THE UNCONVERTED. 111 it.' Just so it is with wicked men; they will be wicked, and they will live after the . flesh and the world, and yet they would not be damned. But do you not know that tl'le means lead to the end? and that God hath, by his righteous law, concluded that ye must repent or perish? He that will take poison, may as well say plainly, I will kill myself, for it will prove no better in the end; though perhaps he loved it for the sweetness of the sugar that was mixed with it; and would not be persuaded that it was poison, but that he might take it and do ·well enough; but it is not his conceits and confidence that will save his life. So ifyou will be drunkards, or fornicators, or worldlings, or live after the flesh, you may as well say plainly, We will be damned; for so you shall be unless you turn. VVould you not rebuke the folly of a thief or murderer, that would say I will steal and kill, but I will not be hanged, when he knows that if he does the one, the judge in justice will see that the other be done? Ifhe say, I will steal and / murder, he may as well say plainly, I will be hanged; and if you will go on in a carnal life, you may as well say plainly, We will go to hell. 2. Moreover, the wicked will not use those means without which there is no hope of their salvation. He that will not eat, may as well say plainly, he will not live, unless he can tell how to live without meat. He that vvill not go his journey, may as well say plainly he will not come to the end. He that falls into the water, anJ will not come out, nor suffer another to help him out, may as well say plainly, he will be drowned. So if you be carnal and ungodly, and will not be converted, nor use the means by which you should be converted, but think it more ado than needs, you may as well say plainly you will be damned; for if you have found out a way to be saved without conversion, you have done that which was never done before. S. Yea, this is not all; but the wicked are unwilling even to partake of salvation itself; though they
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