It may be you are ready to say, 'What
does all this stir mean?' and are apt to wonder why I follow you with
such earnestness, still ringing the same lesson in your ears—that you
should repent and be converted. But I must say to you, as Ruth to
Naomi, 'Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after
you.' [Ruth 1:16] Were it a matter of indifference, might you be saved
as you are, I would gladly let you alone; but would you not have me
concerned for you, when I see you ready to perish? As the Lord lives,
before whom I am—I have not the least hope of seeing your face in
heaven, except you be converted. I utterly despair of your salvation,
except you will be prevailed with thoroughly to turn and give up
yourself to God in holiness and newness of life.
Jesus said,
'I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is
born again' [John 3:3], and yet do you wonder why your ministers labor
so earnestly for you? Do not think it strange that I am earnest with
you to follow after holiness, and long to see the image of God upon
you. Never did any, nor shall any, enter into heaven by any other way
but this! The conversion described, is not a high attainment of some
advanced Christians—but every soul that is saved undergoes this change.
What is it that you count necessary? Is your bread necessary?
Is your breath necessary? Then your conversion is much more necessary.
Indeed, this is the one thing necessary. Your possessions are not
necessary; you may sell all for the pearl of great price, and yet be a
gainer by the purchase. Your life is not necessary; you may part with
it for Christ, to infinite advantage. Your reputation is not necessary;
you may be reproached for the name of Christ, and yet be happy; yes,
you may be much more happy in reproach than in repute. But your
conversion is necessary; your salvation depends upon it; and is it not
needful in so important a matter to take care? On this one point
depends your making or marring to all eternity.
But I shall more particularly show the necessity of conversion, in five things—
- Without conversion, your BEING is in vain.
Is
it not a pity, that you should be good for nothing—an unprofitable
burden of the earth—a mere wart in the body of the universe? Thus you
are, while unconverted, for you cannot answer the end of your being. Is
it not for the divine pleasure that you are and were created? Did not
God make you for Himself? Are you a man—and have you reason? Then,
think how you came into being and why you exist. Behold God's
workmanship in your body, and ask yourself for what purpose did God
construct this fabric? Consider the noble faculties of your heaven-born
soul. To what end did God bestow these excellencies? Was it to no other
end than that you should please yourself, and gratify your senses? Did
God send men into the world, only like the swallows, to gather a few
sticks and mud, and build their nests, and raise up their young, and
then die away? The very heathen could see farther than this. Are you so
'fearfully and wonderfully made' [Psalm 139:14], and do you not yet
reason with yourself, 'Surely, I was made for some noble and exalted
end!'
O man! set your reason a little in the chair. Is it not
a pity such a goodly fabric should be raised in vain? Truly you are in
vain, except you are for God. It were better you had no being—than not
be for Him. Would you serve your end? You must repent and be converted;
without this you are to no purpose; indeed, to bad purpose.
You
are to NO purpose. Unconverted man is like a choice instrument, which
has every string broken or out of tune. The Spirit of the living God
must repair and tune it by the grace of regeneration, and sweetly move
it by the power of actuating grace, or else your prayers will be but
howlings, and all your service will make no music in the ears of the
Most Holy. All your powers and faculties are so corrupt in your natural
state that, except you be purged from dead works, you cannot serve the
living God.
An unsanctified man cannot work the work of God—
[1]
He has no SKILL in it. He is altogether as unskillful in the work, as
in the word of righteousness. There are great mysteries in the
practice, as well as in the principles of godliness. Now the
unregenerate do not know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. You
may as well expect him to read—who never learned the alphabet; or look
for goodly music on the lute—from one that never set his hand to an
instrument; as that a natural man should do the Lord any pleasing
service. He must first be taught of God (John 6:45), taught to pray
(Luke 11:1), taught to profit (Isaiah 48:17), taught to go (Hosea
11:3), or else he will be utterly at a loss.
[2] He has no
STRENGTH for it. How weak is his heart! (Ezekiel 16:30). He is soon
tired. The Sabbath, what a weariness is it! (Malachi 1:13). He is
without strength (Romans 5:6), yes, dead in sin (Eph 2:5).
[3]
He has no MIND to it. He desires not the knowledge of God's ways (Job
21:14). He does not know them, and he does not care to know them (Psalm
82:5). He knows not, neither will he understand.
[4] He has
neither due INSTRUMENTS nor MATERIALS for it. A man may as well hew the
marble without tools, or paint without colors or brushes, or build
without materials—as perform any acceptable service without the graces
of the Spirit, which are both the materials and instruments in the
work. Almsgiving is not a service of God but of vainglory—if it does
not spring from love to God. What is the prayer of the lips without
grace in the heart—but the carcass without life? What are all our
confessions—unless they are exercises of godly sorrow and sincere
repentance? What are our petitions—unless animated with holy desires
and faith in the attributes and promises of God? What are our praises
and thanksgivings—unless they spring from the love of God, and a holy
gratitude and sense of God's mercies in the heart? So that a man may as
well expect that trees should speak, or look for motion from the dead,
as look for any service, holy and acceptable to God, from the
unconverted. When the tree is evil, how can the fruit be good?
Also,
without conversion you live to BAD purpose. The unconverted soul is a
very cage of unclean birds (Revelation 18:2), a sepulcher full of
corruption and rottenness (Matthew 23:27), a loathsome carcass full of
crawling worms, and sending forth a most noxious stench in the nostrils
of God (Psalm 14:3). O dreadful case! Do you not yet see a change to be
needful? Would it not have grieved one to see the golden consecrated
vessels of God's temple turned into quaffing bowls of drunkenness, and
polluted with the idol's service? (Daniel 5:2-3). Was it such an
abomination to the Jews when Antiochus set up the picture of a swine at
the entrance of the temple? How much more abominable, then, would it
have been to have had the very temple itself turned into a stable or a
pig sty; and to have had the holy of holies served like the house of
Baal! This is just the case of the unregenerate. All your members are
turned into instruments of unrighteousness, servants of Satan, and your
inmost heart into a receptacle of uncleanness. You may see what kind of
inhabitants are within—by what come out; for, 'out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false
witness, blasphemies' (Matt 15:19). This black troop shows what a hell
there is within!
O abuse insufferable! to see a heaven-born
soul abased to such vileness; to see the glory of God's creation, the
chief of the works of God, the Lord of this lower world, eating husks
with the prodigal! Was it such a lamentation to see those nobles—sit
desolate in the streets; and the precious sons of Zion, comparable to
fine gold, esteemed as earthen pitchers; and those who were clothed in
scarlet embrace dunghills? (Lamentations 4:2,5). And is it not much
more fearful to see the only being that has immortality in this lower
world and carries the stamp of God, become as a vessel wherein is no
pleasure, and be put to the most sordid use? O intolerable indignity!
Better you were dashed in a thousand pieces, than continue to be abased
to so vile a service!
- Not only man—but the whole visible
CREATION is in vain without conversion. God has made all the visible
creatures in heaven and earth for the service of man, and man only is
the spokesman for all the rest. Man is, in the world, like the tongue
to the body, which speaks for all the members. The other creatures
cannot praise their Maker, except by dumb signs and hints to man that
he should speak for them. Man is, as it were, the high priest of God's
creation, to offer the sacrifice of praise for all his
fellow-creatures. The Lord God expects a tribute of praise from all His
works. Now, all the rest do bring in their tribute to man, and pay it
by his hand. So then, if a man is false, and faithless, and selfish—God
is robbed of all, and has no active glory from His works.
O
dreadful thought! that God should build such a world as this, and lay
out such infinite power, and wisdom, and goodness thereupon, and all in
vain! And that man should be guilty, at last, of robbing and spoiling
Him of the glory of all! O think of this. While you are unconverted,
all the offices of the creatures are in vain to you. Your food
nourishes you in vain. The sun holds forth its light to you in vain.
Your clothes warm you in vain. Your horse carries you in vain. In a
word, the unwearied labour and continued travail of the whole
creation—so far as you are concerned—are in vain. The service of all
the creatures which drudge for you, and yield forth their strength unto
you, with which you should serve their Maker—is all but lost labor.
Hence, 'the whole creation groans' (Romans 8:22) under the abuse of
unsanctified men who pervert all things to the service of their lusts,
quite contrary to the very end of their being.
- Without
conversion, your RELIGION is vain. All your religious performances will
be but lost; for they can neither please God nor save your soul, which
are the very ends of religion (Romans 8:8; 1 Corinthians 13:2-3). Be
your services ever so costly—yet God has no pleasure in them (Isaiah
1:14; Malachi 1:10). Is not that man's case dreadful, whose sacrifices
are as murders, and whose prayers are a breath of abomination? (Isaiah
66:3; Proverbs 28:9). Many under conviction think they will set upon
mending, and that a few prayers and alms will set all right again; but
alas, sirs, while your hearts remain unsanctified your duties will not
be accepted. How punctilious was Jehu! and yet all was rejected because
his heart was not upright (2 Kings 10 with Hosea 1:4). How blameless
was Paul! and yet, being unconverted, all was but loss (Philippians
3:6-7). Men think they do much in attending to God's service, and are
ready to set Him down as their debtor; whereas their persons being
unsanctified, their duties cannot be accepted.
O soul! do not
think when your sins pursue you, that a little praying and reforming
your ways will pacify God. You must begin with your heart. If that is
not renewed, you can no more please God than one who, having
unspeakably offended you, should bring you the most loathsome thing to
pacify you; or having fallen into the mire, should think with his
filthy embraces to reconcile you.
It is a great misery to
labor in the fire. The poets could not invent a worse hell for Sisyphus
than to be ever toiling to get the stone up the hill, and then that it
should presently roll down again and renew his labor. God threatens it
as the greatest temporal judgments, that they should build and not
inhabit, plant and not gather, and that their labors should be eaten up
by strangers (Deuteronomy 28:30, 38-41). Is it so great a misery to
lose our common labors, to sow in vain, and to build in vain? How much
more to lose our pains in religion—to pray, and hear, and fast in vain!
This is an undoing and eternal loss.
Be not deceived; if you
go on in your sinful state, though you should spread forth your
hands—God will hide His eyes; though you make many prayers—He will not
hear (Isaiah 1:15). If a man without skill set about our work, and
spoil it in the doing, though he take much pains, we give him but small
thanks. God will be worshiped after the due order. If a servant does
our work—but quite contrary to our order, he shall have stripes rather
than praise. God's work must be done according to God's mind, or He
will not be pleased; and this cannot be, except it be done with a holy
heart.
- Without true conversion your HOPES are in vain. 'The
hope of the hypocrite shall perish' (Job 8:12-13). 'The Lord has
rejected your confidences' (Jeremiah 2:37).
[1] The hope of
comfort here is vain. It is not only necessary for the safety—but the
comfort of your condition, that you be converted. Without this, you
shall not know peace (Isaiah 59:8). Without the fear of God you cannot
have the comfort of the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:31). God speaks peace only
to His people and to His saints (Psalm 85:8). If you have a false peace
continuing in your sins, it is not of God's speaking, and therefore you
may guess the author. Sin is a real sickness (Isaiah 1:5), yes, the
worst of sickness; it is a leprosy in the head (Leviticus 13:44); the
plague in the heart (1 Kings 8:38); it is brokenness in the bones
(Psalm 51:8); it pierces, it wounds, it racks, it torments (1 Timothy
6:10). A man may as well expect ease when his diseases are in their
full strength, or his bones out of joint, as true comfort while in his
sins.
O wretched man, that can have no ease in this case but
what comes from the deadliness of the disease! You shall have the poor
sick man saying in his wildness, he is well; when you see death in his
face, he would be up and about his business, when the very next step is
likely to be to his grave. The unsanctified often see nothing amiss;
they think themselves whole, and cry not for the physician; but this
only shows the danger of their case.
Sin naturally breeds
diseases and disturbances in the soul. What a continual tempest is
there in a discontented mind! What a corroding evil is inordinate care!
What is passion—but a very fever in the mind? What is lust—but a fire
in the bones? What is pride—but a deadly dropsy? What is
covetousness—but an insatiable and insufferable thirst? What is malice
and envy—but venom in the very heart? Spiritual sloth is but a scurvy
in the mind, and carnal security a mortal lethargy. How can that soul
have true comfort which is under so many diseases? But converting grace
cures, and so eases the mind, and prepares the soul for a settled,
standing, immortal peace. 'Great peace have those who love your law,
and nothing shall offend them' (Psalm 119:165). They are the ways of
wisdom, which afford pleasure and peace (Proverbs 3:17). David had
infinitely more pleasure in the Word, than in all the delights of his
court (Psalm 119:103,127). The conscience cannot be truly pacified
until soundly purified (Hebrews 10:22). Cursed is that peace which is
maintained in a way of sin (Deuteronomy 29:19-20). Two sorts of peace
are more to be dreaded than all the troubles in the world—peace with
sin—and peace in sin.
[2] The hope of salvation hereafter is
in vain. This hope is most injurious to God, most pernicious to
yourself. There is death, despair, and blasphemy in this hope.
There
is DEATH in it. Your confidence shall be rooted out of your
tabernacles, God will destroy it—root and branch; it will bring you to
the king of terrors (Job 18:14). Though you may lean upon this house,
it will not stand—but will prove like a ruinous building which, when a
man trusts to it, falls down about him (Job 8:15).
There is
DESPAIR in it. 'Where is the hope of the hypocrite when God takes away
his soul?' (Job 27:8). Then there is an end forever of his hope.
Indeed, the hope of the righteous has an end—but it is not a
destructive—but a perfective end. His hope ends in fruition, others in
frustration. The godly may say at death, 'It is finished'; but the
wicked, 'It is perished', and may earnestly bemoan himself, as Job did,
though mistakenly, in his case, 'Where now is my hope? He has destroyed
me; I am gone, and my hope is removed like a tree' (Job 19:10). 'The
righteous has hope in his death' (Proverbs 14:32). When the body is
dying, his hopes are living; when his body is languishing, his hopes
are flourishing; his hope is a living hope—but others a dying, yes, a
damning, soul-undoing hope.
'When a wicked man dies, his
expectation shall perish; and the hope of unjust men perishes'
(Proverbs 11:7). It shall be cut off and prove like a spider's web (Job
8:14) which he spins out of his own bowels; but then comes death and
destroys all, and so there is an eternal end of his confidence in which
he trusted. 'The eyes of the wicked shall fail and their hope shall be
as the giving up of the spirit' (Job 11:20). Wicked men are fixed in
their carnal hope, and will not be beaten out of it; they hold it fast,
they will not let it go—but death will knock off their fingers. Though
we cannot undeceive them, death and judgment will. When death strikes
his dart through your liver, it will ruin your soul and your hopes
together. The unsanctified have hope only in this life, and therefore
are of all men most miserable. When death comes, it lets them out into
the amazing gulf of endless despair.
There is BLASPHEMY in it.
To hope we shall be saved, though continuing unconverted, is to hope
that we shall prove God to be a liar. He has told you that, merciful
and compassionate as He is, He will never save you notwithstanding, if
you go on in a course of ignorance or unrighteousness. In a word, He
has told you that whatever you are or do, nothing shall avail you to
salvation unless you become new creatures. Now, to say God is merciful
and to hope that He will save us without conversion, is in effect to
say, 'We hope that God will not do as He says.' We must not set God's
attributes at variance. God has resolved to glorify His mercy—but not
to the prejudice of His truth, as the presumptuous sinner will find to
his everlasting sorrow.
Objection: But we hope in Jesus Christ, we put our whole trust in God, and therefore do not doubt that we shall be saved.
Answer:
This is not hope in Christ—but hope against Christ. To hope to see the
kingdom of God without being born again, to hope to find eternal life
in the broad way—is to hope Christ will prove a false prophet. David's
plea is, 'I hope in your word' (Psalm 119:81). But this hope is against
God's Word. Show me a word of Christ for your hope that He will save
you in your ignorance or profane neglect of His service, and I will
never try to shake your confidence.
God rejects this hope with abhorrence. Those condemned by the prophet
went on in their sins; yet, says the prophet, 'will they lean upon the
Lord' (Micah 3:11). God will not endure to be made a prop to men in
their sins. The Lord rejected those presumptuous sinners who went on
still in their trespasses and yet would stay themselves on Israel's
God—as a man would shake off the briers that cleave to his garment.
If
your hope is worth anything, it will purify you from your sins (1 John
3:3)—but cursed is that hope which cherishes men in their sins.
Objection: Would you have us despair?
Answer:
You must despair of ever coming to heaven as you are, that is, while
unconverted. You must despair of ever seeing the face of God without
holiness. But you must by no means despair of finding mercy upon your
thorough repentance and conversion. Neither may you despair of
attaining to repentance and conversion in the use of God's means.
- Without conversion all that Christ has done and suffered will be, so
far as it concerns you, in vain. That is, it will in no way avail you
to salvation. Many urge this as a sufficient ground for their hope,
that Christ died for sinners; but I must tell you, Christ never died to
save impenitent and unconverted sinners, so continuing. A great divine
was accustomed in his private dealings with souls to ask two questions.
What has Christ done for you? What has Christ wrought in you? Without
the application of the Spirit in regeneration, we have no saving
interest in the benefits of redemption. I tell you from the Lord, that
Christ Himself cannot save you if you go on in this state.
[1]
To save men in their sins would be against His trust. The Mediator is
the servant of the Father, shows His commission from Him, acts in His
name, and pleads His command for His justification (John 10:18, 36;
John 6:38, 40). God has committed all things to Him, entrusted His own
glory and the salvation of His elect with Him (Matthew 11:27; John
17:2). Accordingly, Christ gives His Father an account of both parts of
His trust before He leaves the world (John 17). Now Christ would quite
thwart His Father's glory, tarnish His greatest trust, if He would save
men in their sins: for this would overturn all His counsels, and offer
violence to all His attributes.
It would overturn all God's
counsels, of which this is the order, that men should be brought to
salvation through sanctification (2 Thessalonians 2:13). He has chosen
them that they should be holy (Ephesians 1:4). They are elected to
pardon and life through sanctification (1 Peter 1:2). If you can repeal
the law of God's immutable counsel, or corrupt Him whom the Father has
sealed to go directly against His commission, then, and not otherwise,
you may get to heaven in this condition. To hope that Christ will save
you while unconverted, is to hope that Christ will prove false to His
trust. He never did, nor ever will save one soul but whom the Father
has given Him in election, and drawn to Him in effectual calling (John
6:37,44). Be assured, Christ will save none in a way contrary to His
Father's will.
[2] To save men in their sins, would offer violence to all the ATTRIBUTES of God.
To
His JUSTICE. The righteousness of God's judgement lies in rendering to
all according to their works. Now, should men sow to the flesh, and yet
of the Spirit reap everlasting life—where would the glory of divine
justice be?
To His HOLINESS. If God should not only save
sinners—but save them in their sins, His most pure and strict holiness
would be exceedingly defaced. The unsanctified, in the eyes of God's
holiness—are worse than a swine or viper! It would be offering the
extreme violence to the infinite purity of the divine nature to have
such dwell with Him. They cannot stand in His judgment: they cannot
abide His presence. If holy David would not endure such in his house,
no, nor in his sight (Psalm 101:3,7), can we think God will? Should He
take men as they are, from the mire of their filthiness—to the glory of
heaven, the world would think that God was at no such great distance
from sin, nor had any such dislike to it as we are told He has. They
would be ready to conclude that God was altogether such an one as
themselves, as some of old wickedly did, from the forbearance of God
(Psalm 50:21).
To His VERACITY. God has declared from heaven
that if any says he shall have peace, though he should go on in the
imagination of his heart—that His wrath shall smoke against that man
(Deuteronomy 29:19-20). He has declared that they alone, who confess
and forsake their sins, shall find mercy (Proverbs 28:13). He has
declared that they that shall enter into His holy hill must be of clean
hands and a pure heart (Psalm 24:3-4). Where would God's truth be, if,
notwithstanding all this—He should bring unconverted men to heaven? O
desperate sinner, who dares to hope that Christ will make His Father a
liar and nullify His word—to save the unconverted!
To His
WISDOM. This were to throw away the choicest of mercies on those who
would not value them, nor were any way suited to them.
They
would not VALUE them. The unsanctified sinner puts but little value
upon God's great salvation. He thinks no more of Christ, than those who
are whole, do of the physician. He prizes not His balm, values not His
cure—but tramples on His blood. Now, would it stand with wisdom to
force pardon and life upon those who would return no thanks for them?
Will the all-wise God, when He has forbidden us to do it, throw His
holy things to dogs and His pearls to swine—who would, as it were—but
turn again and rend Him? This would make mercy to be despised indeed.
Wisdom requires that life be given in a way suitable to God's honour,
and that God provide for the securing of His own glory, as well as
man's felicity. It would be dishonorable to God to bestow His choicest
riches, on those who have more pleasure in their sins—than in the
heavenly delights which He offers. God would lose the praise and glory
of His grace, if He would cast it away upon those who were not only
unworthy but unwilling.
Also, the mercies of God are no way
SUITED to the unconverted. God's wisdom is seen in suiting things to
each other, the means to the end, the object to the faculty, the
quality of the gift to the capacity of the receiver. Now, if Christ
should bring the unregenerate sinner to heaven, he could take no more
felicity there than a beast would, if you should bring it into a
beautiful room to the society of learned men; whereas the poor thing
had much rather be grazing with his fellows in the field. Alas, what
could an unholy man do in heaven? He could not be content there because
nothing suits him. The place does not suit him; he would be quite out
of his element, a fish out of water. The company does not suit him;
what communion has darkness with light? corruption with perfection?
vileness and sin with glory and immortality? The employment does not
suit him; the anthems of heaven do not fit his mouth, do not suit his
ear. Can you charm a donkey with music; or will you bring him to your
organ and expect that he should make melody, or keep time with the
tuneful choir? Had he skill, he would have no will, and so could find
no pleasure in it. Spread your table with delicacies before a
languishing patient, and it will be but an offence. Alas, if the
ungodly man thinks a sermon long and say of a Sabbath-day, 'What a
weariness is it!' how miserable would he think it to be engaged in an
everlasting Sabbath!
To His IMMUTABILITY, or else to His
OMNISCIENCE or OMNIPOTENCE. It is enacted in heaven, and enrolled in
the decree of the court above, that none but the pure in heart shall
see God (Matthew 5:8). Now, if Christ brings any to heaven unconverted,
either He must get them in without His Father's knowledge—and then
where is His omniscience? or against His will—and then where were His
omnipotence? or He must change His will—and then where were His
immutability?
Sinner, will you not give up your vain hope of
being saved in this condition? Bildad says, 'Shall the earth be
forsaken for you; or the rocks be moved out of their place?' (Job
18:4). May I not much more reason with you? Shall the laws of heaven be
reversed for you? Shall the everlasting foundations be overturned for
you? Shall Christ put out the eye of His Father's omniscience, or
shorten the arm of His eternal power—for you? Shall divine justice be
violated for you; or the brightness of His holiness be blemished for
you? O the impossibility, absurdity, blasphemy, of such a confidence!
To think Christ will ever save you in this condition, is to make the
Savior become a sinner, and do more wrong to the infinite Majesty than
all the wicked on earth or devils in hell ever did, or ever could do;
and yet will you not give up such a blasphemous hope?
[2] To
save men in their sins would be against the WORD of Christ. We need not
say, 'Who shall ascend into heaven, to bring down Christ from above?
Or, who shall descend into the deep, to bring up Christ from beneath?
The word is near us' (Romans 10:6-8). Are you agreed that Christ shall
end the controversy? Hear then His own words: 'Except you be converted,
you shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven.' 'You must be born
again.' 'If I wash you not, you have no part in me.' 'Unless you
repent, you shall perish' (Matthew 18:3; John 3:7; John 13:8; Luke
13:3). One word, one would think, were enough from Christ; but how
often and earnestly does He reiterate it: 'Truly, truly, unless a man
be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of God' (John 3:3). Yes, He
not only asserts but proves the necessity of the new birth from the
carnality and sinfulness of man from his first birth, by reason of
which man is no more fit for heaven than the beast is for the chamber
of the king. And will you yet rest in your own presumptuous confidence,
directly against Christ's words? He must go quite against the law of
His kingdom and rule of His judgment, to save you in this state.
[3]
To save men in their sins would be against the OATH of Christ. He has
lifted up His hand to heaven, He has sworn that those who remain in
unbelief and know not His ways (that is, are ignorant of them, or
disobedient to them) shall not enter into His rest (Hebrews 3:18). And
will you not yet believe, O sinner, that He is earnest? The covenant of
grace is confirmed by an oath and sealed by blood; but all must be made
void, and another way to heaven found out—if you be saved, living and
dying unsanctified. God is come to His last terms with man, and has
condescended as far as in honor He could. Men cannot be saved while
unconverted, except they could get another covenant made, and the whole
frame of the Gospel, which was established forever with such dreadful
solemnities, quite altered. And must not they be demented who hope that
they shall?
[4] To save men in their sins would be against His
HONOUR. God will so show His love to the sinner—and at the same time
show His hatred to sin. Therefore, he who names the name of Jesus must
depart from iniquity and deny all ungodliness; and he who has hope of
life by Christ, must purify himself as He is pure, otherwise Christ
would be thought a favorer of sin (2 Timothy 2:19; Titus 2:12; 1 John
3:3). The Lord Jesus would have all the world know, that though He
pardons sin, He will not protect it. If holy David says, 'Depart from
me, all you workers of iniquity' (Psalm 6:8), and shuts the doors
against them (Psalm 101:7), shall we not much more expect it from
Christ's holiness? Would it be for His honor, to have the dogs at His
table, or to lodge the swine with His children, or to have Abraham's
bosom to be a nest of vipers?
[5] To save men in their sins
would be against His offices. God has exalted Him to be a Prince and a
Savior (Acts 5:31). He would act against both, should He save men in
their sins. It is the office of a king to be a terror to evildoers, and
a praise to those who do well. 'He is a minister of God, a revenger to
execute wrath on him who does evil' (Romans 13:4). Now, should Christ
favor the ungodly, so continuing, and take those to reign with Him who
would not have Him reign over them, this would be quite against His
office. He therefore reigns that He may put His enemies under His feet.
Now, should He lay them in His bosom, He would frustrate the end of His
regal power. It belongs to Christ, as a King, to subdue the hearts and
slay the lusts of His chosen (Psalm 45:5; Psalm 110:3). What king would
take rebels in open hostility, into his court? What were this but to
betray life, kingdom, government, and all together? If Christ is a
King, He must have honor, homage, subjection. Now, to save men while in
their natural enmity—would be to obscure His dignity, lose His
authority, bring contempt on His government, and sell His dear-bought
rights for naught.
Again, as Christ would not be a Prince, so neither a Savior, if He would do this; for His salvation is spiritual. He is called Jesus because He saves His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). So that, should He save them in their sins, He would be neither Lord nor Jesus. To save men from the punishment of sin—and not from the power of sin—would be to do His work by halves, and be an imperfect Saviour. His office as the Deliverer is to turn ungodliness from Jacob (Romans 11:26). He is sent to bless men, in turning them from their iniquities (Acts 3:26), to make an end of sin (Daniel 9:24). So that He would destroy His own designs, and nullify His offices—to save men in their unconverted state.
Arise then! What do you mean, O sleeper? Awake, O secure sinner, lest you be consumed in your iniquities! Say, as the lepers, 'If we sit here, we shall die!' (2 Kings 7:3-4). Truly, it is not more certain that you are now out of hell, than that you shall speedily be in it—unless you repent and be converted. There is but this one door for you to escape by. Arise then, O sluggard, and shake off your excuses; how long will you slumber and fold your hands to sleep? Will you lie down in the midst of the sea, or sleep on the top of a mast? (Proverbs 23:34). There is no remedy—but you must either turn or burn! There is an unchangeable necessity of the change of your condition, unless you have resolved to abide the worst of it, and fight it out with the Almighty. If you love your life, O man, arise and come away. I think I see the Lord Jesus laying the merciful hands of a holy violence upon you; I think He acts like the angels to Lot: "Hurry," they said to Lot. "Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out of here right now, or you will be caught in the destruction of the city." When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful. "Run for your lives!" the angels warned. "Do not stop anywhere in the valley. And don't look back! Escape to the mountains, or you will die." Genesis 19:15-17 (Genesis 19:15-17).
O how dreadful will your destruction be, if you should yet harden yourself in your sinful state! But none of you can say that you have not had fair warning. Yet I cannot leave you so. It is not enough for me to have delivered my own soul. What! shall I go away without my errand? Will none of you arise and follow me? Have I been all this while speaking to the wind? Have I been charming the deaf adder, or allaying the restless ocean with argument? Do I speak to the trees and rocks—or to men? to the tombs and monuments of the dead—or to the living? If you are men and not senseless stocks, stop and consider where you are going! If you have the reason and understanding of men, do not dare to run into the flames, and fall into hell with your eyes open! Stop and think, and set about the work of repentance. What, men? and yet run into the pit, when the very beasts will not be forced in? What, endowed with reason? and yet trifle with death and hell, and the vengeance of the Almighty? Are men only distinguished from brutes in that these, having no foresight, have no care to provide for the things to come, and will you, who are warned, not hasten your escape from eternal torments? O show yourselves men, and let reason prevail with you!
Is it a reasonable thing for you to contend against the Lord your Maker, or to harden yourselves against His word, as though the Strength of Israel would lie? (Isaiah 45:9; Job 9:4; 1 Samuel 15:29). Is it reasonable that an understanding creature should lose; yes, live quite against the very end of his being? Is it reasonable that the only being in this world that God has made capable of knowing His will and bringing Him glory, should yet live in ignorance of his Maker, and be unserviceable to His use, yes, should be engaged against Him, and spit his venom in the face of his Creator? Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, and let the creatures without sense judge if this be reason, that man whom God has nourished and brought up, should rebel against Him? Judge in your own selves. Is it a reasonable undertaking for briers and thorns to set themselves in battle against the devouring fire? or for the potsherd of the earth to strive with its Maker? You will say, 'This is not reason'; or surely the eye of reason is quite put out. And, if this is not reason, then there is no reason that you should continue as you are—but there is every reason in the world that you should immediately turn and repent.
What shall I say? I could spend myself in this argument. O that you would only hearken to me; that you would now set upon a new course! Will you not be made clean? When shall it once be? Reader, will you sit down and consider the forementioned argument, and debate it whether it be not best to turn? Come, and let us reason together. Is it good for you to be here? Is it good for you to try whether God will be as good as His word, and to harden yourself in a conceit that all is well with you, while you remain unsanctified?
Alas, for such sinners! must they perish at last by hundreds? What course shall I use with them that I have not tried? 'What shall I do for the daughter of my people?' (Jeremiah 9:7).
'O Lord God, help. Alas, shall I leave them thus? If they will not hear me—yet may You hear me. O that they might live in Your sight! Lord, save them—or they perish. My heart would melt to see their houses on fire when they were fast asleep in their beds; and shall not my soul be moved within me to see them falling into endless perdition? Lord, have compassion, and save them out of the burning. Put forth Your divine power—and the work will be done!'
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