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verted, or use the means by which you should be converted, you may as well say plainly, you will be danured. For if you have found out a way to be saved without conversion, you have done that which was never done before.

So that you may see on what ground it is that God supposes that the wicked will their own destruction: they will not turn, though they must turn or die; they will rather venture on certain misery, than be converted; and then, to quiet themselves in their sins, they make themselves believe that they shall nevertheless escape.

3. And as this controversy is matter of wonder, so are the disputants too;-that God should stoop so low as thus to plead the case with man! and that men should be so strangely blind, and obstinate, as to need all this in so plain a case, yea, and to resist all this, when their own salvation lies upon the issue!

No wonder if they will not hear us who are men, when they will not hear the Lord himself: as God says, when he sent the prophet to the Israelites, The house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.(x) But, woe unto him (saith the Lord) that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, What mukest thou? (y)

USE.

WHAT sayest thou, unconverted wretch? Darest thou venture upon a dispute with God? Art thou able to confute him? Art thou ready to enter the lists? God asks thee, Why wilt thou die? Art thou furnished with a sufficient answer? Wilt thou undertake to prove that God is mistaken? O what an undertaking is that! Why, either he or you (x) Ezek. iii. 7. (y) Isa. xlv. 9.

is mistaken, when he is for your conversion, and you are against it; he calls upon you to turn, and you will not; he bids you do it presently, even to-day while it is called to-day, and you delay, and think it time enough hereafter. He says it must be a total change, and you must be holy and new creatures; and you think it is enough to patch up the old man, without becoming new. Who is in the right now? God or you? God calls on you to turn, and to live a holy life, and you will not: by your disobedient lives, it appears you will not. If you will, why do you not? Why have you not done it all this while? And why do you not fall upon it yet? Your wills have the command of your lives. We may certainly conclude that you are unwilling to turn, when you do not turn. And why will you not? Can you give any reason for it, that is worthy to be called a reason?

It can be no good reason which is against the God of truth. That cannot be light which is contrary to the sun. There is no knowledge in any creature, but what it had from God; and therefore none can be wiser than God. It were damnable presumption for the highest angel to compare with his Creator: what is it then for a lump of dirt, an ignorant sot, that knows not himself, nor his own soul, that knows but little of the things which he sees, to set himself against the wisdom of the Lord? It is one of the fullest discoveries of the horrible wickedness, and the stark madness of sinners, that so silly a mole dare contradict his Maker, and call in question the word of God.

And as I know that God must needs be in the right, so I know the case is so palpable which he pleads against, that no man can have reason for it. Is it possible that a man can have any reason to break his master's laws? reason to dishonour the Lord of glory? reason to abuse the Lord that bought him? Is it possible that a man can have any good reason to damn his own immortal soul? Mark the Lord's question, Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die? Is eternal death a thing to be desired? Are you in love with hell?

What reason have you wilfully to perish? If you think you have some reason to sin, should you not remember, that death is the wages of sin? And think whether you have any reason to undo yourselves, body and soul, for ever. You should not only ask whether you love the adder, but whether you love the sting? It is such a thing for a man to cast away his everlasting happiness, that no good reason can be given for it; but the more any one pleads for it, the madder he shows himself to be. Had you a lordship, or a kingdoin, offered you for every sin that you commit, it were not reason, but madness, to accept it. Could you by every sin obtain the highest thing on earth that flesh desires, it were of no considerable value to persuade you to commit it. If it were to please your greatest or dearest friends, or to obey the greatest prince on earth, or to save your lives, or to escape the greatest earthly misery; all these are of no consideration, to draw a man to the committing of one sin. If it were a right hand, or a right eye, that would hinder your salvation, it is the gainfullest way to cut it off, or pluck it out. For there is no saving a part where you lose the whole. So exceeding great are the matters of eternity, that nothing in this world deserves to be named in comparison with them; nor can any earthly thing, though it were life, or crowns, or kingdoms, be a reasonable excuse for the neglect of matters of everlasting consequence. Heaven is such a thing, that if you lose it, nothing can supply the want, or make up your loss; and hell is such a thing, that if you suffer it, nothing can remove your misery, or give you ease and comfort. And therefore nothing can be a valuable consideration to excuse you for neglecting your own salvation: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

O that you did but know what matters they are which we are now speaking of! There is never a soul in hell but knows, by this time, that it was a mad exchange to let go heaven for fleshly pleasure; and

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that it is not a little mirth, or pleasure, or worldly riches, or honour, that will make him a saver that loses his soul.

If you see a man put his hand into the fire till it burn off, you will marvel at it: but this is a thing which a man may have reason for; as Bishop Cranmer had, when he burnt off his hand for subscribing to popery. If you see a man cut off a leg, or an arm, it is a sad sight: but this is a thing that a man may have good reason for; as many a man does, to save his life. If you see a man give his body to be burnt to ashes, and refuse deliverance when it is offered; this is a hard case to flesh and blood: but this a man may have good reason for; as many hundred martyrs have done. But for a man to run into the fire of hell; this is a thing which can have no reason in the world to justify it. For heaven will pay for the loss of any thing we can lose to get it, or for any labour which we bestow for it. But nothing can pay for the loss of heaven.

I beseech you now, let his word come nearer to your hearts. As you are convinced that you have no reason to destroy yourselves, tell me what reason have you refuse to turn, and live to God? What reason has the most ignorant careless sinner of you all, why he should not be as careful of his soul as any other? Will not hell be as hot to you as to others? Should not your own souls be as dear to you, as theirs to them? Has not God as much authority over you? Why then will you not become a sanctified people, as well as they?

And now either you have reason for what you do, or you have not. If not, will you go on against reason itself? But if you think you have, reason the case a little with me, your fellow creature, which is far easier than to reason the case with God. Tell me, man, here before the Lord, as if thou wert to die this hour, why shouldst thou not resolve to turn this day, before thou stir from the place thou standest in? What reason hast thou to deny, or to delay? Hast thou any

reason that satisfies thine own conscience for it? Or any that thou darest plead at the bar of God? If thou hast, let us hear them, bring them forth. But, alas! what nonsense, instead of reasons, do we daily hear from ungodly men!

1. One says, If none shall be saved but such sanctified ones as you talk of, heaven will be but empty: God help a great many.

What! It seems you think that God does not know, or else that he is not to be believed! Measure not all by yourselves: God has thousands and millions of his sanctified ones; but yet they are few in comparison of the world. It better becomes you to make that use of this truth which Christ teaches you: Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it; but wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat.

Object. 2. I am sure if such as I go to hell, we shall have store of company.

Ans. And will that be any ease or comfort to you? or do you think you may not have company enough in heaven? Will you be undone for company? Or will you not believe that God will execute his threatenings, because there are so many that are guilty? Object. 3. But I am no whoremonger, nor drunkard, nor oppressor; and therefore why should upon me to be converted?

you call

Ans. As if you were not born after the flesh, and not lived after the flesh, as well as others! Is it not as great a sin as any of these, for a man to have an earthly mind, and to love the world above God, and to have an unbelieving, unhumbled beart? Nay, let me tell you more, that many persons who avoid disgraceful sins, are as fast glued to the world, and as inuch slaves to the flesh, and as great strangers to God, and averse to heaven, as others are in their more shameful notorious sins.

Object. 4. But I mean nobody any harm, nor

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