556, MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST. saving bf men's souls. I hope you think not that I come hither to-day on any other errand. The Lord knows I had not set a foot out of doors but in hope to succeed in this work for your souls. I have considered, and often considered, What is the matter that so many thousands should perish when God bath done .so much for their salvation? and I find this that is mentioned in my text is the cause. It is one of the wonders of the world, that when God hath so loved the world as tosend hit Son, and Christ hath made a satisfactionby his death sufficient for them all, and offereth the benefits of it so freely to them, even without money or price, that yet the most ofthe world should perish; yea, the most of those that are thus called by his word ! Why, here is the reason : when Christ bath done all this, men make light of it. God bath show- ed that he is not unwilling that men should-be restored to God's favor and be saved; but men are 'actually unwilling themselves. God takes not pleasure in the death of sinners, but rather that they return and live. (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.) But men take such pleas- ure in sin, that theywill die before they will return. The Lord Jesus was content to be their physician, and bath provided them a sufficient plaster of his own blood; but if men make light of it, and will not apply it, what wonder if they perish after all ! . This, Scripture giveth as the reason of their perdition. This, sad expe- rience tells us, the most of the world is guiltyof. It is a most lam- entable thing to see how most men do spend their care, their time, their pains, for known vanities, while God andgloryare cast aside : that he who is all should seem to them as nothing; and that which is nothing should seem to there as goad as all : that God should set mankind in such a race where heaven or hell is their certain end, and that they should sit do;vn, and loiter, or run after the childish toys bf the world, and so much forget the prize that, they should run for. Were it but possible for one of us to see the whole of this business, as the All-seeing God doth ; to see at one view both heaven and hell, which men are sonear; and see what most men in the world are minding, andwhat they are doing every day, it would be the saddest sight that could be imagined. O, how should wemarvel at their madness, and lament their self-delu- sion! O, poor distracted world! what is it you run after? and what is it that youneglect ? If God hadnever toldthem what they were sent into the world to do, or whither they were going, or what wars before them in another world, then they had been ex- cusable ; but he bath told them over and over till they were wea- ry of it. Had he left it doubtful, there had been some excuse ; but it is his sealed word, and they profess to believe it, and would take it ill of us if we should question whether they do believe it or not.
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