3. * If I speak to any one of you more than to another, it is to thee, who thinkest thyself unconcerned in this exhortation. _I have a message from God unto thee._ In his name, I _warn_ thee _to flee from the wrath to come_. Thou unholy soul, see thy picture in condemn’d _Peter_, lying in the dark dungeon, between the soldiers, bound with two chains, the keepers before the door keeping the prison. The night is far spent, the morning is at hand, when thou art to be brought forth to execution. And in these dreadful circumstances, thou art fast asleep; thou art fast asleep in the devil’s arms, on the brink of the pit, in the jaws of everlasting destruction.
4. O may _the angel of the Lord come upon thee_, and _the light shine into thy prison_! And mayst thou feel the stroke of an almighty hand, raising thee with _arise up quickly, gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals, cast thy garments about thee, and follow me_.
5. * Awake, thou everlasting spirit, out of thy dream of worldly happiness. Did not God create thee for himself? Then, thou canst not rest, till thou restest in him. Return thou wanderer. Fly back to thy ark. _This is not thy home._ Think not of building tabernacles here. Thou art but _a stranger, a sojourner upon earth_: A creature of a day, but just launching out into an unchangeable state. Make haste. Eternity is at hand. Eternity depends on this moment. An eternity of happiness, or an eternity of misery!
6. In what state is thy soul? Was God, while I am yet speaking, to require it of thee, art thou ready to meet death and judgment? Canst thou stand in his sight, _who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity_? Art thou _meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light_? Hast thou _fought a good fight and kept the faith_? Hast thou secured _the one thing needful_? Hast thou recovered the image of God, even _righteousness and true holiness_? Hast thou _put off the old man and put on the new_? Art thou _cloathed upon with Christ_?
7. Hast thou oil in thy lamp? Grace in thy heart? Dost thou _love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength_? Is _that mind in thee, which was also in Christ Jesus_? Art thou a Christian indeed? That is, a new creature? Are _old things past away, and all things become new_?
8. Art thou a _partaker of the divine nature? Knowest thou not, that Christ is in thee, except thou be reprobate?_ Knowest thou, that God _dwelleth in thee, and thou in God, by his Spirit which he hath given thee_? Knowest thou not, that _thy body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which thou hast of God_? Hast thou _the witness in thyself? The earnest of thine inheritance?_ Hast thou _received the Holy Ghost_――or dost thou start at the question, not knowing whether there be any Holy Ghost?
9. If it offends thee, be thou assured, that thou neither art a Christian, nor desirest to be one. Nay, thy very _prayer is turned into sin_; and thou hast solemnly mocked God this very day, by praying for _the inspiration of his holy spirit_, when thou didst not believe there was any such thing to be received.
10. * Yet on the authority of God’s word and our own church, I must repeat the question, _Hast thou received the Holy Ghost?_ If thou hast not, thou art not yet a Christian: for a Christian is a man, that is _anointed with the Holy Ghost, and with power_. Thou art not yet made a partaker of pure religion and undefiled. Dost thou know, what religion is? That it is, a participation of the divine nature, the life of God in the soul of man: _Christ formed in the heart, Christ, in thee, the hope of glory_: happiness and holiness: heaven begun upon earth: _a kingdom of God within thee: not meat and drink_, no outward thing: _but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost_? An everlasting kingdom brought into thy soul, a _peace of God, that passeth all understanding_; a _joy unspeakable and full of glory_?
11. Knowest thou, that _in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith that worketh by love_; but a new creation? Seest thou the necessity of that inward change, that spiritual birth, that life from the dead? That holiness? And art thou throughly convinced, that _without it, no man shall see the Lord_? Art thou labouring after it? _Giving all diligence, to make thy calling and election sure? Working out thy salvation with fear and trembling? Agonizing to enter in at the straight gate?_ Art thou _in earnest_ about thy soul? And, canst thou tell the Searcher of hearts, _Thou, O God, art the thing that I long for_! Lord, thou knowest all things! Thou knowest that I _would_ love thee!