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be for ever damned. This is your case, sirs: and do you think the playing of a part upon a stage doth fit your case? O, no! So great a business requireth all the serious earnestness in the speaker that he can use. I am sure you will think so ere long yourselves; and you will then think well of the preachers that faithfully acquainted you with your case: and (if they succeed to your perdition) you will curse those that smoothed you up in your presumption, and hid your danger, by false doctrine, or misapplication, or seeming to discover it, indeed did hide it, by an hypocritical light, not serious mention of it. God can make use of clay and spittle to open the eyes of men born blind; and of ramshorns to bring down the walls of Jericho: but usually he fitteth the means unto the end, and works on man agreeably to his nature and therefore if a blind understanding must be enlightened, you cannot expect that it should be done by squibs and glowworms, but by bringing into your souls the powerful celestial truth, which shall show you the hidden corners of your hearts, and the hidden mysteries of the Gospel, and the unseen things of the other world. If a hardened heart be to be broken, it is not stroking, but striking that must do it. It is not the sounding brass, the tinkling cymbal, the carnal mind puffed up with superficial knowledge, that is the instrument fitted to the renewing of men's souls: but it is he that can acquaint you with what he himself hath been savingly acquainted: the heart is not melted into godly sorrow, nor raised to the life of faith and love, by the bubbles of a frothy wit, or by a game at words, or useless notions, but by the illuminating beams of sacred truth, and the attraction of Divine displayed goodness, communicated from a mind that by faith hath seen the glory of God, and by experience found that he is good, and that liveth in the love of God: such a one is fitted to assist you first in the knowledge of yourselves, and then in the knowledge of God in Christ.

Did you consider what is the office of the ministry, you' would soon know what ministers do most faithfully perform their office, and what kind of teaching and oversight you should desire and then you would be reconciled to the light and would choose the teacher (could you have your choice) that would do most to help you to know yourselves, and know the Lord.

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I beseech you judge of our work by our commission, and judge of it by your own necessities. Have you more need to be acquainted with your sin and danger? or to be pleased with a set of handsome words, which when they are said, do leave you as they found you; and leave no light, and life, and heavenly love upon your hearts: that have no substance that you can feed upon in the review?

And what our commission is you may find in many places of the Scripture, (Ezek. iii. 18-21,) "When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand: yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul:-" And "If thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned, also thou hast delivered thy soul."

And what if they distaste our doctrine, must we forbear? (Ezek. iii. 11.) "Tell them, thus saith the Lord God, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear." So Ezek. xxxiii. 1-10.

You know what became of Jonah for refusing to deliver God's threatenings against Nineveh.

Christ's stewards must give to each his portion. He himself threateneth damnation to the impenitent, the hypopocrites, and unbelievers. (Luke xiii. 3. 5; Mark xvi. 16; Matt. xxiv. 51.) Paul saith of himself, "If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." (Gal. i. 10.) Patience and meekness is commanded to the ministers of Christ, even in the instructing of opposers, but to what end? But" that they may escape out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." So that with all our meekness we must be so plain with you, as to make you know that you are Satan's captives, taken alive by him. in his snares, till God by giving you repentance shall recover you, (2 Tim. ii. 25, 26.)

The very office of the preachers sent by Christ was "to open men's eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins, and inheritance with the sanctified

by faith in Christ," (Acts xxvi. 18,) which telleth you, that we must let men understand, that till they are converted and sanctified, they are blind, and in the dark, and in the power of Satan, far from God; unpardoned, and having no part in the inheritance of saints.

Christ tells the Pharisees, that they were of their father the devil, when they boasted that God was their Father; (John viii. 44;) And how plainly he tells them of their hypocrisy, and asked them how they can escape the damnation of hell, you may see in Matt. xxiii.

Paul thought it his duty to tell Elymas, (Acts xiii. 10,) that he "was full of all subtlety and mischief, the child of the devil, and the enemy of all righteousness, a perverter of the right ways of the Lord." And Peter thought meet to tell Simon Magus, that he had " neither part, nor lot in that matter; that his heart was not right in the sight of God;" that he was in " the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. (Acts viii. 21-23.)

The charge of Paul to Timothy is plain and urgent, (2 Tim. iv. 1, 2,) "I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing, and his kingdom, Preach the word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort." And to Titus, (chap. i. 13,) "Rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith."

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Judge now, whether ministers must deal plainly or deceitfully with you, and whether it be the searching, healing. truth that they must bring you, or a smooth tale that hath no salt or savour in it: And would you have us break these laws of God, for nothing but to deceive you and tell you a lie, and make the ungodly believe that he is godly, or to hide the truth that is necessary to your salvation? Is the knowledge of yourselves so intolerable a thing to you?

Beloved hearers, either it is true that you are yet unsanctified, or it is not: If it be not, it is none of our desire you should think so: we do all that we can to cure the mistakes of troubled Christians, that think themselves worse than indeed they are. But if it be true, tell me, why would you not know it? I hope it is not because you would not be remembered of your woe, and so tormented before the time. I hope you think not that we delight to vex men's consciences with fear, or to see men live in grief and trouble,

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rather than in well-grounded peace and joy. And if indeed you are yet unregenerate, that is not long of us that tell you of it, but of yourselves that wilfully continue it. Do we make you ungodly, by telling you of your ungodliness? Is it we that hinder the forgiveness of your sins, by letting you know that they are not forgiven? O no! we strive for your conversion to this end, that your sins may be forgiven you; and you hinder the forgiveness of them, by refusing to be converted. When God forsaketh stubborn souls for resisting his grace, note, how he expresseth his severity against them, "That seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. (Mark iv. 12.) You see here, that till they are converted, men's sins are not forgiven them. And that whoever procureth the forgiveness of their sins, must do it by procuring their conversion; and that the hindering of their conversion is the hindering of their forgiveness. And that blindness of mind is the great hindrance of conversion; when men do not perceive the very things which they see, (not knowing the reason, and the sense, and the end of them, but the outside only :) nor understand the things which they hear: And therefore undoubtedly the teacher that brings you a light into your minds, and first showeth you yourselves, and your unconverted and your unpardoned state, is he that takes the way to your conversion and forgiveness: as the forecited text showeth you, " I send thee to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light," (Acts xviii. 26,) (that they may first know themselves, and then know God in Jesus Christ), "and from the power of Satan," (who ruled them as their prince, and captivated them as their gaoler)," unto God" (whom they had forsaken as a guide and governor, and were deprived of as their protector, portion and felicity,)" that they may receive forgiveness of sins" (which none receive but the converted,)" and an inheritance among them that are sanctified," for glory is the inheritance of the saints alone; (Col. i. 12;) and all this "through faith that is in me" (by believing in me, and giving up themselves unto me, that by my satisfaction, merits, teaching, Spirit, intercession, and judgment, it may be accomplished).

Truly sirs, if we knew how to procure your conversión and forgiveness, without making you know that you are

unconverted and unpardoned, we would do it, and not trouble you needlessly with so sad a discovery. Let that man be accounted a butcher of souls, and not a physician for them, that delighteth to torment them. Let him be accounted unworthy to be a preacher of the Gospel, that envieth you your peace and comfort. We would not have you think one jot worse of your condition than it is. Know but the very truth, what case you are in, and we desire no

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And so far are we by this from driving you to desperation, that it is your desperation that we would prevent by it; which can no other way be prevented. When you are past remedy, desperation cannot be avoided: and this is necessary to your remedy. There is a conditional despair, and an absolute despair. The former is necessary to prevent the latter, and to bring you to a state of hope. A man that hath the tooth-ach, may perhaps despair of being eased without drawing the tooth; or a man that hath a gangrened foot may despair of life, unless it be cut off; that so by the cure he may not be left to an absolute despair of life. So you must despair of being pardoned or saved without conversion, that you may be converted, and so have hope of your salvation, and be saved from final, absolute despair. I hope you will not be offended with him, that would persuade you to despair of living, unless you will eat and drink. You have no more reason to be offended with him that would have you despair of being pardoned or saved without Christ, or without his sanctifying Spirit.

Having said so much of the necessity of ministers endeavouring to make unregenerate sinners know themselves, I shall next try what I can do towards it, with those that hear me, by proposing these few questions to your consideration.

Quest. 1. Do you think that you were ever unsanctified, and in a state of wrath and condemnation or not? If not, then you are not the offspring of Adam; you are not then of the human race; for the Scripture telleth you that " We are conceived in sin, (Psal. li. 5,) And "that by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And that by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,” (Rom. v. 12, 18,) And that " All have sinned, and

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