Do not waver, but give him that which he desires, your hearts; it is the heart the LORD JESUS CHRIST wanteth; and when you have an inward principle wrought in your hearts by this same JESUS, then you will feel the sweetness and pleasure of communion with GOD. O consider, my brethren, the love of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, in dying for you; and are you resolved to slight his dying love? Your sins brought CHRIST from heaven, and I humbly pray to the LORD that they may not be a means of sending you to hell. What language will make you leave your sins and come to CHRIST? O that I did but know! and that it lay in my power to give you this grace; not one of you, not the greatest scoffer here should go hence before he was changed from a natural to a spiritual life; then, then we would rejoice and take sweet council together; but all this is not in my power: but I tell you where you may have it, even of the LORD JESUS; he will give it to you, if you ask it of him, for he has told us, “Ask, and you shall receive;” therefore ask of him, and if you are repulsed again and again, intreat him more, and he will be unto you as he was to the poor _Syrophœnician_ woman, who came to CHRIST on account of her daughter; and if she was so importunate to him for a body, how much more should we be solicitous for our souls? If you seek to him in faith, his answer will be to you as it was to her, “Thy faith hath saved thee, be it as thou wouldest have it.”
O, do not forsake the seeking of the LORD; do not, I beseech you, neglect the opportunities which may be offered to you, for the salvation of your souls; forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, to build up and confirm and strengthen those who are weak in faith; to convince sinners, that they may feel the power of GOD pricking them in their hearts, and make them cry out, “What must we do to be saved?”
The devil and his agents have their clubs of revelling, and their societies of drunkenness; they are not ashamed to be seen and heard doing the devil their master’s works; they are not ashamed to proclaim him; and sure you are not ashamed of the LORD JESUS CHRIST; you dare proclaim that JESUS, who died that you might live, and who will own you before his Father and all the holy angels: Therefore, dare to be singularly good; be not afraid of the face of man; let not all the threats of the men of this world move you: what is the loss of all the grandeur, or pleasure, or reputation of this life, compared to the loss of heaven, of CHRIST and of your souls? and as for the reproaches of the world, do not mind them; when they revile you, never, never revile again; do not answer railing with railing; but let love, kindness, meekness, patience, long-suffering, be found in you, as they were in the blessed JESUS; therefore, I beseech you, do not neglect the frequent coming together, and telling each other, what great things JESUS CHRIST hath done for your souls.
I do not now, as the Pharisees say I do, encourage you to leave your lawful callings, and your business, in which GOD, by his providence, hath placed you; for you have two callings, the one a general, and the other a special one; it is your duty to regard your ♦families, and if you neglect them out of any pretence whatsoever, as going to church or to societies, you are out of the way of your duty, and offering that to GOD which he commanded you not. But then, my brethren, you are to take care that the things of this life do not hinder the preparing for that which is to come; let not the business of the world make you unmindful of your souls; but in all your moral actions, in the business of life, let all be done with a view to the glory of GOD, and the salvation of your souls.
♦ “familes” replaced with “families”
The night draws on, and obliges me to hasten to a conclusion; though, methinks, I could speak until my tongue clave to the roof of my mouth, yea, until I could speak no more, if it was to save your souls from the paws of him who seeketh to devour them.