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prepared for all that love the LORD JESUS CHRIST in finceri ty and truth: repent ye then of all your fins. O my dear brethren, it makes my blood run cold, in thinking that any of you should not be admitted into the glorious manfions above. O that it was in my power, I would place all of you, yea, you my scoffing brethren, and the greatest enemy I have on earth, at the right-hand of Jesus; but this I cannot do : however, I advife and exhort you, with all love and tenderness, to make JESUS your refuge; fly to him for relief; JESUS died to fave such as you; he is full of compaffion; and if you go to him, as poor, loft, undone finners, JESUS will give you his fpirit; you fhall live and reign, and reign and live, you fhall love and live, and live and love with this JESUS to all eternity.

I am, Fourthly, to exhort all of you, high and low, rich and poor, one with another, to repent of all your fins, and turn unto the LORD.

And I fhall speak to each of you; for you have either repented, or you have not, you are believers in CHRIST JESUS, or unbelievers.

And first, you who never have truly repented of your fins, and never have truly forfaken your lufts, be not offended if I fpeak plain to you; for it is love, love to your fouls, that contrains me to fpeak: I fhall lay before you your danger, and the mifery to which you are exposed, while you remain im penitent in fin. And O that this may be a means of making you fly to CHRIST for pardon and forgiveness.

While thy fins are not repented of, thou art in danger of death, and if you should die, you would perish for ever. There is no hope of any who live and die in their fins, but that they will dwell with devils and damned spirits to all eternity. And how do we know we shall live much longer: we are not fure of feeing our own habitations this night in fafety. What mean ye then being at eafe and pleasure while your fins are not pardoned. As fure as ever the word of God is true, if you die in that condition, you are fhut out of all hope and mercy for ever, and fhall pass into eafelefs and endless mifery.

What is all thy pleasures and diverfions worth? They laft but for a moment, they are of no worth, and but of fhort continuance. And fure it must be grofs folly, eagerly to purfue

those

thofe finful lufts and pleasures, which war against the foul, which tend to harden the heart, and keep us from clofing with the LORD JESUS; indeed, these are destructive of our peace here, and without repentance, will be of our peace hereafter.

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O the folly and madness of this fenfual world; fure if there were nothing in fin but prefent flavery, it would keep an ingenuous spirit from it. But to do the devils drudgery ! and if we do that, we shall have his wages, which is eternal death and condemnation; O confider this, my guilty brethren, you that think it no crime to swear, whore, drink, or fcoff and jeer at the people of GOD; confider how your voices will then be changed, and you that counted their lives madness, and their end without honour, fhall howl and lament at your own madness and folly, that fhould bring you to fo much woe and distress. Then you will lament and bemoan your own dreadful condition; but it will be of no fignification: for he that is now your merciful Saviour, will then become your inexorable Judge. Now he is easy to be entreated; but then, all your tears and prayers will be in vain: for Gop hath allotted to every man a day of grace, a time of repentance, which if he doth not improve, but neglects and despises the means which are offered to him, he cannot be faved.

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Confider, therefore, while you are going on in a course of fin and unrighteousness, I beseech you, my brethren, to think of the confequence that will attend your thus mifpending your precious time; your fouls are worth being concerned about for if you can enjoy all the pleasures and diverfions of life, at death you must leave them; that will put an end to all your worldly concerns. And will it not be very deplorable, to have your good things here, all your earthly, fenfual, devilish pleafures, which you have been so much taken up with, all over and the thought for how trifling a concern thou haft loft eternal welfare, will gnaw thy very foul.

Thy wealth and grandeur will ftand in no ftead.; thou canft carry nothing of it into the other world: then the confideration of thy uncharitableness to the poor, and the ways thou didst take to obtain thy wealth, will be a very hell unto thee,

Now

Now you enjoy the means of grace, as the preaching of his word, prayer, and facraments; and God has fent his minifters out into the fields and highways, to invite, to woo you to come in; but they are tiresome to thee, thou hadst rather be at thy pleasures: ere long, my brethren, they will be over, and you will be no more troubled with them; but then thou wouldft give ten thousand worlds for one moment of that merciful time of grace which thou haft abused; then you will cry for a drop of that precious blood which now you trample under your feet; then you will wish for one more offer of mercy, for CHRIST and his free grace to be offered to you again; but your crying will be in vain for as you would not repent here, God will not give you an opportunity to repent hereafter: if you would not in CHRIST's time, you fhall not in your own. In what a dreadful condition will you then be? What horror and astonishment will poffefs your fouls? Then all thy lies and oaths, thy fcoffs and jeers at the people of GOD, all thy filthy and unclean thoughts and actions, thy mispent time in balls, plays, and affemblies, thy spending whole evenings at cards, dice, and masquerades, thy frequenting of taverns and alehouses, thy worldliness, covetoufnefs, and thy uncharitableness, will be brought at once to thy remembrance, and at once charged upon thy guilty foul. And how can you bear the thoughts of these things? Indeed I am full of compaffion towards you, to think that this fhould be the portion of any who now hear me. Thefe are truths, though awful ones; my brethren, these are the truths of the gofpel; and if there was not a neceffity for thus fpeaking, I would willingly forbear: for it is no pleasing fubject to me, any more than it is to you; but it is my duty to fhew you the dreadful confequences of continuing in fin. I am only now acting the part of a skilful furgeon, that fearches a wound before he heals it: I would fhew you your danger first, that deliverance may be the more readily accepted" by you.

Confider, that however you may be for putting the evil day away from you, and are now ftriving to hide your fins, at the day of judgment there shall be a full discovery of all; hidden things on that day fhall be brought to light; and after all thy fins have been revealed to the whole world, then you must

depart

depart into everlasting fire in hell, which will not be quenched night and day; it will be without intermiffion, without end. O then, what ftupidity and fenfelefsnefs hath poffeffed your hearts, that you are not frighted from your fins. The fear of Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace, made men do any thing to avoid it; and fhall not an everlafting fire make men, make you, do any thing to avoid it?

O that this would awaken and caufe you to humble yourfelves for your fins, and to beg pardon for them, that you might find mercy in the LORD.

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Do not go away, let not the devil hurry you away before the fermon is over; but ftay, and you fhall have a JESUS. offered to you, who has made full fatisfaction for all your fins.

Let me beseech you to caft away your tranfgreffions, to ftrive against fin, to watch against it, and to beg power and Strength from CHRIST, to keep down the power of those lufts that hurry you on in finful ways. your But if you will not do any of these things, if you are refolved to fin on, you must expect eternal death to be the confequence; you must expect to be feized with horror and trembling, with horror and amazement, to hear the dreadful fentence of condemnation pronounced against you and then you will run and call upon the mountains to fall on you, to hide you from the LORD, and from the fierce anger of his wrath.

Had you now a heart to turn from your fins unto the living GOD, by true and unfeigned repentance, and to pray unto him for mercy, in and through the merits of JESUS CHRIST, there were hope; but at the day of judgment, thy prayersand tears will be of no fignification; they will be of no fervice to thee, the Judge will not be entreated by thee: as you would not hearken to him when he called unto thee, but despised both him and his ministers, and would not leave your iniquities; therefore, on that day he will not be entreated, notwithstanding all thy cries and tears; for God himself hath faid, "Because I have called, and you refused; I have ftretched out my hand, and no man regarded, but ye have fet at nought all my counfel, and would have none of my reproof; I will also laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh as defolation, and your deftruction cometh

as

as a whirlwind; when diftrefs and anguifh cometh upon you, then fhall they call upon me, but I will not anfwer, they fhall feek me early, but they shall not find me."

Now you may call this enthufian and madnefs; but at that great day, if you repent not of your fins here, you will find, by woeful experience, that your own ways were madnefs indeed; but God forbid it should be left undone till then feek after the LORD while he is to be found; call upon him while he is near, and you fhall find mercy: repent this hour, and CHRIST will joyfully receive you.

What fay you? Muft I go to my Master, and tell him you will not come unto him, and will have none of his counfels? No; do not fend me on fo unhappy an errand: I cannot, I will not tell him any fuch thing. Shall not I rather tell him, you are willing to repent and to be converted, to become new men, and take up a new course of life: this is the only wife refolution you can make. Let me tell my Mafter, that you will come unto, and will wait upon him: for if you do not, it will be your ruin in time, and to eternity.

You will at death with you had lived the life of the righte ous, that you might have died his death. Be advised then; confider what is before you, CHRIST and the world, holiness and fin, life and death: choose now for yourselves; let your choice be made immediately, and let that choice be your dying ́

choice.

If you would not chufe to die in your fins, to die drunkards, to die adulterers, to die fwearers and fcoffers, &c. live not out this night in the dreadful condition you are in. Some of you, it may be, may fay, You have not power, you have no' ftrength but have not you been wanting to yourselves in 'fuch things that were within your power? Have you not as much power to go to hear a fermon, as to go into a playhouse, or to a ball, or masquerade? You have as much power to read the Bible, as to read plays, novels, and romances; and you can affociate as well with the godly, as with the wicked and prophane: this is but an idle excufe, my brethren, to go. on in your fins and if you will be found in the means of grace, CHRIST hath promised he will give you ftrength. While Peter was preaching, the Holy Ghoft fell on all that heard the word: how then fhould you be found in the way of your duty?

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