SOVEREIGNTY OF OIIRIST. 319 wership your recreation, his merits your refuge, his glory your end, and himself the desire and delight of your souls ? The Lord Jesus Christ nowwaiteth upon you for your resolution andanswer; thou wilt very shortly wait upon him for thy doom : as ever thou would- est then have him speak life to thy soul, do thou now resolve upon the way of life. Remember thou art almost at death and judg- ment. What wouldest thou resolve if thou knewest that it were to-morrow? If thou didst but see what others do now suffer for neglecting him,.that doth now offer thee his grace, what wouldest thou then resolve to do? Sirs, it stirreth my heart to look upon you, (as Xerxes upon his army) and to think- that it is not ay hundred years till every soul of you shall be in heaven or in hell; and it may be not an hundred hours till some of your souls most take heir leave of your bodies : when it comes to that, then you will cry, Away with the world, away with my pleasures; nothing can Comfort me now but Christ ;' why, then, will you not be of the same mind now? When the world cries, ' Awaywith this holiness, and praying, and talking of heaven ! Give us our sports, and our profits, and the customs of our forefathers,' that is, " Away withChrist, and give, us. 1'tarabbas," then do ye. cry, ' Away with all these, and giveus'Christ.'. O, if it might 'stand with the will of God that I might choose what effect this sermon should have upon your hearts, verily, it should be nothing that should hurt you in the least; but this it should be, it should now be to fasten upon your souls, and pierce intoyour consciences, as, an arrow that is drawn out of the quiver of God; it should follow thee home to thy- house, and bring thee down on thy knees in secret, and make thee there lament thy case, and cry out in the bitterness of thy spirit, ' Lord, I am the sinner that have neglected thee ; I have tasted more sweetness in the world than in thy blood, and taken more pleasure in my earth- ly labors and delights than I have done in praying to thee, or meditating on thee; I have complimented with thee by a cold profession, but my heart was never set upon thee.' And. here should it make thee lie in tears and prayers, and follow Christ with thy cries and complaints, till he should take thee up from the dust, and assure thee of his pardon, and change thy heart, and close it with his own. If thou wert the dearest. friend that I have in the world, this is the success that'I would wish this sermon with thy soul, that it Haight be as a voice still sounding in thine ears, that when thou art next in thy sinful company or delight, thou mightest, as it were, hear this voice in thy conscience, ' Is this thine obedience to him that bough! thee ?' That when thou art next forgetting Christ, and neglecting his worship in secret, or in thy family, or public, thou rrcightest see this sentence, as it were
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