a misery to lose our common labours, to sow in vain, and build in vain? how much more to lose our pains in religion; to pray, and hear, and fast in vain! This is an undoing and eternal loss! Be not deceived; if thou goest on in thy sinful state, though thou shouldst spread forth thy hands, God will hide his eyes; “though thou make many prayers, he will not hear.” God will be worshipped after the due order. If a servant do our work, but quite contrary to our order, he shall have rather stripes than praise. God’s work must be done according to God’s mind, or he will not be pleased; and this cannot be, except it be done with a holy heart.
IV. Without this, thy hopes are in vain. “The hypocrite’s hope shall perish.” “The Lord hath rejected thy confidence.”
First, The hope of comforts here is in vain. It is not only necessary to the safety, but comfort, of your condition, that you be converted. Without this, “you shall not know peace.” Without the “fear of God” you cannot have the” comfort of the
Holy Ghost.’* God speaks peace only “to his people and to his saints.” If you have a false peace, continuing in your sins, it is not of God’s speaking, and then you may guess the author. Sin is a real sickness, yea, the worst of sickness: it is a leprosy in the head, the plague of the heart; it is brokenness in the bones, it pierceth, it woundeth, it racketh, it tormenteth. A man may as well expect ease when his distempers are in the full strength, or his bones out of joint, as true comfort while in his sins.
O wretched man, that canst have no ease in this case, but what comes from the deadHness of the disease! You shall have the poor sick man saying, in his hghtness, “he is well,” when you see death in his face; he would needs be up, and about his business, when the very next step is like to be in his grave. The unsanctified often see nothing amiss; they think themselves whole, and cry not out for the physician; but this shows the danger of their case.
Sin doth naturally create distempers and disturbances in the soul. What a continual tempest and commotion is there in a discontented mind? what an eating evil is inordinate care? what is passion but a very fever in the mind? what is lust but a fire in the heart? what is covetousness, but an insatiable and insufferable thirst? or malice and envy, but venom in the very heart? Spiritual sloth, is but a scurvy in the mind, and carnal security a mortal lethargy; and how can that soul have true comfort that is under so many diseases? But converting grace cures, and so eases the mind; prepares the soul for a settled, standing, immortal peace: ‘* Great peace have they that love thy commandments, and nothing shall offend them.” They are the ways of wisdom, that afford pleasure and peace. David had infinitely more pleasure in the word than in all the delights of his court. The conscience cannot be truly pacified till soundly purified. Cursed is that peace that is maintained in a way of sin. Two sorts of peace are more to he dreaded than all the troubles in the world: peace with sin, and peace in sin.
Secondly, Thy hopes of salvation hereafter are in vain; yea, worse than in vain; they are most injurious to God, most pernicious to thyself. There is death, desperation, blasphemy, in the bowels of this hope. 1. There is death in it: thy confidence shall be rooted out of thy tabernacles, (God will up with it root and branch;) “it shall bring them to the king of terrors.” Though thou mayest “lean upon this house, it will not stand,” but will prove like a ruinous building, which, when a man trusts to, it falls upon his head. 2. There is desperation in it: where is the hope of the hypocrite when God takes away his soul? Then there is an end for ever of his hope. Indeed, the hope of the righteous hath an end; but then it is not a destructive, but a perfective end; his hope ends in fruition, others in frustration. The godly must say at death, “It is finished:” but the wicked, “It is perished,” and in too sad earnest bemoan himself, as Job in a mistake, “Where is now ray hope? He hath destroyed me; I am gone, and my hope is removed like a tree.” “The righteous hath hope in his death.” When nature is dying, his hopes are living; when his body is languishing, his hopes arre flourishing: his hope is a living hope, but others a dying, a damning, soul-undoing hope. “When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish; and the hope of the unjust men perisheth.” It shall be cut off, and prove like a spider’s web, which he spins out of his own bowels; but then comes death, with the broom, and takes down all, and so there is an eternal end of his confidence wherein he trusted; “for the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.” Wicked men are fixed in the carnal hope, and will not be beaten out of it; they hold it fast; they will not let it go: yea, but death will knock off their fingers. Though we cannot undeceive them, death and judgment will: when death strikes his dart through thy liver, it will out with thy soul and thy hopes together. The unsanctified have hope only in this life, and therefore are “of all men most miserable.” When death comes, it lets them out into the amazing gulph of endless desperation. 3. There is blasphemy in it. To hope we shall be saved, though continuing unconverted, is to hope we shall prove God a liar. He hath told you, that so merciful and pitiful as he is, he will never save you notwithstanding, if you go on in ignorance, or a course of unrighteousness. In a word, he hath told you, that, whatever you be or do, nothing shall avail you to salvation, without you become new creatures. Now, to say God is merciful, and we hope will save us nevertheless, is in effect to say, “Wc hope God will not do as he says.” We must not set God’s attributes at variance; God has resolved to glorify his mercy, but not to the prejudice of truth, as the presumptuous sinner will find to his everlasting sorrow.
Object. Why, but we hope in Jesus Christ; we put our whole trust in God; and therefore doubt not but we shall be saved.
Answ. 1. This is not hope in Christ, but against Christ. To hope to see the kingdom of God without being born again, to hope to find eternal life in the broad way, is to hope Christ will prove a false prophet. It is David’s plea, “I hope in thy word.” But this hope is agamst the word. Show me a word of Christ for thy hope, that he will save thee in thine ignorance or profane neglect of his service, and I will never go to shake thy confidence.
2. God doth with abhorrence reject this hope. Those condemned in the prophet went on in their sins, yet (saith the text) they will lean upon the Lord, Mic. iii. 11. God will not endure to be made a prop to men in their sins; the Lord rejected those presumptuous sinners that went on still in their trespasses, and yet “would stay themselves upon Israel’s God.”
3. If thy hope be any thing worth, It will purify thee from thy sins. “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” But cursed is that hope which doth cherish men in their sins.
Object. Would you have us to despair?
Ansiso. You must despair of ever coming to heaven as you are, that is, while you remain unconverted. You must despair of ever seeing the face of God without holiness; but you must by no means G despair of finding mercy, upon your thorough repentance and conversion; neither may you despair of attaining to repentance and conversion in the use of God’s means.
V. Without this, all that God hath done and suffered will be as to you in vain, that is, it will no way avail you to salvation. Many urge this as a sufficient ground for their hopes, that Christ died for sinners. But I must tell you, Christ never died to save impenitent and unconverted sinners continuing so. A great divine was wont, in his private dealings with souls, to ask two questions: 1. What hath Christ done for you? 2. What hath Christ wrought in you? Without the application of the Spirit in regeneration, we can have no saving interest in the benefits of redemption. I tell you from the Lord, Christ himself cannot save you, if you go on in this state.
I. It were against his trust. The Mediator is the “servant of the Father,” shows his commission from him, and acts in his name, and pleads his command for his justification; and God has committed all things to him, intrusted his own glory and the salvation of the elect with him. Accordingly, Christ gives his Father an account of both parts of his trust before he leaves the world. Now Christ would quite tarnish his Father’s glory, his greatest trust, if he should save men in their sins, for this were to overturn all his counsels, and to oflPer violence to all his attributes.
First, To overturn all his counsels; of which this is the order, that men should be brought “through sanctification to salvation.” He hath “chosen them, that they should be holy.” They are elected to pardon and life through sanctification. If thou canst repeal the law of God’s immutable counsel, or corrupt him whom the Father hath sealed, to go directly against his commission, then, and not otherwise, mayest thou get to heaven in this condition. To hope that Christ will save thee, while unconverted, is to hope that Christ will falsify his trust. He never did nor will save one soul, but whom the Father hath given him in election, and drawn to him in effectual calling. Be assured that Christ will save none in a way contrary to his Father’s will. Secondly, To offer violence to all his attributes.
1. To his justice: for the righteousness of God’s judgment lies in rendering to all “according to their works.” Now, should men sow to the flesh, and yet “of the Spirit reap everlasting life,” where were the glory of divine justice, since it should be given to the wicked according to the work of the righteous?
2. To his holiness. If God should not only save sinners, but save them in their sins, his most pure and strict holiness would be exceedingly defaced. It would be offering the extremest violence to the infinite purity of the divine nature to have sinners to dwell with him: “They cannot stand his judgments; they cannot abide his presence.” If holy David would not endure such in his house, no, nor in his sight, can we think God will? Should he take men as they are to the glory of heaven, the world would think God were at no such distance
G 2 from sin, nor had such clishke to it, as we are told he hath; they would conclude God were altogether such a one as themselves (as they wickedly did, from the very forbearance of God, Psalm 1. 21.)
3. To his veracity: for God hath declared from heaven, that, “if any shall say he shall have peace, though he shall go on in the imagination of his heart, his wrath shall smoke against that man.” That “they (only) that confess and forsake their sins shall find mercy.” That “they that shall enter into his hill must be of clean hands and pure heart.” Where were God’s truth, if, notwithstanding all this, he should bring men to salvation without conversion? O desperate sinner, that darest to hope that Christ will make his Father a liar, and nullify his word, to save thee!
4. To his wisdom: for this were to throw away the choicest of mercies on them that would not value them, nor were any way suited to them.
First, They would not value them; the unsanctified sinner puts but little price upon God’s great salvation. He sets no more by Christ than the whole by the physician. He prizes not his balm, values not his cure, tramples upon his blood. Now, would it stand with wisdom to force pardon and life upon those that would give him no thanks for them? Will the all-wise God, when he hath forbidden us to do it, throw his holy things to dogs, and his pearls to swine, that would, as it were, but “turn again and rend him?” This would make mercy to be despised indeed. Wisdom requires that life be given in a way suitable to God’s honour, and that
God provide for the securing of his own glory as well as man’s felicity. It would be dishonourable to God to bestow his choicest riches on them that have more pleasure in their sins, than in the heavenly delights that he doth offer. God would lose the praise and glory of his grace, if he should cast it away upon them that were not only unworthy, but unwilling.
Secondly, They arc no way suited to them. The divine wisdom is seen in suiting things to each other, the means to the end, the object to the faculty, the quality of the gift to the capacity of the receiver. Now, if Christ should bring the unregenerated sinner to heaven, he could take no more fehcity there than a beast would that you should bring into a beautiful room, to the society of learned men, and a well-furnished table; whereas the poor tlung had much rather be grazing with his fellow-brutes. Alas! what should an unsanctified creature do in heaven? He could take no content there, because nothing suits him; the place doth not suit him; he would be but quite out of his element, as fish out of water; the company doth not suit him. What communion hath darkness with light? Corruption with perfection? The employment doth not suit him; the anthems of heaven fit not his mouth, suit not his ear. Spread thy table with delicacies before a languishing patient, and it will be a very great offence. Alas! if the poor man think a sermon long, and say, of a Sabbath-day, “what a weariness it is!” how miserable would he think it, to be holden to it to all eternity!
5. To his immutability, or else to his omnisciency or omnipotency: for this is enacted in heaven, and enrolled in the decree of the court above, that none but the “pure in heart shall ever see God.” This is laid up with him, and sealed among his treasures. Now, if Christ yet bring any to heaven unconverted, either he must get them in without his father’s knowledge, (and then where is his omnisciency?) or against his will, (and then where were his omnipotency?) or he must change his will, and then where were his immutability?
Sinner, wilt thou not give up thy vain hope of being saved in this condition? Saith Bildad, “shall the earth be forsaken for thee? or the rocks moved out of their place?” May I not much more reason so with thee? Shall the laws of heaven be reversed for thee? Shall the everlasting foundations be overturned for thee? Shall Christ put out the eye of his Father’s omnisciency, or shorten the arm of his eternal power, for thee? Shall divine justice be violated for thee? or the brightness of the glory of his holiness be blemished for thee? O! the impossibility, absurdity, blasphemy, that are in such a confidence. To think Christ will ever save thee in this condition, is to make thy Saviour become a sinner, and do more wrong to the infinite majesty than all the wicked on earth, or devils in hell, ever did, or could do; and yet wilt thou not give up such a
blasphemous hope?
II. Agahist his word. We need not say, “Who shall ascend into heaven, to bring down Christ from above? Or, who shall descend into the deep, to bring up Christ from beneath? The word is nigh us.” Are you agreed that Christ shall end the controversy? Hear then his own words: “Except you be converted, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.” “You must be born again.” “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me.” “Repent or perish.” One word, one would think, were enough from Christ; but how often and earnestly doth he reiterate it! “Verily, verily, except a man be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of God.” Yea, he doth not only assert, but prove the necessity of the new birth. And wilt thou yet believe thy own presumptuous confidence, directed against Christ’s words? He must go quite against the law of his kingdom, and rule of his judgment, to save thee in this state.
III. Against his oath. He hath lifted up his hand to heaven, he hath sworn, that those that remain in unbelief, and know not his ways, that is, are ignorant of them, or disobedient to them, “shall not enter into his rest.” And wilt thou not yet believe, O sinner, that he is in earnest? Canst thou hope he will be foresworn for thee? The covenant of grace is “confirmed by an oath,” and sealed by blood; but all must be made void, and another way to heaven found out, if thou be saved, living and dying unsanctified. God is come to his lowest and last terms with man, and has condescended, as far as in honour he could, and hath set up his pillars with a ne plus ultra. Men cannot be saved, while unconverted, except they could get another covenant made, and the whole frame of the gospel, which was established for ever with such dreadful solemnities, quite altered. And would not they be distracted, to hope they shall?
IV. Against his honour. God will so show his love to the shiner, as withal to show his hatred to sin: therefore “he that names the name of Jesus must depart from iniquity,” and deny all ungodliness; and he that hath hope of life by Christ must “purify himself, as he is pure,” otherwise Christ would be thouipht a favourer of sin. The Lord Jesus would have all the world to know, that, though he pardons sin, he will not protect it. If holy David shall say, “depart from me all ye workers of iniquity,” and shall shut the doors against them, shall not such much more expect it from Christ’s holiness? Would it be for his honour to have the dogs at the table, or lodge the swine with his children, or to have Abraham’s bosom to be a nest of vipers?
V. Against his offices. God hath “exalted him to be a Prince and a Saviour.” He would act against both, should he save men in their sins. It is the office of a king, to be “a terror to evil-doers, and a praise to them that do well.” “He is a minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath on him that doth evil.” Now, should Christ favour the ungodly, so continuing, and take those to reign with him that “would not that he should reign over them,” this would be quite against his office; he therefore reigns, that he may “put his enemies under his feet.” Now, should he lay them in his bosom, he would frustrate the end of his regal power: it belongs to Christ, as a king, to subdue the hearts.
I and slay the lusts of his chosen. What king would take rebels in open hostility into his court? What were this but to betray life, kingdom, government, and all together? If Christ be a king, he must have honour, homage, subjection, &c. Now, to save men, while in their natural enmity, were to obscure his dignity, lose his authority, bring contempt on his government, and sell his dear-bought ricjhts for nought.
Again, as Christ would not be a Prince, so neither a Saviour, if he should do this; for his salvation is spiritual. He is “called Jesus, because he saves his people from their sins,” so that, should he save them in their sins, he would be neither Lord nor Jesus. To save men from the punishment, and not from the power of sin, were to do his work by halves, and be an imperfect Saviour. His office, as the deliverer, is, “to turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” “He is sent to bless men, in turning them from their iniquities.” “To make an end of sin,” so that he would destroy his own designs, and nullify his offices, to save men abiding in their unconverted state.
Application, Arise then! What meanest thou, O sleeper? Awake, O secure sinner! lest thou be consumed in thine iniquities; say, as the lepers, “If we sit here we shall die.” Verily, it is not more certain that thou art now out of hell, than that thou shall speedily be in it, except thou repent and be converted: there is but this one door for thee to escape by. Arise then, O sluggard! and shake off thine excuses: how long wilt thou slumber, “and G3 fold thy hands to sleep?’* There is an unchangeable necessity of the change of thy condition, except thou hast resolved to abide the worst of it, and try it out with the Almighty. If thou lovest thy life, O man, rise and come away. Methinks I see the Lord Jesus laying the merciful hands of a holy violence upon thee; methinks he carries it like the angels to Lot: “Then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, lest thou be consumed. And, while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, the Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought him without the city, and said, escape for thy life, stay not in all the plains; escape to the mountains, lest thou be consumed.”
O! how wilful will thy destruction be, if thou shouldst yet harden thyself in thy sinful state! But none of you can say but you have had fair warning. Yet, methinks, I cannot tell how to leave you so. It is not enough for me to have delivered my own soul. What! shall I go away without my errand! Will none of you arise and follow me? Have I been all this while speaking to the wind? Do I speak to the trees, or rocks, or to men? to the tombs or monuments of the dead, or to a living auditory? If you be men, and not senseless stocks, stand still and consider whither you are going: if you have the reason and understanding of men, dare not to run into the flames, and fall into hell with your eyes open, but bethink yourselves, and set to the work of repentance! What! endowed with reason, and yet trifle with death and hell, and the vengeance of the Almighty! O show yourselves men, and let reason prevail with you. Is it a reasonable thing for you to contend against the Lord your Maker? “to harden yourselves against his word,” as though the strength of Israel would lie? Is it reasonable that an understanding creature should lose, yea, live quite against, the very end of his being? Is it reasonable that the only thing in this world that God hath made capable of knowing his will, and bringing him glory, should yet live in ignorance of his Maker, and be unserviceable to his use, yea, should be engaged against him. “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,” and let the creatures without sense judge if this be reason, that man, whom God hath nourished and brought up, should rebel against him! Judge in your ownselves: is it a reasonable undertaking for briers and thorns to set themselves in battle against a devouring fire? or for the potsherd of the earth to strive with its Maker? You will say, “This is not reason;” or surely the eye of reason is quite put out. And, if this be not reason, then there is no reason, that “you should continue as you are;” but it is all the reason in the world “you should forthwith turn and repent.”
What shall I say? I could spend myself in this argument. O! that you would but hearken unto me! that you would presently set upon a new course! Will you not be made clean! When shall it once be! What! will nobody be persuaded? Reader, shall I prevail with thee for one? Wilt thou sit down and consider the fore-mentioned argument, and debate it, whether it be not best to turn? Come, and let us reason together; is it good for thee to be here? Wilt thou sit till the tide come in upon thee? Is it good for thee to try whether God will be so good as his word, and to harden thyself in a conceit that all is well with thee, while thou remainest unsanctified?
But I know you will not be persuaded, but the greatest part will be as they have been, and do as they have done. I know the drunkard will to his drunkenness again, and the deceiver will to his deceit again, and the licentious to his licentiousness again. Alas! that I must leave you where you were, in your ignorance, or in your lifeless formality and customary devotions! However, I will sit down and bemoan my fruitless labours, and spend some sighs over my perishing hearers.
O distracted sinners! what will their end be? what will they do in the day of visitation? “Whither will they flee for help, where will they leave their glory?” How powerfully hath sin bewitched them! how effectually hath the God of this world blinded them! how strong is the delusion! how uncircumcised their ears! how obdurate their hearts! Satan hath them at his call; but how long may I call, and can get no answer! I may dispute with them year after year, and they will give me the hearing, and that is all; they must and will have their sins, say what I will: though I tell them there is death in the cup, yet they will take it up; though I tell them it is the broad way, and endeth in destruction, yet they will go on in it; I warn them, yet cannot win them. Sometimes I think the mercies of God will melt them, and his winning invitations will overcome them; but I find them as they were. Sometimes that the terror of the Lord will persuade them; yet neither will this do it. They will approve the word, like the sermon, commend the preacher; but they will yet live as they did. They will not deny me, and yet they will not obey me. They will flock to the word of God, and sit before me as his people, and hear my words, but they will not do them. They value and will plead for ministers, and I am to them as the lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, yet I cannot get them to come under Christ’s yoke. They love me, and will be ready to say, they will do any thing for me; but, for my life, I cannot persuade them to leave their sins, to forego their evil company, their intemperance, their unjust gains, &c. I cannot prevail with them to set up prayer in their families and closets, yet they will promise me, like the froward son, that said, “I go, Sir, but went not.” I cannot persuade them to learn the principles of religion, though else, “they would die without knowledge.” I tell them their misery, but they will not believe, but it is well enough. If I tell them particularly, 1 fear, for such reasons, their state is bad, they will judge me censorious; or, if they be at present a little awakened, they are quickly lulled asleep by Satan again, and have lost the sense of all.
Alas! for my poor hearers, must they perish at last by hundreds, when ministers would so fain save them? What course shall I use with them that I have not tried? “What shall I do for the daughter of ray people?”” O Lord God, help! Alas!
shall I leave them thus? If they will not hear me, yet do thou hear me. O! that they may yet live in thy sight! Lord, save them, or else they perish. My heart would melt to see their houses on fire, when they were fast asleep in their beds; and shall not my soul be moved within me, to see them falling into endless perdition? Lord, have compassion, and save them out of the burning: put forth thy divine power, and the work will be done; but, as for me, I cannot prevail,”