they would not: and would you have God to save them, whether they will or no? He set life and death before them, and bids them choose life, that they might live*. He set before them blessing and cursing, and denounced to them, that they should certainly perish if their hearts turned away, and they would not hear. He called heaven and earth to record against them: and he sent his Son, his apostles to them, to entreat them, and in his name to beseech them to turn to him, and to be reconciled"; he charged us to be" instant with them, in season, and out of season ";" and "to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine;" as suitors that would take no nay. He bids us even "compel them to come in ";" and yet they would not come, we could not prevail. Some would make excuses from one thing, and some from another: some had their farms, and some their trades, and some their wives, and all their sins to regard; they could not have while to be converted and fear God: and some set light by us and our message: and some did openly oppose it, and contradicting the truth and cavilling at it, as if they were wiser than to be converted and saved; as if they had more reason than to come in to God that called them, and accept of his salvation; and therefore even scorned the Holy word and way of God, that should have saved them. Sirs, to our heart's grief we must witness it against the face of thousands of our poor hearers, that this was the true case, and thus things were carried between God and them: Christ called out to them when he was on earth, even with tears, and bids us do the like with tears now in his stead. "Oh, that thou hadst known at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace!" but they would not, till they were hid from their eyes, and it was too late a. "How often would I have gathered thee, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." Sinners, I beseech you, let not sin and flesh befool you, to make you fly in the face of God, instead of returning to him at his call. Can you think that God is unjust or unmerciful, that would have given you heaven, and you would not accept of it? If he

x Deut. xxx. 19.

a 2 Tim. iv. 2.

c Matt. xxii. v.

y Deut. xxx. 17-19.

b Matt. xxii. 9. Luke xiv. 23.

d Luke xix. 41, 42.

z 2 Cor. v. 20.

e Matt. xxiii. 37.

deny you that everlastingly, which you would not accept of, can you blame him or yourselves? I know what some hearts will be ready to imagine: you will say, 'I was willing to be saved, and therefore this is nothing to me.' But were you willing to take salvation as it was offered? If not, you may as well say plainly, you will have none of it; for you shall have none of it upon any other terms. You would have had mercy by the halves and not in whole. You would have picked out that part of salvation, which pleased you, and left the rest. God would have saved you from the guilt and power of sin, from hell, and from unholiness; and you would have but one of these, without the other: or would have been saved from hell and all other punishments; but you would not be sanctified and brought near to God, and taken off from this world, and set your hearts on the world to come and you knew, or might know, that God would not halve and part his salvation: you shall have all, or you shall have none. If you will keep sin, you shall keep the curse with it: if you will keep the serpent, you shall have the sting and venom with it. If you will not take Christ for your master, as well as your Saviour, and be ruled by him, when his yoke is so easy, and his burden so light, never look to find rest to your souls. If you will not be converted, you may as well speak out, and say plainly you will not be saved: for it is all one. He that saith, he will not eat and drink, may as well say he will not live : and he that will not take the physic, may as well say, he will not be cured. Sirs, if Christ, and grace, and glory had never been offered to you, nor you had any means to have brought you to the knowledge of him, then you had had some excuse. As Christ saith, John xv. 22. "If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin." If we had not in Christ's name entreated you to return, and offered you salvation, you had some excuse. But now, what can you reasonably say? I dare challenge the reason of all the world, to answer this one reason, by which God will prove, that the unconverted should be condemned. It is reason, that he that would not have heaven upon such reasonable terms as Christ did tender it him, should for ever be shut out.

Matt. xi. 27-29,

What will you say to this, when God shall question thee, and say, 'What sayst thou, sinner, did not I freely offer thee my grace and salvation?' Do you believe you shall have the face at the day of judgment, to tell Christ he is unmerciful if he damn you, when he shall tell you, that he would often have gathered you to him, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not? Will not that one word stop thy mouth for ever? What dost thou complain of, man? Is it for want of mercy? Why, what tenderer mercy wouldst thou have had? "I would have gathered thee as the hen, &c." Sinners, I witness to you this day, that God, and angels, and men shall judge of you, that if you be thrust into hell, it is because you would not be saved; and it is not because God was cruel to you, but because you were cruel and unmerciful to yourselves. I tell you this will prove true at the last.

5. If all these reasons do not satisfy you, I will shew you more, and such as methinks should satisfy any man on earth, that the unconverted cannot be saved. Even because it is an impossible thing. It is a flat contradiction. Why, conversion is part of salvation here, and the perfection of it is an higher part hereafter. Why, sirs, sin is the soul's sickness, and wound, and death; and grace and holiness is its health and life: and were not that man a fool, that expecteth you should make him well, and not remove his sickness? And cure his wounds, and never heal or close them? Or make a dead man alive, and yet let him be dead still? Why, it is as great a contradiction and impossibility for a man to be saved and not converted.

What is it that we must be

saved from, but sin and hell? And there is no saving from hell but by saving from sin. "He shall save his people from their sins h." Do you know what the salvation is that God hath promised us in glory? Why it is this: that we should be perfectly freed from all sin, and have the image of his holiness perfected on our souls: that we shall be perfectly in love with God, and perfectly beloved of him, and live in the sight of his majesty, and fill ourselves with the view of his pleased face, and breathe out his praise with the heavenly host for ever. Doth such a heaven as this is like you? or doth it not? it do not, you must have none; for

If

h Matt. i. 21.

there is no other, except you will call an alehouse or an whorehouse, or other sensual pleasures your heaven. But if you will have this heaven which God doth offer you, you may easily see that it cannot be had without conversion. Can you be saved from sin, and yet keep it? Can you be perfected in holiness, and yet be unholy? Can you live in the everlasting love of God, and have no true love to him at all? Can you delight in him, and yet have no delight in him, but be weary of him, and delight in your worldly vanities more? Well, sinners! I think I need to say no more. The contradiction is so evident, that you may as well say, 'I will be saved, and I will not,' as to say, 'I will be saved, but not converted.'

But perhaps some vain caviller will say, 'It is true, we cannot be glorified without conversion and holiness, but God might have given us that in another world, though he change us not here.'

Answ. But do you not know, that this life is the appointed time of working, and running, and fighting for the crown? The life to come is the time of reward, and of your receiving the prize that here you run for. Would you have God help you in your race, when you are past it, and your time is gone? Or contrary to wisdom and governing justice, to confound the way and the end, this life and that to come? You may with far more wisdom expect, that when you have loitered till the sun be set, God should call it back again, at your desire, that you may have daylight to work by. He gave thee time, and gave thee warning to use it while thou hadst it; and told thee, "this was the accepted time, this was the day of salvationi." And to trifle out this time, and then to think that God should give thee both grace and glory in that life, where he hath resolved only to perfect grace in glory, and crown those that have overcome on earth. This is such folly in so great a business, as I desire no friend of mine may be guilty of.

Object. But it is our ignorance of God that maketh us unholy; and therefore when death hath opened our eyes, as we shall know him better, so we shall the more love him according to that knowledge; and so we shall be sanctified.

And God cannot but love those that love him; and therefore they will be saved.

Answ. It is not all knowledge of God, that will cause a love to him. If you know him as excellent, and yet as your enemy, and one that standeth resolved everlastingly to punish you, this will provoke no love to him, but hatred. The dignity and worth of an enemy may be some matter of admiration to us, and of reverence, but not of such love as may tend to fruition. It is inseparable from your natures to love yourselves; and therefore you will love that which you think is for your good, and hate that which you think is against you, and tends to your destruction. You will then find that your damnation was part of God's righteous government of the world: and that the whole work of government, was one inseparable frame, begun by legislation, and finished by judgment and execution: and that God will no more break the frame of government, than he will the frame of nature: nor so much. For that he may do when he please, though he will do it rarely, but this his own perfection is against. So that when you see God, as it were obliged everlastingly to destroy you, you cannot close in love with him, as your friend or chiefest good, as those do that enjoy him in the promised glory.

CHAPTER III.

V. HAVING thus cleared the way, by shewing you the meaning, and the truth of the point in hand, I shall next come to the application of it to ourselves.

Use 1. And first, by way of inference you see from hence, that there is a kingdom of heaven to be obtained. It were in vain to talk who shall come thither, and who shall not, if there were no such thing to be had. Doubt not Christian, thou hast the word of the God of heaven for it. Challenge the tempter, if he would draw thee to doubting, to prove that ever the God of this word deceived any. If he would tempt thee to question, whether it be his word or not; shew him upon it his image and superscription, with the seal of his manifold uncontroled miracles. And ask him what better evidence