John iii. 36, * He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.'
2. Think of the excellency and reality of salvation by Christ : 1 Tim. i. 15, * This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners/ It is worthy to be credited, worthy to be embraced. There is in us a defect in point of assent, and also in point of acceptance ; if we were persuaded of the truth and worth of this salvation, we would not slight it and neglect it as we do ; it allaj'^eth our fears, and satisfieth our desires. Oh ! then, let us receive it with a firm assent, and with our dearest and choicest affections. It is vile ingratitude that we are no more affected with it. If it were a dream, or a doctrine not suited to our soul-necessities, then our carelessness might be the better excused. Usually we talk of it like men in jest, or hear it like stale news. Surely we do not regard it as lost and undone creatures should do, that have this only remedy to free us from eternal misery, or bring us to eternal happiness, nor with that hearty welcome which so necessary and important a truth doth require.
3. You have the means ; you have the offer made to you : Isa. xxviL 13, ' And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which are ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.' Some apply this to Cyrus's proclamation for the return of God's own people from their captivity into their own country to worship God. The ten tribes had been carried captive into the land of Assyria, many had fled into Egypt, but the ten tribes returned not on Cyrus's proclamation. How- ever it hath a spiritual meaning and use. Others make it an allusion to the year of jubilee, and the trumpet which then sounded, wherein men were set free, and returned each one to his inheritance and pos- session again. Lev, xxv. 9, 10 ; a type of the evangelical trumpet under the Messiah, whereby God's elect are called out of their spiritual thraldom under sin and Satan, to inherit a share in the kingdom of grace : Isa. Ixi. 1,2,' The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek : he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn.' Time was when Christ was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel : Mat. xv. 24, ' I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ; ' but now to people of all lands and countries : Eev. v. 9, ' Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.
4. If you continue in your impenitency and unbelief, it is a shrewd presumption that you are lost, not only in the sentence of God's law, but in the purpose of his decree : 2 Cor. iv. 3, ' For if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost ; ' that is, passed by, as those to whom the gospel will do no good. Certainly such as refuse the gospel are in an actual state of perdition, lost, undone, destroyed. We speak upon supposition, if they continue so, they are castaways. It is not an
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immediate absolute prediction. "We cannot give out copies of God's decrees, or seal them up to final perdition ; but we can reason from the rules of the gospel : Mark xvi. 16, 'He that believeth not shall be damned.' It is not a peremptory sentence ; but we must warn you of your danger, though we do not pronounce God's doom that you are reprobates ; that may come afterwards.
But what must we do ?
Directions. 1. Do not resist or refuse Christ's help, but when the waters are stirred, put in for cure. As we are to wait upon God diligently in tlie use of means for the saving of our souls, so we are to entertain and improve the offers, and to give serious regard to the friendly convictions and motions of the Spirit of God, not smothering or quenching them, lest our last estate be worse than the first. No water so soon freezeth in cold weather as that which hath been once heated ; no iron so hard as that which hath been oft heated and oft quenched ; therefore set in with such strivings of the Spirit. Christ hath sought thee out, and found thee in these preparative convictions, and now he cometh to save thee ; having made thee sensible of thy wound, let him go on with the cure, If we refuse his help, or delay it, as Felix, Acts xxiv. 25, ' Wiien I have a more convenient season I will send for thee,' we lose this advantage. Therefore when Christ knocketh, open to him ; when he draweth, run after him ; when the wind blows, put forth the sails. One time or another God meeteth with every man that liveth under the gospel, so that'his heart saith, I must be another man, or I shall be undone and lost for ever ; then Christ cometh to seek after thee and save thee in particular. Oh ! give way and welcome to his saving and healing work ; if you resist this grace by obstinacy and hardness of heart, or elude the importunity of it by neglect and delay, you lose an advantage which will not be easily had again, and so put away your own mercy.