882 DIRECTIONS AND PERSUASIONS it work to your conversion and. salvation ? But take this with you to your sorrow, though you may put it out of your minds, you cannot put it out of the Bible ; but there it will stand as a sealed truth, which you shall experimentally know for ever, that .there is no other way but turn or die. O what is the reason then that the hearts of sinners are not pierced with such a weighty truth ? Believe it, this drowsy careless temper will not last long. Con- version and condemnation are both of them awaken- ing things ; and one of them will make you feel ere long. I can foretell it as truly as if I saw it with my eyes, that either grace or hell will shortly bring these matters to the quick, and make you say, -What have I done ! ghat a foolish wicked course have I taken ! The scornful and the stupid state of sinners will last but a little while. As soon as they either turn or die, the presumptuous dream will be at an end ; and then their wits and feelings will return. But there are two things which are like to harden the unconverted, except they can be taken out of the way; and that is, the misunderstanding of these two words, the wicked, and turn. Some think it is true, the wick- ed must turn or die ; but what is that to me ? I am not wicked, though I am a sinner, as all men are. Others think, it is true that we must turn from our evil ways ; but I am turned long ago. And thus, while wicked men think they are not wicked, but are already converted, we lose all our labour in persuading them to turn. I shall therefore, before I go any further, tell you who are meant by the wicked, and who they are that must turn or die ; and also what is meant by turn- ing, and who they are that are truly converted. You may 'observe, no man* a wicked man that is converted ; and no man is a converted man that is wicked : so that to be a wicked man, and to be an un- converted than, is all one. And therefore in opening one, we shall open both. Before I can tell you what either wickedness or conversion is, I must go to the bottom, and fetch up the matter from the beginning.
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