Do not go away, let not the devil hurry you away before the sermon is over; but stay, and you shall have a JESUS offered to you, who has made full satisfaction for all your sins.
Let me beseech you to cast away your transgressions, to strive against sin, to watch against it, and to beg power and strength from CHRIST, to keep down the power of those lusts that hurry you on in your sinful ways.
But if you will not do any of these things, if you are resolved to sin on, you must expect eternal death to be the consequence; you must expect to be seized with horror and trembling, with horror and amazement, to hear the dreadful sentence 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 sins 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 prayers and tears will be of no signification; they will be of no service 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 said, “Because I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded, but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would have none of my reproof; I will also laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you, then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer, they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.”
Now you may call this enthusiasm and madness; but at that great day, if you repent not of your sins here, you will find, by woeful experience, that your own ways were madness indeed; but GOD forbid it should be left undone till then: seek after the LORD while he is to be found; call upon him while he is near, and you shall find mercy: repent this hour, and CHRIST will joyfully receive you.
What say you? Must I go to my Master, and tell him you will not come unto him, and will have none of his counsels? No; do not send me on so unhappy an errand: I cannot, I will not tell him any such 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 wise resolution you can make. Let me tell my Master, 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 wish you had lived the life of the righteous, that you might have died his death. Be advised then; consider what is before you, CHRIST and the world, holiness and sin, 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 chuse to die in your sins, to die drunkards, to die adulterers, to die swearers and scoffers, &c. live not out this night in the dreadful condition you are in. Some of you, it may be, may say, You have not power, you have no strength: but have not you been wanting to yourselves in such things that were within your power? Have you not as much power to go to hear a sermon, 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 associate as well with the godly, as with the wicked and prophane: this is but an idle excuse, my brethren, to go on in your sins: and if you will be found in the means of grace, CHRIST hath promised he will give you strength. While _Peter_ was preaching, the Holy Ghost fell on all that heard the word: how then should you be found in the way of your duty? JESUS CHRIST will then give thee strength; he will put his Spirit within thee; thou shalt find he will be thy wisdom, thy righteousness, thy sanctification, and thy redemption. Do but try what a gracious, a kind, and loving Master he is; he will be a help to thee in all thy burdens: and if the burden of sin is on thy soul, go to him as weary and heavy laden, and thou shalt find rest.