convincing voice of the word, have the efficacy of an awakening voice to men's drowsy consciences ; and if careless sinners would but attend to them, and follow home those motions they make upon their hearts, who knows to what these weak beginnings might rise and prosper ? The souls of men are, as it were, embarked in the calls of God, your life is bound up in them ; if these are lost, your souls are lost ; if these abide upon you, and grow up to sound conversion, you are saved by them. More particularly consider,
1. What a mercy it is, to have your lot providentially cast under the gospel ; to be born under, and bred up with the means and instruments of conversion and salvation. We have lived from our youth up, under the calls of God, and within the joyful sound of the gospel ; " God hath not dealt so with other nations," Psal. cxlvii. 20. Though others should seek the means of life, they cannot find them ; and though you seek them not, you can hardly miss them.
2. How great a mercy it is, to have your hves lengthened out hitherto by God's patience under the gospel ! that neither that golden lamp, nor the lamp of your hfe, (both which are liable to be extinguished every moment) are yet put out. Thousands and ten thousands, your contemporaries, are gone out of the hearing of the voice of the gospel, they shall never hear another call ; the treaty of God is ended with them ; the master of the house is risen up, and the doors are shut. Your neglects and provocations have not been inferior to theirs : but the patience and goodness of God has exceeded and abounded to you beyond whatever it did to them.
3. Bethink yourselves what an aggravation of your misery it will be, to sink into hell with the calls of God sounding in your ears ! to sink into eternal miserj*^, betwixt the tender, out-stretched arms of mercy ! this is the hell of hell, the emphasis of damnation, the racking engine on which the consciences of the damned are tortured. " And thou Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, " shall be brought down to hell, Matth. xi. 23. Such a fall, after so high an exaltation, is the very strappado which will torment your consciences. Hell will prove a cooler and milder place to the Heathens that never enjoyed your light, means, and mercies in this world, than it will to you. None sink so deep into misery in the world to come, as they that fall from the fairest opportunities of salvation in this world.
4. Let no man expect that God will hear his cries and intreaties in time of misery, who neglects and slights the calls of God in time of mercy. God calls, but men will not hear : the day is coming, " when they shall cry, but God will not hear," Prov. i. 24, 25.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MA>f.
«' Will God hear his cry, when trouble cometh upon him ? Job xxvii. 9. No; he will not: and this is but a just retribution from tlie righteous God, whose calls and counsels men have set at nought. But whatever men now think of it, it is certainly the greatest misery incident to men in all the world : for as no words can make another fully sensible what a privilege it is to have the ear, favour, pity, and help of God in a day of straits; so it is im- possible for any words to express the doleful state and case of that soul whom God casts off in trouble, and whose cries he shuts out.
5. Beware of neglecting any call of God, because that call you are now tempted to neglect, may be the last call that God ever intends to give your souls. Sure I am, there is a call which will be the last call of God to rebellious sinners, and after that no more calls, but an eternal deep silence : his Spirit shall not always strive with men ; and the more motions and calls you have already slight- ed, the more probable it is that this may be the last voice of God in a way of mercy to thy soul : and what if, after this, God should seal up thy heart, and judicially harden it.? make thy will utterly inflexible, and thine ears deaf, as he threatens, Isa. vi. 10. What an undone, miserable man or woman art thou then ! Oh ! beware of provoking the sorest of all judgments, by persisting any longer in a course of rebellion against light and mercy.
6. Whilst your hearts put off and neglect the calls of God, you can by no means arrive to the evidence and assurance of your elec- tion ; for your election is only secured to you by your effectual calling, 2 Pet. i. 10. There is no way for men to discern their names written in the book of life, but by reading the work of sanctification in their own hearts, Rom. x. 8. I desire no miraculous voice from heaven, no extraordinary signs, or unscriptural notices and infor- mations in this matter : Lord, let me but find my heart complying with thy calls, my will obediently submitting to thy commands; sin my burden, and Christ my desire : I never crave a fairer or surer evidence of thy electing love to my soul : and if I had an oracle from heaven, an extraordinary messenger from the other world, to tell me thou lovest me, I have no reason to credit such a voice, whilst I find my heart wholly sensual, averse to God, and indisposed to all that is spiritual.
7. What reason have you why you should not presently embrace the call of God, and thankfully lay hold only on the first oppor- tunity and season of salvation ? Have you any greater matters in hand than the salvation of your precious souls ? Is there any thing in this world that more concerns you 'f If the affairs of this life be so indispensably necessary, and those of the world to come so indif- ferent; if you think that meat ^nd drink, trade and business, wife.
A TREATISE OF TIIK SOUL OF MAK". 237
and children are such great thing?, and Christ, the soul, and eter- nity, such httle things ; or if you think salvation to be a work of the greatest necessity, and yet may safely enough be put ofF to an uncertain time, I may assure you, you will not be long of this mind. HoAv soon are all the mistakes of men in these matters rectified in a few moments after death ! Rectified, I say, but not remedied ; your opinion will ba changed, but not your condition.
8. Do you not every day easily and readily obey the calls of Satan and your own lusts, whilst God and conscience are suffered to call and strive with you in vain ? If Satan or your lusts call you to the tavern, to the world, and sinful pleasures, you speedily comply with their call, and yield a ready obedience ; if pride or covetousness call, or passion and revenge call, they need not call twice ; and shall God and conscience call only in vain ? Lord, what a creature is man become ! If a vain companion call, you have no power to deny him ; if God call, you have no ear to hear him.