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yours. I beseech you, by the affection, with which all that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, long to see you brought back to him. I beseech you by the friendship of the living, and by the memory of the dead; by the ruin of those who have trifled away their days, and are perished in their sins, and by the happiness of those who have embraced the gospel, and are saved by it. I beseech you, by the great expectation of that important day when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven; by the terrors of a dissolving world; + by the sound of the arch-angel's trumpet; ‡ and of that infinitely more awful sentence, Come, ye blessed, and depart, ye cursed, || with which that awful solemnity shall close.

*

§. 6. I beseech you, finally, "by your own precious and immortal soul;" by the sure prospect of a dying bed, or of a sudden surprise into the invisible state and as you would feel one spark of comfort in your departing spirit, when your flesh and your heart are failing. I beseech you by your own personal appearance before the tribunal of Christ, (for a personal appearance it must be, even to them who now sit on thrones of their own ;) by all the transports of the blessed, and by all the agonies of the damned, the one or the other of which must be your everlasting portion. I affectionately intreat and beseech you, in the strength of all these united considerations, as you will answer it to me, who may in that day be summoned to testify against you; and, which is unspeakably more, as you will answer it to your own conscience, as you will answer it to the eternal Judge, that you dismiss not these thoughts, these meditations, and these cares, till you have brought matters to a happy issue; till you have made a resolute choice of Christ, and his appointed way of salvation, and till you have solemnly devoted yourself to God in the bonds of an everlasting covenant.

§. 7. And thus I leave the matter before you, and before the Lord. I have told you my errand; I have discharged my embassy. Stronger arguments I cannot use; more endearing and more awful considerations I cannot suggest. Chuse therefore, whether you will go out (as it were) clothed in sackcloth, to cast yourself at the feet of him who now sends you these equitable and gracious terms of peace and pardon; or whether you will hold it out, till he appears sword in hand, to reckon with you for your treasons and your crimes, and for this neglected embassy among the rest of them. Fain would I hope the best; nor can I believe, that this labour of love shall be so entirely

* 2 Thess. i. † 2 Pet. iii. 10.

1 Thess. iv. 16.

Mat. xxvi. 34, 41.

unsuccessful, that not one soul shall be brought to the foot of Christ in cordial submission and humble faith. Take with you therefore words, and turn unto the Lord; and oh that those which follow might, in effect, at least, be the genuine language of every one that reads them!

The Sinner yielding to those Intreaties, and declaring his Acceptance of Salvation by Christ.

"BLESSED Lord, it is enough! It is too much! Surely there needs not this variety of argument, this importunity of persuasion, to court me to be happy, to prevail upon me to accept of pardon, of life, of eternal glory. Compassionate Saviour, my soul is subdued; so that I trust, the language of thy grief is become that of my penitence, and I may say, my heart is melted like wax in the midst of my bowels.+

"O gracious Redeemer ! I have already neglected thee too long. I have too often injured thee; have crucified thee afresh by my guilt and impenitence, as if I had taken pleasure in putting thee to an open shame. But my heart now bows itself before thee, in humble unfeigned submission. I desire to make no terms with thee but these,—that I may be entirely thine. I cheerfully present thee with a blank, intreating thee, that thou wilt do me the honour to signify upon it, what is thy pleasure. Teach me, O Lord, what thou wouldst have me to do! For I desire to learn the lesson, and to learn it that I may practise it. If it be more than my feeble powers can answer, thou wilt, I hope, give me more strength; and in that strength I will serve thee. O receive a soul, which thou hast made willing to be thine.

"No more, O blessed Jesus, no more is it necessary to beseech and intreat me. Permit me rather to address myself to thee, with all the impottunity of a perishing sinner, that, at length, sees and knows, there is salvation in no other§. Permit me now, Lord, to come and throw myself at thy feet, like a helpless outcast, that has no shelter but in thy generous compassion! like one pursued by the avenger of blood, and seeking earnestly an admittance into the city of refuge.

"I wait for the Lord; my soul doth wait; and in thy word do I hope,¶ that thou wilt receive me graciously.** My soul confides in thy goodness, and adores it. I adore the pa

* Hos. xiv. 2. Josh. xx. 2, 3.

Psal. xxii. 14.
Psal, cxxxv. 5.

+

Heb. vi. 6.
** Hos, xiv. 2.

§ Acts iv. 12.

tience, which has borne with me so long; and the grace that now makes me heartily willing to be thine; to be thine on thine own terms, thine on any terms. Oh secure this treacherous heart to thyself! Oh unite me to thee in such inseparable bonds, that none of the allurements of flesh and blood, none of the vanities of an insnaring world, none of the solicitations of sinful companions, may draw me back from thee, and plunge me into new guilt and ruin! Be surety, O Lord, for thy servant for good*; that I may still keep my hold on thee, and so on eternal life; till at length I know more fully, by joyful and everlasting experience, how complete a Saviour thou art; Amen."

CHAP. XI.

A solemn Address to those who will not be persuaded to fall in with the Design of the Gospel.

Universal Success not to be expected: §. 1. Yet, as unwilling absolutely to give up any, the Author addresses, (1.) To those who doubt of the Truth of Christianity, urging an Enquiry into its Evidences, and directing to proper Methods for that Purpose, §. 2—4. (2.) To those who determine to give it up without farther Examination, §. 5. And presume to set themselves to oppose it, §. 6. (3.) To those who speculatively assent to Christianity as true, and yet will sit down without any practical Regard to its most important and acknowledged Truths. Such are dismissed with a Representation of the Absurdity of their Conduct on their own Principles; §. 7, 8. With a solemn Warning of its fatal Consequences; §. 9, 10. And a compassionate Prayer, (introduced §. 11.) which concludes the Chapter, and this Part of the Work.

§. 1. I WOULD humbly hope, that the preceding chapters

will be the means of awakening some stupid and insensible sinners; the means of convincing them of their need of gospelsalvation, and of engaging some cordially to accept it. Yet, I cannot flatter myself so far, as to hope this should be the case with regard to all, into whose hands this book shall come. What am I, alas, better than my fathers+, or better than my brethren, who have in all ages been repeating their complaint, with regard to multitudes, that they have stretched out their hands all day long to a disobedient and gainsaying people ‡? Many such may, perhaps, be found, in the number of my readers: many,

Psal cxix. 122.

+1 Kings xix. 4.

Rom. x. 21.

293 on whom neither considerations of terror, nor of love, will make any deep and lasting impression: many, who as our Lord learnt by experience to express it, when we pipe to them, will not dance; and, when we mourn unto them, will not lament*. I can say no more to persuade them, if they make light of what I have already said. Here therefore we must part; in this chapter I must take my leave of them; and, Oh that I could do it in such a manner, as to fix at parting, some conviction upon their hearts; that though I seem to leave them for a little while, and send them back to review again the former chapters, as those in which alone they have any present concern, they might soon, as it were, overtake me again, and find a suitableness in the remaining part of this discourse, which at present they cannot possibly find. Unhappy creatures! I quit you as a physician quits a patient whom he loves, and is just about to give over as incurable: he returns again and again, and re-examines the several symptoms, to observe whether there be not some one of them more favourable than the rest, which may encourage a renewed application.

§. 2. So would I once more return to you. You do not find in yourself any disposition to embrace the gospel, to apply yourself to Christ, to give yourself up to the service of God, and to make religion the business of your life. But if I cannot prevail upon you to do this, let me engage you at least, to answer me, or rather to answer your own conscience, "Why you will not do it?" Is it owing to any secret disbelief of the great principles of religion? If it be, the case is different from what I have yet considered, and the cure must be different. This is not a place to combat with the scruples of infidelity. Nevertheless I would desire you seriously to inquire," how far those scruples extend." Do they affect only some particular doctrines of the gospel, on which my argument hath turned; or do they affect the whole christian revelation? Or do they reach yet further, and extend themselves to natural religion, as well as revealed, so that it should be a doubt with you, whether there be any God, and providence, and future state, or not? As these cases are all different, so it will be of great importance to distinguish the one from the other; that you may know on what principles to build as certain, in the examinations of those concerning which you are yet in doubt. But whatever these doubts are, I would farther ask you, "how long have they continued, and what method have you taken to get them resolved?" Do

* Mat. xi. 17.

you imagine, that in matters of such moment, it will be an allowable case for you to trifle on, neglecting to enquire into the evidence of these things, and then plead your not being satisfied in that evidence as an excuse for not acting according to them? Must not the principles of common sense assure you, that if these things be true, (as when you talk of doubting about them, you acknowledge it, at least, possible they may,) they are of infinitely greater importance than any of the affairs of life, whether of business or pleasure, for the sake of which you neglect them? Why then do you continue indolent and unconcerned, from week to week, and from month to month, which probably conscience tells you is the case?

§. 3. Do you ask, "what method you should take to be resolved!" It is no hard question. Open your eyes set yourself to think let conscience speak; and verily do I believe, that if it be not seared in an uncommon degree, you will find shrewd forebodings of the certainty both of natural and revealed religion, and of the absolute necessity of repentance, faith and holiness, to a life of future felicity. If you are a person of any learning, you cannot but know, by what writers, and in what treatises, these great truths are defended. And if you are not, you may find, in almost every town and neighbourhood, persons capable of informing you in the main evidences of christianity, and of answering such scruples against it as unlearned minds may have met with. Set yourself then in the name of God, immediately to consider the matter. If you study at all, bend your studies close this way; and trifle not with mathematics, or poetry, or history, or law, or physic, (which are all comparatively light as a feather,) while you neglect this. Study the argument, as for your life; for much more than life depends on it. See how far you are satisfied, and why that satisfaction reaches no farther. Compare evidences on both sides. And above all, consider the design and tendency of the New Testament. See to what it will lead you, and all them that cordially obey it; and then say, whether it be not good. And consider, how natural its truth is connected with its goodness. Trace the character and sentiments of its authors, whose living image (if I may be allowed the expression,) is still preserved in their writings. And then, ask your own heart, can you think this was a forgery, an impious cruel forgery? For such it must have been, if it were a forgery at all; a scheme to mock God, and to ruin men, even the best of men, such as reverenced conscience, and would abide all extremities for what they apprehended to be truth. Put the

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